Don’t give up on the e-commerce business on Daraz, Othoba, or any other giant organizations that are investing to set up their own online shopping platform. With nearly 2 billion digital buyers worldwide, establishing an e-commerce website is still a good business idea. However, building a great online store that stands out requires more than beautiful design and good search engine optimization (SEO).

Creating an attractive and memorable business name for your home Internet address is a good start, and developing a marketing strategy from the ground up can provide you with a valuable start. Building a good e-commerce website and some key points to consider when planning a successful online shop.

Essential features for an e-commerce website

• Easy-to-use interface

These can be interactive images, so users don’t have to point to the text in the search bar or autocomplete. The minimum number of steps.

• Responsive designs for mobile devices

According to the Hootsuite digital report, 5.112 billion independent mobile users account for 48% of the time spent on the internet—that is, two-thirds of the world’s population have purchased something from your device in the past six months. With these statistics, you need to customize your website design for the mobile web.

• Website loading speed

Statistics show that the number of visitors may decrease with the page load speed. In a country like Bangladesh, where net speed is not up to the mark, we must keep it in mind to keep the website lite in size, so it can be loaded easily.

• Buyer Reviews

Through a feature, buyers can share their experience of the product and can rate that product, whether it is positive or negative, it can help other users make purchasing decisions and increase the credibility of your website.

• Soothing visual content as well as Products

Multi-angle product shooting and video reviews help buyers make decisions. However, if the technical part is not considered, the number of visitors may decrease with the page load speed.

Top 15 points to consider when
developing an e-commerce website

1. Website security and protection

Internet users don’t want to find errors while surfing the web, but it’s not just their computers that are threatened. Data about your products and users who registered and purchased on your website, so security is one of the most important requirements of an e-commerce website. Any violation of this data will put your company at risk; your potential customers’ contact information may be stolen and sold, or you may permanently lose important data.

An insecure website will leave you with a bad reputation on Google and other search engines. Not long ago, Google started to mark websites without SSL and HTTPS. These are not just warnings or recommendations; without these two components, users will not be able to access the website, and if your certificate has expired, you may lose potential orders.

2. Optimization before and during the development of an e-commerce website

Speaking of bad reputation: The advantage that Google brings to new users is that the website is marked as slow to load. It’s not fast enough, and you can now even choose not to visit slow-loading websites altogether.

According to a study by Think with Google, if the page load time is less than 5 seconds, the likelihood of a visitor jumping will increase by 90%. This is another reason to consider optimization and ensure that your website is in its best condition. The goal of SEO is to improve your search engine rankings through various strategies and techniques, thereby increasing your sales. Part of this is to add keywords to the content you add to your website, as well as meta-information about the page: the title. As well as descriptions and pictures. Many professionals forget that customers can use image search to find you, but only if you add “alternative” descriptions to the visual content.

Another thing that many companies give up is hiring SEO professionals to start developing e-commerce websites. At the very least, the website should be up and running with all the required meta tags, but an SEO professional can also help you organize it. Page structure and internal links, creation of content strategy, development of compatible design for mobile devices, improvement of loading speed, and other important aspects.

3. Website search and filtering

People use the search bar even on non-sale websites. If it is yours, it should have advanced search capabilities. For example, they can search products, not with the name only, but also they can pick a color, size, and material from the search panel to find their products, and your search engine will try to find similar products, if not exactly the same products. Also, your search engine should give your customers some autosuggestions while typing the product name.

Browse categories only when users don’t know what they’re looking for and need inspiration. In other cases, you can find the product you want through a simple search with just a few clicks.

Some users do not remember the exact name of the product, so you can use keywords or synonyms to tag your product.

4. Registration and related questions

Registration of the buyers is beneficial for your business for advertisement retargeting purposes. But, don’t make it obvious. That is because a large number of internet users don’t want to share their personal information everywhere. Especially, in Bangladesh people do seek easy checkout options with less information to share. I am coming to that point, but first – let’s talk about “User Registrations” first.

Though, there are several benefits of registering on an e-commerce website, for example:

Think about how many different accounts you have on the Internet. As a normal user, you may have a lot of different things, and some people don’t want to log in to another website for a one-time order. Some buyers’ personal information in your database should consider adding guest reviews to your e-commerce website. There are other ways to remind customers of your website address, for example, B. By adding them to the end of the order package or the message with the shipping number.

The registration form is not the only option; you can also ask users to register using social media or a minimal form with names, email addresses, and phone numbers. In both cases, you can automatically create an account and send access data to it via email.

