The world of ecommerce has skyrocketed in profits, transactions, and stores in the past couple of years. This multibillion dollar industry is not going to slow down by any means. Starting a successful ecommerce website can lead to immense financial gain as only a fraction of the world’s population has to visit and purchase from your site to make you a millionaire. This entices quite a few people to test their luck by starting an ecommerce website of their own. Not all of these ventures are successful as there are mistakes that many people make before even launching the site. The following are feature that you will need if you are to have a successful ecommerce website.
Cloud Hosting
Shared hosting is the most common type of hosting where you are on a shared server with multiple users. This can be a nightmare for certain ecommerce websites with quite a lot of traffic as going down during high traffic times can cost the site thousands of dollars. Cloud hosting uses multiple servers which allows it to expand as needed in the cases where millions of transactions are being performed per day. The server being slowed down or overwhelmed is also mitigated by the cloud hosting. Depending on the traffic you expect, you need to choose between shared and cloud hosting. If you are expecting huge numbers opt for cloud hosting as this is a small investment that can make a big difference.
Easy Checkout
The most annoying things about new or poorly done ecommerce sites is that of the checkout process. Nobody should have to figure out a complex process especially if they are getting ready to purchase something. The giants like eBay and Amazon have made it easier than ever to complete a transaction. At times all you have to do is sign into an app or account in order to have something shipped in less than a day. Saving card information along with addresses is an easy way to save the customer time. The shopping cart portion of the site should stand out as well as some old customers might have trouble finding it if it blends in or is located in a strange place.
High Quality Content
A successful ecommerce store does not stop with the store as it will try to inform its customers. Some of the best blog posts come from those ecommerce giants who have copious amounts of data to use when it comes to gather information for a post or infographic. The marketing team will generally take care of the blog portion of the site but might ask staff for posts throughout the month. As a leader in ecommerce it can be an incredible thing to identify trends that other companies might not have seen because of a lack of data. Experiment with various types of content like video and podcasting as these can be more fun to produce as written content can become a bit mundane at times.
Easy Navigation
The navigation of an ecommerce site should be as simple as possible. A customer should be able to search for an item or find the item without any problem. Many people who visit sites already have the item in mind that they want to purchase. Nothing can ruin this sale as quickly as a site which takes someone who works in IT in order to find a simple product. The simple layout might seem a bit dry but you will see a difference in conversions as customers do not care about the layout of the site as long as it is simple.
Starting a successful ecommerce business is going to take quite a bit of hard work and a little luck. Use the above tips to set yourself up for success and make sure you have an extensive list of things to be completed before launching the site. Delaying the launch is less harmful than launching a site that has bugs or isn’t secure for buyers.