If you want to sell your products online & grow your business, you need an eCommerce store.
An eCommerce website can help you in many ways. Below are some of the major reasons for you to create an online store:
#1 Global market coverage
If you want to make your business global, then you need to have an eCommerce website. Having an online store is a great way to reach a worldwide audience and sell your products to anyone in the world.
#2 Customer convenience
eCommerce websites allow customers to purchase products 24/7, which provides them with convenience because they can purchase the products anytime and anywhere.
#3 24/7 availability
Your eCommerce website is available for your customers 24/7, unlike your physical store which is only open for a small portion of the day.
#4 Affordability
Setting up an eCommerce website is actually much cheaper than setting up a physical retail store. There are no rent costs, no security deposits, and no employees to pay. You can run your business from the comfort of your own home or even from your phone.
You can easily hire a website developer or a web design agency to create an eCommerce store at an affordable cost.
#5 Ease of marketing & advertising
It’s now much easier to market and advertise your products online because of eCommerce websites. In the old days, you had to advertise on expensive mediums like TV, Billboards, Magazines, etc. Now, you can simply set up an online store and market your products on search engines, social media, and other eCommerce portals.
#6 Easy to build & scale-up
eCommerce has made it easier to build a business because you don’t have to stock anything. You don’t have to worry about shipping your products to customers or keeping track of inventory. All you need is to hire a website to build your eCommerce store and a payment processing account and you can start selling your products online.
Now that you know how an eCommerce website helps you to grow your business, hire a website developer in the UAE today and get your online store setup.
But before you go ahead and hire a web design company or a developer, you must know about some of the essential features that an eCommerce website should have in order to succeed.
There are two main reasons why responsive design is important for your eCommerce website. Firstly, you want to be able to maximize the number of people that can buy from your store. If you’re only reaching people that have large screens, you’re missing out on a lot of potential sales.
Secondly, when your eCommerce website is responsive, search engines also love it. This means you will have a higher chance of ranking your website for the relevant keywords to get more traffic & grab more sales.
#2 Wishlist
There are two main reasons why responsive design is important for your eCommerce website. Firstly, you want to be able to maximize the number of people that can buy from your store. If you’re only reaching people that have large screens, you’re missing out on a lot of potential sales.
Secondly, when your eCommerce website is responsive, search engines also love it. This means you will have a higher chance of ranking your website for the relevant keywords to get more traffic & grab more sales.
#3 Quick loading speed
Page load speed is one of the most important metrics for eCommerce websites. It directly impacts how many visitors will stay on your site, and how many of those who stay will make a purchase.
If your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, nearly half of your visitors will leave. If it takes more than 5 seconds, you’ll lose over 70% of your visitors. It’s not just about perception, either. It also has to do with the actual speed of your site.
#4 Live chat
According to various online studies, 74% of online shoppers abandon their cart when the checkout process is too long or difficult. Live chat is a great way to combat this problem because it allows you to communicate with customers directly and resolve any issues they may have while they’re in the checkout process.
Live chat is a great way to interact with your customers and to help them find exactly what they’re looking for. It also gives you the chance to handle any issues that may arise during the purchase process. Live chat also has a positive impact on your bounce rate, which is important for SEO.
#5 Discounts & loyalty programs
Offering discounts and loyalty programs are a great way to keep customers coming back to your site. Discounts are appealing to customers because they allow them to pay less for your product or service, so people will often be more likely to come back if they know there’s a discount available.
#6 Blog
A blog is a great way to add value to your e-commerce business. Adding content to your site helps you to rank higher in Google, and it helps you to build a relationship with your customers.
Blogging is a great way to interact with your customers and to help them get to know you on a more personal level. Blogs also help establish you as an authority in your niche, which will help drive traffic to your site.
#7 Robust search
It’s important to have a robust search feature in your eCommerce site to help your customers find what they’re looking for. Also, you’ll want to make sure that search returns results based on relevance and not just on popularity.
If you’re running an eCommerce business and want to grow your sales, then you want to invest in a professional website developer who can integrate a robust search feature into your online store.
#8 Intuitive navigation
The navigation of your site can make or break the user experience. When you have a lot of categories and products, you need to think about how easy it is for users to find what they’re looking for. Every professional website developer understands the importance of intuitive navigation for an eCommerce store.
Navigation is incredibly important for eCommerce websites because it’s the main way that your customers can interact with your product catalog. It’s important for customers to be able to find what they want quickly and easily, and the best way to do that is to organize your navigation structure in a logical and intuitive way.
#9 Upselling & Cross-selling
Upselling and cross-selling are the two techniques that you can use to increase your eCommerce conversion rate.
Upselling is basically a way to convince customers to buy more expensive products. On the other hand, cross-selling is a way to convince customers to buy products related to their original purchase.
Perhaps it would be a great idea to have your website developer do some research on the prevailing payment methods in your targeted region. You can integrate all of those payment gateways that your targeted audience prefers to pay from.
#11 Social media integration
It’s important to integrate social media into your eCommerce website so that you can encourage users to share your products on social media and drive traffic to your site. You can do this by allowing customers to share products via social media when they’re checking out or when they receive their package.
#12 SSL
SSL is an encryption protocol for establishing a secure connection between a server and a client—usually a browser and a website. SSL is one of the most important security protocols on the web today because it encrypts communication between the user and the website to help prevent malicious third parties from intercepting the user’s data.
