An eCommerce website is a vital part of any retailers’ channel mix – in fact for some, it may be your only sales channel! That means you need a site that’s easy to use, processes payments securely and which showcases your products in the best way possible.

E-Commerce website needs much more functionality than a brochure site, such as the ability for users to create accounts, create a wishlist and of course buy online. You may also be looking for more advanced features, such as multiple delivery options, trade, and consumer pricing or the ability to customize products. We are also able to integrate your website with many popular eCommerce systems. We have a wealth of experience in this sector and has worked with both national names.

As a full-service agency, we can also offer ongoing support with digital marketing, driving traffic to your new site through tactics such as PPC, SEO, social media and email marketing.

1. Shopping Cart

This is an integral part of any e-commerce store, the shopping cart. This is where
your end consumers store their products to continue with the checkout process.
A flexible cart allows both the guest user and registered user to checkout. Whereas
the guest checkout does not require the user to sign up on the site, hence aiding
them in making the process faster.

2. Payment Gateway Integrations

A good eCommerce website gives you an option of integrating with diverse payment
gateways by not limiting your choices to a selected few.

3. Order management

A wholesome order management panel simplifies the task of the merchants where one can get detailed information regarding Buyer Cancellation/ Refunds/ COD order verification/ Exchange/ Order Status Update and more. The panel helps the merchant manage his order fulfillment and oversee the completion of the same.

4. Security

This feature is one of the most important features as it ensures that no crucial data such as credit card information is saved and for all prepaid shipments the checkout is carried out through a secure payment gateway. The passwords are hashed and not stored in a readable format. All web pages should be protected by SSL. The servers are secure and protected using state of the art services.

5. Scalable Infrastructure

Your hosting infrastructure should be able to scale as you get more and more traffic. A higher latency leads to drops in transaction rates and leads to loss of marketing dollars. CDN should be used to improve the website’s performance and managing the products online. It also provides excellent uptime, ensuring that the website is readily available everywhere and at any time.

6. Mobile compatibility

Great eCommerce websites usually offer three types of solutions for mobile compatibility. First is ensuring that the mobile view is responsive and properly accommodated according to the device.
The WAP is a mobile-specific template which optimizes the website in size and generates less loading time. API’s for building mobile apps is essential since everyone now likes to browse via phones.

7. Reports

The reports should be available as exports which contain detailed information regarding the orders, customer database, and product reports in terms of the catalog. It is quite useful for analyzing the growth of the business. The websites should be pre-integrated with marketing tools and analytics to better market the brand and read reports about the performance of the store.

8. Communications

Provisions to send and receive timely notifications regarding your orders are available on the panel. This way a merchant can keep his customers informed about the status of the order and receive the same via the system.

9. Content Management Systems

Content Management System is used to manage the website content such as Logo, banner, Footer links, Policies, and Products from the backend itself.

10. Logistics integration

Integrating logistics services allows not only seamless shipping but also ensures that the merchant and the consumer get real-time courier updates along with order tracking capability. This allows the user to manage shipments from the same panel instead of approaching the courier partners separately.

11. Add and Manage Products

Users are able to add single, grouped or even virtual product types to their stores making items like ‘2 for 1’ Specials or downloadable PDF’s easy to categorize and sell. Dynamic or alternate product views and zoom functionality allow users to easily inspect product images visually.

12. Specify Product Variables

Specifications like price, color, size, and weight are all available to be added and edited alongside important notifications like ‘Out of Stock’ or ‘On Special’.
Good images and detailed information about your product ensure fewer product returns as visitors have a better understanding of what they’re getting before checkout. Product information in the backend allows you to keep track of your inventory, orders, returns, and cancellations.

13. Controlled Checkout Process

Cart and Checkout pages are fully integrated with one another to allow the consumer a seamless experience between shopping items now or adding them to your cart for checkout at a later stage. Guest checkout can be disabled to enforce secure transactions.

14. Geo-Location

Geo-Location Support is able to auto-detect customer addresses making shipping and checkout processes easier. This reduces the time it takes for customers to enter in billing information at checkout, leading to less frustration
and confusion.

15. Shipping Prices, Methods & Calculations

Add shipping or delivery prices to products as a percentage of the final cart price using the cart calculator. Detail information like Free Shipping, Flat Rate, International Shipping, Local Delivery, Local Pickup or Automatic Shipping which defaults to the cheapest shipping option.

16. Tax Calculations and Control

Automate the process of taxes with custom tax calculations that base tax on either your customers billing/shipping addresses or geo-location. Define tax rates as standard, reduced or zero tax rates and choose to display product prices including or excluding tax.

17. Related Product Suggestions

This sophisticated additional feature offers good pairings or suggests similar products for your users as a means of ‘upselling’ your products. Think about the consumer purchasing a phone who might be persuaded to get a cover or a set of earphones for that phone because a) they are already spending money and b) it’s a clever pairing. This technique results in extra revenue generation and also helps customers ‘filter’ their choices by perhaps going for something similar to what they’re already looking at.

18. Live Chat Functionality and Contact Details

These features are arguably the most useful to your consumers. It is encouraging for consumers when they are able to get answers in real time and from a real person. These features however are at risk of falling flat if there is no one readily available to correspond with site visitors as and when they are online. If no full time staff is available for this kind of interaction, stick to regular info emails and a contact number

19. Consumer Generated Reviews

Disable or enable customers reviews to allow customers the opportunity to build real-world ‘proof’ of their experience with your product. Reviews provide a podium for visitors to see how you resolved issues when problems occurred. You can also choose to validate users before they are allowed to review.

20. Product Status Reports

This feature allows notifications to be sent to both you and the customer through each stage of the product journey once payment has taken place. Make or get cancellations, pause orders or change the product delivery status from ‘processing’ to ‘complete’.