Lots of people think that having an online store is all about cool pictures and trendy products. And while those things are important, the real secret to making your online store bigger and better lies in having a strong ecommerce growth strategy.
For online stores, those unseen but super important parts are: core functionality, UX, and keeping it super secure.
Let’s break down why these are so important.
Boost Your E-commerce Store’s Performance
Think of your online store’s core functionality as its engine. If the engine isn’t running smoothly, nothing else will, no matter how shiny the car looks. This means your store needs to handle things like:
- Showing the right products: Making sure what’s listed is actually in stock.
- Taking orders correctly: So that no one orders something which is not available.
- Keeping track of what you have: Knowing exactly how much of everything is in your warehouse.
Imagine if you tried to buy a new video game online, but the website kept messing up the order, or it said the game was available when it wasn’t. You’d get annoyed and leave, right? That’s what happens when core functions aren’t strong.
Boosting Your Store’s Operational Strength
A smooth-running back end also plays a huge role in your search engine optimization (SEO). A website with broken links, slow loading product pages, or inaccurate inventory data can be flagged by search engines like Google, which can hurt your ranking.
Making sure your core functionality is flawless is the first step to a good technical SEO strategy.
Other important things to keep in mind –
- Instead of using a ready-made website, sometimes it’s better to build a custom one that fits your business niche. In this manner your store can do exactly what you need it to do.
- Your website should be able to handle tons of visitors at once, especially during big sales . If too many people show up and your site crashes, you will lose out on sales and this can annoy customers.
- You should have a simple dashboard where you can easily add new products, see orders, and keep track of everything.
Making Shopping Easy & Fun: UX/UI Design
User Experience (UX) is all about how easy and enjoyable it is for someone to use your website. User Interface (UI) is what the website looks like and how you click around. If these two are not good enough, people will leave before they even buy anything.
Think about trying to find your favorite snack in a huge, messy grocery store. It’s frustrating! But in a clean, organized store where everything is easy to find, shopping is a breeze. Your online store needs to be like that easy-to-shop store.
To know if your UX is working, you need to track it. You can use tools like Google Analytics to see how many people visit your site and how long they stay. Important metrics to watch include:
- Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors who make a purchase.
- Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who leave after viewing only one page.
- Time on Page: How long people spend on your product pages.
Keeping an eye on these numbers helps you find and fix problems that might be frustrating customers
Tips for a Super Easy Shopping Experience:
- Clear Paths: Make it super easy for customers to find interesting things on the website. Use clear categories like search bar that actually works such as (Home > Shoes > Sneakers>) because this helps people to come to your website more often.
- Works on Phones: Almost everyone shops on their phone these days. So it is important that your website works perfectly on smartphones and tablets. This is also a part of your Ecommerce Growth Strategy
- Great Product Pages: Show your product with amazing photos from all angles, write descriptions that make sense, show reviews from other customers, and have a clear Add to Cart button on the website.
- Simple Checkout: Make buying super easy and fun for people to buy it. Keep the checkout process short, let them check out as a guest (without signing up), and offer different ways to pay. Also, show shipping costs early not at the last.
Keeping Everyone Safe: Robust Security
Today technology is so advanced that keeping your store safe is very important. If your customers do not feel that their information is safe then they will not buy from you. In case your store is hacked, that would be a big trouble for your business. This could hurt your reputation. and there would be no ecommerce growth.
And if your store gets hacked, it can be a nightmare for your business, hurting your reputation and this would halt your e-commerce growth.
Sometimes you may have heard that big companies having their customer information stolen. When that happens, people stop trusting that company. You need to make sure your customers know their money and personal details are safe with you.
How to Lock Down Your Online Store?
A strong security strategy doesn’t just protect you, it builds customer trust.
Besides the basics, you should also consider:
- Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Require customers to confirm their identity with a second step, like a code sent to their phone, before they can access their account.
- The Padlock Icon (SSL): Check the padlock icon next to a website address (like https://)? This mean the information that is going between your computer and the website is encrypted (like a secret code). This is required.
- Safe Payments: For payment use trusted systems (like PayPal) as it have high security standards for handling credit card information. This helps to avoid direct contact with customer’s financial details.
- Regular Check-ups: Check your website security regularly to update any weaknesses that hackers might try to exploit.
- Noticing something sneaky: Use tools that can detect fake orders, helping to prevent fraud.
Conclusion
For an online store to grow, you need to focus on three main things: how it works, how easy it is to use, and how secure it is for customers.
When your website runs perfectly and is easy for customers to use, they are happy and more likely to buy from you. Keeping their information safe builds trust, which makes them want to come back again and again.
By getting these basic things right, you can build a strong business that keeps growing for a long time.
Ready to build your exceptional online store? Zasya Solutions can help you make it happen.