eCommerce is the exchange of goods or services online with no geographic barrier to purchasing. Essentially, if you sell something directly through your website then you have an eCommerce website.
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General information
As a website, your eCommerce site should have all of the standard things that a business website should have; great homepage, contact details, ‘about us’, easy navigation, clean and modern design, optimised for mobile use etc. Don’t miss out on the fundamentals of good website design just because yours has an eCommerce focus.
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Online account
It’s still fine to offer guest checkout, but online accounts will be key for developing your business. With online accounts, you’ll be able to track people’s habits and key details. And customers will be able to see their previous activity, check out quicker (by storing key information) and hopefully personalise their experience through things such as wish lists and saved baskets.
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Product pages
Each product should have its own page that details the product and has other useful information such as variations, price, dimensions, delivery timescales, pictures, reviews and social share buttons. This article from Shopify outlines some great examples of product pages.
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Shopping basket
It’s a pretty universal symbol, the shopping basket/cart. Make sure you have a prominent one, and one that includes number of items/cost of basket. This way, wherever someone is on your website, they’ll be able to quickly navigate back to their shopping basket to check out.
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Secure checkout
People are increasingly worried about how secure their details are going to be, especially after slip-ups from some big companies such as TalkTalk, LinkedIn and Yahoo. Make sure that your website uses a secure payment mechanism and stores people’s details securely. Firstly, you should make sure you have an SSL certificate to get the https prefix, which encrypts sensitive information.
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FAQs
We raved about the benefits of an FAQ section recently, but this could seriously improve your checkout rate on an eCommerce site. Having common questions quickly and simply answered will stop people cancelling a purchase because they are unsure of something like your returns policy or your delivery timescales. Get an FAQ section!
We can help create or change your eCommerce website so get in touch if you’re in need of some help: hello@webfwd.co.uk
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