Lesson Info
2. What Makes A Good E-commerce Website
Lessons
Lesson Info
What Makes A Good E-commerce Website
Hello and welcome back to how to sell online. In this lesson, we're gonna be talking about what makes a good e commerce website. We're gonna be looking at really the things that you need to have in order to have success when you're trying to sell online. So what is your website need to set you up for online sales success Because it's not enough just to have a website you have to have a website that really works well for you. So a good online store builds trust is easy to use. And I know this seems like sort of a random thing to throw out out here but it's mobile friendly. It works just as well on a phone or a tablet as it does in a web browser. So we're gonna break all three of these things down in this lesson to see what you really need to have a successful online store. So the ways that your online store builds trust are that it's visually modern and up to date it shows that people behind the business and it features secure shopping and check out. So as far as visually modern and up ...
to date, we've all been on those websites right where they looked like they were built in 1996 and you go there and you're thinking oh is this company still in business? Should I give them my money? The design of your website goes a long way and building trust. And so you want to make sure that you have a website and you have a theme that's really up to date with modern web trends. Now the next piece is it shows the people behind the business, let's face it, it's easy for us to set up an online store. But it's also easy for scammers to set up an online store. So you want to have things on your website that show that there are humans behind it right? We want people to know that there is a person or people behind the brand. Those people are trustworthy. They exist in real life and that when they put their credit card in there they're going to get the goods and services that they actually paid for. And so it's really important not just to show up as yourself but if you're a small company show your employees show the staff that's working there. Really adding that actual personality to your website helps build trust. Then it features secure shopping and check out. So there are absolutely things that you need to have on your website so that people feel confident putting their credit card information in. The most important one you can see here circled on the slide is that your website needs to be at the secure U. R. L. That means that you get that little lock symbol when you're browsing and that tells someone that their data is going to be secure. So it's really important that you have that as well as the secure online checkout. So that's the first thing is we want to make sure our websites build trust. The next piece is that we want to make sure that our online stores are easy to use. So what that means is that we need to make sure that there are navigation and search so that customers can find what they're looking for and that there are multiple easy checkout options. Right? The reason part of the reason that amazon wins a lot of the time because it's so easy to hit that button. But we need to do that to on our website and we can do that too on our websites. So when you're building an online store, you want to make sure that customers can navigate it in as many ways as possible. If we look at my online store, you can see that you can sort the jewelry by type. So you can look at necklaces, you can look at bracelets, you can look at rings etcetera, etcetera. But then you can also shop by collection. So I'm giving customers multiple ways to browse and explore my line. But there are so many more ways that you can do this than this view that you see on my website. So here you can see there's an example from Prima Studios. Patricia is someone I work with in my online community artists and profit makers. She sells Prince. And you can see here you can sort her prints by things like orientation. So are they square? Are they vertical or the horizontal? You can search by color. She gives people lots of ways to sort, even though it's it would be easy to think. It's just abstract art. Just put it all on one page to let it go. No, she's giving her customers lots of ways to sort and search her sight. And that really makes it easy for customers to use. You can also see here two other things that I have in my sight that I highly encourage everyone to have our letting customers choose how they sort the products. So I have my products sorted by date new to old. But customers can go in and select so they can sort by price. They can sort by featured. They can sort by lots of different ways. And then I also have that search feature. So when someone is browsing on your website, you want to make sure there are as many options as possible to actually search and find what they're looking for. Then the other piece is making it quick and easy to purchase so you can see her on my website. I've got an option to add to cart. But this comes up and this changes, we'll get into how this happens. But this changes based on the person who's browsing. But you can see here, give someone the option to buy immediately with google pay. And depending on who's looking, they may see Paypal, they may see something else. But the idea is that if someone sees something, they can very, very quickly and easily by it. And then even when we're looking at the full check out, if they make it, their, you know, I've got multiple options set up, you can pay by credit card, you can pay by Paypal, you can pay with a payment plan, so the more options that you have for your customers to give you money, the more likely they are to do so. And then the last piece of this is that your website needs to be mobile friendly. This is so important because over 50% of e commerce now takes place on mobile. I think the stat I most recently read was like 54%. So mobile means that they are shopping by phone or their shopping by tablet. But over 50% of e commerce is not happening on a website, it is happening on mobile. And so if you want to be successful selling online, it is essential that your website is mobile friendly as well. So what that means is that it's mobile responsive, it changes based on the platform that you're on and it doesn't just look like you know that kind of weird old old school mobile site with buttons. Right? We want that modern site where you can easily browse and see what you're looking for. All right. So what I want you to do is to assess where you're currently at with your website. Take a look and think about what's missing. So first of all, can you sell on your website already? Is it just a showcase or can customers by on it? And if they can buy on it, are you hitting all of these features? Right. So do you currently have the website? Is it set up for e commerce? Can people buy directly from your website? Are you or are you saying no you can't buy or you have to call us or you have to go to this third party platform? No. We want your website to be set up for e commerce and then go through and look at, does it check the boxes for trust for ease of use. Is it mobile friendly? Does it hit all of these check marks? Because if it doesn't chances are you're leaving money on the table because you're not serving your customers as well as you should be. All right now, here's the good news. If you've assessed where you're at and you're feeling a little bit stressed out, you do not need an expensive web developer and expensive website knowledge of code, your own server. Any of those things to build websites like I'm describing because online e commerce platforms make it easier than ever to check all of those boxes and build a website under your own domain name. We're not relying on a third party platform here. E commerce platforms make it so simple and easy to build your own website that can sell and sell powerfully And that's what we're going to talk about in the next lesson. So I will see you there
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase