10 Must have features for your eCommerce store

Ecommerce sites are constantly evolving in order to deliver a shopping experience that’s better than the competition. Here are 10 eCommerce features to attract customers and improve your shopping experience.

1. Simplicity 

A simple eCommerce design increases conversion rates. Why? Simplicity allows a customer to feel at ease — and it allows them to find exactly what they need with as little effort as possible. 

We crave intuitive designs because they feel natural to us. A customer should enter your website and immediately understand how to access its features without consciously thinking about it.

2. Mobile and Tablet Friendly

Optimizing your website for smartphones and tablets isn’t an option — it’s a standard. By 2021, mobile eCommerce sales are expected to account for 54% of total eCommerce sales worldwide, and that number is only expected to grow. 

Optimizing for mobile doesn’t just mean having your products available for purchase on phones and tablets. It means having a website design that adapts to the size of the screen in a way that’s intuitive and friendly. 

3. High-Quality Content 

Whether it’s a banner image, headshots of your team, or product photos — everything needs to be in tip-top quality. So what does that look like?

Well for starters, every single piece of content needs to be high-resolution. A blurry photo is just like a misspelled word on your website — if customers see it, they are going to take you less seriously. 

Brands should also strive to create their content through professionals using industry-standard camera equipment. If you have to use stock imagery, make sure it’s on brand and of the highest quality possible.

However, high-quality content isn’t just about the looks. It should also connect with the customer and add real value to their lives. Powerful content will spread across the internet naturally, generate customer loyalty, and deliver a return on your investment.

When it comes to product photos, customers want to see sharp images of your product from every angle. They want to be able to zoom in and assess details for themselves. They want to see the product being used in different environments. 

Some brands leverage customer-generated content of their products, such as photos posted on Instagram and Facebook. This is a powerful way to showcase your product in various environments, but it should never replace your professionally-taken product photos.

But remember — all of your content needs to load quickly. Unfortunately, higher-quality images take longer to load, so technical considerations are crucial.  

4. User-Generated Reviews

93% of customers read online reviews before buying a product. In a world where anyone can easily create a professional eCommerce website, reviews are one of the only ways a customer can trust a brand and its products, and be sure that they’re not getting scammed. 

Some businesses are afraid to include reviews because they think that one bad review will kill their product. The opposite is actually true. 

Every product has at least one bad review from someone. The most important thing is that you are transparent with your customers.

If you only have positive reviews or have no reviews at all, then customers will think you’re not being transparent. In effect, they will be more likely to lose trust in your brand and your products. 

5. Product Recommendations

Product recommendations use machine learning and predictive intelligence to make sure the customer is only seeing what they are interested in. This increases the chance of more purchases, and it leaves the customer feeling like the brand understands them as an individual. 

 Personalized suggestions are a proven success strategy. For instance, Salesforce customers see a 26% higher AOV with shoppers who click on their product recommendations, which are powered by Einstein, Salesforce’s AI for CRM. Magento users have access to a powerful AI as well, called Sensei. 

 Each platform’s artificial intelligence comes with standard features such as Product Recommendations and Predictive Sort, Search Recommendations, and Commerce Insights. 

6. An Easy-to-Use Checkout

The wrong checkout page can turn droves of customers away from completing their purchases. Here are a few things your checkout page needs to have:

• Intuitive design. The checkout page should allow the customer to complete their purchase with as little thought and effort as possible.

• Clearly stated shipping information. Unexpected shipping costs are the number one culprit for cart abandonment. Remember, transparency goes a long way. Shipping costs should be one of the first things a customer sees when they begin their checkout process. 

• An easy to find and clearly stated return policy. This is an essential feature of any eCommerce site and a major source of reassurance for the customer during checkout.  

Remember, the checkout page should be designed around ease of use, reassurance, and confidence.

7. FAQ Page

A frequently asked question page is a key strategy to ensure that a customer feels confident in their purchase decision. This tool becomes increasingly important if the product you are selling is complex, or comes with unique features. 

Let’s say one of your customers is on the line about a product because they have a question about one of its features. You only have a small window of time to answer that question before the customer bails on their purchase decision. 

If the customer has to contact customer service or leave a comment on the reviews page with no guarantee of when it will be answered, they are more likely to abandon their cart. FAQ pages can instantly answer a question in detail, and that can be the push a customer needs to checkout.

8. Multi-level Security

Security measures are perhaps the single most important feature to have on your eCommerce site because one single data breach can permanently end your business. If that’s not enough, eCommerce retailers are notoriously one of the most lucrative targets for hackers.

Luckily, hosted cloud-based platforms like Salesforce Commerce Cloud take an enterprise-level approach to security, which they fully handle for all of their users. Self-hosted platforms like Magento let users handle their own security measures as they see fit.

Here are some security best-practices to keep in mind: 

• Get an SSL certificate. This encrypts the data between your website and the customer’s web browser, so only the two of you will have access to the information being displayed on the screen. 

• Perform SQL checks regularly. A SQL injection is a code injection technique that hackers use to destroy your database. These injections can occur in any user input form on your website. Set up a scanner, whether it’s a third-party or one provided by your eCommerce platform, to check for vulnerabilities regularly.  

• Keep up with every update and patch. If you fail to update or patch your system, vulnerabilities can occur and hackers can take advantage of them. Hosted platforms like Salesforce handle all of this for you, while self-hosted platforms like Magento leave it to the user to maintain their system. 

• Use a firewall. A Web Application Firewall is a powerful tool that significantly decreases your chances of suffering from a multitude of cyberattacks. Don’t forget to only buy from vendors that are highly trusted in the community.

• Watch out for friendly fraud. 71% of merchant loss can be attributed to friendly fraud. Unfortunately, there is no surefire remedy for this issue, but there are some solutions. Proof of delivery, requiring a CCV code during checkout, and requiring signing for delivery are just a few. 

9. Multiple Payment Options

This is another strategy to make a customer’s checkout process simple and hassle-free — which will inevitably contribute to more purchases. In the time of one-tap and one-click payments, eCommerce merchants need to offer as many forms of advanced payment options as possible. 

The more payment options you can offer, such as PayPal, Credit Card, Apple Pay, etc, the more of an advantage you will have. If you can’t offer a specific payment option, be sure to explain to customers why. 

10. Wish Lists

Wish lists have proven to be a valuable way for brands to increase sales — especially ones that can be shared and followed. 

Customers don’t buy products they genuinely want for many reasons. Maybe they want to wait until they get their paycheck, or to see if it goes on sale. Maybe you ran out of stock and they are simply waiting for the product to return. 

Regardless of the reason, wish lists ensure that products a customer is likely to buy aren’t lost or forgotten. They can also encourage a customer to sign up for an account who might not otherwise. Once they are in, they may also sign up for marketing emails, etc.  

Pair wish lists up with product recommendations and you’ve got yourself a winning combination of tools that can deliver a personalized version of your website to each customer. 

Now get out there and start creating a powerful eCommerce experience. Remember, the best eCommerce sites are constantly innovating and experimenting in order to deliver a shopping experience that’s memorable, intuitive, and highly personalized.