Think about the most popular ecommerce website that people use nowadays. Guess we know what’s on your mind. Because 95% of people will first think of Amazon, followed by eBay. Now, think about what makes Amazon so popular that almost everyone thinks of it when asked about popular ecommerce websites or where they shop online often. Here, people might have different opinions. Some say that the products offered by Amazon are of higher quality compared to other platforms. Others will argue that their service is superior to that of others. But one thing everyone will agree on is that the features of Amazon’s ecommerce website make it easy to use and never let the users down.
If we consider that the biggest reason behind the success of Amazon is the quality of products (which surely is a factor, but not necessarily the biggest reason), it would only become apparent once the product is received, used, and evaluated. However, the entire journey that leads a customer to navigate through the website and successfully place an order is facilitated by the features utilized on the website.
In this blog post, we will recommend the best features used in Amazon and other successful ecommerce websites. By considering these features when building an ecommerce website, you can enhance its effectiveness, decrease bounce rates, and sell more products. As a custom ecommerce development company, we have recently created numerous successful ecommerce websites used by millions of people worldwide.
This positions us to advise you on the most effective ecommerce website features. Some features are foundational and have been used since the inception of ecommerce, while others are newer and cannot be overlooked. Failure to integrate these features into your ecommerce website may result in falling behind your competitors.
15 eCommerce Website Features You Need At All Cost
1. Try To Make Navigation As Simple And Straightforward As Possible
If you want the customer to focus solely on the product they desire, it’s crucial to ensure that website navigation is as simple as possible. One of the most common mistakes we’ve observed is that, in an attempt to make a website visually appealing, developers overlook the critical aspect of easy navigation. This can confuse customers and lead them to abandon the website without making a purchase.
Imagine yourself as a customer who has just visited a new ecommerce website. On previous websites you’ve used, the product categories were typically listed on the top left of the website. However, on this new website, the product categories are located elsewhere. This deviation from the expected layout can be confusing for customers, leading some to leave the website, possibly feeling frustrated.
When creating an ecommerce website, it’s essential to put yourself in the shoes of a customer and consider what would be easy and effortless for you. Additionally, involving actual customers in the development process can provide valuable insights and ensure that the website meets their needs and preferences. By prioritizing user experience and soliciting feedback from customers, you can create an ecommerce website that is intuitive, user-friendly, and optimized for conversions.
2. Site Search Saves Customers Time
Integrating a powerful search engine, similar to Google’s, is essential for your ecommerce website. Just as people use Google to find relevant information online, visitors to your website will rely on the search function to quickly locate products they’re interested in. For instance, returning customers may search for a specific product by name, bypassing lengthy navigation processes. Meanwhile, new visitors may use the search option in various ways to explore your offerings.
3. Give Importance to Footer Navigation
One of the biggest misconceptions we’ve found, particularly in ecommerce websites, is the tendency for developers to prioritize the design and functionality of the header section while neglecting the footer. However, the footer of a website is equally important and should not be overlooked. It serves as a valuable space for providing important information, such as contact details, navigation links, social media links, policies, and other relevant content. A well-designed footer can enhance user experience, improve navigation, and instill trust and credibility in the website. Therefore, it’s essential to allocate sufficient effort and attention to building a comprehensive and user-friendly footer for your ecommerce website.
A footer serves multiple purposes on a website. For example, if a user has scrolled through an entire page, the footer provides convenient access to relevant information. Specifically for ecommerce websites, including links to popular and frequently purchased products in the footer can guide customers to those pages. An ideal ecommerce website footer should contain a selection of product links, links to main pages, and options for social media interaction. It’s important to note that the links present on the website homepage are crawled faster by search engines and can contribute to quicker ranking. Therefore, optimizing the footer with strategic links can positively impact website visibility and user experience.
4. Add the feature that directs customers to the offline store
Sometimes, visitors to your ecommerce website aren’t there to shop or place an order; they simply want to browse the available products to plan their shopping at a nearby store. Therefore, your ecommerce website must include a feature that enables visitors to locate the nearest outlet, allowing them to visit in person and purchase desired products. By incorporating this feature, ecommerce businesses can significantly boost their outlet sales.
5. Allow customers to write review
It doesn’t matter how good the website design is or how many elements you add to the website to make it credible and trustworthy. However, if the website is missing customer reviews, new customers won’t find it believable, as they trust other customers more than the brand itself. According to a report, customer reviews are the most significant factors that increase sales from new customers. Additionally, nearly all (98%) consumers are more likely to read reviews for a product they’ve never purchased before.
The best part is not just that it will make the website more credible and trustworthy and prove that you have paying customers, but also from an SEO perspective, you can achieve higher ranking. Now, the question you might ask is how it is good for achieving a higher ranking. Firstly, the product page will have more content. Secondly, if it includes keywords, the chances of obtaining a higher ranking increase. To get the most out of it, the best thing you can do is, if the customer is satisfied with the product and wants to give a review, ask them if you can write a review on their behalf. Make sure that when you write a review on their behalf, it is SEO optimized.
6. Product Images + Videos TO VISUALIZE THE PRODUCT
Product images on ecommerce websites are common, but product videos are not. If you were to ask us which one customers prefer to view between product images and videos, we would say it’s almost a tie, but videos will always have the upper hand. The reason is that when you upload a 60-second video, not only will it cover all the images, but it will also communicate to customers how to use the product and what the benefits are. According to a report, 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. That being said, if your ecommerce product page is missing a product video, you might lose some sales at the moment. Therefore, having an explainer video about the product on the product page is paramount.
