12 Must-have Features for Your Ecommerce Site and Tips to Improve Them

12 Top Must-have Ecommerce Website Features

We have chosen these features after extensive research into the ecommerce store we have developed over the years and their performance.

1. Mobile Responsiveness

The number of people buying from online retail stores using smartphones is increasing every day. According to a survey by YouGov in 2022, more than 45% of people use mobile phones for online purchases.

As a significant part of your website traffic may come from mobile phones, you need to make your site mobile-friendly. It enables the users to access the site no matter what kind of smartphone they have.

Another reason to make the website mobile responsive is that it is one of Google’s ranking factors. Making your site more responsive makes it rank higher on search engines.

Since Google has moved to mobile-first indexing, it is another reason to make your ecommerce site mobile-friendly.

While there are several tips to make your site mobile-friendly, here are a few crucial ones.

1. Use a responsive theme or template to create a consistent experience across devices.

2. Ensure your site works well in both portrait and landscape modes. Test it to ensure it works on diverse platforms.

3. Large image files can slow down mobile load times. Compress images and prioritize speed.

4. Avoid intrusive popups that disrupt the user experience, and go for subtle, non-intrusive popups.

2. Fast Loading Speed

No one wants to shop from a slow-loading website, and your customers are no different. If your site is not fast enough, they will abandon it and go to your competition.

User experience is just part of the puzzle. The other part is SEO. Did you know that loading speed is a Google ranking factor?

That’s right. Google favors websites that load faster and respond quickly to customer actions. After all, Google wants to serve the best sites to its searchers.

Hence, it makes sense for you to develop a site that loads faster. Here are a few tips to make your ecommerce site fast.

1. Conduct regular site audits to identify and resolve speed issues to make your site constantly perform better.

2. Compress product images without quality loss and use them. Use diverse free tools for image compression.

3. Avoid using too many third-party javascript and extensions, which may make your site heavy and slow loading.

4. Implement lazy loading to make the site load faster as it makes the site load elements only when needed.

3. Streamlined Checkout Process

The checkout process is an integral part of a successful online shopping experience. It needs to be quick, easy, and seamless. A complex checkout process can intimidate and discourage customers from making the purchase.

Many ecommerce stores realize that customers do not want to spend a lot of time entering their details, phone number, address, etc., on the checkout page.

Instead, they want an easy checkout. Every step and form field you add makes the customer further away from buying from you.

According to a report from Statista, the cart abandonment rate as of February 2024 is 70.19% worldwide.

This shows that you have extensive opportunities to improve your ecommerce sales by making your checkout process seamless.

Here are a few tips to do that.

1. Minimize the steps required to buy a product with a guest-checkout option, reduced form fields, etc . to

2. Offer multiple payment methods to meet customer preferences, such as credit/debit cards, digital wallets, EMI options, etc.

3. Optimize the checkout process for mobile with responsive designs, easy-to-click buttons, and autofill options.

4. Use exit-intent pop-ups, abandoned cart emails, etc., to remind customers to complete pending purchases.

4. Attractive Website Design

An attractive and functional website design is a crucial feature of a successful ecommerce website.

The design needs to cater to the brand’s aesthetics and impress the users. In a study published by Stanford University, 46% of respondents said that a good design would make a site more credible.

This is especially important in today’s uber-competitive world, as first impressions matter a lot. Customers have a lot of choices in the market. They can go to any ecommerce store they want.

Hence, it is crucial for you to build a site that has an impressive, easy-on-the-eyes design.

Here are a few tips to use during the site’s frontend development to make your design impressive and functional.

1. Ensure your website’s color scheme, fonts, and overall style align with your brand.

2. Display customer testimonials, reviews, and ratings prominently on product pages.

3. Add features like product filters, interactive product recommendations, wishlist buttons, etc.

4. Display trust badges, secure payment icons, SSL certificates, etc., across the site.

5. Secure Payment Options

A secured payment option is another crucial feature an ecommerce website must have. It is vital to have well-known and reliable payment gateways on your site. A few of the top payment gateways are PayPal, Braintree, Stripe, etc.,

In addition, the customer must also be given ample opportunities to pick a payment gateway they are confident in using. As the number of mobile shoppers is constantly growing, providing options to use mobile wallets and EMI options to make payments is also essential.

At the same time, you should also display trust signals, like secure payment icons, to make your customer confident about completing the purchase.

Here are a few tips to make your payment options more user-friendly.

1. Implement one-click payment options for returning customers by securely saving their payment details.

2. Clearly explain each step of the payment process and any fees associated with payment methods.

3. Show security badges, SSL certificates, and encryption details during the payment process to reassure customers that their details are safe.

4. Minimize the number of fields required in the payment form and use autofill and card scanning to speed up checkout.

6. Search Functionality

A user-friendly ecommerce website must help customers find their desired products in no time. And the site search feature can make it happen.

This feature enables users to enter the product they are looking for and go to the page where it is listed. Without the search features, it would be hard for users to find the product, as navigating through numerous categories and listing pages is not viable.

There are several ecommerce sites, like Etsy, Amazon, etc., that use this internal search facility to help customers find the exact products faster.

Here are a few ways to improve the feature’s functionality further.

1. Offer predictive text that suggests products as users type in the search bar.

2. Allow users to refine search results by diverse criteria, such as price, category, size, color, brand, etc.

3. Make search functionality more capable with alternative search options, like visual search, voice search, etc.

4. Display search results dynamically as users type with instant feedback and product images.

7. Easy Navigation

Easy navigation is another feature that a successful ecommerce site must have. Navigation allows users to browse through different pages, categories, product listings, etc.

