A business’s website is the primary interface between the buyer and seller. But, buying and selling never gets completed without a good number of satisfied customers. This is not any conventional shopping method that we are talking about. It’s about online shopping and therefore the features of an eCommerce website must be user-friendly and visually enticing. That’s the trick forgiving one’s e-commerce website a new platform in the trading world. It’s very natural to have a lot of competitors, but that shouldn’t stop one from incorporating the best online shopping website functionalities.

What Functionalities Make an E-Commerce Website

You never know but this can help you to get more customers every day. This is the reason why Desertcart is now among the top e-commerce websites. We make sure that our ecommerce website features and functionality remain updated with the growing trends. Similarly, for the customers, their expectations also grow gradually. Most shoppers now want the best services without any delay. Yet, it is difficult to classify the best features for ecommerce websites. To make this task easier for you, today, we will be highlighting the best ecommerce website features and functionalities.

So, remain patient and make sure that you go read till the end to understand the functional requirements of an eCommerce website.

Understanding the Nitty-Gritties

Before we jump into the features of a good eCommerce website, let’s see what an e-commerce website actually is. To begin with an example, Desertcart is an ideal exemplar of an e-commerce website. In precise terms, this website is the platform for businesses to carry out their transactions at any time. It not only provides convenience to the sellers but also benefits the customers in many ways. However, an eCommerce website functions to provide details about every brand, every product and every service it offers.

Given below are some of the basic eCommerce website features that every website must include.

1. An Eye-Catching Presentation

The reason why Desertcart stands apart from most e-commerce websites is because of our striking presentation. When visitors visit a website, they must get every detail about the product they are looking for. This helps in easy communication of the brand messages. As a result, shoppers can easily anticipate what they might get from the desired product or service. The success mostly lies in the way an e-commerce site reflects the needs and desires of the buyers through its presentation.

2. User-Friendliness

Well, a website’s ability to be user-friendly is among the most important eCommerce website features. How will you attract visitors and potential customers if your website is poorly laid out? You will not only lose customers but your business will go south in no time. Therefore, make sure your ecommerce website features and functionality include a mobile-friendly interface. But, before giving a mobile-friendly outlook, your business must have a desktop-friendly website. All you have to do is give maximum optimization to your e-commerce website.

3. Maximum Security

Since we are talking about the functional requirements of an ecommerce website, we cannot overlook its security. Out of all basic ecommerce website features, your website must be a secure place for visitors to navigate. Use some of the proven security measures to gain the trust of your buyers. Most importantly, one must employ a good number of protocols to safeguard the transaction and payment processes. Make it resilient to hackers and ensure optimum security.

4. Sufficient Content

There is no point in running an e-commerce website if it does not have useful and informative content for its products and services. This is because the content on the product pages shapes a buyer’s decision. In other words, the content is like the salesperson without a voice. It recommends the buyers along with the necessary specifications about the product. An eCommerce website functions effectively because of good-quality content. So, if you want to drive more sales, then make sure that the product pages on the website have the right content.

5. Goal Modification

The best features for an eCommerce website includes understanding the customer goals. It’s very natural for a business to have its goals. The important point to note is that it must align them with its customer goals. But, how can this be made possible? This isn’t much of a heavy task because all you have to do is modify your website content and refurbish your website. At Desertcart, we strongly believe in this and that’s why we prioritize our goals.

6. Self-Service

Until your eCommerce website functionalities include a self-service medium, your business will rarely incur profits. Therefore, the website must have an active design to help people accomplish their goals or else they will immediately leave the site without even wasting a second. Therefore, you must do proper research and evaluate your findings to build a perfect platform for your customers.

Why is Desertcart an Example of an Effective E-commerce Website?

To understand what an effective e-commerce website is, take a look at Desertcart. It possesses all the features of an eCommerce website. In short, this is what has helped us to stay in the competition for a long time. We believe that every latest trend cannot bring growth for any e-commerce website. Further, our team knows that the best eCommerce website features must have a simplistic design. Saying so, we never look down upon elegance to beautify our website.

• Visual navigation is among the chief features of a good eCommerce website. Keeping this in mind, we have improved the search functionality to easily surf through our product pages.
• Our mobile-friendly app and website are well-responsive to give the best user experience. As a result, this has helped to improve the sales and website rankings of our e-commerce site.
• Every eCommerce website features must include high-resolution pictures of the products. Similarly, Desertcart has maintained the picture quality so that our global customers can be 100% sure about the products they are buying.

Make Your Website More Effective

An effective way to incorporate the best eCommerce website features is by asking for feedback from your customers. Trust us, this has helped us in so many ways that we cannot explain. Other than that, make sure that your website to shop online maintains a standard quality. It must be secure in all respects. Stay tuned with Desertcart Blogs.

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As days move on, the competition between businesses is becoming harder due to the lack of a strong online presence. At present times, if the business isn’t online, customers might start thinking that businesses don’t exist. As people are moving towards online shopping stores, offline retailers are fading away and as a result, online businesses are the future of e-retail and can expect to gain more and more customers. As we can clearly see that offline stores are even involved in online sales to keep themselves sustained in the market.

