These days, online shopping has become the go-to option for people when they want something for themselves, their loved ones, or their businesses. Buying things from online stores is a safer option, especially because of credit card security matters in stores.

Physical stores run on the foundation of trust. Customers hand their debit or credit card to a cashier at the counter while checking out and trust that they will be charged the exact amount for the items they have purchased.

Online shopping is very different because the trust factor is no longer needed. But the problem with online shopping is getting customers to shop on one’s website over a competitor. An e-commerce website must be up-to-date and implement critical elements such as high-resolution images and customer support to attract customers and generate sales.

So, what are the must-have elements of an e-commerce website that make it stand out among its competitors? Let’s find out!

User-friendly Navigation

The more user-friendly your online shop is, the more likely it is to make sales. A homepage should be visual and, at the same time, able to make users click on items or categories of products they would like to buy. Even the categories should be easily understood and broken down into smaller sub-sections for easy access to what the user might be searching for.

Product categorization also matters; hence, popular products must be listed first. Some customers like to see products with regard to brands, while others like them category-wise. A good navigation bar in an e-commerce website will reflect this organization along with quick links to hot products or items on sale.

Site Search Bar

In addition to user-friendly navigation, the site search function is one of the most popular features of top e-commerce websites. It allows users to skip the navigation bar and find exactly what they want. For example, Nordstrom has a very creative site search option that suggests products and popular brands according to what you enter.

Footer Navigation

Create a list of top products, services, and information links your customers want to see. For example, T-Mobile’s footer links customers to the company’s social media pages, its English and Spanish websites, featured phones, plans, and support and company details. Their footer includes links to all the information they want customers, or search crawlers, to find from any page on their website.

Images and Description

People looking for an item online preferably want all the details they can get before purchase. Online shopping becomes frustrating because one cannot touch or feel items they view online. For this reason, high quality images about products have to be there in an e-commerce website and described well. Details should encompass everything right from size and texture to uses, benefits, and available colors.

Provide sufficient information to your potential customers so that they will more likely buy a product from your store rather than any other website.

Product Videos

Video is one of the most effective ways to increase conversions on your product pages. In fact, Think With Google found that more than 50% of shoppers find online videos helpful in deciding which brand or product to buy.

A standout e-commerce website allows retailers to add video and images to their product pages. Apple, for example, uses video to show off the features of their latest iPhone on their sales page. They use high-quality product images as well as videos to sell their products.

Product Reviews

Reviews and ratings of a product on an e-commerce website are the most common user-generated content. This part of an e-commerce product page has a very significant role in conditioning the minds of the customers beforehand on whether a product will meet their requirements.

For example, on eBay website, there is a chance for users to review the product. The reviews can be left under the description of the product and under the sponsored items. Other eBay users also mark the reviews as helpful or not, and the most accurate are placed at the top of the product page list.

Customer-friendly Return Policy

Mentioning a good return policy enhances customer trust in your products. A good e-commerce website mentions a customer-friendly return policy right on the product page and places it near the add-to-cart button. This increases the conversion rate because clients are already aware that they can return the product if they do not like it.

FAQs about Products

Your e-commerce website should include customers’ most frequently asked questions (FAQs). Adding a FAQs section will increase sales by responding to your customers’ top pre-sale questions about your products. It will also reduce the time your customer service spends answering questions about the products before and after a purchase.

Amazon has a FAQ section on product pages where customers can ask questions, respond to questions, and vote for the best ones to ensure that the most popular FAQs appear at the top.

FAQ Page for the Store

Your e-commerce website also needs to have a FAQs section about the products. You should deal with all the common queries people have when shopping on your FAQ page of the website, such as online privacy, security, online payments, and returns. The reason is that good websites like Etsy have a help center from which it answers the FAQs, saving the customer support team a lot of time. They do not have to deal with the generic questions, hence putting all the focus into solving more serious issues.

Order Tracking Option

When your customers place an order, the first question that comes to their mind is when they will receive their order. A reputable e-commerce website allows customers to check their order status. The order tracking should be as convenient as possible. For example, the order tracking page of AutoZone doesn’t ask customers to log in to check their order status. All one needs is an email and the order number they received in your order confirmation email.

Email Opt-in Feature

Mailchimp benchmarks show that the average open rate of emails sent by an e-commerce business is 15.68%, and the average click rate is 2.01%. This indicates that e-commerce emails have the potential to generate revenue. If you are unable to convert a visitor to a customer on your site, one of the best ways to increase your website’s conversion rate is to get the visitor to subscribe to your emails. This way, you can reach out to them with future sales or email promotions.

For example, Samsung invites visitors to sign up for its email list via pop-up to receive its latest offers. Another way e-commerce retailers collect email addresses is by adding an optional opt-in form to their website’s header and footer.

