Top 3 Considerations for Ecommerce Applications

Ecommerce, whether it’s via web applications or apps themselves, is not just about having a great product that customers will want to buy. There’s a lot to learn about ecommerce, from sales funnels, through to distribution, and even customer profiling.When it comes to building your own ecommerce application, here are the three biggest considerations that you need to take into account:What Do My Customers Expect?The first port of call when designing your ecommerce experience is to examine what your customers expect from shopping with your application. A good place to start is by looking carefully at the competition. See which parts you like from their websites or apps and make a note to include them in yours. Now think about other ecommerce sites and what works well for those too.Here are just some of the more important things that your customers will expect from your ecommerce experience.

• A responsive website or app that is fast to load

You’ll need to make sure that the elements on your site aren’t large to download and that your hosting is up to the task for quick page load speeds.

• Aesthetically pleasing design, tailored to the target market

What do your customers like? What colors, fonts, layouts do you think suit them best?

• Easy to view on mobile

Concentrate on optimizing your site for mobile, instead of computers, as this is how many of your customers will be viewing it.

• Intuitive navigation

Make sure your categories are clear, easily reachable, and tiered if necessary. Homepage, shipping information, etc. should all be clearly visible.

• Comprehensive, and yet not too wordy product descriptions

Enough to describe your product correctly, without going overboard.

• Search functionality

Make sure customers can easily find what they need with clever search functionality.

• Easy payments

Payments should be easy to make, in a range of different payment options such as PayPal, credit card, and bank transfer.

• Autofilled information, with as few fields as possible

People do not want to have to fill in an excess amount of information, especially if they are using a mobile keyboard.

• Product ratings

Validate the product quality by using product ratings.How Can I Attract Customers to My Site or App?Building your brand, if you aren’t already established, is no mean feat. How will potential customers discover you, if they don’t know your brand name already?Here are just some of the methods that brands employ to build customer recognition and attract new sales.

• Cultivate your brand image on social

Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter… go where your target market goes and start creating the kind of content they like. Follow people to get follows back.

• Use Google AdWords

Use paid AdWords to capture your audience when they are searching for your products or services.

• Try Facebook ads

Pick your target market and promote ads to them on Facebook.

• Consider sponsoring influencers

Influencers across social can help put your brand on their feeds and in their audience’s faces.

• Create SEO-rich content

Use keywords, location-dependent information, guest blogging and other SEO techniques to help push your site up the Google rankings.How Can I Influence a Customer to Buy a Product or Service Once They're on My Site?The third consideration that you need to make for your ecommerce is how to convince a sometimes flaky customer to follow through and purchase your products or services.Here are some techniques that can be employed to help out:

• Ensure purchasing is as simple as possible

When purchasing takes too long, customers have enough time to change their minds. Make sure this doesn’t happen.

• Use action words

Use words on your website like: “Grab it in time for the weekend!”, or “Click to get yours now!”

• Run sales often

Customers love a bargain. Running sales of any description can help to boost sales for the month.

• Provide money back guarantees

Customers like to know they’re getting what they paid for, and money back guarantees are a good way to validate this.

• Use email sign up popups to offer discounts for first-time customers

Pop-ups that give discounts to new users, or those about to leave the site can entice them to consider making a purchase.

• Send out emails about abandoned carts

If you have a customer on your mailing list who has abandoned a shopping cart, you’re able to send out emails asking if they’d like to come back to purchase.