Thursday, August 7, 2008

Features Your E-store Can't Do Without!


Now that you have added all the required features on your shopping portal, from the shopping cart to the wish-list, special offers to the group discounts and latest products to the social-networking facility, but are still lagging behind your counterparts. This could be in terms of both traffic and the overall sales. If yes, then I have some advice for you to step up your shopping portal, today!
In the e-commerce sector, it is vital that we keep a check on what is essential and what is desired by the consumers at the same time. Hence, revamping of your e-commerce site on a timely basis is important. Earlier, it was relatively easier to set-up an e-store, for the consumers which then led to the online retail growth did not want anything more than cheap prices and good quality. However, with the passagwe of time, there has been stiff competition among the retailers in the online domain. Therefore, fulfilling the consumers' expectations and their satisfaction is of utmost necessity today.
Some of the features your e-store can't without include:

- Interactive Online selling
Change is indispensable for the success of any business! You need to minus the 'monotony' factor and add a fresh lease of air every now and then. E-retailers should regularly revamp every aspect of the e-store every few days or at least every month. There are dozens of sections on the e-store which require a new look and a new set-up altogether.

- Use of Rich Media
Don't let it be so bland! Online stores have a serious drawback in the form of visual delight that a shopaholic gets from the physical proximity to the products he's about to buy. To lessen it's effect, the use of rich media like video, podcasts etc. are vital in bringing reality into the online shopping experience. Portals using high quality rich media also have a competitive edge over the more traditional and bland shopping portals.

- User-friendly tools
Adding comfort to your consumer's online shopping time! Ensure that your shopping portal is not difficult to navigate through and should have user-friendly shopping tools like no jarring during page transitions and or confusing error messages.

- Easy navigation and search
Help your consumer to dig through your products easily! There are the two major factors working in favor of the e-stores in comparison to their physical counterparts, It is both time-saving and economical. It helps one find the products easily at a single click. Both search engines on shopping portal can end up in showing up irrelevant search results at most times. Advanced search and navigation technologies including the likes of visual search and color search are needed for providing easy-to-use interface to the online buyers.

- Social Commerce
Remember, shopping has been primarily a social activity? We are habitual in taking the advice of our friends and family before making a purchase and are also in the habit of sharing the same with them. Shopping, being a social activity calls for a social environment in the online medium as well. The experience of shopping is seclusion can never satisfy a true shopaholic. Therefore, being a Web-medium, community-based shopping can use the social networking tools to connect countless millions of people worldwide, sharing same interests and interests.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great points..well, I don't know about others but its been quite common case with me to leave most of the online shopping sites very early. Its just because of the few of the factors which you have mentioned in your post. I have found most of the shopping sites very dull in lookwise. Morever, the complexities associated with the shopping cart adds more problem..If these small things are sorted out very early then most of us can have better online shopping experience and also online businesses can hope for better conversions..

Kirat Singh said...

nice new layout.
two questions, how do u put in that box with the email address for subscribing?
and how do u put in the ad links at the end of the post?

surjit singh said...

Quite informative post.I like the layout.You are doing a wonderful job.
Good luck.

Suresh Kumar A said...

i aggree your point. but i like to add these points in your discussion

1) you need to make sure, whether your ecommerce site is more secure.
2) Also keep the consumer banking information say - credit card , payment details and other in a secret way.
3) Shipping your product with in the interval

Daddy Yashiro said...

NICE ONE!

Charles said...

As i can see, you have moved your blog to a higher level. You are better than me now. I hope more people will go to this site.

Goodluck!

Charles
Money Making and Blogging Tips
"your certified critic"

Winnie the poohi said...

nice post!

Angel said...

As you have sent me a private message at BC to help you in your blog, here I am.

I think you can write well enough. However, I also think that you must improve the looks of your blogs. Here are some of my suggestions:

1.0 Male About me, Contact me and Home pages with the links on a horizontal menu bar.

2.0 Change your template with a more professional looking one. I also suggest that you maximize the area of your next template. You can check mine as your guide.

3.0 Visit Blogger Buster and Amanda can help you improve your blog and choices of nice templates for free. She has tons of tips on how to do it.

4.0 You can visit my Humane Blogging Tips where you can find useful tips in blogging and blog promotion.

But for now, I suggest that you remove the word verification as it can drive your commentators away.

You can moderate comments anyway.

Hope that help somehow.

Thanks.

Unknown said...

keep it up girl ,as a commerce student i will refer ur blog

Sue Jeffels Writing said...

Hi Richal,

I'm responding to your PM at Blog catalog. Your blog looks ok to me but you could do with an about page - something that says a little about yourself. You also need more posts to get noticed by Google - it's worth submitting the site to Google Yahoo and MSN though.

hope it helps, suejeff

Anonymous said...

Thank u for ur comments, will try to make maximum changes as suggested by you

Rana Sinha said...

Interesting posts. Thanks. Good that the blog is not cluttered like some other ones.

The layout might improve with highlighted colours and bold font style for section capitals.

The ads seem to dominate now.

Go on blogging. All the best!