7 eCommerce Website Features You Need in 2022

It’s no surprise to see the eCommerce industry swiftly building up in the past 2 years. Online stores have grown faster than we’ve ever seen, across all industries. As we all know, this pandemic has made a drastic impact on every business, no matter the size. Because of this, new studies are showing that global eCommerce payment transactions will exceed $7.5 trillion by 2026.

In order to increase your sales and traffic, you need to consider offering these 7 eCommerce features on your website. Make no mistake, all of these features will take your business to the next level!

The right domain name is key

If you haven’t already, check out our previous blog: “How to Choose the Perfect Domain Name in 2021”. This covers everything you need to know about domain names in detail. However, for now we’ll quickly go over the most important points to remember. 

Your domain name symbolizes the identity of your brand. It’s also the first impression potential customers have of your business. So, needless to say, it’s vital. You must do extensive research on domain names before you choose one for your business (hint: click this link)! A lousy domain name could cost you traffic that your business deserves.

Here’s a quick breakdown on what a domain name consists of:

When it comes to top level domain’s (TLD), as a general rule of thumb, you would want to stick to a .com. Most successful eCommerce websites use a “.com”, but there are still many other TLD’s to choose from, like using “.org” if you’re a non-profit organization.

When choosing your domain name, you want to make it memorable. This can be done by creating a really catchy name, or coming up with a name that’s associated with your business or industry. Whichever route you choose, it’s all about leaving a mark in people’s mind’s for potential customers to easily remember you. In other words, be sure your name has a ring to it. And no matter what, remember that less is more. Evidently, fewer characters are faster to type. A general rule is to keep it under 8 characters and 2 syllables.

A clean UI/UX that is mobile friendly and responsive

While ensuring your eCommerce website features are out of this world, you need to keep your website’s UI/UX in great shape.

What’s even is UI/UX? That’s a great question.

“UI is the User Interface. The series of screens, pages, and visual elements (like buttons and icons) that enable a person to interact with a product or service.

UX, on the other hand, is the User Experience. It’s the internal experience that a person has as they interact with every aspect of a company’s products and services.”

Both UI/UX are very important aspects of your website you need to focus on. When a potential customer visits your site, they need to be able to easily navigate and understand your online store. The goal is to ensure they understand your website better and faster visually. For example, you may be marketing a sale or discount, but customers are unlikely to shop from you if you don’t have high quality product pictures, or if the discount is hard to find on your site.

Studies have shown that around 52% of users say the main reason they won’t return to a website is aesthetics. This is why you’ll see many websites with a home page that’s alluring for users to click on the product or the categories. This gets them on the right track to view products, read reviews, and ultimately add them to their carts quicker. 

For your website to be user-friendly and highly responsive, establish that it resizes appropriately on any size browser from any device. As we’ve seen, a large portion of online traffic comes from smartphones and tablets. You should want to make sure your website can be used by any user and customer at any point in time. This also aids in being more convenient, which increases your traffic flow. At Bookmark, your website is automatically updated and optimized for mobile devices, which takes out the hassle of creating multiple design layouts!

High-quality content is necessary

Having high-quality content is a significant challenge many business owners face for their eCommerce websites. When considering top quality content throughout your site, think about starting a blog, or introducing a photo gallery with your product images. There are a ton of modules on Bookmark that you can use to ensure your eCommerce website features are precisely what your audience is looking for. 

Adding fresh and unique content to your website not only helps to improve your overall site quality, but it also can set you apart from other competitors in your industry (especially if you get creative)! Not sure if your website content is up to par? Not a problem. Bookmark Experts are here to help. Simply contact us today for a full website audit, and we can discuss the updates and changes you can make to bring your online store to a whole new level!

Simple checkout with multiple payment options

Online shopping has fully changed and evolved, and we have seen that through the massive trend of companies needing to be online (this effect was fast-forwarded by the pandemic). Customers are getting more comfortable staying home, and they are all making purchases on their devices. Because of this, eCommerce stores need to offer online cart and checkout solutions.

