In modern business operations, using an e-commerce platform is becoming a necessity as millions of customers have now turned to buy their products and services online. Therefore, every business should be looking for ways to have an online platform that will be used to render the services and the products that customers want when they interact with the company.
However, it has been recorded that some companies are making critical mistakes in the structure and general designs of their business websites. This is making it hard for such companies to attract customers. For global eCommerce growth, it is essential to have a modern business website that incorporates what most customers want, as discussed below.
1. Sufficient White Space
In the management and organization of a business website, especially an e-commerce platform, it is necessary to have enough white space throughout its website. This means that the landing page does not have a lot of information to the extent that everyone struggles to get what they want. Very few customers will spend time on an e-commerce platform where they struggle to locate what they want. Having fewer products on each space will increase white space and also help customers get the products immediately.
2. Easier to Load
Just like white space, an easy to load website will help every customer load quickly and get what they want to purchase. Studies have shown that customers are not willing to spend more than five seconds on a site that is not loading. Websites that are heavy and not easy to load will only attract a few numbers of customers. Therefore, businesses that want to sell products and services online should concentrate on enhancing the speed at which their websites load so that they can avoid bouncing customers.
3. Mobile-Friendly Website
Studies indicate that the percentage of people using smartphones will continue to increase in 2020, which means that people accessing business websites through their mobile phones will also increase. As such, any company that intends to sell its products online must optimize its business website so that it can be a mobile-friendly website where customers will be able to access the products with ease. Optimizing for mobile is the next big frontier in online business and is expected to be a significant trend in online sales.
4. Optimizing for Local SEOs
Generally, a business website might be structured to meet people’s needs in an excellent geographic location, especially for large and multinational organizations. However, for small companies operating within a small city or region, it is necessary to optimize the business website for local search results. This is a strategy that involves using keywords that target customers in a specific region, including the name of the city and associated keywords. It is a unique way of helping customers to identify a business within a specific region.
5. Aesthetically Appealing Website
Aesthetic and appealing websites are essential in enhancing the experience of website users. Customers will always be attracted to websites with attractive colors and images that can resonate with what they want to buy. Therefore, using the right font on the web content will determine whether customers will stick around. Working with a professional graphic designer will help in getting the right website images in place while, at the same time, ensuring that all the colors used are consistent and attractive.
6. Payment Security Features
Every e-commerce must include a payment system where customers will pay for all the products or services they have purchased from the company. With this in mind, most of the customers are highly interested in the security features installed on the payment platforms. There is no customer who will give credit card information without a guarantee of the security and privacy of personal information. Businesses should focus on enhancing the security of the payment platforms they are using while, at the same time, guaranteeing that every personal detail is protected.
What is growing in popularity due to an increase in fraudulent activity is tokenization in payments. Payment tokenization is a security technique that replaces sensitive payment information, such as credit card numbers, with a unique, random set of characters called a “token.” This process helps keep payment data safe during transactions because the actual card information is not being used or stored.
As seen above, consumers are looking for e-commerce platforms that have incorporated features and measures to enhance efficiency and security. All the measures discussed above form the basic requirements that any business website should have. However, not all the companies have incorporated the necessary measures discussed above, which could explain why they are still struggling to get consistent traffic on their online stores.