An entrepreneur faces a lot of difficulties and problems while establishing a successful e-commerce business. However, as the digital era is revolutionizing more and more, they have a fantabulous chance of presenting and selling their products online, establishing the online business legally, and building up a superior e-commerce design for showcasing the business.
That’s where an e-commerce website comes in use and it has been determined that in the past few years, the e-commerce market has seen enormous growth and if it works properly, it can make your business reach new heights. Moreover, a survey predicts that by the end of this year, the e-commerce market will be boosted by over 3 million users.
The e-commerce website can add multiple benefits to your ordinary running business and make it simple for your customers to shop for products and get to their doorsteps. But is building a responsive e-commerce website as easy and simple as it looks? It might be, but it is very difficult to include all the necessary features and functions that will make your website stand out amongst other e-commerce sites.
Hence, the process of e-commerce website building should be rendered by professionals only. They will ensure to include all the features and functionality without forgetting any and make sure to offer smooth and hassle-free browsing for your customers. Furthermore, this blog will tell you multiple features of an e-commerce website which is mandatory and important to have. Let’s look at the necessary 24 features of an ecommerce website.
List of the essential features of an e-commerce website
1. URL Structure
The URL structure plays an important role in developing a responsive e-commerce website. URL structure helps in improving the ranking of your overall website and also boosts the web page’s visibility. Along with that, using a secured protocol like HTTPS for your e-commerce will help Google and other search engines verify and validate that your website is safe and secure.
It is suggested to create an SEO-friendly URL structure for your e-commerce site without using any sort of special characters, removing any numbers, making use of subdomains, avoiding parameters, etc. This will make sure that your e-commerce website gets good visibility amongst potential customers.
2. Business Location
Enabling and providing your business or store location on your e-commerce website allows the users to reach your store physically at ease. There are various e-commerce business that enjoys profits and benefits by offering location-based services such as retail stores and restaurants. This will help you in sending personalized offers and promotions to the customers and driving potential customers to your store. Also, it will boost sales and improve customer and business relations.
3. Easy navigation
If you want your e-commerce website to run smoothly and your potential customers can find their product of interest easily and quickly, then having an easy-to-be-navigated feature is highly required. Through this feature, your potential customers can easily and naturally discover your products. Along with this, it will have a high impact on your conversion rates and boost it up by around 18.5%, decrease its bounce rate, and improve the search engine ranking on Google.
4. Product search option
Another crucial feature of an e-commerce website is the product search option. This feature enables your potential customers to search for their products easily, quickly, and effectively. The product search option is also called e-commerce site search which is the best search engine solution integrated into your e-commerce website. No matter what your customers are looking forward to, they can easily find the product by searching with its name or matching keywords.
5. Mobile responsive website
Nowadays, people prefer mobile over desktops, and it’s easy to use and accessible to be carried anywhere. As a result, any sort of e-commerce website demands to be responsive over mobiles. If the website is responsive and runs smoothly on mobile, then it can grab much attention of users from across the world. It will also make your website highly flexible and boost user traffic and sales.
6. High or good quality product picture
For any sort of e-commerce website, its product pictures matter a lot, hence the visuals of the product have to be high quality. Through the use of high-quality images in an e-commerce website, consumers can easily believe in your e-commerce site and can shop with proper trust. Along with the good quality product pictures will facilitate your customers to perform the repurchase.
7. The fast loading speed of a website
The Google search engine recommends that the e-commerce website should be loaded within 2 seconds of time. However, if the e-commerce website is loading even faster, then it will be beneficial and can gather much better results and customers. Through a survey, it has been found that the conversion rate of the e-commerce website decreases by 0.3% for every additional second it takes to load the website or any specific page.
8. Add to wishlist
Add to Wishlist is another spectacular feature for an e-commerce website to have. It will enable your potential customers to list out their interested product in a specific place and purchase the same at any time they require or wish it. This feature will also enhance the user experience on the e-commerce website and grab more attention and traffic from social media.
9. Optimized footer with useful links
For SEO purposes, optimizing the footer with useful links for the e-commerce website is highly beneficial and takes place by adding the proper keyword. In optimizing the footer with useful links, the anchor text can also be used. Optimizing the e-commerce website footer process begins with branding, terms of service, privacy policy, and copyright notice with proper process.
