My previous article was discussing what elements are essential to add to any website. I broke it down into severl areas and I suggest that you read that article before this one. So now you know which elements you need with your website, what are the specific elements you might need to sell products online?
I have been designing e-commerce websites for Nottingham businesses for several years now and this has given me a great insight into what is required to make an e-commerce website successful.
Unless you are only selling a handful of products, you need a database of products over which you have control. There should be a control panel for you to sign into where you can add, delete and change products, images and prices. This is at the very heart of what is required in an e-commerce website and is the very minimum requirement.
You should be able to organise your products into categories and sub-categories to make it easy for your customer to find what they are looking for. This is also something over which you have control so that you can keep updating and improving the organisation of your products.
There is a rule that nothing on your website must be more than three clicks away. If you have to click more than three times to find something, you will have lost the majority of your customers.
Many people browse for products but equally as many people prefer to use a search facility to go directly to what they are looking for. A good, fast and effective search facility will enhance your website's effectiveness to a great degree.
A good shopping cart allows your customers to preview what they have bought, to change quantities and to preview the total cost including shipping. This cart must also be capable of linking in with major payment processors such as SagePay and WorldPay.
Many products are available in different sizes and colours. There should be an intuitive way of your customer selecting these and this must also be capable of affecting the price of the product.
Whatever budget you have for your web designer to create your e-commerce site for you, it is absolutely essential that you have a budget to advertise your new website. In the long term, your website should appear in the free listings at Google. However, this is a long term objective. In the meantime, you should have a large budget to promote your website using mediums such as Google AdWords.
All the facilities mentioned above are provided by us. So call us for a quotation today.