10 Things That Make A Successful E-Commerce Website

If you are selling products, having a strong online presence is key, particularly in this day and age where so many people shop online for both goods and services. With so much competition, having a well-designed e-commerce website is key to help you stand out from the crowd and stay ahead of your competition.

E-commerce websites are broken down into 3 parts:

1. A storefront – essentially a ‘shop window’ where you highlight key information about your brand, offers, and featured products.
2. Products – the product pages contain everything a customer would need to know including a price, image, variations, and availability.
3. A checkout – this should be a simple but secure transaction between the customer and your business.

Increasing Revenue With Your E-Commerce Website

A good e-commerce website should not only provide an exceptional user experience, but also needs to take customers on a seamless journey from the second they land on your website. You want to create an experience that leaves your customers wanting more. We have put together some best practices to help you increase sales for your e-commerce website.

1. Simplify your menus

Menus are a great way to put your products together in groups, but don’t make them too confusing for visitors. Try to use broad terms to categorise your products, and also group them by size, colour etc.

2. Remove any clutter on your website

The simpler your e-commerce website is, the higher the conversion rate it should have. The first thing that visitors should be drawn towards is your call-to-action, which will be to purchase. So make this process as easy as possible for them.

3. Spend money on decent website hosting

If your e-commerce website is too slow to load, visitors will leave and probably shop at a competitor’s website instead. By investing in a decent website hosting plan that can support high levels of traffic arriving at your website, you will be providing a better user experience.

4. Make your checkout process easy

Once a visitor has browsed your website and decided on something they want to purchase, make the last step as simple as possible for them too. Ask them for essential information that is required to deliver their order, but nothing extra. Shipping & billing information are all you actually need.

5. Send cart abandonment emails

Cart abandonment emails are a great way to get visitors back to your website after leaving. They could have left a product in their cart, got distracted and gone off to do something else. By sending a reminder email you could help to close the sale.

6. Make SEO a priority

Your website should be easy to find on search engines when people are looking for products that you sell. If your website isn’t at the top of Google when someone is searching, your competitors are likely to gain the sale instead.

7. Create an email subscriber list

Building an email list is one of the best ways to drive regular traffic to your website. Give people the option to subscribe to your newsletter during the checkout process (simply add a small tick box), then you can send them personalised offers via email.

8. Provide customer service that is easy to access

With everyone moving more to online shopping, it is even more important that your customer service is top notch. If people are experiencing an issue with your product or website, make it easy for them to tell you about it. Adding live chat functionality is a great place to start with this.

9. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly

The majority of people use their mobiles to shop online, so your e-commerce website needs to be mobile-friendly. You could even consider building an app for your business, so people can shop there instead. Customising the shopping experience is key, make it as personal as possible.

10. Add customer reviews and testimonials

If new people are coming to your website you need to try and win their trust, and what better way to do this than showing reviews from previous customers! Reviews and testimonials help to build credibility and loyalty. Try sending your customers an email after they have purchased to ask them to leave you a review. You could even incentivise them by offering a discount code as a reward for leaving a testimonial.

We hope this blog has given you some inspiration for how to make your e-commerce website even more successful. If you have any questions or would like help redesigning your website, contact our team.