Push Notifications

If you’re looking for a way to get around spam filters and social algorithms, the next step is to capture your online store visitors as subscribers. With a push notification service, visitors can subscribe to your most recent updates in their browsers.

This feature is a must-have for an e-commerce website. Because, for example, if you have a promotion that you want to inform your subscribers about, you can send them a message via their browser that will be delivered to their notification center.

Many e-commerce websites ask visitors to subscribe to their push notifications. Shein is a good example that sends push messages in subscribers’ desktop notifications if they have subscribed to their push notifications.

Chatbots

Running an e-commerce website means generating revenue round the clock, 365 days a year. It also means assisting your customers with their issues 24/7. In a survey of over 5,000 consumers conducted by LivePerson, the number of positive opinions about the use of chatbots increased from 31% in 2020 to 61% in 2021.

Many e-commerce stores use chatbots to help customers with simple questions and direct them to a specific product or help page. For example, Lowes uses a chatbot called an always-online expert. It’s an automated assistant with specific prompts that visitors can click to find a specific answer, a product or solve a simple customer service inquiry.

Coupon Codes

Consumers search on Google for “coupons” and “discounts” when presented with a coupon/discount box on the checkout page of any website. Research shows that 88% of U.S. consumers use coupons when they shop, using coupon sites such as retailmennot.com, slickdeals.com, and groupon.com.

Therefore, if you want to keep your customers on your e-commerce site during checkout, use coupon codes that give them great deals. For example, Victoria’s Secret has a “View Offers” bar at the top of its website. When visitors click on this bar, they are presented with additional offers and coupon codes to apply at checkout.

Product Availability Filters

Good e-commerce websites make it easy for customers to find the products they want with their preferred pickup and delivery options. For instance, Walgreens provides a product availability filter that allows customers to filter products based on their preferred pickup, same-day delivery, in-stock availability, or shipping. Product availability filters give businesses a great opportunity to convert customers based on fast availability.

Mobile App & Compatibility

A key element often overlooked is a mobile-friendly website allowing shoppers to shop from anywhere on any device. You should also consider having a mobile app for your store. 80% of the adults have a smartphone, and mobile visits are now outnumbering desktop visits in many cases. You must design and build your e-commerce site for every device, not just a PC or a laptop.

Mobile apps let you keep your brand in front of your customers’ minds by displaying your app icon and brand logo on their devices. Good businesses make full use of this option. For example, Home Depot has an app that lets customers shop online, have products shipped to their homes, or reserve products for pickup in-store.

Gift Registries

If you do a Google search for “gift registries,” you’ll find dozens of popular brand retailers, such as Target, Amazon, Walmart, and Crate & Barrel. Gift registries are a great way to drive more traffic toward your e-commerce website. A recent study by The Knot 2020 showed that 80% of respondents had set up a wedding registry.

According to a CNBC report from 2022 Baird’s survey, Amazon is the leading wedding registry provider with 45% listing penetration. Target also has gift registries for weddings, babies, and charities.

Multilingual Support

If you have an e-commerce store serving customers in a particular region, there are two ways you can support the top languages in that region. You can either use Google Translate to assist customers in translating your website into their local language or create multiple versions of your site for different languages.

A good e-commerce website will allow visitors to change the website’s language according to their preferences. For example, Xfinity uses English on its “www” subdomain and Spanish on its “es” subdomain, and customers can switch content from English to Spanish using the En & Es links in the main navigation bar.

Carousels

Take the example of e-commerce brands like Walmart, Samsung, or Home Depot, for this key element; they all have carousels on the front page that show their latest products on sale. For instance, the home page of Chewy has a carousel that promotes discounts on auto-ship orders, healthy pet food products, flea and tick medication, and pet bedding.

Local Store Information

If your online business also has a physical store location, you can increase online sales by adding store location details to your website header. This way, customers can shop online, book an in-store pickup, or check out their local store’s inventory before making an online purchase. Costco is a very good example in this regard. It provides a zip code-based link to the nearest store on its website.

Personal Data Policy

You should include a personal data policy based on the country in which your e-commerce website is published and the type of customers your website has. It should inform the visitors about the information being collected with cookies and any other third-party analytic tools. For instance, on Michael’s e-commerce website, when customers log in, a pop-up describes cookies that improve their customer experience and then allows them to either accept the cookies or update cookie settings according to their preference.

Conclusion

An e-commerce website needs to look beautiful and offer customers a stress-free shopping experience. All the aforementioned features on your website will help you grow your business by attracting new customers and increasing your revenue.

With over two decades of experience, we have established ourselves as a trusted leader in web and system development, providing tailored solutions to clients across diverse industries. Contact us today to discuss your website project.