52 Must-Have Features Of eCommerce Websites

 23 Jan, 2024

ecommerce-website-features

While product quality is certainly important, many other eCommerce features contribute to the success of an eCommerce website. 

An e-commerce website can benefit from several additions that make it simpler for users and store owners to navigate and maintain the site. However, it might be challenging to include all these necessary functionalities and aesthetic preferences in a website's design for e-commerce. Fortunately, our eCommerce website development team specializes in creating e-commerce platforms and can assist you.

So, if you want your website to be successful, you need to decide what eCommerce website features are essential and what eCommerce platform would best serve your needs.

In this blog, we will provide a detailed solution to the features of eCommerce websites and discuss the many possibilities.

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Top Features Of Ecommerce Website You Must Have

The following details the essential eCommerce website feature list that every successful online store must have. There's a good possibility that these features will prove handy if you're working on either the layout or functionality of an eCommerce site.

1. Responsive Web Design

Your website's ability to provide a consistent experience across displays of varying sizes is a simple but one of the most crucial eCommerce website features. Customers today frequently switch between computers, tablets, and smartphones, so each device must provide a consistent surfing experience. And it's essential to build a mobile-friendly eCommerce website that helps to get in touch with shoppers and increase sales effortlessly. 

2. Quick and Easy Browsing

Make it simple for customers to find the products they need and visit the site to find what they're looking for. Customers won't leave your site if it has a straightforward navigation bar, a sleek header, a clear and powerful call to action button examples, and a thorough footer with the site map.

3. Website Search

Adding a search box is a valuable function for any website. It's useful for experienced users who know exactly where they want to go and novices who have yet to learn where to start but want to get there quickly. When planning the layout of a search bar, keep these points in mind.

Website Search

4. Features Centered around the User Experience

Consumers who shop online or in physical stores are the intended beneficiaries of e-commerce. There is no such thing as a disposable consumer, and this is especially true in the realm of e-commerce, where a customer can easily click away from a purchase in the final moments of their browsing session. A company's entire online storefront must be designed to provide customers with unique, high-quality, and individualized shopping and buying experiences. User experience design can boost your brand awareness. 

An effective e-commerce platform will let a company tailor its customers' online shopping experiences across channels based on information gleaned from their customers' previous purchases and other interactions with the company.

5. Connecting Online and Offline Shopping

Online shoppers need to be able to easily determine if a product is available in a nearby store. A top-notch e-commerce platform will allow you to connect your website's search results with physical locations and stock levels. 

Additionally, brands should be able to connect their e-commerce platform with brick-and-mortar stores, giving sales staff members the tools they need to reduce the number of lost sales due to walk-in customers by providing them with digital inventory, streamlined ordering, and rapid delivery.

6. Top-Notch Images and Videos

Photos and videos of your products are among the most crucial aspects of your website, if not the most crucial. In addition to assisting in the purchase decision, high-quality photographs that show off all of the product's qualities can cut down on returns. To assist the buyer in deciding color, variant, or size, ensure your photographs are adequately lit, well-styled, and highly detailed. 

Showing off your product in its intended setting or providing helpful how-to guides are both excellent uses of video. Even though videos are a terrific way to show off your work, you need to make sure they are optimized for load time, which will help improve website performance.

7. Filtering and Sorting Options

Offer the shopper a well-organized list of sorting and filtering options so they may focus on making a purchase rather than exploring available options. Sort your filters by importance and organize them under the categories customers might use to narrow your product offerings.

For inspiration in creating your list, here are a few examples.

Filtering and Sorting Options

However, ensure there aren't too many options for the user to wade through. You should only use the most relevant information to keep your consumers engaged and moving forward in the sales process.

8. Ratings and Reviews Board

You must know why online reviews are important. Customers rely extensively on reviews and ratings from other buyers to authenticate the information supplied by brands and help them make purchase decisions while shopping online due to the inability to touch and feel the products. This means that brands must make it easy and rewarding to submit product reviews and prominently feature customer reviews and ratings on their websites.

9. The Frequently Asked Questions

Brands need to make their Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section easy to find and browse so that customers never have to leave the site searching for answers. This can be utilized to inform potential clients and answer their most pressing queries about the company's offerings.

