Are you building a new e-commerce Website for your business or looking for methods to enhance the functionality of your existing Website?
The victory of an e-commerce website doesn’t only depend on the quality of its products, there is a range of other factors at play. Two of the most important are how the site is marketed and how it is designed.
Certain elements can help assemble an e-commerce website more user-friendly to clients and effortless to handle from the viewpoint of the owners. But when designing a site, it can be tricky to account for all these necessary e-commerce website features and stylistic elements. Luckily, our eCommerce website design team is here to help you out!
The Article down shows 21 key elements that any successful e-commerce site must have. If you are designing a new e-commerce site or redesigning an existing one, the possibility is you’ll find this article very useful.
Creating an e-commerce experience that is sure to delight your customers can be as straightforward as taking a little inspiration from the top e-commerce brands.
Example brands were chosen from The Top 50 Ecommerce Companies in the U.S. list published by Similarweb.
1. User-Friendly Navigation
The key to assisting customers find the products they need fast is to offer a user-friendly navigation system.
Products should be logically categorized, with the most popular categories listed first.
Screenshot from Sephora.com, March 2022
Sephora knows how customers like to shop.
Some specifically seek out products by brand, while others shop by category. Their navigation bar reflects this organization, along with quick links to affordable and sale products.
2. Site Search
In addition to user-friendly navigation, site search is a component found on most of the top e-commerce sites.
It allows customers to bypass the navigation and search for exactly what they want.
Screenshot from Nordstrom.com, March 2022
Nordstrom offers a site search with suggestions for popular brands and products that match what you enter.
Most site searches can be tracked using Google Analytics.
3. Footer Navigation
Have you considered the best way to utilize your website’s footer to help customers find your top products?
Try a list of links to the top products, services, and information that customers want to find.
Screenshot from T-mobile.com, March 2022
T-Mobile uses its footer to lead customers to their social media profiles, English and Spanish sites, featured phones and plans, support, and company information.
Their footer effectively contains links to everything they want both customers and search crawlers to find from any page throughout their website.
4. Product Videos
Adding video to your product pages can boost conversions.
According to Think With Google, over 50% of shoppers said that online video helped them make a decision on which brand or product to purchase.
Most e-commerce platforms allow retailers to add videos and images to their product pages.
Screenshot from Apple.com, March 2022
Apple uses video to highlight features of its latest iPhone on its sales page. Their use of high-quality product images and video help market their products online and in-store.
5. Product Reviews
The most famous structure of user-generated content found on e-commerce sites is product reviews and ratings.
This section of an e-commerce product page is important to provide social proof to shoppers that a product will fit their needs.
eBay allows customers to rate and review products, displaying reviews below the product descriptions and sponsored items.
Screenshot from eBay.com, March 2022
Other eBay users also have the option to rate reviews as useful or not, moving the best reviews to the top of the list on the product page.
6. Generous Return Policy
Want to improve consumer trust in the products you sell? Offer a generous return policy and include it on your product page.
Screenshot from Walmart.com, March 2022
Place it near your add-to-cart button to improve the probability that it will have a positive impact on the number of purchases.
7. FAQ For Products
Another way to include user-generated content in your e-commerce store is by adding a section of the most frequently asked questions by customers.
This section can help your store in a number of ways.
Grow the number of sales by answering your customer’s top pre-sales queries about your products. Decrease the quantity of time your customer service has to spend on answering questions about products, before and after the purchase.
Screenshot from Amazon.com, March 2022
Amazon’s question and answer section on product pages provides customers the capability to ask questions, answer questions, and vote up the best questions to ensure the most frequently asked ones appear at the top.
8. FAQ For The Store
In addition to the FAQ for your product pages, consider adding a FAQ page for your main store.
This should cover any of the general questions people may ask about online privacy, security, payments, shipping, returns, and other shopping concerns.
Screenshot from Etsy.com, March 2022
Etsy offers answers to the most frequently asked questions in its help center.
This saves their customer support team from having to answer general questions and gives them more time to solve difficult problems.
9. Order Tracking
Once your customer places an order, the top question on their mind is when will my order arrive.
Make it simple for customers to check their recent order status on your website.
Screenshot from Autozone.com, March 2022
AutoZone has an order tracking page that doesn’t require customers to log in.
They simply need their email address and the order number they received in their order confirmation email.
10. Email Opt-In
According to Mailchimp benchmarks, emails sent by e-commerce businesses have an average open rate of 15.68% and a click rate of 2.01%.
This is necessary considering the revenue-generating potential eCommerce emails have.
If you can’t get visitors to make a purchase on your website, one of the next best conversions for your store would be to attain the visitor as a subscriber on your email list.
This would allow you to reach them with future sales and email promotions.
Screenshot from Samsung.com, March 2022
Samsung prompts visitors to subscribe to their email list to receive their latest offers using a pop-up.
Another way eCommerce retailers can grab email addresses is by adding an opt-in form in the header and footer of their website.
11. Push Notifications
If you want to avoid spam filters and social media algorithms, the next best way to catch your e-commerce store visitors as subscribers is through push notifications.
Push notification services allow visitors to subscribe to your latest updates in their browser.
When you have an advertisement you want to notify subscribers of, you can send a message that will be delivered to their notification center via their browser.
Screenshot from Shein.com
Shein is one of many e-commerce brands that allows visitors to subscribe to push notifications.
Once subscribed, visitors will see the latest messages from Shein in their desktop notifications.