5. Easy Checkout

In the context of third world countries – like us and our subcontinent, although a large number of people have internet connectivity or, are in touch with the internet (As per BTCL 87%+ of the total population in Bangladesh), most of them are not internet literate. Though the literacy rate is increasing day by day, we will talk about the current situation.  People want to buy things easily. The lesser steps you give them to purchase a product, the higher chances are there to convert the visitor into your customer.

Use the “Buy Now” button beside Add to Cart, which will redirect the user directly to the checkout page. As well as, use minimal text fields. Only ask for the information that you need to deliver that product. Don’t ask about their age, sex, or social id if it is not necessary.

6. Payment Methods

There are plenty of payment options available in the market. Not necessary that you must add all of them to your Payment method list. The smart option is to use Payment Gateway Service Providers, like – SurjoPay, SSLcommerz,  WalletMix, and so on. You can get all possible payment options in one place.

But, if we think about our local context, most people are unlikely to pay before receiving the product in hand. So, at first, “Cash on Delivery” will be the most useful option for you. As to an E-commerce Giant, 76% of people abandon their shopping cart, if they could not find the “Cash on delivery” option in the Payment section. Also, 55% of people don’t complete the check out due to unexpected high delivery charges, and 46% leave the product behind due to a lengthy checkout process.

7. Delivery Charge

As mentioned above, the unexpected delivery charge is the reason why 55% of customers abandon their shopping carts. This may be because they don’t know the price, or they expect a lower amount.

8. SMS Gateway Integration

Most online stores never use SMS notifications, to notify their customers about the order. Most of the time, when your customer closes the deal – a reminder with SMS confirmation does actually increase the acceptance rate and create a positive image about your online store.

9. Mobile device friendly interface

According to Criteo Global Commerce Review 2018, more than half of online transactions are conducted on mobile devices. For example, if its e-commerce interface can easily adapt to the mobile web, that can increase your sales by more than 5 times. Walmart Canada has successfully increased its website conversions by 20 billion through a more responsive design. They also reported an astonishing 98% increase in mobile orders.

As more and more people use mobile devices every year, it makes sense to invest in responsive designs (such as responsive fonts and image sizes) and mobile features (such as hidden menus). The mobile website should be optimized before the product description.

10. A website design that matches the products you are selling

The color scheme of your website should match and complement the products you sell. Suppose you are designing an e-commerce website for a game or fan-related product-the font or background associated with it should illustrate the various items that people might find here.

Grocery-related e-commerce works well with green, yellow, and purple palettes because these colors stimulate appetite. In addition, there should be a lot of white space so that the design of the location and the design of the food will not contradict each other.

11. Correct product description and display

In addition to simplicity, users also value high-quality content. High-resolution images, video reviews, and complete product information will all have an impact on your conversion.

The disadvantage of online shopping is that shoppers cannot see, feel or taste the product. Therefore, the only information you can use to make a decision may be the product description. The energy consumption of household appliances will help persuade customers to buy your product.

12. Customer support and contacts

As mentioned in the payment method report, millennials value personalization, such as personal advice from customer service representatives. Although e-commerce tries to make this possible, customer service can help shoppers solve shipping, payment, and returns issues. It is recommended that you set up a contact area on your website and an information bar with an interactive email address or phone number at the top of each page.

Providing your physical address and phone number for the contacts listed on the website (store, headquarters, or warehouse) will automatically increase your trust. Consider adding a WhatsApp number, Facebook Messenger chat place, or other chat options for young people who usually don’t like talking on the phone.

13. Social presence

Customer recommendations are always a good way to build trust in your website. Therefore, please consider how to obtain and view them. This can be written reviews, product unboxing, or customers can add your video. Reviews and pictures of products on the website. You can also have a comment carousel on the homepage, which contains links to tested products.

14. Marketing Strategy

Whether you are creating a website for an established physical store or a new online retailer, a good marketing strategy developed with the website can help you to generate fast orders. It also defines the structure of the website and identifies the elements that help create a good website.

Creating a marketing strategy from scratch can help you determine which features you need. For example, you can add social media sharing or push notification options for desktop and mobile browsers. This is more effective during website development than after launch.

15. Support terms

Another aspect to consider is the documentation related to your website use and the guidelines for managing it, the FAQ section, shipping information, return policy, use of cookies, privacy, and other guidelines. Once listed, it can be purchased in your online store.

Conclusion

Saying that there are many things to consider when designing an e-commerce website is nothing. We know from experience all the features, nuances, and techniques needed to create a comfortable, practical, and powerful online store to attract customers. Even if you are using ready CMS platforms such as WordPress e-commerce plug-ins, or Shopify, this is not an easy task. When deciding to hire an e-commerce website development company, you must choose a company that can create the perfect online store for you in terms of design and functionality.

If you decide to create a powerful online store to make your business unique, please contact our team to learn more about the development process.