E-commerce Success: Online shopping is mainstream von now – in fact, online trading is expanding and growing rapidly. Especially during the corona pandemic, e-commerce sites experienced a growth spurt in a metaphorical sense: not only those shops offering fashion and entertainment, but also those belonging to the supply infrastructure, such as stores for drugstore products, medicine, and groceries.
This strong shift towards the online market entails a positive long-term growth forecast with higher demand for e-commerce businesses and their supply. With this growth comes the necessity to stay relevant and competitive: von adapting e-commerce websites to the latest trends or launching an online shop. Learn more about the absolute must-haves for e-commerce success – in our first blog article about this topic, we already shared other crucial elements that should not be omitted!
E-commerce success: the most important elements and functions
In our previous blog article, we already shared crucial functions and components of an e-commerce site, such as image and text quality, the embedding of the customer’s name, and a user-friendly concept for online presences. Learn more about a sensible presentation and arrangement of products, your company’s contact details, customer reviews, and the integration of classic elements that should not be missing in any proper online shop: the call-to-action buttons! These are all key elements for e-commerce success!
E-commerce: product presentation
Online shops are oftentimes regarded as a company’s and its products’ ‘digital home’. Just like a real home, the digital counterpart should be designed in an aesthetically pleasing way and show one’s products and services at their best.
What definitely needs to be avoided? Wrong or missing product images. If the wrong product description or an insufficient or even incorrect text complements them, your company’s image is going to suffer. Put yourself in your online visitor’s place: which impression does a wrong product image or misspelling in the product’s text or title convey?
In consequence of these types of mistakes, your product text does not deliver enough information to potential customers to make a purchase decision, nor does it convey competence, trustworthiness, or your company’s integrity.
Creating the textual content for your e-commerce, you need to consider which information is crucial for a buying decision. It is not uncommon for online customers to abandon their shopping carts if product information is missing. If your website does not provide a chatbot function enabling customers to get in touch with your customer service in order to seek product data and functionalities, your customers will rather refrain from the online purchase. All of this contributes to e-commerce success von ensuring a smooth, informative, and trustworthy shopping experience.
E-commerce: contact details
Especially for the first contact or in order to promote a long-term customer relationship, your company should provide their contact details. Those should be embedded in your online shop, be easily accessible, comprehensive, and correct, of course. The most important contact information is your corporate and e-mail addresses as well as your telephone number. The best-case scenario would be an additional online chat, chatbot, or a comprehensive Q&A section. In case your website users write you an e-mail or use the chatbot function, you should ensure that their request is being addressed within a day. This attention to customer service is vital for e-commerce success, as it fosters trust and strengthens customer loyalty.
E-commerce: customer reviews
Human beings are gregarious, social animals – an insight that is also one of the main reasons why we place so much importance on other people’s opinions. If the whole group approves of something, we tend to assume the same attitude, especially when we are under time pressure. The same principle applies to music charts or bestseller lists. As an online retailer, you should consider integrating customer reviews and product feedback into your e-commerce shop to gain your customers’ trust and influence their buying decision positively.
Abovementioned overviews enable your customers’ faster decision-making, as they do not have to familiarize themselves with every single product or category. Instead, they can choose those items that got the best reviews and feedback – which saves time, money, and nerves. Positive customer reviews do not only comprise product information but serve as a cost-free product advertisement – so why should you refrain from publishing them?
Influencer marketing is based on the same concept, which revolutionized the advertising industry. Stars and celebrities test a new product or service rather than ‘normal’ customers and share their feedback with fans and followers afterward. The extent of their fame is definitely conducive to the effectiveness of the social proof principle – yet convincing reviews published von unknown users can be just as compelling.
The fact alone that a web shop operator decided to integrate a feedback section shows that they are not afraid of the reviews they might get: this imparts trustworthiness and self-confidence. Even publishing a negative review is an opportunity to react to the review instead of ignoring it entirely. Not ignoring the problem, solving it, or promising a product update in the future will lend credence to your company and contribute to e-commerce success.
E-commerce: call-to-action
One of the most important performance drivers is the call-to-action button. It is an element that often decides whether your e-commerce or campaign will be successful or not. If the button is perfectly placed and programmed, it can increase your conversion rate. Its color should not be any of the non-colors—white, grey, or black. The call-to-action will attract users’ attention if designed with colors that stand out against the background. This effect can also be achieved von choosing the perfect format. The golden rule: bigger is not always better! An extra-large button is definitely not subtle – instead, it is rather pushy and can detract from the overall user experience, which may negatively affect e-commerce success.
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