Must-Have Features in Building Your E-commerce Website

Diving deeper into the online shopping scene, research on demographics states that Singapore has highly demanding shoppers. Since shopping online now offers the same level of convenience that door to door shopping offers, and people nowadays widely prefer to use their mobile phones in purchasing their items, businesses have now made the switch to make their stores accessible to their customers anytime. Chances are, in the market, more than one business will be selling the same roster of services or products as you. Competition is high and it’s vital that you give your business an edge that can stand out from all the rest. More than simply showcasing what you sell, make it more about telling people why they should choose you, why what you can offer them is the answer to what they are looking for.

To help you achieve a successful e-commerce website, you must take note of these following features to make your business stand strong in the face of tough competition.

7 Key Features Your E-commerce Website Must Have

1. Consistent Branding

Branding not only makes a memorable impact on your consumers, but this is also a way for them to know what to expect from your business. Whatever brand image you create for yourself has the power to create positive or negative impressions. Keep your visitors in mind while making decisions in creating web designs. Avoid making your website visually complex. Make your brand easy to remember by keeping your brand logos, colour themes, and designs consistent with what your brand is and what your brand stands for.

2. Web Design

Users judge a brand’s personality by their websites in the same way that people judge books by their covers, and a website’s design is one of the factors that help users decide whether they want to proceed or not. But holding your visitor’s interest does not rely on visuals alone. Responsive web design has also increased in importance because of the rise in the number of mobile users nowadays. According to this research, 60% of Singapore’s users prefer to shop using their mobile phones. Now, what does this mean for businesses? Web developers who handle their websites must ensure that shopping online is still made accessible to customers even if they’re not in front of their desktops. An e-commerce website with responsive design is also favoured by search engines and generates good SEO for your brand, helping you stay on top of a highly competitive market.

The overall look of a website and how smoothly it runs all add up to a visitor’s impression of your website. If they are impressed by their experience with you, then it is highly likely that they return and remember you as a trusted brand.

3. SSL Certifications

Behind every successful business is the trust and loyalty of its customers to their services that keep their ship afloat. Building that trust takes time and effort. Being in e-commerce puts you in a position with more at stake since your customers entrust with you highly sensitive information in order to make their purchases. SSL Certificates keep this information safe by putting up a wall of protection that prevents malicious threats from intercepting these. Installing SSL Certificates are for your customers to know that you value their trust the most and that you would go that extra mile to assure them that they are putting their trust in the right brand.

4. Page Navigability

There’s so much information e-commerce websites need to show on a single page to let customers know everything they have to offer as well as be able to market their products. This can result in your web pages looking cluttered with text and photos that may disorient your website visitors. The best e-commerce web designs should be able to help make your customers’ online shopping experience a breeze. Websites that can easily be navigated through contributes to giving your customers good user experience.

5. Good Web Hosting

E-commerce websites handled by competent web hosts are made sure to work smoothly most of the time. E-commerce websites, given that they provide tons of information and content compared to regular websites, weigh much heavier and may take more time to load because of all that it carries. A slow website that needs a lot of maintenance could make you lose the majority of your leads. Not only that, but there’s also the matter about your website’s security since eCommerce businesses have so much more at stake. Choosing the right web hosts for your company depends on your volume, type of website, traffic, budget, and knowledge about web development. Consider all these factors carefully in choosing your host to make sure that your eCommerce site is in the right hands.

6. High-Quality Images

Shopping online means that your customers would be heavily dependent on visuals. With all the images you need in your eCommerce website, this could take a toll on your site’s loading speed. To remedy the slow loading speed to ensure a smooth shopping experience, you need to pay attention to your imagery; if they are too large, your website might take time to load, and if they are too small, the photos will have poor quality. Optimise your product photos accordingly; you can resize them, and upload them in a JPEG image format. JPEG is the ideal format for eCommerce websites as it allows you to have high-quality images at reasonable file sizes.

7. Search Box

An eCommerce website without a search box or filtered search is like being inside a supermarket with randomly stocked items on display without any signs that will lead you to what you need to find. Imagine the difficulty of navigating through several uncategorised aisles that may or may not contain the product you need. In an e-commerce website, without anything to help you narrow down your search, you will have a hard time weaving through, possibly, hundreds of products on a page, and the purpose of giving you a convenient shopping experience will be defeated. With the guide of a search box on your website, a few clicks can lead your customers directly to what exactly they are looking for.

Also read: How to Design Your eCommerce Website’s Search Function

Strengthen Your Website’s Online Presence

Merely having an e-commerce website is not enough, and the amount of time, money, and effort you pour into generating a good online presence can make or break your business. The above-mentioned essentials can serve as a guide for you to know which parts of your e-commerce website you need to be consistent about in maintaining.

With our expertise in web development, Verz Design’s team of web professionals can offer you services and solutions that will boost your business’ marketability amidst its tough competition.

See what else we can do for you by calling us at 6841 1680 or emailing us at [email protected] for a free consultation!