Its never been more important to have a good eCommerce website

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If you have a business, selling things, it has never been more critical to have a good eCommerce website. During this period of lockdown, online sales have skyrocketed! Even once we are allowed out again, consumers are likely to continue purchasing more of the products and services they need online. For your business to survive, it needs the right eCommerce solution.

What makes a good eCommerce website?

Ultimately, a good eCommerce website generates plenty of sales for your company. Making lots of sales requires that your site:

  • gets found on search engines, social media and other marketing channels
  • is easy for your customers to navigate
  • loads quickly on all devices, including mobile
  • has well-displayed product information and imagery
  • has a good USP, whether it be price, delivery, customisation etc
  • enables quick checkout, with minimal steps
  • integrates with various payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal
  • has affordable shipping options
  • has clear delivery and returns information
  • enables upselling and cross-selling
  • is optimised for search engines
  • instils confidence through reviews and team profiles etc
  • includes other customer retention incentives, such as prize draws etc
  • syncs with stock management systems
  • syncs with third-party outlets, such as Amazon Etsy or eBay.

If your eCommerce ticks most, or all of the above, it will start generating sales for your business.

As you can see, there is a lot to consider when setting up an eCommerce website. For this reason, when it comes to setting up a new site, it best to create a strategy mapping out the various stages of the project, stopping you from getting overwhelmed by the size of the task at hand.

Getting started

The starting block is collating product information, including:

  • product images, including detail and lifestyle shots
  • product description (optmised for search engines)
  • price, SKUs, dimensions, weight, categories
  • related products to upsell or cross-sell
  • associated shipping methods

Build and Optimisation

Next, we need to display the products in a logical and easy-to-view fashion. As designers and UX (Usability Experience) experts, we will layout the products in a manner that looks great and encourages customers to purchase items.

After adding products and other content, we then need to optimise the site. This work includes:

  • optimising speed
  • ensuring the site is optimised for mobile
  • adding title and meta description tags
  • ensuring product descriptions are correctly optimised
  • minimising images files sizes
  • setting up a fast hosting solution

Shipping & Tax

Next up is configuring shipping and tax. There are many ways to charge delivery, which can be achieved in various ways, including by postcode, weight, dimensions, categories, total price, etc. Tax, such as VAT can be added on before or after checkout.

Integrations and Syncing

Ok, so now the site is starting to look like a proper eCommerce website. Now we need to integrate a few third party services. There are many available. Here are some standard integrations:

  • Payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal
  • Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
  • Accounting software such as Xero
  • Email Marketing such as Mailchimp
  • CRM such as Salesforce or Agile
  • Delivery such as UPS and Royal Mail
  • Stock Management such as Orderhive

We can also sync the site with shopping portals, such as Amazon, eBay and Etsy, to get your products out there.

Start earning online

After collating, design, building, optimising, integrating and syncing, you are ready to sell online! To make an excellent eCommerce website takes a lot of work, but if done correctly from the outset, will stand you in good stead for years to come.

If you are contemplating an eCommerce website, we offer some great prices for sites of all sizes. For more information, call Duncan on 0131 202 9179.

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