This article is based on the video tutorial published in our YouTube channel E-Commerce Site for Business. The objective is to understand the features and functionalities of an e-commerce site and how this will benefit the business.
In this short video, it briefly explains the main objective of understanding the features and functionalities of an E-commerce site which includes the following:
- What is an E-commerce site?
- What features that the business needs?
- What’s the benefits for the business?
In this article, we will be looking at an example of an E-commerce site based on our previous project with nopCommerce. For more information regarding nopCommerce, you can refer here.
E-Commerce site is a platform where transaction of buying or selling online takes place. As more and more businesses exploring an online business, nopCommerce provide a platform for businesses from small to corporate size to get a kick start with an E-commerce site. It is an Integrated E-Commerce platform for various store owners’ needs and is easy for developers and designers as nopCommerce employs an extensible plugin architecture and theming mechanisms that work well without touching the core.
Like the company website, an E-commerce site should also include your business/company story, business/company logo and provide a highlight on the services and products that the business is selling.
Apart from these basic contents, the E-Commerce site should display the main categories of your products/services on the main page to be visible for the consumers to be aware of what types of products/services you’re selling. The main page should also contain the details of the users who are visiting to your site – to register/log-in, their wishlists, their shopping cart and include a search engine for the users to navigate.
At the bottom of the main page, usually the business/company will share additional information like links to the business news or PR etc. and business/company contact details and more information about your business which includes links to other business pages like in Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.
E-Commerce business are not only about providing convenience, but also ensure exceptional service are given to their consumers at the recipient’s end. E-Commerce site should also include polling/voting and enabled product rating and customer’s feedback – a two-way communication which will be advantageous for business progress.
Ensuring user experience design (UXD) – the process of elevating user satisfaction by improving usability, accessibility and pleasure provided in the interaction between the users/guests and the products/services which include the following:
- Visibility of the user’s account details include any promotions discounts code/gift cards that are redeemable.
- Display the items and quantity ordered.
- Recommendation on suitable complimentary product/service (ability to up-sell & cross-sell).
- Highlights on additional or complimentary products/service – (maybe wrapping services/ express delivery etc.) which your company are providing.
To keep your business complete, an E-Commerce site should provide the business with an interface related to the business on the backend e.g. like a dashboard for the site to view and monitor the progression of the site – which is your business.
This dashboard will provide you with information that are related to your business e.g. marketing efforts and response, acquisitions and sales processes. This will also provide the business with better insights and better control in managing inventory level.
There are also other functionalities and features on the backend available for the business e.g. catalog for your products/services categories and sub-categories where you can easily add in new products/services or delete them. CRM integrated- where all customer’s details are captured and stored for business driver. You can also add in promotions and have it to automatically send out (email marketing) to your targeted customers.
The main benefits for the business are the following:
- Ability to gain new customers with search engine visibility – (SEO)
This is because with relevant, original and transparent content of your site and easy to navigate to your users, businesses will gain and be rewarded by the search engine driver.
- Lower cost and open all the time
This means that your virtual “shop” are available to your customers all the time without fuss. However, the overhead cost is control by business hours/working days. The cost to maintain your business will be relatively lower than having a physical store.
- Drive conversions and sales
This explains why SEO is one of the important factor in your business to be able to stay visible to the public – easier approach to leads and conversion rates.
- Better understand your customers
All the information and data you obtained from the e-commerce site allows you to understand your customers better and gain insights that you unlikely will get otherwise. Data-driven progress and evidence-based decision making.