Top Features Every E-Commerce Website Development Service Should Offer
In the digital world, the demand for online business has soared. As per Statista, global e-commerce sales were $5.2 trillion in 2021 and this figure is expected to grow by 56% by 2026. The meeting is possible because of the cutting-edge features e-commerce businesses offer.
For every E-Commerce business to grow they must have e-commerce website development services from the innovative ones. The feature must offer seamlessness, security, and an intuitive shopping experience.
It must not only cater to the customers but also allow business to thrive in a competitive landscape. In this blog, grab an understanding of e-commerce website design and development pathways and how an e-commerce website development service can ensure your success.
Offer Seamless User Experience
It is the era of mobile devices where responsive design is not a choice but a priority. All the ecommerce website design and development projects are done keeping in mind the responsive designs.
More than 50% of website traffic comes with mobile devices, hence the online store must provide consistent experience across different screen sizes.
Every e-commerce business must have the following to offer a seamless user experience:
- Mobile-first: The approach should be about making the website that is fully mobile user-optimised.
- Fast loading time: Google research highlights that more than half of the users abandon a site that takes more than three seconds to load. Hence speed optimization is paramount.
- Cross-browser stability: The site must work smoothly across all browsers.
A responsive website builds trust and helps in retaining customers by ensuring that the accessibility is global. This also contributes to enhancing the conversion rates.
User-friendly Navigation
The usability of an e-commerce platform depends on how easy the user journey is. A user-friendly interface must be simple for the buyers to make a purchase.
This also reduces the bounce rate and encourages repeat purchases. Some of the interfaces the website must have:
- Easy navigation: The categories of the product should be well organised. The breadcrumb navigation must be there to guide users back to previous pages.
- Search functions: An advanced search feature should be there that filters and sorts capabilities to streamline product discovery.
- Personalized recommendation: Use AI and machine learning in e-commerce websites. This will help in providing personalised product recommendations to customers based on their browsing history and preferences.
By keeping all the above features, ecommerce development services will show great user retention and better conversion rates.
Secured Payment Gateway
Payment gateway security is a great concern for online shoppers. Any e-commerce website development service team must ensure that payment methods have the following:
- Multiple options: The e-commerce business must offer users access to diverse payment options like digital wallets, credit cards, debit cards, and even cryptocurrency.
- PCI-DSS: Each transaction must meet Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard to protect the sensitive data.
- SSL encryption: Every e-commerce website must have a secured encryption method to protect the business with the data between the website and the user’s browser. This builds trust and ensures data is secured.
These are the means to gain credibility on both sides of the business. Customers often take a step back when they see the payment process is rigid.
Sound Product Management System
The product management system is the backbone of a successful e-commerce business. A product management system ensures that store owners can add, edit, and organise the inventory with ease.
The owners must be able to perform the following:
- Bulk uploads: This is crucial for the stores with hundreds and thousands of products. Adding products one by one will take a lot of time. There must be an option via CSV or integration with the inventory system to save time and effort.
- Product category: Categorization as per size, color, and brand must be there for better product discovery.
- Inventory management: There must be real-time inventory tracking to prevent stockout and overstocking.
This advanced approach to the product management system helps e-commerce website development services to perform better and manage inventory at a larger scale.
Smooth checkout process
The checkout process plays a table-turning role in reducing cart abandonment rates. A recent report by Baymard Institute suggests that 69.57% of online shopping carts are abandoned because of an overly complicated checkout process.
The checkout process must have the following checklist to perform better:
- Guest checkout: The users must have the option to purchase without requiring them to create an account. Information as required must be asked only.
- Auto-fill: E-commerce platforms must utilize platform-based auto-fill options to speed up the form-filling process. This ensures that users don’t drop off due to long-form problems.
- Progress indicators: There must be a display of the checkout process. The customer must be able to see where they are right now. This reduces friction and guides them best in their purchase journey at your site.
The conversion rate can be multiplied 4x times when the checkout process is optimized.
Scalability
No business stays in one place over the passing years. The Magento web development services must ensure that the website structure is handled well to manage increased traffic and transactions without compromising performance and creating lag situations.
They must use the following at the time of scaling up:
- Cloud hosting: Cloud-based solution is best today to offer smooth scalability. This ensures uptime during the peak traffic months.
- Load balancing: This process distributes incoming traffic across multiple servers. This prevents the pressure on one server and makes it easy to balance.
- Database optimization: You must ensure that the back-end database is strong enough to handle a large number of users simultaneously without slowing down the process.
Scalability opens the doors to advancement. It ensures your eCommerce store functions well even during sales, holiday season, and other periods of high demand.
Omnichannel Integration
Modern consumers want to save time and post simultaneously on different platforms.
They want to post across multiple channels through social media, mobile apps, and physical stores. This cohesive support is called omnichannel integration.
It ensures that your users have a better experience regardless of where they interact with the brand. If the customer adds the item to their cart from a mobile phone, they must be able to access it on a desktop, or physical store.
Social media integration on the E-commerce website is also paramount to allow shopping directly through social media or sharing the purchase with friends.
If the business has both e-commerce and physical stores, the website must have click-and-collect options for the users if they want to pick up their items in-store.
Consistent branding, messaging, and promotion should flow on the social media channels to enhance brand recognition and trust.
Security
Security is paramount for any e-commerce website that handles user information and payment details. E-commerce businesses tend to have a lot of sensitive information like customer details, order history, and payment data.
All of these data are the prime target for cyberattacks. The e-commerce platform must comply with the industry security standards and implement robust security measures.
Every e-commerce website must have an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate to encrypt data that is exchanged between the website and the user.
This is compulsory to store sensitive information like credit card and debit card details.
The platform should process the payment directly and comply with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard regulations. It ensures that all payment transactions are secure.
Businesses should also implement two-factor authentication for both customers and administrators. This makes sure no unauthorized access is done on the website.
Certain fraud detection tools must all be implemented on the portal to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions like unusual purchasing patterns or mismatched billing.
Comprehensive Product Pages
The product page helps customers to make their purchase decision. The page must be designed to give every detail and functionality.
A good product page must have details about the product and additional value for customers to help.
The product pages must provide high-quality images and videos from various angles. It should have the ability to zoom in on images and view product videos for better engagement.
The description of the product must be rich, informative, and optimized keeping SEO in mind. Specifications, benefits, and usage instructions about each product help convince the users to make the purchase.
Keep a different section for the review to social proof the website for buying decisions. The pages must display ratings and customer reviews prominently to build trust. Users can filter reviews by star ratings.
For the e-commerce business team, there should be the feature of real-time stock availability. With this information, the team will have information without any out-of-stock issues.
On the other side, the website should display delivery times to avoid any surprises later in their purchase journey. For better sales, the page can suggest related products or bundles.
Conclusion
A successful e-commerce business has a combination of multiple features. Attractive design alone will not be a successful plan to put into place.
There must be the right SEO strategy, great customer support tools, and third-party integration in the process.
With these additional features, e-commerce businesses can create a powerful online presence.
As the e-commerce business continues to grow, the platform feature list continues to grow. It’s important to cope with the advancement rather than staying in one place.
About the Author!
Pritesh is the Director of Sales for the US, UK and European markets for Magneto IT Solutions UK Agency. He advises clients on their technology strategy, providing insights into the future of digital commerce for B2C and B2B mid-market and enterprise accounts. He has significant experience in the Jewellery Business in 2024, and luxury goods industry and enjoys consulting on digital transformation projects. He has over 15 years experience performing various roles from consulting through to delivery.
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