What Do All The Best eCommerce Sites Have?

Look appealing

I know looks aren’t everything but it does count for a hell of a lot when we are talking about websites, the people interacting with them and their technology ravaged dopamine systems that have increased their expectations of excitement, fun and beauty.

It’s all about perception, not only does your design have to look awesome while matching your branding but photography is king of aesthetics when it comes to pushing products. You have to make sure that your product images are stunning, attention grabbing and consistent throughout the site. Everything should be on point, from focus to lighting. You might need a pro for this!

Make sure you include lifestyle photos as well throughout the site. Crisp and clear images of your products on a white background give your shoppers a good view of what they are buying but people connect with pictures of other people, so make sure to include media showing happy customers living their best lives with your product.

Instill trust

People are becoming less trusting of the internet these days. Two decades of scammers jading surfers, topped with the last few years of “fake news”, have created a reasonably skeptical audience to deal with. If they don’t trust your site, then they’ll probably just go search for your product on Amazon.

So how do you build trust? Try including the following in your website…

About me page

Be honest, let them see behind the curtain and they will come to trust you more.

Contact page

Not just a form either, include a mailing address, a phone number and an email address to show that you aren’t hiding from them.

Certificates

Any certificates you can show to increase your perception of legitimacy is good. If you have business certificates or a company number then that is strong, but more stand out things like badges from PayPal, Visa & MasterCard work very well due to their visibility. If you have a good return policy as well then show a badge to emphasise it.

Return policy

Returns are a pain to deal with but having a return policy has been shown to increase trust and profits in general. Make it clear, easy to find and reasonable, if not awesome.

Easy to browse

Every extra click a customer has to take to find what they want equals an increase in people leaving the site. Your site has to make it so quick and easy for visitors to find what they want before they get bored and bounce. User experience is everything. Use good ecommerce website design to draw attention to the sections, buttons and links that people are looking for. For example, make your search box or categories pop out at people to lead them towards the checkout.

The use of related products and even blog articles on product pages can make it easier for people to find items that go with what they are looking for already or to learn more about the product they are looking at.

Device independent design

Now it’s 2021, so it is a safe bet that any site you may build or already have running is mobile friendly, maybe with a separate mobile site or if done properly, responsive design. But just because your site is built with this functionality, does not necessarily mean that it has been implemented well.

Your website’s builder will have a preview mode for mobile and tablet but what you see in the editor rarely reflects what you will actually see on a device, so make sure that you check all of your page templates (home, categories, products, blog etc) on real life devices, borrow your friends phones for a couple of minutes. From the big screen iPhone 14 XL to a cheap small screened Samsung. Don’t forget tablets either. You can use your browser's developer mode to do this too, though while good, this doesn’t beat testing on the real deal.

Check here for examples of the best ecommerce sites for 2021 

25 Of The Best and Most Beautiful eCommerce Sites 2021