At Bookmark, we’re partnered with Canada’s #1 payment processor, Moneris, to ensure that we offer trusted and safe payment solutions for every type of business in every industry. The goal will always be to make payments online convenient and easy for everyone.

Another ripple effect due to so many companies getting online is that the average online shopping cart abandonment rates are at an all-time high. This can be damaging to your online business, especially if you consider how much it took to gain visitors to your eCommerce website and turn them from visitors to customers. 

At Bookmark, we have a really helpful Abandoned Cart Saver. You can set up an automatic reminder email to customers who do not complete the checkout process. This helps bring them back to your site to complete their order!

Another issue faced by eCommerce businesses is that 35% of transactions were dropped because the website required the user to create an account before checkout. Instead, allow your customers to fill out only the information needed to complete a purchase. This information can change depending on your business/industry. But, the most popular options are the mailing and billing address, credit card number, and shipping options. Anything more can sometimes cause vexation, and customers will either abandon your site or make their purchase but choose never to return. 

Friendly customer service and support

Customer service has and will always impact your business online or in the stores face to face. Customer support isn’t necessarily an eCommerce website feature itself, but there are some awesome tools you can use to take it to the next level.

Offering a Live Chat on your website has excellent value as it literally gives instant communication to help your visitors who have any questions or who need your help. You can also set up automatic responses for times you are inactive to some of the most frequently asked questions. Contact us today if you’d like to learn more about this, by, well, messaging us in our Live Chat! See? It can be so helpful!

Another great feature would be having a login for your loyal and new customers. This also allows them to come back and track their products being shipped to them, see what they’ve saved, and so much more. 

Here at Bookmark, we have everything you need to succeed, from helpful customer support to informative help guides and advice. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to create an account today and take advantage of the great features available to ensure your customers have an excellent experience the next time they visit your site!

Upselling, cross-selling, and social selling

This is by far one of the best eCommerce website features we could suggest you use during checkout, and we have a blog breaking them down in detail. For a quick refresher, here are the differences between upselling vs cross-selling:

Upselling is the strategic pattern of asking customers to buy a product or service that is more expensive/better than the products they currently have in their cart, like a phone upgrade. This usually happens during the checkout process. It is to hit their paint point to the max.

Cross-selling is a tactic to sell products that relate to your customer’s interest, somewhat at a lower price. These are usually complementaries, like when a fast food cashier asks if you want extra fries or sauce.

With this in mind, most people need evidence to convince them before making big, expensive purchase decisions. After all, that’s the why customer reviews & testimonials can be so important. Before you hop on a call to try to convince your customer to upsell, make sure you have evidence from other customers to back you up. Especially customers who’ve found success using specific add-on products.

The importance of social proof and customer reviews

It’s true what they say; the proof is in the pudding. Potential customers will always find comfort in reading reviews about your products/services before buying. One easy way to show off reviews with your website is using Bookmark’s Facebook review module! Simply integrate your online store’s Facebook account with Bookmark. All of your customers reviews will be automatically placed on your site.

Word of Mouth is your best friend in this area, especially for boosting organic growth. As many of us have heard of affiliate marketing, it is a natural extension of the importance of customer reviews within the buyer’s journey.

Having a feedback/suggestion module is so important. Consider providing your customers with a corner for their feedback and suggestions. This would make them feel they have a medium to raise their voice and make them know that you value your customers. Just remember to always stay on top of this feedback. So, even if you receive a negative review, your customers can see you are always there for them. Click here for “Your Quick Guide to Customer Feedback”

Bonus Point

There are a LOT of strategies and features you can take advantage of as a business owner to grow your eCommerce business. Such as: simple product management, Ai suggestions, custom code modules, and so much more. Contact us today if you’d like to learn how to take your business to the next level with Bookmark!

In conclusion…

From the right domain name, clean UI/UX, and high quality content, all the way to easy payment options, customer support and reviews, and implementing product marketing strategies, we hope this blog had some great information to help grow your business!

As always, we want your website to be the best it can be, using all of these eCommerce features and the many other solutions we have. Bookmark is here to aid in your process of converting a potential buyer to a loyal customer. Don’t hesitate to check us out next week for more tips and tricks in all things eCommerce and online strategies.