Description
An eCommerce platform, or eCommerce framework, is a solution for websites to run an online store including all the necessary features for a customer to buy products online. The best eCommerce framework comes with expanded features to help run an online business.
Important features of eCommerce framework we provide.
Dashboard/reporting tools
The dashboard should allow you to view all eCommerce metrics in a summarized way. It should be customized to meet your specific business needs.
Administrator management
Usually, a website will have a number of managers. You as the owner should be able to decide who can access which part.
Customer management
Managing customer orders and their account information is a mandatory feature. It’s better to store customer’s search history too. That may help you to provide personalized offers to frequent visitors.
Store management
Product specifications, like – categories, colors, descriptions, sizes etc should be very easily editable from the back-end of your site without assistance from a developer. You should also be able to select the featured products.
Content management
The pages of your site, their layouts, your blog and other contents of your site should be manageable from the back-end without any manual change in the code of the site.
Order and shipping management
At any certain time, an eCommerce site will obviously have lots of orders in the process at different stages. It also needs to handle different shipment processes. All of these should be easily manageable from back-end.
Payment, taxes and location management
Your site’s back-end platform should be easily able to manage different payment processes, calculate and apply taxes, and determine the price structure based on locations.
SEO management
Aspects of SEO, like URL editing, title tag, meta description management etc are common parts of an eCommerce back-end platform.
Email marketing integration
Usually, back-end management platforms can have email marketing features integrated into it. Sorting and storing customer emails and sending personalized mails are very useful to increase conversions.
Discount and promotion management
Applying varying discounts and introducing different promotional offers becomes a lot more hassle free if your back-end provides these facilities.
Root file upload
Uploading files directly to the root of your site may often be needed. And your back-end should make the process simple.
Tracking code integration
You should have the ability to upload files like robots.txt, tracking codes and other third party verification codes without help from a developer.
Responsive design
It should go without saying that designing responsive website is a mandatory skill for any Melbourne web design company. Regardless of device size, your site should be flexible enough to provide the best user experience.
Browser compatibility
Make sure your site is properly rendered in all major browsers.
Fast loading
Page loading speed is a crucial factor both from the perspective of user experience and SEO. Customers will definitely leave a site if it takes more time to load.
For digital downloads, explain how they receive products
If your eCommerce site is selling products as digital downloads, explain to your customers how they are going to receive the product (i.e direct download, email etc).
Multilevel security
Security is always one of the most important aspects of any eCommerce business. Apart from SSL certificates and PCI compliance, your site should have a strong firewall and layers of security on login and contact forms.
Automatic site backup
Your site should be automatically backed up to prevent any accidental mishap. For an ecommerce site, it’s very important to always remain live.
So these were the most important features of an ecommerce site. Of course, depending on your business type and products you may modify these features or add other ones.
Wishlist
Sometimes, a customer may be interested in a product but decide to buy it later. Or a customer may find a product interesting and want to check that later for more details. A wishlist allows them to store a list of these products so that they can easily find them next time they visit your site.
Customer login
Your site should definitely let the customers register and login. It’s best to place this on the top bar for easy access.
Shopping cart
Obviously, the shopping cart is an integral part of any eCommerce site. The best position to place it is the upper right corner.
Search bar
If you optimize your search bar properly, it can become a powerful tool for conversions.
Risk reducers
Include a few good risk reducers, such as free shipping and return offers at this point to attract your potential customers.
Loyalty program
Mention things like reward points and other special offers for your long time customers. Include a link that takes them to more a more detailed offer page.
Featured products or Best selling products or New arrivals
You may manually add featured products or automate the process to show a list of best selling products here.
FAQ, returns and exchanges, store locator, shipping information, order tracking etc.
These pages are important for your customers. So provide links to them at the footer with a title, something like Customer care can be appropriate.
Contact us
It’s good to provide several ways to contact your business. Phone, email and inquiry form submission are three common ones.
Newsletter signup
As a modern eCommerce site, you should have a newsletter signup form that collects your customers’ email addresses. You can send them special offers and inform new product arrivals.
Social Media links
Providing links to your social media accounts at the bottom of the page lets your customers stay connected with your brand.
Consistent image size
The product images in a category page should have a consistent size. It’s not just about the resolution, they should have a similar amount of whitespace at the borders too.
Breadcrumb navigation
Breadcrumb navigation helps the visitors to easily browse through product categories. You can include it right below the main navigation bar.
Show the number of products displaying in the page
Generally, a page can’t show all the products that there are under a certain category. But every page should show the customers the total number of products and the range that they are viewing.
Product filtering and sorting
Product filtering allows customers to filter products based on different attributes. For example, a clothing store may use gender, size, color etc. as its filtering options. The sorting allows viewing products on ascending or descending order of price and arrival.
Related products
Include a list of related products at the bottom of the page. This may prompt the customer to find the product that he/she wants.
Social share buttons for each eCommerce product
Let your customers share their favorite products. Adding social share (and send link via email) buttons is a really great way to reach more people.
Accept all payment methods
Your eCommerce site should accept most of the payment methods that are popular among your customers.
Cart details
Mention all details regarding what the customer has in the cart. It should definitely the product name, price and quantity of individual products.
Final price
Obviously, after mentioning the price of each individual products your checkout page should also mention the total price. Don’t forget to mention the individual amounts of discount, shipping cost and tax.
Shipping method (offer low shipping cost)
Your customers will find multiple shipping options very convenient. There should be at least one low-cost shipping option.
Billing address and shipping address
It’s common to have two address fields. One for billing address and another for shipping address. For many customers these two are different.
Security seals
Show security seals near the field where the customers enter their credit card information. These security seals or trust badges help to convince your customers about the security of your site and the payment process.
Include an area to punch in promo codes
Your business may occasionally provide promo codes to customers. This field is where customers may apply the promo codes to get discounts or other privileges.
Have an option to change the quantity or remove items
Also, provide option to edit and remove items from the checkout page. Note that there should be an option to save the cart for placing the final order later.