Having clear navigation that enables customers to move quickly around your site is essential to creating a seamless user experience. As customers can hop around your site, looking at different products easily, they are more likely to come back to your site.

Easy navigation also encourages customers to spend more time on the site and explore it more. This improves the chances of them discovering and buying more products than they originally intended.

Here are a few tips to improve navigation on your site.

1. Use clear and intuitive menu labels that accurately describe the categories and sections.

2. Implement breadcrumb navigation to help users efficiently track their location and backtrack.

3. Create a consistent layout across all pages so users can quickly adapt and find what they need.

4. Organize categories logically, grouping similar items to make it easy for users to browse.

8. Customer Reviews and Ratings

Providing social proof is another critical feature to make your customers confident in buying from you.

Although you may provide diverse images and videos of your products, nothing makes customers comfortable as genuine reviews and ratings. Hence, you need to include these social proofs prominently on your product pages.

When browsing your store, customers often have numerous questions about the product. Even the best product descriptions on your site may not answer all these questions.

But genuine customer reviews and experiences can. These reviews will make your prospects more confident about buying from you.

Here is a quick example from Amazon. Even with a single glance, a customer can learn a lot about the product.

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Here are a few tips you can use to get more customers to share reviews.

1. Consistently deliver excellent products and services to encourage positive reviews from your users.

2. Ask for reviews at the right moment, such as after a successful purchase or positive interaction.

3. Use tools designed for collecting and managing customer reviews without forcing customers.

4. Respond to both positive and negative customer reviews, to show that you value their opinions.

9. Personalized Recommendations

Personalized recommendations are another must-have feature on your site. They help improve user experience and conversion rates. Hence, integrating this feature into your ecommerce store right at the beginning can make a lot of difference in your sales.

Including a list of related products at the bottom of the pages that customers browse also helps them find the product they want faster. This can improve user experience, which leads to better customer satisfaction.

Here is an example of how Amazon successfully uses this feature to offer personalized product recommendations to its customers.

However, use a user-first system to recommend products that fit the customer’s expectations instead of pushing products that make you the most profit.

Here are a few ideas to improve personalized recommendations.

1. Customize product suggestions based on a user’s browsing history, preferences, and past purchases.

2. Use behavioral cues (such as cart abandonment or prolonged browsing) to trigger personalized retargeting.

3. Create a seamless shopping experience by allowing returning customers to pick up where they left off.

4. Use AI tools and algorithms to analyze customer behavior and dynamically adjust recommendations in real-time.

10. Easy Returns and Refunds

Adding an easy return and refund policy to your site is another excellent way to make your customers confident about buying from you. A difficult return and refund policy can alienate customers from your site forever.

Hence, always create a generous policy that makes the users feel like winners. Accepting a return and refunding the money is much better than losing a customer forever.

Also, make it easy for the customers to return the product without any hassles.

Firstcry has a simple returns policy, which puts the interests of the customer at the front.

Here are a few tips to make returns and refunds easy.

1. Create a simple return process with clear instructions, easily accessible return forms, and minimal steps.

2. Allow adequate return periods to meet the customers’ needs and provide peace of mind.

3. Display your return and refund policies prominently on your website, including all necessary details.

4. Make it easier for customers to track the return and refund request status online for transparency.

11. Wishlists and Save for Later

Not all customers who browse your site may purchase a product right away. They may be looking for a product to buy the next day or week. Your website must make it easier for them to save these products for later.

Options to create a wishlist and save products later must be an essential part of your ecommerce conversion optimization strategy.

You must also display these options on each product page so that customers can save products. This allows them to return to the site when they are ready to buy them and quickly complete the purchase.

Most of the websites use this option on their product pages. Here is an example from Walmart’s online store.

Here are a few ideas to improve your wishlist option on your ecommerce site.

1. Make the wishlist of the customers sharable so that they can share it with friends and family.

2. Send alerts to customers when the products on the wishlist are on sale or if the price drops.

3. Enables users to create multiple wishlists, such as for different occasions, categories, etc.

4. Show how many other customers have added the same items to their wishlists and if they have bought them.

12. Customer Support

There are numerous scenarios where your customer may want to contact you. It could be during a purchase, after buying a product, or even after receiving the product. And you need to make it easier for them to contact you as they prefer.

Many would like to speak to a customer representative by phone, while others prefer to send emails.

Some customers would like to use the live chat support.

No matter what their choice is, your site must bring these options right to them. Your customers must be able to find them quickly whenever they need them.

Here is an example of the chat support by Flipkart. It is easy and intuitive to use the support option for anyone.

Providing timely and easy customer service is crucial for your business’s success. Here are a few tips to help you.

1. Offer real-time assistance through live chat, allowing customers to get immediate help.

2. Ensure customer service is available around the clock, either through live agents or automated chatbots.

3. Create detailed FAQs that address common issues to help customers solve them without customer support.

4. Use customer data to customize interactions for more personalized customer service experiences.

Conclusion

The purpose of your ecommerce website is to help your customers buy the products they want from your store. The features we have discussed here can help you improve the customer’s shopping experience by streamlining the purchase process. Failing to add these must-have features to your site may make your customers leave your store and go to your competitor. Hence, you must work with your ecommerce web development agency to seamlessly add these features to your website.

If you are looking for such an agency, Dolphin Web Solution is an experienced company offering ecommerce website development services. With years of experience in the industry, a team of top ecommerce developers, and expertise in leading ecommerce development technologies, we can help you.

Contact us to get a free ecommerce development consultation.