10. Details on Returns and Exchanges

Mentioning your store's exchange and return policies prominently can help ease a customer's mind before they make a purchase. Customers may relax about making a purchase, and companies can increase sales of things they know their target audience won't attempt without these assurances. 

It is crucial to make your exchange and return policies readily available on the website and develop a liberal policy that inspires customer trust without destroying profits. To reinforce the message, you can include them in the website's header or footer, the frequently asked questions page, the product catalog page, and even the cart and checkout pages.

11. Using Web Push Notifications

We've all seen and read alerts from food and grocery delivery apps, but notifications aren't limited to mobile devices. In the same way that apps utilize push notifications to alert users about new features, websites may use them to inform customers about shipping status updates, cart abandonment reminders, etc. The simple addition of web push notifications might greatly expand how brands communicate with and profit from their target audiences.

12. Adopting a Social Media Approach

Connecting a brand's social media accounts to its website is another wonderful method to earn consumers' confidence and grow a dedicated following. Presenting those who have trusted the brand gives credibility, displays template consumers and how they use the product, and encourages new customers to share their experiences on social media. Social media marketing plays a vital role in increasing your brand reach.

13. Shopping Cart and Checkout

Losing a consumer after they have made a purchase decision and placed the product in the cart is arguably the second most challenging thing to happen to online vendors after CoD purchases that aren’t accepted on delivery.

A good shopping cart and checkout system should have three main components.

  • Please don't surprise the customer with any new fees or details.
  • Create a purchasing procedure that requires as little data as possible to fulfill orders and complete deals.
  • Store sensitive data such as billing and shipping addresses, credit card numbers, and other details securely with the customer's permission to make future purchases a breeze.

14. Choices in Methods of Payment

Losing a sale because a consumer forgot a CVV or because the website for one bank went down sounded like a corporate crime in light of the escalating costs of customer acquisition.

Choices in Methods of Payment

Research has shown that offering various standard payment methods on your website can improve sales by as much as 71%.

15. Tracking Your Orders

Customers are more likely to be satisfied with their purchases if they are kept informed of their orders' progress at every stage, from confirmation through packing, shipping, and delivery. Brands might upsell the customer on additional or complementary items during their visit to the website to track their order.

16. Technical Support

By being reachable at any time, for any type of engagement, and ready to help with any inquiry, brands can continue to forge better ties with their customers. With the advent of AI technology and the swift growth of e-commerce chatbots, businesses can guarantee that they are always responding to client discussions regardless of where they are or what time zone they are in, and for a fraction of the cost of live agents. This keeps the brand in front of the buyer at every stage, where it can answer questions and improve the ROI of its advertising. If you don’t know what chatbots are, here’s everything you need to know about eCommerce chatbots

Additional Tips: What Are The Features Of E Commerce

Are you enthusiastic to know what are the features of eCommerce apart from the feature list for the eCommerce website outlined above? Here are some extra tips that can make your website stand out.

17. Company logo

Place the company logo in a visible position in the header, on the left side, if possible.

18. Wishlist

Wishlist

Consumers can be interested in a product yet wait to make a purchase decision until a later time. Another scenario is when a buyer is intrigued by a product but wants to learn more about it later. You can make it easier for customers to find these items on your site by adding them to a wishlist they can access at any time.

19. Customer login

The ability to sign up and login is essential for customer retention. If you want quick access, this belongs on the very top bar.

20. Store finder

A shop locator in the navigation bar can help clients find your brick-and-mortar locations if your e-commerce site offers them.

21. Choices in Languages

If your e-commerce platform includes numerous localized iterations, you should provide users with the option to select their preferred language and geographical locale.

22. Contact number

Your consumers may need to contact you for a variety of reasons, such as if they have questions regarding an item or if they have any confusion about your operating hours. A phone number listed first will save them time.

23. Featured UVP

In what ways are your products or services superior to the competition? Highlight what sets your company apart by highlighting its unique value propositions (UVPs).

24. Loyalty Scheme

Introduce the concept of loyalty rewards and other perks for your most dedicated consumers. Provide a clickable link to a more comprehensive offer page.

25. Personalized products

Personalized Products

Customers' search and purchase histories can be used to recommend products to them. There is no better strategy for boosting sales.

