Is Your ECommerce Website Up To Scratch?
According to Small Business Trends, probably not. Keep reading to find out how to make sure that your Ecommerce website is set up for your customers.
When it comes to business, and shopping, in particular, serving the customer in the best way possible is the top criteria for determining the success of your website.
The main reason for this is the rise of the eCommerce Juggernauts, such as Amazon who now dominate the shopping sphere by offering customers an easy way to shop wherever they are from the palm of their hand.
Simply having an Ecommerce website is not enough. There are some things you can do to make sure your Ecommerce website is up to scratch and it all starts with focus on the user.
Look at ASOS
While Amazon may be king of the hill in eCommerce land, online shopping retailer ASOS is another eCommerce platform that’s boomed since it first launched. Delivering across the globe, 237 countries and territories to be exact, ASOS makes millions each year. Reports published in 2010 alone put their international sales alone at £63 million when they only shipped to 167 countries and territories.
If you’re wondering how they carved out space alongside competitors such as Amazon, the answer is quite simple — they have an excellent eCommerce website.
We’re going to take a look at why this is important and how you can make your website excellent too.
Why your website is important
Having an online store provides the most convenient way to reach your customers 24/7.
And what does that do?
It provides you with a great way to start increasing your reach immediately. It also opens the door to a number of new marketing opportunities and a platform to scale your sales and business growth.
What makes a great website?
While eCommerce is everywhere, it’s important to note that around 80% of all eCommerce businesses fail. Not everyone can be Amazon or ASOS after all. Key reasons for these failings primarily come from failings on the website, such as:
- The product value isn’t clear
- The website is difficult to navigate
- Customers aren’t sure how to use the website
Therefore, it’s important to ensure that the following 4 points are executed perfectly to ensure your website has a chance of succeeding.
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Easy to use
While this may sound self-explanatory, think of it from a UX perspective. Customers love a great user experience, and that’s why you need to make your website as easy to use as possible. Nothing should be hidden and all desired actions should be easily outlined, while the navigation should be stripped back and easy too.
While something may seem simple and easy to you, it may not be to the customer, which is why you need to step back and ask people who don’t know how it works if they can work it. Clear ‘calls to action’ are also very helpful and important here too. This will all help to give the customer a great experience, and the better the experience, the more likely they are to convert.
Web Development company, Digivante, says;
“to ensure that you don’t miss out on valuable customers you have to test your website for functionality and payment options, to see how easy it will be for the customers to use before it is launched”
This will avoid an unnecessary loss of customers because of the easy to use ability the website possesses.
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SEO
Whether or not SEO services should be used for Ecommerce stores is widely debated. It really shouldn’t be. Why?
Research has shown that 30.5% of all traffic was coming from organic searches on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. ~Neil Patel
This is no insignificant amount of traffic and clearly supports that small businesses can drive solid and lasting revenue by focusing on SEO.
From a little keyword research, followed by great online copy, this will not only help to inform customers of what you and your products do, but also help you drive your website up the search rankings, making you easier to find, and easier for customers to buy from you.
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Your brand
Branding is everything. It helps to give the customer an idea of who you are, establishing your identity, and instilling trust.
Without this, a customer could be averse to trusting you. This means that before you even launch, all of this needs to be inline, and consistent across the website. It may sound simple, and it can be, but if not done right, it can have extremely negative effects.
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Content marketing
You’ve heard the term that ‘content is king,’ and it is.
While 42% of B2C marketers say they are committed to content marketing, that still leaves 58% that aren’t.
Customers are likely to find you via social media, which means leveraging the likes of Facebook and Instagram for both organic and paid advertising is very important. A blog and a good email marketing campaign are also key.
But, more important than this is to have a plan in place, which will make sure that everything matches up and works together, both on-site and on social media — helping to send customers to you while also helping them to trust you and convert.
Think Point of Contact Too
While the above is all very important, don’t forget that your focus is the customer. After all, there’s no point investing all of your time on the website only to have it fail due to lack of contact elements of the website.
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Getting in touch
This goes hand-in-hand with the website, as customers should be able to get in touch with you if they have any questions or concerns.
Therefore, having your email and telephone number available at all times will provide trust in you from the customer. It’s also important to ensure they can reach via other methods, such as social media, as this is a key avenue for many businesses and customers these days. Just remember, transparency is vital, and the clearer you are, the better the business will be.
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Deliveries and returns
Finally, delivery and returns are something you may overlook but are huge for customers. While you may want to decide between free delivery and free returns, an easy returns process is essential for any successful eCommerce website.
Falling into the area of transparency, if a customer finds these processes easy, they’re more likely to shop and return to shop with you.
Summary:
Sometimes it’s easy to overlook the simple factors that make a website successful. According to TopDigital’s report on small business websites:
- 70% of small business websites have no call to action
- 68% don’t have an email address or phone number on the homepage
These numbers are staggering and if you happen to be one of these sites — it’s a pretty big indicator that your Ecommerce website is NOT up to scratch.
Focusing on the simple points outlined above, you can ensure that your online business is meeting the needs of your customers.
