eCommerce websites - Must Have

What's Your Customer's first visual experience, what does he / she see on your portal

The First Fold Experience, captivate the user as soon as he lands on your store. Always remember you can lose a customer in one click. You need to ensure you offer an appealing navigation and a user-friendly interface that enables deeper discovery and engages the surfer. Make sure you have the following

• A  crisp design with a good UI
• Page speed / download speed
• Make sure the site works on all browsers and devices – critical as these days site are accessed through mobile – sometimes contribution to more than 60% of the traffic to site – mobile friendly site a must  
• Promotional links on the homepage – Have a right mix with good graphics
• Popular product linking is a good way to navigate the user deeper into your site, also helping keep the bounce rate low and increase time on site – Your customer is smart let him explore
• Calls to action to push people to important sales pages
• Ensure universal habit is maintained have a search right on top, similar to the way Google and other search engines offer search. Auto fill / auto complete / auto suggest / perditions  
• Clearly display any specials, promotions or free shipping options including clearance sales
• Add elements that help keep user informed of latest developments / news about your offering and products  -  Have a news section
• Cross links to recent purchases and popular products
• Offer options to navigate or select via brands, price, popularity, size and price
• If you have offline store, have a store locator
• If you can offer multilingual site , nothing like it

• Do disclose countries where you deliver and offer currency convertor if possible

 Product Page

This page should have all details, 30 to 40 % traffic flows through search engines and you will have customers landing through search engines or promotions you may do. Hence it is important you maintain consistency

• A picture speaks a thousand words, ensure high quality image, cropped and optimised   
• Provide product images with zoom-in functionality
• Multiple product images and angles (360 degree views)
• Product / Service  information with complete specs / details / weight / size /volume etc
• A creative description that relates to the product uses
• Include an optimized product title
• Offer add to cart at all points helping the user to quickly have the product added to the cart
• Calls to action should be visible clearly
• The best form of promotion / advertising is through referrals / Customer reviews and ratings for each ecommerce product helps other customers arrive at decision quickly  
• Upsell show related product links, customer who bought this also bought this. Offer complementary products and accessories.  Combo deals help sell more
• Have key call outs / Selling points, if you offer  free shipping or a clock with a discount if they buy now
• An add-to-cart button on each product page
• Pricing information with potential sales or discounts
• Share availability  of each product to show scarcity and push people to buy
• Shipping and tax calculations on the product pages
• Materials used, dimensions, colors, weight, washing instructions
• Available sizes and a sizing guide if needed
• A comments section so people can discuss the ecommerce product
• A sorting and filter option for customer reviews
• An Add to Wish List button on each product page
• Videos to display how the product works
• A currency converter if needed
• A live chat option that shows the support team what the customer is looking at
• The product codes for people who might use this for reference later
• Stats on each product such as shares, views, sales and people who placed it on their Wish List
• Social share buttons for each ecommerce product
• Deals for people who purchase multiple related items together
• Use professional-grade pictures and videos
• A banner that states if a product is sold out
• An area to sign up for notifications when a product becomes available
• Make sure the product pages load up just as fast as your homepage

• Explain unique features and what makes your product stand out from competitors

• Include keywords on each Ecommerce product page to improve search engine rankings
• Minimize clutter so the purchase process doesn’t look intimidating

Social Media elements

Referrals feedback and satisfied / delighted customers will always help. Incentivise promotions and create blogs or social media pages wherein you share feedback. Ask your customers to share experience and ratings. Blogs and social media pages help add value to your brand and increase search engine rankings. Content helps increase engagements and offer exclusivity to your offering. Search engines treat you separately if you have more content that offer exclusive content with valid information that can help a customer make a considered / informed decision. Add pages to your site that offer content  

• Talks about your brand, what you stand for, your credibility and talks about your organisation. Trust is the most important factor and adding elements that can help increase trust will go a long way
• Educational pages
• Tutorials
• Product reviews and showcases
• Company events
• A blog with recent events and news
• Comments in your blog
• Social sharing options for your blog posts
• Insider company information to connect with your customers
• Lists that relate to your products
• An external resources page
• Articles about the state of your industry
• Areas for people to submit their own content for competitions and drawings
• A radio, webcast or podcast page
• A page with video testimonials
• Case studies and interviews with people who have used your products

Checkout Page / wish list and shopping cart

This is not the place where you want to lose the customer, ensure a speedy checkout experience, giving the surfer complete transparency and making sure the navigation is flawless.  Offer easy checkout options don’t force registration allow guest checkout options and multiple payment options. Offer flexibility to edit cart increase decrease quantity and show amt payable clearly.

