E-commerce websites are hardly rare, and yet some do vastly better than others. You’ll often find the same store selling the same products, but one seems to get far more sales. In many cases, successful e-commerce sites aren’t offering the lowest prices. So, what’s making people choose these stores over others? Or, to flip this question around, how can you make your store one of the best around?
If you look at and analyze the best e-commerce stores, you’ll find a few things in common…
Exceptional branding
In some ways, an e-commerce website is so similar to a traditional retail store. If you have a dull website, hardly anyone is going to be impressed. Especially if they find another website that’s expertly branded and looks incredible. It’s the same with retail stores; boring ones go unnoticed as all the foot traffic heads to the well-branded stores.
Therefore, you almost have to treat your website like a retail store. Think about things like branded spaces & concessions that help a store stand out. You can apply this to your website with big branding banners alerting people to specific products, colorful website design, excellent functionality, etc. This creates an aura of professionalism that builds trust with the customer. Over time, people start seeing you as one of the trusted brands, so they choose you all the time.
Signs of trust
A good website isn’t the only thing that builds trust with consumers. You should also have signs of trust that people can call upon. Something like a McAffee security logo or a secure web domain will make you trustworthy. There’s social proof in the form of reviews from previous customers, and so on. Things like this make consumers see that your website can be trusted. Not only are your customers happy, but you have a secure connection, and your website is protected by anti-virus security measures. Little things like this make the difference between a good e-commerce store and a great one.
Fast checkouts
The entire concept of e-commerce is built around society’s growing impatience. We don’t want to go to the shops and walk around for hours; we want to hop online and buy things in a few minutes. Therefore, the checkout system on an e-commerce website makes a massive difference. Customers want to order their products with as little fuss as possible. So, making them fill in massive forms is a surefire way to annoy them!
Instead, you need to make the checkout as swift as possible. Using things like Paypal, Apple Pay, and Android Pay will help you do this. Customers can pay with pre-loaded details that negate the need to find their credit card and fill in all the numbers. After they’ve paid, you can offer the chance to create an account. From here, they can save all of their details for an even faster checkout the next time.
It really boils down to these three elements that set some e-commerce sites apart from the rest. If you want to make your store more popular, you must take all of this advice and apply it to your business.
Find out why existing Amazon sellers can launch their own eCommerce stores here.