Future of Online Retail

Brands began to realize that shifting their business to online would be much cheaper and would give them more customers. As a result, we’re seeing such astonishing growth in online sales. Customers are indeed looking for more accessible platforms on smartphones that are easy to navigate, simpler in interfaces, and support multiple platforms.

Predictions of how future online eCommerce or future of online shopping will be:

• Product Specifications will Matter a lot:

Users are now demanding several pictures and videos of the product even for a simple product which adds up to one of the main future trends of e-commerce. Three years ago, the average number of images per product page was 3. Recent research has indicated that the top 10% of ranked products provided 4 to 5 images on the product page. As per statistics in the future customers will start to demand 6 to 7 images on the product page as it increases the trust towards the products they’re buying.

The future of online retail holds accountable apart from cheaper prices, customers are demanding more information about the product that they are purchasing online and they seek well-designed web pages or product pages. shopping products online, particularly big ones like TV, Smartphones, etc customers often demand higher levels of product information because consumers can’t gain trust without knowing deeper about the product.  

• Product Reviews Mean Everything:

In present times, online retail predictions have always been true and most of the customers have started to read the product reviews before buying a product it could either online or offline shopping. Customers have started to ask opinions about the product from their friends, family, colleagues, and influencers.

As customers use the internet, they come across so many product reviews, ratings and etc. Which may change their mind and make them buy a different product from a different brand that has better reviews and ratings which is one among the future of e-commerce. In near future, every consumer will definitely understand the importance of product reviews. By seeking into the future, we can surely say that over 90% of customers will definitely depend upon product review before purchasing the item.

• Role of Virtual Assistants:

The future of online business is right here. Everyone loves a virtual assistant, right? Why would anyone hate it? It turns on lights for us, reminds us to do our work, plays awesome music to boost up our mood, and etc. It has been a trend to have a smart speaker in our homes. It has also started to order things for us. Sooner every business will allow users to order their product through virtual assistants which makes consumers buy products easily. In the near future, everyone will be able to order products with voice commands says the Online Business Projections.

• A variety of Payment Options will Arise:

As technology and services grow, payment options will also start to grow along with the future of online retailing.

Currently, many retailers offer “buy now, pay later” options, as time goes on, we will be seeing retailers providing even more payment options for consumers to decide.

Future predictions of online retail experts say that businesses that accept mobile payment grow faster than competitive companies that do not accept mobile payment. Because everyone is tired of carrying too many items in their pockets, a mobile has replaced every item which we used to carry in our pockets. It replaced watches, debit cards, credit cards, money, etc. People are now feeling stress-free by carrying a single smartphone wherever the place might it be. In present days, most retailers accept payment through mobile devices. People started avoiding places where they won’t accept mobile payments. Debit cards replaced money, then credit cards replaced debit cards, now mobile replaced both debits as well as credit cards. Sooner smartwatches will replace mobile phones. Everyone will be able to pay via their smartwatches.

• Bots will Clear our Queries:

Already some businesses have started to implement automated bots to clear customer queries and problems. Soon this will boom up, every business will try to adopt automated chatbots to clear customer queries and problems. 

• Personalizing Content will be a way to Dominate:

Lots of businesses are already working on providing personalized ads to the user. Such that they can end up buying the necessary or liked the product. By personalizing content, users are being tempted to buy the products. In the near future, every business will start personalizing their customer’s content such that every customer only sees a product that may be related to him/her.

• There will be More and More Subscription Services:

A subscription service will be used along with a standard eCommerce product or as the main focus of a company. There are three key ways to do this: a service that delivers goods to consumers on a regular basis, replenishing their inventory; a ‘curation service’ that delivers personalized products on a regular basis; or a system in which customers pay a monthly fee for access to a product.

Subscriptions will save companies time and money while still supplying consumers with high-quality goods or services – it helps all parties, which is why we’re likely to see a rise this year and in the future.

• Consumers will start to Demand What they Need:

If 4 out of 5 customers claim they prefer something, it’s time to shift the company in that direction of online business projections.

This is particularly true when it comes to modern conveniences including multiple distribution choices. Retailers are racing to keep up with Amazon and Walmart’s supply chain capabilities, which include two-day shipping, in-store pickup, and same-day delivery. While not every retailer can compete on the same scale as those big names, many are giving customers more choices through apps like Drizly and Postmates.

• Augmented Reality:

We are living in 2021, within 2 years over 120,000 stores will adopt Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, which will provide a much better purchasing experience which is the ultimate future of e-commerce. One of the main and important issues in online shopping stores is the inability to feel the product firsthand. AR technology helps customers to visualize better. For online customers, this could give a better idea about that particular product and helps the customer to choose the suitable product wisely. Many e-commerce companies have begun to use AR models for their products which helps them to be unique from other competitors. Companies use AR not only to be unique it also allows users to test and explore products in the way they want.

These online retail predictions were done by analyzing the current trend of e-commerce websites. As always, the online retail stores do not fail to surprise us every single day by updating something new. With the growing technology, there is healthy competition between every e-commerce website and they help to grow each other productively.

