4 Must-Have Features for a Great E-commerce Website

Many people don’t know this, but e-commerce businesses have a much higher failure rate than other types of businesses. A study found that e-commerce businesses fail at an 80% to 90% rate, and there are tons of things that can explain this. One of the main reasons why so many e-commerce businesses fail is because of poor execution, especially when it comes to website design and user experience. Let’s take a look at some of the features that make an e-commerce website great.

Easy Navigation and Checkout

First, learn how to start an e-commerce business and focus on making your client’s experience as pleasant and seamless as possible. If you want to get lots of sales, you have to make it easy for people to find your products and pay for them. But, when we look at how convoluted the navigation is on some of these websites and how many hoops they have people jumping through before they can pay, it’s clear that not everyone understands that principle.

There is no need for you to ask for people to sign up for an account just so they can get the privilege of buying from you. We understand that you want to get your clients’ information so you can follow up with them, but this can all be done after they’ve checked out.

You also have to make it as easy as possible for people to view and put products in their cart. This can be done by allowing them to look at close-up pictures, descriptions, and add items to their cart by hovering over the product’s thumbnail.

High-Quality Photos

The most important design element on a website is not the color schemes, font, logo, or a nice banner; it’s the pictures. As a matter of fact, you could have a website with professional high-definition images, detailed descriptions, nice navigation, a bare-bones header, and regular fonts and it would probably get plenty of sales.

If you come across an e-commerce site and you like its design, it is probably because it has nice pictures. So, take the time to have all your products photographed by a professional instead of focusing on everything else. And, if you’re getting your pictures from a third-party supplier, don’t even bother building a site if the images look bad.

User-Generated Reviews

Go to any major online retailer website and we guarantee that you’ll find user-generated reviews. They are essential as they provide social proof, and most people will trust other buyers before they trust a retailer’s description. User-generated reviews add keyword-rich and organic content to your website as well, which will ultimately benefit SEO.

Live Chat Feature

Last, but not least, you need to give people an easy way to reach you. Having an email or contact form and a phone number is nice, but some people might want immediate assistance without having to wait for an email response or on the phone. You also have people who’d rather leave than have to speak with a human unnecessarily.

A live chat function is one of the most powerful features that you can add to an e-commerce site. This will both show that you’ll be there if they have any issues but could also allow you to answer questions right on the spot and maybe give them that extra push needed for a conversion.

If you’re trying to build a great e-commerce website, it should have all these features. Remember to always look at your website from your customers’ eyes and always try to improve by constantly testing different design elements.

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