26. Text

From a search engine optimization point of view, text content that includes a description of your company is essential. This can also tell a potential new consumer everything they need to know about you in a short amount of time. It's important to know how to write website content that sells. 

27. To subscribe to a newsletter

You can't be considered a cutting-edge e-commerce platform without a newsletter signup form to gather customer emails. You can send promotional emails to keep them up-to-date on sales and new arrivals.

28. A constant image size

Product photos on a category page should all have the same size. It's not enough to have the same pixel density; the borders should also be uniformly blank.

29. Product Title

To put it simply, this is the name of the product. Each product should have a distinct name, possibly reflecting variations in color or size.

30. Place for adjusting order quantity

There ought to be a quantity selector button just beneath the product's price. Customers will appreciate the convenience of being able to choose the exact quantity they need.

31. Similar Items

Toward the end of the page, you might list some complementary items. This may encourage the customer to search for the appropriate item.

32. Shipping and billing information

Two address fields are typical. Use one for your billing information and another for your shipment. Many buyers see a distinction between the two.

33. Put in a box where customers can enter discount codes

At times, your company may offer discount vouchers to its clientele. Customers can enter their coupon codes here to receive special offers and discounts.

34. Save For Later Items

 Save For Later Items

Customers who aren't ready to complete their purchases at the moment should be given the option to save their carts for later use.

Backend Functionality: Which Of The Following Is An E Commerce Feature?

Apart from every front-end eCommerce feature mentioned above, taking care of the backend is also important. You would be surprised if you thought only what's visible to the users in the front matters. This is where you must think of eCommerce development services. Keep reading to know more.

35. Monitoring and Reporting Interfaces

The dashboard's primary purpose is to provide a consolidated view of key e-commerce indicators(KPIs) for e-commerce. Adjustments can be made so it works for your company.

36. Administrator management

A website will typically have more than one administrator. As the owner, you should have the final say over who has access to what.

37. Customer management

It is essential to be able to track orders and maintain client records. Keep track of customers' search histories as well. It could be useful if you used it to send special discounts to repeat customers.

38. Store management

The categories, colors, descriptions, sizes, etc., of your products should be modifiable without the help of a developer from the site's backend. Featured items should also be selectable by you.

39. Managing content

Your site's pages, layouts, blog, and other material should all be editable in the backend without needing to touch the code.

40. Order and shipping management

There will be many orders in various states of processing on an online store at any given time. And it has to deal with a variety of shipping procedures. The backend should be able to handle all of these with relative ease.

41. Payment, taxes, and location management

Your website's backend infrastructure should have no trouble handling several payment methods, determining and applying taxes, or adjusting prices based on geographic region.

42. SEO management

E-commerce back-end platforms typically provide SEO features, such as URL editing, title tag, meta description maintenance, etc.

43. Incorporating Email Marketing into your Strategy

By using email marketing best practices, you can enhance conversions by sorting and keeping customer emails and sending personalized emails.

44. Management of Sales Discounts and Promotions

If your backend can apply different discounts and introduce new promotional offers, your work will be significantly simplified.

45. Transfer of a File with Administrative Privileges

It may be necessary to upload files straight to the root of your site occasionally. The process should be easy to navigate, thanks to your backend.

46. Monitoring the Integration of Source Code

Without the assistance of a programmer, you should be able to upload files like robots.txt, tracking codes, and other third-party verification codes.

47. Responsive design

Responsive Design

Your eCommerce website development should be fluid enough to accommodate a wide range of screen sizes.

48. Browser compatibility

Check how your site looks in the most popular browsers to make sure it's accessible to everyone.

49. It\'s quick to load

As important as other SEO and UX factors are, page loading time is vital for both users and search engines. Visitors will likely give up waiting and go elsewhere if a website takes too long to load.

50. Describe the process for receiving things via digital download

Digital downloads are a common form of an online product sale; if you provide these, be sure to let clients know how they will receive their purchase.

51. Safety on Several Different Levels

Security is a major concern for every online store. In addition to SSL certificates and PCI compliance, your site should have a robust firewall and multiple layers of protection on its login and contact forms. For any queries, refer to a guide to SSL certification.

52. Automatic backup

In the event that something were to happen to your site, you would have a recent backup to restore. An online store must never go down for business.

