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Your online store is very important to the success of your business. It also gives people a hint about your brand itself. Some people often pass judgment about an eCommerce brand by simply assessing its website. To this effect, it is in your best interest to ensure that your online store delights your customers. Here are some tips to make your online store more customer friendly.
Optimize the Menu Your Online Store
Ensure to properly optimize the menu of your website. Arrange similar items in the right categories and subcategories. Your menu should not have more than one layer of subcategory. In other words, your customers should be able to access every item in your menu with no more than three clicks. They already went through enough stress to earn a living, don’t make it stressful for them to buy from you.
Also ensure that your menu button is a flowing menu button, not a fixed one. Your customers should be able to access the buttons on your website regardless of what part of the webpage they are scrolling through. Besides the menu button, the search icon should be ever present and easily accessible to your customers. Doing these will make navigating through your online store very easy for your customers.
Enable an Easy Check Out Process
Talking of ease, the checkout process is another area that could really use some ease. Reports show that over 34% of online shoppers abandon cart when the checkout process is not very simple. Read that again and remember the last two words, “very simple”. This implies that you will have to use a checkout process that is very simple yet very secure.
One way to do this is by jot demanding for certain details during every checkout. Save certain details of your customers from the first checkout and use it during subsequent checkouts. Even though the plugin is important, no customer will appreciate having to input similar details used for previous transactions because they want to buy your Paywall for Woocommerce plugin.
Use Trusted eCommerce Platforms for Developing Your Online Store
Small scale eCommerce enterprises tend to consider finance when developing or designing their online store. It makes them seek out more affordable eCommerce development platforms. While this may seem economical, it is not essentially the best. Some of the alternative platforms will “cheap” plans may not offer the best options for your online store.
When choosing a platform for building your online store, ALWAYS opt for trusted platforms. Although they may be quite pricey, they are often worth it. These secure platforms are trustworthy and offer adequate technical support. Furthermore, you can easily upgrade your plan as your business expands.
Stick To a Simple Design and Layout
This is an online store not an art gallery. When designing an online store, it is best to stick to a simple design and layout. Avoid layouts that cover every inch of your online store with content.Website designs and layouts without white spaces often overwhelm your customers and you do not want that to happen. Even an art gallery does not just fill up the whole gallery with art. So neither should you.
Optimize Your Online Store For Mobile Devices
Majority of people access the internet using mobile devices. It is in your best interest to “come down to their level”. Optimize your online store for mobile viewing by either designing your online store to shrink to smaller screens or creating two versions of your online store. Whatever me tho you choose to take, it is best you preview it and see how it appears.
While regular websites can easily be previewed while designing it, online stores require more attention to detail. It is best to use the Woocommerce mix and match when previewing your online store. The regular preview option will only give you the outlook of your online store. and nothing more. Woocommerce mix and match on the other hand will allow you test run the features of your online store. With this plugin, you will be able to access how the shopping experience is on your online store from a mobile device.
Offer Multiple Payment Options
Unless you plan to sell locally and locally alone, you should opt for diverse digital payment options. The emphasis is on “diverse”. You are not offering diverse payment options when the payment gateways you offer include VISA, MasterCard, Verve and Bank transfers. In my opinion, these are just the same payment options taking different forms. Once the customer can’t pay through the bank, they are all useless.
Opt for digital payment options like PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, Payonner, Paytm and even cryptocurrencies. Stay up to date with the latest payment options and try to incorporate as much as you can. More importantly, work with the payments options that you can work with at the beginning. Do not be in a hurry to add payment options that you cannot properly manage or handle. Making your customer wait for hours while you confirm payment isn’t being “customer friendly”.
Constantly Update Your Homepage
On a final note, constantly update the homepage of your online store with new products, offers and promotions. This is an online store, give your customers reasons to want to visit your store by putting mouthwatering deals on the very first page they will see when they visit your store. Updating the homepage of your online store will also increase chances of making sales.
Your online store is an opportunity to sell your brand to your customers. Leave a good impression on them by giving them premium user experience. Follow these tips stated above and you will be glad you did.
