The most feasible marketing platform nowadays is internet for advertising & promoting products and services. Effectively utilizing the eCommerce platform helps in not only increasing the revenues of the online stores, but also creating the brand equity in the online retail vertical. These tips are basically a few brief steps that are meant to utilize this marketing platform.
A particular aspect of this online marketing channel is the immediate gratification that an online customer wants. An eCommerce web store should be such that it instantly grabs the attention of the online visitors and retain them. Checkout processing should be seemless and easy for the customer. 24Seven integrates with all of the top credit card merchant service providers including IBI Merchants (website). Therefore, it is extremely necessary for online retailers to design their web stores such that they are intuitive, attractive and most important customer friendly. Following are a few of the characteristics of successful online stores that should be used while designing the web stores:
- Genuineness of the web store A web store should be such that it instills faith and confidence among the online customers that they are purchasing from a genuine web store. The product delivery, product return and transaction policies should be displayed up-front. The web store should be fully secured for transacting any financial transaction and should display security certificates and logos to make online visitors feel safe.
- Professional Image – The overall working and the appearance of the web store also matters. To make your web store stand-out, it should have a professional look and feel so that it can attract online visitors. A well designed and professionally managed web store not only attracts the online visitors, it also contributes in making customers loyal to the web store.
- User-friendliness- Access to the information displayed on the web store is necessary so that the online customers make purchases through it. The sales process should be simple with easy navigation through multiple categories and self explanatory titles. All The customers are not conversant with the internet or the web stores. Additionally, no one wants to spend time over the online store to browse through the multiple categories of the products. Those online visitors who are well versed with the online environment wants the web store to be as simple and easy to operate. Moreover, it is necessary to have a site search option in the web store.
- Exhibiting the products- Nowadays, customers are well informed about the products they are going to buy. Therefore, it becomes mandatory for the online retailer to display their products adequately and with an easy access. One basic thing that every retailer needs to keep in mind that online customer can only make purchases when the products are easily accessible. The sales process should be as simple as possible, navigating through multiple categories easy with illustrative titles. Additionally, the online retailers should use multiple marketing platforms such as smartphones or social media to make their web store reach closer to their customers.
- Ranking on the search engines- It’s important to the part of the online retailers to highlight & bring their web stores closer to their prospective customers by promoting them online. The webmasters need to ensure that their web stores ranked high on the search engines. The content should reflect the image of the company and the campaign that it is operating. Additionally, the content should be compiled as per the SEO guidelines. A useful, attractive, compelling, and informative content is necessary to create a positive impact and engage the prospective online customers.
- Loading speed of the web store- The web page loading speed should be quick enough to hold the attention of the online customers. It’s imperative to ensure that images, videos and java scripts should be used diligently as these files takes time to upload which in turn slows down the website speed. This ultimately affects the user experience and the conversion rates of your web store. Additionally, web page load time is directly reflected in the search engine ranking. If your web store’s page uploading time is less, it gets higher rank in the SERPs.
- Attractive web store design- The web designers should design the web store using high quality images, unique and inspiring layout and content. Content provided should be informative and crafted meticulously so as to engross the online customers for the initial few minutes. Additionally, a short, concise and focused content id suggested so that it won’t take much time for online customers to understand the whole idea. Web designers can also use infographics to explain the large processes or steps.
- Purchasing without registering- No online shopper wants to register for purchasing any item online. The online customers don’t like to spend time to fill the customer details page as they lose interest. It is beneficial for the online retailers give the facility of “guest checkout” to their customers without mandating the registration as it helps in increasing the conversion rates and loyalty among the customers. It is easy for the online retailers encourage their customers if they come back to the same store.
- Site search function- It is necessary on the part of the online retailers to give site search option. With a large number of products in the product catalogs, it is necessary for the online retailers to offer an inbuilt site search feature to make product search easy. A wide variety of products requires category refinement and effective navigation to search the desired products.
The above eCommerce tips are helpful for every online retailer to start their online store and give an idea about the different issues that needs to be looked after. Creating an identity in the online vertical is very important for establishing the brand of the web store. The above stated aspects help online retailers to not only in operating and maintaining the web stores, but also establishes a rapport in the online retail vertical.