In 2019, ecommerce hit $2.3 trillion dollars in sales with the projection of $4.5 trillion by 2021. With such a fast-growing market, it is no surprise to see that space has become increasingly competitive and more attention is being paid to ecommerce web development than ever before. Consumers are becoming less patient with clunky and convoluted online stores and now demanding intuitive and responsive systems, where they can shop without pulling the hair out.
In order to survive and prosper online, ecommerce businesses need to ensure that the user experience must be as friction-less as possible. It has to be considered at every step of the ecommerce website development process, as ultimately it will dictate the success of the store and the retention of customer base. So, what are the key components of successful ecommerce web development?
Mobile commerce or M-commerce accounts for 34.5% of total e-commerce sales, with nearly two-thirds of the global population now connects to a mobile device, it is now essential for ecommerce web development to have functionality across all browsers. An easily navigated mobile site will certainly make you stand out from the crowd, with many users left frustrated by existing M-commerce options. Only 12% of shoppers said they found mobile shopping to be convenient.
The products in the store must be well organized, labeled with detailed information that allows the search bar to be an effective tool for the consumers. Providing an auto-complete function and also a filtered search option can help drive sales, with 30% of sales coming after using the search feature. Clear navigation menus, with a check-out button visible on every page and transparent information on fees and delivery times, can all have a positive effect on the end-user experience.
People do not like to be waited and given the multitude of ecommerce businesses on the market, they will not stick around long if they deem an ecommerce store unresponsive. By hiring top ecommerce web developers, a business can optimize its web performance and the resulting shopping experience of its customer. A research by Google suggests that 53% of mobile users abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load, plugging this leak can have a big effect on your bottom line.
One method of achieving this is by combining a JavaScript or CSS resource files into single files, which can speed up interaction with the site as you only have to download one JavaScript file as opposed to ten. Compressing images to the smallest size that still provides a good visual, can also help speed up download times. While caching can reduce the time spent sending data between the web server and database server.
A global market requires an international outlook and utilizing geo-location data to automatically adjust currency and language is a great way to connect with a wider pool of customers. A world-class ecommerce platform, such as Magento will apply analytics and machine learning to offer a targeted selection of products based on a customer’s demographic, browsed items and order history. This is an evolving area of ecommerce web development, which when done right, can be a powerful cross-selling and up-selling tool.
Making the most efficient use of all the data supplied by your customer is the key to this approach. Are they a returning customer? What device are they using? What are their interests? All the information garnered can be used to improve the user experience, search results or even the homepage can be adapted to match the user’s interests. Nobody wants to see content that is irrelevant to them, appeal to a customer’s interests and they will spend more time and money in your store.
Dubbed conversational commerce, chat-bots are becoming an essential feature in ecommerce web development, whether in offering customer support or initiating sales. It is an area that Facebook is investing a lot of research in, with integrated partnerships with the likes of Uber offering an idea of what the future might hold for ecommerce. Google Home allows customers to order Domino through voice-activated software.
The ability to integrate across different platforms and with your own existing systems is absolutely necessary for your ecommerce store, as is being able to add new features as they become available, otherwise the store will lose whatever cutting edge it once had.
In order to have customers who are happy to shop in your ecommerce store and will remain that way, it is vital that your ecommerce web is clear about what it can deliver and at what cost. Information on delivery times, stock availability and shipping fees, along with a wide selection of payment options also listed, gives the customer peace of mind and can also lessen the burden on customer service inquiries.
Customer reviews can provide encouragement for those on the fence and simply having contact details on showing can reduce any buyer anxiety over who exactly they are dealing with. Security supporting SSL with full certification is a basic requirement of ecommerce web development.
Although we have looked at a wide range of factors that have to be considered in order to build a successful ecommerce website, the truth is there are many more ways to optimize an ecommerce store that we have not touched on. Almost all of them come down to one key factor, the user experience, as more and more retailers build an online presence, expect the competition to drive up the standard of the online shopping experience.
It is vital to find the best ecommerce web development services for your business, to allow it to rise to meet these growing demands. fram^ Chairman & Co-fouder Christopher Beselin had previously built and managed market leading online businesses both in Europe and Southeast Asia. This included building Lazada.vn from scratch and growing it to become Vietnam’s leading online retailer.
