The question of what makes a great ecommerce website is one that can be boiled down to a few crucial and key elements. If you get all of these right, it is much more likely that you are going to be able to make a high level of sales that takes your company to the next level. While it may seem straightforward when you see them all laid out in a short blog post such as this one, it is actually going to take plenty of time and attention to get right. After all, Amazon did not become the major player in the ecommerce market that they are today overnight. Instead, it took plenty of hard work and attention to get them to the level they are at today – all of which you need to try and emulate in as many ways that you can. So, here is a bit of a helping hand to let you know where to start.

Attractive and Professional Site

People are much less likely to part with their money on a site that does not meet certain standards of professionalism. Customers spend a lot of time on ecommerce sites these days and they need to feel confident in what you are offering. For this reason, many people decide to hire Shopify experts if they are planning on setting up a site on this platform. Of course, there is also the option of taking care of it yourself using one of the many site building platforms that are available, but you certainly do not want the quality to suffer as a result – you should be confident that you know what you are doing.

Easy Navigation

Another feature of a great ecommerce site is being able to get from one part of it to another without too much trouble at all. So, you need to think about the navigation carefully. Calls to action are a great way of leading customers around the site and if there is one part of the website that you want to be able to lead them to, it is certainly the checkout. It is worth testing your site extensively to ensure that people are able to find their way around. Plus, you should be willing and able to implement any necessary improvements along the way.

Security and Confidence

Next up, you should be confident on the security of your website. This way, you know that you are doing everything that you can to protect the sensitive data of your customers. This means learning about the latest techniques that hackers tend to use, as well as keeping up to date on malware and similar issues. At the same time, you also need to be able to project this confidence to your users, which means putting in visible safety features such as security certificates andsecure payment options such as PayPal.

Infographic created by Fiserv, an omnichannel commerce company

Great Content

The next element of a great ecommerce website is the content itself. First there is the written content, which means everything from the initial homepage copy to the product descriptions. All of it needs to be written well and checked with a fine-tooth comb. Modern grammar checkers,such as Grammarly, certainly serve to make this task a lot easier. Remember, search engines will also be checking your website copy and will decide where to rank your site based largely on what they find here. You should also make sure that the imagery and video content is up to scratch. Ultimately, you may well find that you are able to achieve the best results if you have all of this done professionally – but this is an area that is up to you to determine. People need to be enticed by the visual elements enough to actually make a purchase, so you cannot just expect to shoot everything with an old smartphone. You should also consider making your videos accessible to those who suffer from a disability of some description.

Targeting the Right Audience

The problem that many people have when they are building and marketing an ecommerce site is that they simply try and target everyone and anyone. Going back to the example of Amazon; they started off in second-hand books before building their empire based on their first-rate logistics operation. Therefore, it is much better that you take a targeted approach in the first instance. Over time, you can then start to target a broader audience if this is the path that you would like to go down.

If you get the above elements of your ecommerce store right, it is much more likely that you are going to be able to achieve all of your goals. Of course, it can feel like something of a balancing act, but it is also one that you need to make a special effort to get right in any way you can.