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One is an experience in practical life, whereas the other is so in virtual life. Though the end objectives are the same, one has to look into the hassle and comforts when they have to find the answer to the question themselves do you prefer shopping online or in stores?

Listed below are specific reasons why one is better than the other.

Do more people shop online or in stores, or is that a fallacy?

When it comes to a competition between do more people shop online or in stores, the immediate reply is that people prefer to shop online comparatively.

Ecommerce has posted growth three times faster compared to traditional retail. In other words, it answers the question of doing more people shop online or in stores!

Statistics reveal that 50% of customers would instead shop online, while 49% prefer to go to a store and shop the traditional way.

To many onlookers, the trend that is emerging is sure to send the traditional stores into a tailspin, and panic would set in amounts them on when they would bring their shutters down.

Therefore the truth is that in a debate between online shopping vs. regular shopping, the industry is having a transformation of the scope of that we have not witnessed until now. This downtrend is bound to continue in the future too.

Statistics on Online Shopping vs. In-store Shopping

When one takes a glance at the statistics on online shopping Vs. in-store shopping

Retail merchants have a sale ten times more than e-commerce shops. The following statistics state online shopping vs. in-store shopping, those brick and mortar retailers are keeping out, but e-commerce is gaining fast.

Overall, some 51% of Americans choose to shop online, while the other 49% prefer to shop the traditional way by visiting the shops.

E-commerce is growing three times faster than conventional retail and has a growth rate of approximately 15% compared to 5% growth for physical stores.

In the US, clients make an average of nineteen items online per year, the next most in the field behind Asia.

Nevertheless, folks spend 64% of the shopping cash in shops, compared with 36% online.

The year 2017 was the most challenging year on record for conventional retail, a season in which stores announced over 6,700 closures. By the conclusion of 2017, that amount came to 6,985. This’s a trend that will continue through 2018 onwards as Ecommerce retailers continue chipping away at the traditional storefront. As the top e retailer, Amazon is leading the eCommerce charge, which shows no signs of slowing down.

Online Shopping vs. In-store Shopping Pros and Cons

One should understand that online shopping vs. in-store shopping pros & cons exists.

The pros of online shopping are in-store shopping cons.

1. Spoilt for Choice: there is absolutely no lack of “shelf space” within an online shop, and you will find so many of them!
2. Need Something Unusual? Just google it! So, you would like a regular vegetable steamer the same as your grandmother had.
3. Shop Open: 9 to 5? What is that? There is simply no closing time online.
4. Compare Costs Easily: You do not need to visit numerous stores making a note of everything like you did in the past, choosing to return to the very first store you visited to clinch a deal.
5. Know just how much you are Spending: fill up the cart, contribute to the cart, check absolutely. You may remain amazed in a typical store if you reach the checkout unless you are great at mental adding up.
6. Free Shipping: This could additionally work against you when delivery is not free of charge. Therefore, make sure you check!
7. No Queues: Standing all over in queues is most likely not your favorite activity. You can save plenty of time with internet shopping, so this is among the considerable time savers.

Pros of in-store shopping are online shopping cons.

1. Touch and Try Out: If you are purchasing shoes or clothing, you can try things on to determine the way they appear to be on you and whether they meet. You can feel the fabric to decide whether or not you will like the feel.
2. Take a Better Look: Professional pictures online can create almost anything that looks great! But could it be very good? At standard shops, you are able to see from every angle.
3. Get Personal Service: The human component of retailer shopping should not be ignored. You can ask questions, get guidance, or a pleasant smile.
4. Easy Returns: It does not work? It did not fit? Quickly go back towards the shop. Even though you can get back items bought online, returns are a lot more time consuming and complicated. It is also easier to state promises at a traditional retailer.

Online or In-store Shopping?

When it comes to deciding on online or in-store shopping, the majority opt for online shopping. Several factors back up this decision: they would have weighed their online shopping vs. in-store shopping pros & cons and decided.

Those factors must have included:

• Is fuel consumption more in online shopping or in-store?
• Traffic delays are more shopping online or shopping in stores.?
• Getting affected by substandard air pollution becomes zero in shopping online or in-store?
• To find a car park is easy in shopping in-store or online.? where it is not necessary.
• Relaxed and comfortable shopping is more in online shopping or in-store.

What has turned the tide around for a question to be raised, such as online shopping or in-store?

Over time, the internet speeds and layouts with designing the site have improved in leaps and bounds—all in favor of shopping online or in stores.

Hence you can often expect an answer in the affirmative online when the question is asked, ‘do you prefer shopping online or in stores.’

Shopping online or shopping in stores would have a different answer from a few who love to bargain and get the best price from the shop vendor. But many would prefer to shop online even for baby products since there are sites that offer you competitive pricing.

Conclusion | What Would Make You Love Shopping in Store or Online?

Nothing will stop the Online shopping rage, but it is at the cost of all those poor shop men who had once served us. They would never go out of existence, but downsizing in stores is bound to happen.

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