Screenshot of a push notification from Shein, March 2022
12. Chatbots
One of the advantages of running an e-commerce website is its power to generate revenue, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, throughout the year. That also means delivering support to your customers during those hours as well.
According to LivePerson’s survey of 5,000 consumers, positive sentiment about the use of chatbots nearly doubled between 2020 and 2021, from 31% to 61%.
Many e-commerce stores use chatbots to assist online shoppers with basic questions and navigate them to a specific product or support page.
Screenshot from Lowes.com, March 2022
Lowes uses an always online expert, which is an automated assistant with specific prompts for visitors to pick when looking for a specific answer, finding a specific product, or solving a basic customer service inquiry.
13. Coupon Codes
We know that consumers often search for coupon codes on Google when presented with a coupon or discount box on a checkout page.
In the United States, 88% of consumers use coupons when shopping, using coupon sites like slickdeals.com, groupon.com, and retailmenot.com.
If you want to keep customers on your website throughout the checkout process, give them great deals via your own coupon codes.
Screenshot from Victoriassecret.com, March 2022
Victoria’s Secret uses a bar at the top of its website to highlight its latest offer.
When visitors click on View Offers, they will get additional offers and coupon codes to apply at checkout.
14. Product Availability Filters
Do you have multiple options for customers when it comes to pickup or delivery methods?
Give customers the ability to quickly find the products that are available with their preferred pickup or delivery option.
Screenshot from Walgreens.com, March 2022
Walgreens offers customers an item availability filter that will sort products based on their pickup, same-day delivery, shipping, or in-stock availability. This offers you the best chance to convert customers based on fast availability.
15. Mobile App
In addition to having a mobile-friendly store for shoppers to make a purchase from any device, also consider having a mobile app for your store.
Mobile apps allow you to keep your brand on your customer’s minds, placing your app icon/brand logo on the smart devices customers use most.
You don’t have to wait for customers to open up a browser or another app for social media or email to get your latest sales messages.
You can push those promotional updates through your app to any customers that have notifications turned on.
Screenshot from the Home Depot app, March 2022
Home Depot offers an app that allows customers to shop for products online and have them shipped to their homes or reserved for in-store pickup.
16. Gift Registries
If you do a search for gift registries on Google, you will find dozens of well-known brand retailers.
Target, Amazon, Walmart, Crate & Barrel, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond are just a few that appear on the first page of SERPs.
Why are gift registries important to driving sales? Let’s just look at wedding registries for a moment.
According to The Knot 2020 Wedding Registry Study, 80% of respondents set up a wedding registry.
CNBC reported findings from Baird’s 2022 survey that Amazon leads as the top wedding registry provider with 45% listing penetration.
Screenshot from Target.com, March 2022
Target offers gift registries for babies, weddings, and charities. You can also create a custom registry to celebrate any occasion you choose.
17. Multilingual Support
If your e-commerce store caters to customers in a specific region, you have two options to support the top languages spoken in their region
Depend on Google Translate to help customers translate your website into their language. Create multiple versions of your website for specific languages.
Screenshot from Xfinity.com, March 2022
Xfinity uses English on their www subdomain, and Spanish on their es subdomain.
Content can be switched from English to Spanish using the En and Es links in the main navigation bar.
18. Loyalty Program
Do you want to improve customer retention? One way to encourage people to shop from your e-commerce store again is to offer a loyalty program.
These are typically free or paid programs where customers get private or early access to the best deals.
Many allow customers to accrue points per purchase that lead to various rewards, such as a specific dollar amount off your next purchase or a free product.
Screenshot from Ulta.com, March 2022
Ulta is one of many brands that offer a free rewards program for their loyal customers.
Customers can join for free and earn points redeemable for products and services online and in-store.
19. Carousels
While marketers may not agree on the value of image and video carousels on the homepage, you will find many eCommerce brands use them.
Major retailers such as Walmart, eBay, Home Depot, Samsung, Wayfair, Lowes, Costco, Sam’s Club, and Kohls have carousels with their latest promotions and sales.
Screenshot from Chewy.com, March 2022
Chewy is another e-commerce brand that features a carousel on the homepage. Theirs promote discounts for auto-ship orders, healthy pet food, flea & tick medications, pet bedding, and more.
20. Local Store Information
If your e-commerce brand also has physical store locations, you can boost offline sales by adding details for the nearest store to your website’s header.
This would permit customers to shop online, reserve for in-store pick-up, or browse their local store inventory before driving to make an in-store purchase.
Screenshot from Coscto.com, March 2022
Costco offers a link to the closest store based on your zip code. They also display current store hours.
21. Personal Data Policy
Depending on where your e-commerce store is established and the customers that it serves, your site may need a policy that informs visitors of the data that is collected about them on your website using cookies from the website and other analytics tools.
Screenshot from Michaels.com, March 2022
Michael’s e-commerce store displays a popup advising visitors about cookie usage to enhance user experience and analyze website traffic.
Visitors then have the option to accept the policy or adjust their cookie preferences.
It’s important to remember that you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel in order to deliver a fantastic shopping experience for your users.
It’s simply a matter of listening to your customer’s feedback and monitoring your competitors to see if new trends in e-commerce arise.
While you don’t need to try every new feature your e-commerce platform has to offer, you should look into the ones that your customers have come to expect from the top retailers in your vertical.
Merge your customer’s feedback with A/B testing to see what implementations drive more sales and higher customer satisfaction.
