6 Traits Successful E-Commerce Websites Have In Common
It’s a great feat to set up an e-commerce business, but an even greater feat to run it successfully. Have you ever wondered what the recipe to e-commerce success looks like? The truth is, there’s no one size fits all solution to a successful e-commerce business, but there are certainly traits among all the successful businesses out there. Let’s take a look…
Perfect Product Pages
Normally the page before the checkout process starts, successful e-commerce businesses have all put considerable effort into making the perfect product pages. This includes sufficient and high quality imagery, a uniform layout optimised for user experience and clear descriptions that provide the information a customer needs.
The layout should be logical and provide content in the order that a user would expect. The content needs to include copy designed to be informative about the product but also persuasive enough to encourage purchases. Save all the more detailed information, such as dimensions, weight etc. for further down the page.
Make sure this content is in a language that your customer can relate to. If you’re selling to a sophisticated audience, use more sophisticated language. If your business tone of voice is more casual, don’t be afraid to embrace this in your product pages too.
Deliver a story
Human beings are wired for stories. We love to hear stories, tell each other stories and even gossip about stories. That’s why storytelling is a fundamental part of copywriting that is also important for e-commerce success.
Successful businesses all have a brand story that tells people why they do what they do. People like to learn about the story behind a brand – their “raison-d’ȇtre”. It helps build authenticity and trust, which makes people more likely to buy from you.
Clear Contact Information
If there’s anything wrong with your product or service, customers want you to be held accountable and make things right. And there’s nothing wrong with owning mistakes – it’s a great opportunity to show off your great customer service. However, none of this can happen if you don’t have clear and easy-to-find contact information. Besides, hiding who you are or where you are based, doesn’t come across as very trustworthy. Think about how frustrating or off-putting it could be if you were considering purchasing from a site without contact information.
Make sure you provide multiple contact methods on your designated contact page, including phone, email, postal address and social media networks.
Mobile Friendly
This one should go without saying, but there are still websites out there that aren’t suitable for mobile! Certain functionality, such as contact forms or checkouts are sometimes not tested on mobile properly and it can sometimes only be discovered when going through the entire customer process yourself.
E-commerce success relies on having a good mobile experience, just as much as desktop. In fact, we’d encourage you to think about mobile first, that way, nothing will be forgotten about.
In addition, a fast-loading, mobile-friendly site will give your SEO rankings a bit of a boost. Without mobile-friendly website design, you’ll be left behind.
Offers
Especially if you’re starting out, you need to give people an incentive to buy. Almost all e-commerce sites take advantage of offers and discounts at some point and we’d recommend doing the same.
Whether you offer a discount, free delivery or something else, it’s important to make the customer feel like they’re getting something extra or something exclusive to draw them in and make them realise how great your products are.
A Good Fulfilment Service
Part of the attraction to online shopping is the fact that people don’t have to leave the home – they get their items delivered. The key to a successful e-commerce business is due in part to the delivery of orders and fulfilment operations behind the business. Companies such as Amazon owe a lot of their success to their logistics and delivery capabilities and the convenience it provides to their customers.
Fortunately, you don’t have to invest millions into your own logistics network in order to effectively deliver orders. It’s actually a lot easier than you think. Ogden Fulfilment works with e-commerce businesses to help them succeed. We’ll act as your warehouse and logistics service, giving you more time to work on everything else.
The Journey to Success
This is by no means an exhaustive list of traits in common, but it’s certainly a starting point on your journey to e-commerce success. Best of luck!