7. Filtering and Sorting Options To Reach Desired Product
When customers visit an ecommerce website, their primary focus is always to purchase the product they desire, rather than navigating through multiple pages. To facilitate this, it’s essential to guide customers directly to the product page, avoiding unnecessary frustration and time wastage.
To achieve this goal, provide customers with features on the ecommerce website that allow them to apply various filters and quickly access the specific product they seek.
Some important filters to incorporate include:
Pricing Filter: Customers can apply filters based on their budget preferences. They have the option to sort products from highest to lowest or lowest to highest, or set a specific price range.
User Rating: Products on the website may have ratings ranging from 5 stars to lower ratings. Customers interested in high-rated products can filter their search accordingly, ensuring a satisfactory shopping experience.
Color Filter: For customers with specific color preferences, such as black, offering a color filter saves them time and effort by displaying only products available in their preferred color.
Sales Filter: Customers seeking discounted or sale items can use this filter to easily locate such products, enhancing their shopping experience.
8. Answer the Most Asked Questions About FAQs
One feature on an ecommerce website that helps brands save money in the long term, and in some cases, eliminates the need for a separate department, is the FAQ section on the product page. When customers visit a product page and view product images, their questions often increase rather than diminish. Instead of immediately seeking assistance through chat or customer support, imagine if they could find answers to all their questions right on the same product page.
To make this a reality, consider adding a FAQ section to your website. Not only will it address commonly asked questions, but you can also optimize it for SEO by including relevant keywords.
9. Order Tracking
Customers never sit back comfortably after placing an order; they desire prompt delivery of their products. Therefore, they frequently visit the website to track their orders. For instance, consider two websites: Website 1 lacks the order tracking option, causing customers to potentially never return. Conversely, Website 2 offers order tracking, encouraging customers to revisit daily to monitor their order status. When customers return daily to check their order status, there’s a significant opportunity to upsell them additional products.
10. Chatbots to address customer’s questions promptly
While the FAQs section on a website is crucial, what about those unique questions that haven’t been asked before? Customers often turn to the customer support team via the live chat option for answers to such inquiries. Resolving a customer’s unique question remotely through live chat not only satisfies them but also increases the likelihood of them placing an order.
If you believe that all customer questions have been addressed on the product page, rendering the live chat option unnecessary, you’re mistaken. Research indicates that 50% of mobile device users expect to find a live chat option when visiting a website. Additionally, according to a study, incorporating live chat into your website can enhance conversions by 12%. Thus, providing a live chat feature remains essential for addressing unique queries and improving customer satisfaction and conversion rates.
11. Offer Coupon Codes for high-value orders
Offering products at discounted prices is the primary and widely utilized method to sell more products. People are drawn to discounted tags on original prices and are more inclined to make purchases when they perceive a price reduction.
Additionally, a significant number of people exit the website from the checkout page, with one of the reasons being that the final price exceeds their budget. To address this issue, providing customers with an option to “redeem a coupon or promo code” on the eCommerce website checkout page proves beneficial.
This feature not only reduces the bounce rate but also increases the number of orders placed, as it allows customers to apply for discounts or promotions, making the final price more manageable and encouraging them to complete their purchases.
12. Offer Customers Different Payment Methods
Offering customers multiple payment methods instead of just one at the checkout can significantly impact sales. Consider this example: Website One only accepts PayPal as a payment method, while a customer prefers to use Stripe. Unable to proceed with the purchase on Website One, the customer may opt for Website Two, a competitor that offers multiple payment options, including Stripe.
According to a report, 42% of US consumers abandon purchases if their preferred payment method is unavailable. This underscores the importance of providing diverse payment options to accommodate customer preferences.
Now, you might be wondering which payment methods to integrate into your ecommerce website. Credit cards stand out as the most commonly used payment method in ecommerce, making them a crucial inclusion to cater to a broad customer base.
13. Push Notifications to notify customers
Email marketing and posting on social media platforms are undoubtedly some of the most effective ways an ecommerce website can remain on top of customers’ minds. However, there is one problem with both of them: some emails may never reach customers as they get stuck in the spam folder, and social media is saturated with brands. Almost all brands use social media to market their products.
A better alternative to both of these methods is push notifications. Push notifications allow ecommerce websites to provide alerts directly to customers. They can be used for various purposes such as direct communication, instant alerts, reminders for abandoned carts, higher conversion rates, customer retention, and more.
14. Multilingual Support For Personalized Support
You have built an ecommerce website in English, so only people who can read, write, and speak English would be able to use it. However, what about those who don’t know English? For example, if you are creating an ecommerce website for Germany, the online store must be available in both German and English. That being said, it’s always ideal to allow customers to change the language of the ecommerce site to the one they speak.
15. Add Wishlists Feature
More than 80% of people visit online ecommerce stores just for online browsing or virtual window shopping rather than buying a product. Considering this figure, if you say that 80% of the people who visit your online store are not your customers, then you are surely wrong. But here, we would say that if your ecommerce website had just this one feature, you could convert those virtual window shoppers into real buyers. That one feature is “Wishlists”. This feature allows visitors to save products for later. For example, if a visitor loves a product on your ecommerce website but doesn’t have money right now, they can use the Wishlists feature to add the product and buy it later when they have money with just one click.
Conclusion
If you are on a mission to build an ecommerce website, make sure the platform has all the features described above. A few features of an ecommerce website listed above are from the first day of ecommerce, and some are introduced after a period. If your ecommerce website traffic is going down or the sales are dropping, all it takes is to integrate that one feature to make things better.