10. User login and dashboard
For any kind of e-commerce website, its user login and dashboard play a crucial role. This will enable the backend team of the website to gain an overview of its key finance and website KPIs at any time. Along with that, it will enable the team to track and analyze the essential elements so that the e-commerce business always stays on top.
11. Phone number
Including phone numbers in e-commerce websites has proven to be highly useful. It will enable your potential customers to reach out to you easily and hassle-free regarding any kind of doubts and issues. This feature will also enable the couriers to process the package and quickly offer the order status.
12. Social media link
Linking or providing your business social media link to your e-commerce website is also a great feature that will enhance the visibility and reliability of your e-commerce website. This feature will enable your customers to not only reach out to your website and shop but also to reach and view your social media handles and gain the trust of the business. Hence, they will come and repurchase from your website.
13. Breadcrumb navigation
The breadcrumb navigation feature of your e-commerce website will show the customers what is there on the website and what are your products. Along with that, it will help in navigating them either backward or forward depending on what they prefer. Hence, the bounce rate of the website will decrease. As a result, there will be a fall in the number of customers leaving your website or specific page.
14. Product filtering and sorting
Through effective product filtering and sorting features, customers will be attracted more to your website and will also boost the physical store performance and sales. As a result, you can be able to offer a more pleasant experience to your customers, boost online sales, and can serve potential customers more authentically.
15. Product Title
The product title is an important function in the e-commerce website. The title comprises multiple information about the product, hence enabling the customers to understand the product easily and in a better way. It will also make your website to rank higher and boost the customer traffic.
16. Product Description
If the product description available on your e-commerce website is effective, then it can lure and gain customer traffic. Through your product description, the customer makes the decision of whether to purchase the product or not. It will improve the conversion rates and boost business sales.
17. Reviewing and rating options for products
With this feature, you can be able to maintain the positive reputation of your business amongst potential customers. Along with that, your website can also experience a boost in sales and drive brand recognition. If your present customers provide positive feedback, then it will help your new customers to trust your brand and purchase your products.
18. Easy checkout process
Customers are shopping from e-commerce websites because of the convenience experience. As a result, simplifying the checkout process and eliminating any unnecessary step can boost sales and enhances the customer experience. When the customer saves a lot of time during the checkout process, they will prefer to purchase from your website.
19. Secure payment gateway
An important feature of any e-commerce website is the secure payment gateway Through the payment gateway, customers will gain trust about the originality of your business. You can enable customers to pay online safely without worrying about any crucial information getting leaked. Hence customers will also not face any kind of security issues.
20. Auto email responder for purchase confirmation and sending newsletter
Auto email responders are one of the easy ways to keep customers up to date with the latest news and offers. It will enable your customers to get to know about the offers and sales on time and instantly. This feature will build strong relationships with the customers and the personalized message will enhance the customer experience.
21. Shipping and return policy page
If the e-commerce website wants to stay up-to-date and gain customers’ trust with transparency, then its shipping and return policy page plays a crucial role. By informing your customers beforehand about the policy, customers can shop freely. This will also enable the customers to know about the business accurately.
22. Product FAQ
The product FAQ feature on the e-commerce website will let your customers know more and gain deep information about the product. This will facilitate the customers to make the purchase decision hassle-free and smoothly without any second thinking.
23. Order tracking
The order tracking feature of the e-commerce website will enable your customers to track where their products are. Also, they will get to know the approximate delivery date, dispatch date, and multiple other things. This feature will become active as soon as the customers make the purchase from any e-commerce website.
24. Product availability filters
Through the product availability filter feature, customers can easily get to know which products are available and which are sold out without browsing the whole website or page. It will boost and improve the customer experience and allow them to shop easily and conveniently.
25. Personal data policy
The personal data policy will inform the customers about what data the website is using and what data they are not using. Hence, customers can purchase easily and safely without worrying about any sort of data breaches.
Conclusion
At the end of the blog, it can be concluded that the list of 24 features stated holds high importance for designing and developing the e-commerce website. If these features are ignored in the e-commerce website, then it can make any business go into losses. Also, without these features, converting the leads into potential customers becomes very difficult. For developing and designing a responsive e-commerce website having all these wonderful features, you can connect with Babusiya today. Fulfill your digital marketing needs under one roof by Babusiya.