FAQs

1. How can I add eCommerce website features?

Sometimes, bringing in a professional eCommerce development company is necessary to implement new functionality on a website. Some eCommerce systems use plugins to assist webmasters in extending the functionality of their online stores; nonetheless, it is still recommended that professional eCommerce development services install and test all plugins used on an online store.

2. How much does custom eCommerce website development cost?

The success of a custom eCommerce project relies on the expertise of web developers who are familiar with the specifics of the eCommerce market and the best practices currently in use. eCommerce Website Development Services prices start at $50/hour and go up to $500/hour. 

3. Should I hire an eCommerce website development firm if I want to improve the capabilities of my online store?

When updating your eCommerce site with new features and capabilities, it is recommended that you engage with a professional eCommerce website development company. Talk to our expert eCommerce professionals if you want to add eCommerce features to your website.

4. What constitutes essential eCommerce features?

Some essential eCommerce features include straightforward navigability, secure online payments, well-developed product pages with elaborate descriptions and images optimized for mobile usage, simplified checkout steps, reviews, inventory management, and integration with social media. Together, these features improve user experience and conversion rates.

5. What are the key features of eCommerce websites?

The key features of eCommerce websites are an intuitive user interface, safe online banking systems, robust inventory management tools, mobile-friendly design, streamlined order processing, built-in shipments, client evaluations, search facilities, individualized proposals based on consumer activity, and other things that The use of these elements together is for optimal user experience, which consequently leads to successful online transaction.

6. Can you provide a comprehensive eCommerce website feature list?

Here is an eCommerce website feature list that every eCommerce business must remember.

  • User-Friendly Interface: Good intuitive design and easy browsing.
  • Product Catalog: Listings clear with images, descriptions, and specifications.
  • Search Functionality: A solid and easy-to-use “search bar” lets customers discover their needed merchandise quickly.
  • Mobile Responsiveness: Optimization of the site for mobile devices.
  • Secure Payment Gateway: There must be several secured payment options for transactions.
  • Shopping Cart: Easy to select, edit, and manage items.
  • User Accounts: Customer profiles with order histories and customer preferences.
  • Wish Lists: Users can save wanted items for future purchases.
  • Reviews and Ratings: Feedback on products given by users that can be used for decision-making.
  • Inventory Management: Easily manage stock with these valuable tools.
  • Order Tracking: Communication regarding order status updates and shipment tracker for customers.
  • Shipping Options: Affordable shipping, with different straightforward options in cost and timing.
  • Return and Refund Policies: Simple returns and refund policies should be clearly defined.
  • Customer Support: customer emails, live chats, and support tickets.
  • Social Media Integration: Proper Social media integration with sharing options must exist.
  • Security Features: security of SSL certificate, encrypted data transmission, and convenient payment mechanism.

7. Can an eCommerce development company help me maintain the required eCommerce features?

Yes, an eCommerce website development company or any agency that provides eCommerce website development services can help you with the required eCommerce features on your website. Suppose you are looking for an eCommerce website development company. In that case, you can also search on the internet using the keywords below:

  • eCommerce website development services
  • eCommerce website development 
  • eCommerce development company
  • eCommerce development services

Conclusion

These are the things that make an online store successful. You may alter these features or introduce new ones based on the nature of your company and the goods and services you offer. 

Your site's organic traffic and overall success will be significantly impacted by the eCommerce features you have included. But this guide will give you a quick rundown of the basics any e-commerce site needs to succeed.

So, what are you waiting for? Start integrating the eCommerce features mentioned above right away. If you have any doubts, contact the eCommerce website development services experts at JanBask Digital Design anytime!

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C

Colin Rodriguez

Very detailed guide. Keep going.

R

Rafael Lewis

What an amazing blog. I enjoyed reading it.

JanBask

Thank you, Rafael!

K

Kyle Lee

Thank you for sharing thai guide. It solved so many questions I had.

JanBask

Good to know you found it helpful! Stay updated for more such useful blogs!

R

Riley Walker

As a eCommerce business owner, I really found the backed features very helpful.

JanBask

Glad you found it helpful! Stay updated for more such useful blogs!

J

Jorge Hall

I completely agree that multiple payment methods are a good click-bait for getting more customers.