An e-commerce website is an essential tool for an online retailing business. However, it is more important to consider a website that will provide the business with the best e-commerce features to assure success. The following are the best four features to look out for in e-commerce web stores to guarantee success.
Shipment Tracking
Currently, the customers’ experience is among the hottest topics in e-commerce. The very first crucial feature for web stores is shipment tracking. Web stores ought to deliver products promptly to the customers for a seamless shopping experience. Studies show that over 95% of customers are confident to track their online orders.
Shipment tracking involves a challenging process of localizing different packages when sorting and delivering. By tracking shipments, online retailers can verify movements and estimate deliveries for packages. The primary aim of a parcel tracking system is to provide customers with package route details, the status of delivery, and estimated delivery date and time.
However, the order tracking tools are different. The hassle created by the delivery tracking system depends on the number of steps taken by the customers to track their orders. Since customers hate the hassle, an ideal web store should make it easier for them to track their purchases. Some plugins used in tracking shipments generate text messages or use final mile tracking, while others create branded shipping updates.
The various parcel package tracking systems in e-commerce shipping work through:
- Generating bar codes; a barcode should be generated and attached for products handed over for delivery
- Scanning bar code details; after the product is loaded for delivery, the courier company scans the generated barcode and stores it on its website
- Storing the scanned data; information about the courier company should be stored in the tracking system
- Receiving the purchased product; the shipped product leaves the seller’s location courier agency and is delivered to the buyer’s location courier agency
- Re-scanning the bar code; on receiving the product, the latter courier agency scans the barcode and stores the details in the tracking system, including product delivery time
- Product delivery; the product is scanned when it is ready to be delivered. The details are recorded in the tracking system. The tracking system is updated with the delivery status of the product after the customer confirms to have received the product.
Customer Support Services
The second thing that matters most in e-commerce websites is how the web store relates with its customers. The web store should be upgraded regularly to be an ultimate customer service tool to keep the customers happy. The following elements can delight online customers and provide a healthy customer experience in an e-commerce website.
Displaying the phone number clearly, potential customers may find it hard to trawl over the website to locate a phone number. The website should be in a way that the business’ phone number is displayed ideally on the footer and the header so that it appears on each page.
Including an easy-to-complete form, sometimes, displaying the business’ contact email address and phone number on an online retail website might not be enough. The display may also include non-complicated forms for the visitors to give out vital information to improve the business
Providing answers to frequently asked questions, a comprehensive FAQ page will undoubtedly save the customer support service a lot of time when responding to queries about the business. Take advantage of the questions which the customers ask more and create a FAQ page.
Responding to customers over social media; some customers opt to use social media handles to make queries about various products. With well-presented and maintained social media accounts, the customer support service will be able to respond to the customers instantly.
Logins
Thirdly, an ideal e-commerce website ought to have a seamless logging-in experience. Since it is pretty challenging for the customers to remember their passwords, the e-commerce website can use social logins. Social logins will allow the customers to sign in to the web store through social media without necessarily entering their personal information. Most mobile phone users prefer social logins because their devices have smaller keyboards which may consume time when typing information.
A report showed that over 90% of online shoppers would abandon a website instead of recovering its login details.
Providing a social login option will help the customers with the following:
- Easier sign-in; social logins make websites’ logging in much straightforward. The users can use their social credentials to log in to the web store. Social logins have proved to be much effective than filling out registration forms.
- Seamless online shopping experience; online shoppers are more likely to choose an e-commerce website that is easier to navigate. Social logins add the customers with a personalization bonus when shopping online.
Data Security
Lastly, a good web store must have effective and efficient security to their customers’ information. As much as the various e-commerce platforms increase the sales in businesses, they also expose the website to cybercrimes and online frauds.
The business owner is obligated to keep the website, customers’ information, and business data safe from online criminals. This will maintain trust and positive perception by partners, website-ranking institutions, and product suppliers, among others. The following five steps will take a business to secure its e-commerce website:
- Good password hygiene promotion; passwords remain the standard access keys to websites despite stiff competition from facial recognition technologies and multifactor authentication. A web store should require the users to use complex passwords to ensure that the users will not rehash any compromised credentials.
- Using HTTPS; A Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, HTTPS, is an online protocol for securing over-the-network communications and the website from fraudsters. HTTPS websites are authentic and secure since they are certified.
- Choosing a secure e-commerce platform; E-commerce platforms that encrypt payment gateways and provide SSL certificates and solid authentication protocols to users are the best to use in online retailing.
- Never store sensitive user data; consumer privacy is critical in e-commerce. Also, most shoppers require their data, and privacy kept anonymous. However, this data is constantly targeted by website hackers and other cybercriminals. Avoid collecting more customer data than necessary to avoid inconveniencing the customers.
- Employ a website monitor; the business might also require third-party website monitoring tools after it is set up. These tools have deep management features that will keep the web store more secure and running reliably
All online retailing businesses depend on e-commerce websites to advertise and grow themselves. The above features of web stores guarantee massive growth to any online retailing business if utilized thoroughly. Most of these features are interdependent; thus, they should be utilized together.
