Top 10 Features Required for An Ecommerce Store
Ecommerce stores have revolutionised the way Indians shop! There is an eCommerce store for almost every product being sold offline. Additionally, eCommerce stores now have products which no one ever thought would be sold! While the response for eCommerce stores among common people has been growing in leaps and bounds, the buyer expectations have also risen proportionately. With the increased exposure to online shopping, buyers now look for higher ease of shopping than before. Therefore, it is important for all eCommerce stores to have the top features required for an eCommerce store. While it would be difficult to enumerate all of them, here are the top 10 features required for an eCommerce store.
User-Friendly Theme
This is the first among the top features required for an eCommerce store! The saying ‘first impression is the last impression’ holds good for eCommerce stores too. It is highly vital to have an attractive store front. This ensures that the buyer is attracted to the online store and wants to browse through it. The user-friendly theme is a feature which enables all these along with other aspects such as easy to browse through, quick to download, product zoom, and search button. These features are essential to enhance the user experience and increase the chances of buying.Secure Payment Gateway
A secure payment gateway is also among the top features required for an eCommerce store. With so many fraudulent websites cheating people online, online buyers have now become apprehensive of shopping online. A secure payment gateway, along with multiple payment options and an SSL certificate for the website, increases the confidence of the buyers and encourages them to trust and buy on your website. There are several payment gateways which offer in-built security options and opting for any of these would be beneficial.Easy-to-use Product Updation
Easy product updation is also one of the top features required for an eCommerce store. As an eCommerce store owner, you would be required to update product details or add/delete products quite often. It would be cumbersome to hire or inform an expert to handle this; especially for smaller stores. Having the option to easily update the product details in the store back-end would not only save time but also save a lot of money for the store owner.Simple & Reliable Order Management
The next of the top features required for an eCommerce store is easy for order management. Once you get an order, details such as buyer address, the number of products purchased and special requests from the buyer, need to be easily available to the store owner. Additionally, the store owner should also be able to get details of the stock following each purchase. This not only allows updating of inventory but also helps the seller understand the needs of the buyer easily.Report Generation
This feature is also one of the top features required for an eCommerce store. A store owner should always have several different types of data handy. Some of these include buyer data, sales trends, daily/weekly/monthly/yearly revenue, payment options frequently used, products that are most wished for, queries, etc. All these types of reports help a seller understand the market trends and update the products accordingly.Mobile Friendly Website
Mobiles are becoming smarter and smart mobiles have become cheaper. This has lead to an increase in the number of people accessing online stores on their mobiles. Hence, having a mobile-friendly website is one of the top features required for an eCommerce store. While there are several websites which download and offer all features without any glitches on a desktop, these are often not mobile-friendly. Several features noted on the desktop may not be available/seen while browsing over a mobile. Hence, it becomes important for the website to adapt to the mobile screen size while displaying all the options available when browsing on a desktop.User Reviews
Buyers often rely on the feedback provided by others regarding a product before choosing it. Hence, the availability of user reviews on the eCommerce stores is another one of the top features required for an eCommerce store. The eCommerce platform that you choose needs to provide this option not only for all products but also for the overall shopping experience. The buyers should be able to rate the products and also leave their comments. The viewers should be able to see the overall rating of every product on the product page.Discount Coupons
The next one among the top features required for an eCommerce store is discount coupons. Frequent buyers and first-time buyers often ask for discount coupons or codes. Every eCommerce store should have this feature not only to thank frequent/loyal buyers but also to encourage new buyers to try out the products being sold on the online store. It can be in the form of discount coupons which can be shared/gifted, or through discount codes which can be entered during the ‘check-out’ stage of the purchase.Content Page
Although many of the online buyers are more concerned about the quality of the products, the majority of them are also apprehensive about the credibility of the company which is operating the online store. Therefore, one of the top features required for an eCommerce store is the ability to include content pages such as ‘about us’, ‘store policies’, FAQs, and contact details. The availability of these pages on the eCommerce stores increases the confidence of the buyers as they can be certain that they are buying from a credible company.Customer Log-In
While many of the online buyers visit online stores once in a while, there are several others who like to register themselves with the eCommerce store for better user experience and also for discounts being offered to registered customers. Hence, the last, but not least of the top features required for an eCommerce store is the log-in feature. This feature not only enables them to save their shipping address for the future but also helps them order again easily.