• Offer Guest checkout
• Offer option to create an account after the order is placed and before the payment option
• Accept all payment methods – COD, credit card, Wallets, Sodexo gift voucher etc
• Call out shipping costs clearly
• Add element that excite the user to come back and shop
• Add checkout buttons on the top and bottom of your pages
• Make sure the security and payment seals are most prominent during checkout
• Ask people to continue shopping after making a purchase
• Allow people to save their cart to a Wish List for later
• Allow users to create monthly / weekly purchase  / recurring purchase list
• Suggest Wish List items to upsell during checkout
• Refrain from asking for a survey response after checkout (save this for email)
• Try free shipping when they spend a certain amount
• Offer multiple shipping methods
• Include an area to punch in promo codes
• Show people how much they saved during checkout
• Show the approximate shipping date and time
• If selling digital downloads, explain how they receive the product
• Be open about what you use their personal information for
• Offer a sample if they are hesitant about buying
• If you sell high priced items, offer financing options like payment instalments
• Test the checkout process to see if it works and if possible offer multiple payment gateways

Always follow the sale with an email that helps increases engagement and gives you an opportunity to upsell and build a trust between you and your customer.

Your first mail could be a simple email with receipt of the purchase and a customer friendly policy.

Offering a contact of your cutomer care dept. something like and all you should know about the product / service offered and how you can help the customer - Never bombard the user with multiple emails and sms. Keep the customer informed of delivery date and warranty offered / committed. Incase of Omni channel, this could be a good time to introduce your stores as pick up points or drop points

The emails could have

• A receipt with the price
• A picture of the item
• Include links to the product, site, support and related product suggestions.
• Send a one to two week follow up to see how the product is
• Ask for a review
• Offer a discount code if they haven’t ordered again after a few months
• Ask them to join a loyalty program
• Ask for reviews in exchange for specials and discounts
• Ask if they want future notification alerts for specials and products
• Sell gift cards in your emails
• Send a promotion for abandoned carts
• Thank them for their purchase
• Show where the product was sent to
• Have an option to cancel the order
• Links to share on social media
• A link to track shipping
• The order number and a link to return instructions
• Include a survey link

Support Pages for Your Ecommerce Site

The support links were covered earlier, but it’s nice to see what support pages need to be included on your ecommerce site. There are also a few support tips below.

• Social media pages
• Listed emails and contact forms
• Listed phone numbers
• A Live Chat area
• Forums
• FAQs
• Shipping details
• Sharing buttons
• Offer 24/7 customer support
• Provide an extensive return period

Ecommerce Site Management and Look

All sites require regular monitoring. Ecommerce website need to be moderated and updated regularly Its wise to ensure that the site pages and product links work properly, the payment gate is up and running and the speed of your site is upto the standard and all pages are displaying the way you want and universal updates reflect across the site. A standard checklist would include

• Include security certificates and reminders that the transactions are safe throughout the website
• Keep a minimalist design for easy navigation
• Test the speed of your site so pages load quickly – Pingdom is a nice tool for this
• Remove broken links and fill in empty product pages
• Make sure you have categories on each page and filtering options
• Have the email signup form show up on every page
• A link to your Career page
• A link to Legal information
• A link to your Privacy policy
• A link to your Contact Page
• A link to the FAQ page
• Links to your social pages
• Links to return and exchange policies
• Links to supplier information pages
• Sharing buttons
• A login box
• Tabs at the top of your ecommerce website to categories and products
• A shopping cart at the top in case people saved items
• Show what payment systems you use and any security measures you take
• Tabs leading to your support pages
• Make your ecommerce responsive and test it on all devices and browsers
• Show the checkout button clearly on each page
• Apply breadcrumbs on each page to help people find the products or pages they need

Hope the above is useful. Thought of sharing this with all as had created the list for friend who is planning to set up a new ecommerce website

Please feel free to add more points that I may have missed