6 E-Commerce Essentials

Shop til your connection drops.

Setting up an e-commerce website nowadays is surprisingly simple. Platforms like WordPress have numerous widgets and plugins that can handle checkout functionality, while a standard LAMP platform includes a MySQL database that can reliably return database queries regarding stock levels, product sizes or anything else.

In today’s cut-throat online marketplace, it’s crucial that your website is slick and professional. Competition is fierce, and rival websites are only a couple of mouse-clicks away. Below are six of the attributes every e-commerce website requires to make its mark:

1. A strong identity. Think of the leading online retailers, and their names are invariably short and snappy. Research has indicated that a web address with six letters or less will be easier to remember – and receive more traffic – than longer addresses, while a concise name also offers more scope for logos and branding. Avoid the clichéd use of X or Z characters, and reinforce your brand by using the same logo (and slogan, if appropriate) at all times.  Ensure the .co.uk or .com domains are both available, and remember that UK2.net can offer domain names for as little as 99p plus VAT.
2. Security. With recent data theft scandals hitting the headlines, it’s imperative to reassure prospective customers that their financial data will be secure. This is  particularly true if the products you sell are sensitive or personal. Two-factor authentication (also known as 2FA) and secure checkout functionalities should be built into any e-commerce website.
3. Dependability. As in the previous example, it’s crucial that an e-commerce website is always online. Your site needs to be powered by a robust hosting solution – such as a dedicated server – with a reliable power source. With almost two decades in the business, your server is in safe hands with UK2. Modern websites need to be designed with mobile platforms in mind – either with responsive scalable design or a parallel mobile site – and bandwidth requirements should be pared down to the minimum to enable swift downloading even on a flaky 3G connection.
4. Straightforward navigation. Consider the questions any potential customer will ask. Is it in stock, how much does it cost, and when will it be delivered? Make these the focus of your site design, rather than burying the cost below swathes of product information or only presenting delivery options and costs after a credit card number has been entered. Display full contact details on every page, and ensure customers can navigate to each page on the site with a single mouse click at all times.
5. Well-written content. Some customers become enraged by misplaced apostrophes and poor sentence construction, while others will dismiss any site whose technical content has been produced by someone without a real understanding of the products or services. A professional writer will immerse themselves in your brand before producing text that sounds like it was penned by a long-standing expert. Good content will be optimised for search engines, helping to achieve a higher results ranking, while walking the tightrope between being concise and informative.
6. Incentives to return. Even if the product you sell is an occasional-use item, give customers a good reason to bookmark your site and store those 2FA login details. Consider offering loyalty discounts, recommend-a-friend schemes, advanced previews of forthcoming products, or anything else that will drive repeat custom and inspire word-of-mouth recommendations.

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