There are several key things very crucial when building an e-commerce website. A miss of either of the things can lead to total failure or a very poor user experience. These shortcomings are very frustrating to the user resulting in very low conversion and low to no returning clients. These factors include:

16 Not To Miss Points Checklist When Building An E-commerce Website

• Ease of use – A good e-commerce website should be easy to use. Users should be able to sign up, log in, navigate around the website, locate product, purchase and check out with as much ease as possible.
• Security – e-commerce involves buying and selling using financial payment systems which area target to theft and thus building a secure e-commerce website is absolutely paramount.
• Different payment options – People have different preferences even when it comes to the payment options of their choice and thus a good e-commerce website should incorporate all the available payment options in its target market.

Different Payment Options that can be incorporated on an e-commerce website (Source: Sea Media)

• Easy checkout process – after picking their goods buyers should be able to complete the payment process as smoothly as possible to avoid abandoning the cart. Good e-commerce websites even allow none registered users to make purchases and check out without much friction increasing their conversion rate.
• Easy Registration/Sign-up and login process – the sign-up process should be as easy and brief as possible. Usually, the long sign-up process requiring numerous details easily drives potential buyers away.
• OS & Device Responsiveness –users today use diverse gadgets to access the internet including computers, smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and even gaming equipment. As a result, the development of a good e-commerce website should consider how to accommodate all the users, regardless of the device or the OS they access the website with by building a responsive e-commerce website
• A good shopping cart design – shopping cart is a crucial element in an e-commerce website. For good user experience, a cart should allow a user to add multiple items, compare products, revise order and remove or add products as easily as possible.  A good shopping cart also gives users a view of goods added in the cart while they continue browsing without necessarily going to the cart. Others will show even the “Wish” list.

A shopping cart with extra features (Source: Magento)

• Search box – usually not every product can be found instantly on logging in especially when a user is buying multiple products on an e-commerce website with numerous products. The search box/bar is a crucial feature in search scenario as it assists a user to search a specific product or a group of related products saving time.
• Good Visual Graphics – As much as text details are important pictures of the items listed are also paramount and should be of good professional quality. For goods especially fashion ware images are the key selling point.
• Announcement feature – e-commerce websites occasionally give offers, discounts and lists new products among other new things. All this requires a good announcement board that communicates to everyone visiting the website.
• A support and inquiry system – Often users require assistance or to make an inquiry and as a result, an e-commerce website should have a good communication and support system for instant communication.
• FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page – Having a FAQ page helps answer the obvious and frequently asked question, saving time that would be used to answer each and every question asked by the users or answering the same question multiple times.
• Wish List – wish lists is increasingly become an important feature to the buyer and to the sellers. It gives crucial data for retargeting marketing and a reminder to the buyer whenever he logs back in.

Wish List on Amazon E-commerce Website

• Return policy – a good return policy is also important and should clearly stipulate the terms of returning a product once a user is unsatisfied with a product or no longer needs a product. A transaction with clear guidelines reduces the friction and disagreement between the buyer and seller and reduces negative feedbacks to the website improving the credibility of the website.
• Shipping and Tracking – An e-commerce website should always have detailed shipping and tracking information under each product before a buyer completes the transaction. It is of importance to a buyer to know how a product will be shipped to his location, when it will be shipped, how much he will be charged, and how he can track his goods during the shipping before he agrees to buy an item.
• Proof of credibility – users need proof or assurance that the website is credible and selling genuine products. They can only get this from consumer-generated reviews and social proof. Incorporate a consumer-generated review and social proof for every product. You can also link the e-commerce website to a social media page where consumers can be engaged socially.

Example of a Social Proof incorporated into an e-commerce website (Source: Smart Insights)

Conclusion

Development of an e-commerce is significantly different from other websites with several extra key features and capabilities. These components as stated above defines a good e-commerce website and are crucial for a meaningful conversion. Credible e-commerce website developers have a clear understanding of the components and they integrate them organically sometimes without noticing. The above list can be a resourceful checklist to e-commerce website developers.

About the author:

 Minds Metricks is a leading Ecommerce web design dubai company offering variety of Ecommerce website solutions like B2B, B2C, C2C, C2B, B2A and many more. Get in touch or follow them on Twitter.