12 Ways to make a successful eCommerce Website
An eCommerce website can be started by anyone. Just an innovative idea, a little bit of capital, an effective business plan, and you have your own eCommerce website. You can build your own Amazon or eBay. All you need to do is follow the tips mentioned below and you should have a successful, sustaining eCommerce website.
12 Ways to make a successful eCommerce website:
- Simple Designs
While making an eCommerce website, you don’t want to put too much on the homepage. Keep your eCommerce website design uncomplicated, maintain focus on the Call To Action. Don’t add too many menu categories, use broad terms to describe your products.
For instance, on an eCommerce based website like HappySale, the Call To Action is the product or service being provided (in this case, discount coupons). You can list laptops, mobiles and headphones all under digital appliances.
- Search Bar
A search bar makes it easy, not just for the users but also for the developer. The design becomes a lot simpler and the users have the option to type whatever they want rather than scrolling through menus.
For example, a successful eCommerce website like Amazon provides countless kinds of products and services. With a search bar, the developer wouldn’t have to list all those products.
- Good eCommerce builders
One of the key steps to having a successful eCommerce website is getting a good builder/developer. Wix and Network Solutions are some of the popular website builders. These builders have a wide database of website templates to choose from and employ advanced SEO tools to meet your exact requirements. Network Solutions is, in fact, an intuitive builder, suggesting the best designs for your website.
In simple words, if you want to build a mall on your land, you get a renowned builder to do it.
- Don’t force users to create a profile
Most users visiting an eCommerce website prefer to not have to make a profile or take some subscription. As an eCommerce business, you want to make shopping easy as well as time-saving for your users. Hence, don’t enforce profile-making for users. Your users, especially the new ones, can do with a guest checkout option.
But do encourage profile-making with nice incentives like discounts and rewards. Once the user makes a profile, he/she might feel like using your website again and again.
- Less words, More content
One of the well-established facts of online shopping is that the average user has very little patience. Long sentences/paragraphs don’t work on the internet. You must convey all the necessary information in least possible words. For the same reason, your Call To Action should also be short and precise. Also, maximize the usage of images as much as you can.
- Shopping Cart Emails
Users often browse aimlessly through your website and add certain products to the cart without buying them. This indicates that they are interested in buying those products but didn’t, for some reason. As a successful eCommerce website, you have to remind them of these products.
The best way to do that is to send emails to the users, reminding them of the products stored in the cart. See if you can persuade them into buying these products.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
A significant part of the user traffic to your website comes through a search engine like Google. People search what they want on Google and maybe, your website’s link pops on their screen. To stay ahead of your competitors, you have to employ SEO tools and put up SEO-driven content. Do this while not compromising with the quality of your content.
Remember- SEO is a fairly basic step in building a successful eCommerce website. Almost everything on the internet is SEO-driven, including your competitors. So, your website has to be more traffic-friendly.
- Advertising
Advertising is a great revenue source for your eCommerce website, especially, in the early stages. But as you go on, try to minimize the ads and promotions as much as you can. Users don’t like ads popping up while they are buying things. Ads also reduce the users’ faith in your website.
As you remove ads from your website, you also find more space to put up more of your products.
- Customer Service
In order to retain your customers, you have to provide them with the best shopping experience possible. Issues will crop up, since, nothing’s perfect on the internet. In this scenario, having a friendly, accessible customer-service team is critical.
Customers’ issues being resolved quickly is a sign of your eCommerce website functioning smoothly. Your customers deserve to be heard as well as satisfied.
- Mobile applications
Almost all major eCommerce websites have mobile apps nowadays. Users naturally prefer to do their shopping quickly over the phone rather than sitting in front of a laptop. Mobile apps draw user traffic of their own, and don’t take any extra effort to build.
A piece of advice- the design of your app shouldn’t deviate too much from your website. There needs to be a degree of familiarity for your existing customers.
- Promotion
Apart from the conventional marketing methods, you should also get a celebrity or someone with a strong social media presence to endorse you. This adds credibility to your website, other than contributing to your user traffic. It won’t be free but you get to pick a celebrity depending on the money you’re willing to put in.
- Keep Improving
Lastly, keep working on your eCommerce website, even after it’s successful. Stay ahead of your competitors. Keep launching updates to your website and mobile app at a steady rate. Work at making the user experience most comfortable. Stay relevant with new technological innovations. I assure you, your eCommerce website has to keep evolving or else, it will die.
So, these are a few ways to make your eCommerce website successful. If something else works, do let us know in the comments. With almost everything in our lives transferring to the internet, eCommerce is the sector to be in right now. Done right, an eCommerce website can make you very rich. Just think of all the successful shopping websites and apps you use daily and their owners.
Image Courtesy:
- Froggy Ads
- Wix
- UX Stack Exchange
- Nextiva
