5 Best Practices for Running an eCommerce Site

It goes without saying that the eCommerce market is more competitive than ever. Of course, if you’re going to sell tangible products you’re going to need a definitive online presence and to establish your place. In the online retail market, you’re not just competing with small businesses and regional brands, you’re dealing with retail mega-giants such as Amazon, Target, and Walmart.

This is why it is key for you to focus on one very little detail that goes into running an eCommerce site, including best practices. With these 5 best practices for running an eCommerce site in mind, we can help you to increase overall conversions for your eCommerce store. Additionally, you may be able to generate more leads and add additional revenue. Let’s get started below.

Avoid Unnecessary Clutter

Retail studies show that websites with simple designs yield higher conversion rates. Take a look at your website right now. What’s the first thing you see? There should always be an obvious point of focus. A visitor’s eye should always be drawn right to a CTA (call to action) button or the products that you sell. Too much clutter makes it impossible for users to identify a CTA or to discern products.

A whopping 53% of eCommerce websites have called to action buttons that take more than three seconds to locate or identify. You should be aiming for 1 to 2 seconds at most. Think of the actions you want your consumers to take when they land on your page. Odds are, you want them to make a purchase. Make this easy for them and don’t distract with clutter. That just overwhelms, confuses, and forces customers off the page.

Utilize GEO IP Redirect

Odds are, you want to broaden your customer base as wide as possible. That means including customers who may be living in other countries. With a GeoIP redirect you can show your customers related information based on their specific location. GeoIP redirect can easily be achieved through a simple plugin or Magento extensions. The extension will automatically do the work of switching currency, language, and store appearance to appeal to customers in different countries. This can allow you to grow your business worldwide or to ban users from certain countries if you wish. 

Simplify Every Menu

Depending on what you’re selling, menus are an ideal way to stay organized and group items. However, as mentioned above, you don’t want to overcomplicate things. Offering too many menu categories and sub-categories will confuse customers, keeping them from finding what they want. Don’t make your menu too specific. Instead, utilize broad terms to categorize products. For example, let’s say you focus on selling clothing. You might be tempted to break down every item into its own menu (ie: t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, sweaters). Instead of having several menu options for each choice, simply group each into one category, in this case, “tops.” 

Making Checking Out Easy 

Nothing hurts conversion rates more than a convoluted checkout process. Once a visitor decides to make a purchase, doing so should be easy and straightforward. Too many steps in the checkout process will lead to cart abandonment. In fact, a whopping 28% of consumers have admitted to abandoning a shopping cart during checkout because the process was long or difficult. Make checkout easy by only gathering essential information. Simply collect billing, shipping, and promo codes. That’s all you really need to complete a transaction. 

Don’t Force Shoppers To Create A Profile

As mentioned above, you want the checkout process to be as simple and seamless as possible. That means you should never force your shoppers to create a profile in order to checkout. While you can encourage profile creation for easier purchases in the future, you should also offer a guest checkout option. Many people will abandon the checkout process if they are forced to create a profile. All in all, the checkout process should take less than 2 minutes from beginning to end. A simple profile creation can take well over a minute on its own.

eCommerce web design -DepositPhotos