Nowadays, more than 2 billion people shop online globally, and the trend of online shopping in Serbia is becoming more intense year after year. However, sometimes, users give up shopping at a certain web shop and switch to the stores of competing companies.

Why is that so?

Of course, there are several reasons to this. For example, one of the most common ones is that your website is quite slow. The statistics show that about 47% of buyers tend to give up shopping if the page is loading longer than 3 seconds. Furthermore, if the products available at your store aren’t provided with enough information, very few people can find your store by doing a simple Google search. The ones who do, but have an option to purchase a product from another seller, who provides products with more information and similar prices, well… You yourself can tell what happens next. The same happens if a buyer can’t find an option to add a product to a cart, or a cart itself, or even worse if a cart doesn’t even exist and a buyer must make a phone call in order to get a product.

Baring everything said in mind, when designing a web shop, it is absolutely essential to summarize everything from a buyer’s point of view, which allows you to include all the options your buyers may ask for. If you’ve ever questioned yourself about all the vital elements your web shop should have, stay tuned.

#1 Simple shopping process

In our opinion, this really is the number one thing and something you certainly have to take care of. The two situations mentioned above – buyers being unable to find a cart or you not even including it as an option, must not ever occur. The whole process must be pretty simple and fast. In other words, there should be no doubts like “Should I click this or that?”. Unnecessary steps, such as entering delivery details, should be avoided – the option for a buyer to confirm that he wants the same delivery conditions as during the last order would be enough. Another useful option to include is product searching – it will facilitate the user experience and thus affect its satisfaction, which is one of the crucial factors that will make your users re-order another product from your, instead of your competitor’s web shop.

#2 SEO

Let’s imagine you being a salesman. In particular, you are peanuts and similar snacks seller, and you are currently standing in front of a large football stadium. The game starts soon and people are coming. At one point, you realize – unlike other sellers, you forgot to put the inscription SNACKS to your stand. Of course, you will be able to sell, but only to those who are close enough to you and can easily see you. To everyone else, well… You will hardly be noticed. The same goes for a web seller who does not have good SEO at his store – he will be able to sell based on a recommendation or if somebody has known him for a long time, but it will be extremely difficult for him to attract new customers.

#3 FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

According to a survey conducted by Forrester Research, 55% of online store users are more likely to give up shopping if they can’t find the answer to their questions quickly enough. So, create a database of frequently asked questions and keep it up to date. Of course, pay attention to the answers not being too detailed and ambiguous.

#4 Contact information and customer support

According to some research, the main reason for customer dissatisfaction in many industries is the lack of adequate customer support, which is shown to be a factor even more important than the price of products and services. Related to that, just remember this one thing – keeping an existing customer is considered to be 6-7 times cheaper than attracting a new one!

#5 CRM – Customer Relationship Management

This is something necessary for you as a store owner or a manager – a central database of your customers, which you will store everything at. Demographic information, geographic information, information on consumer habits… In this way, you will facilitate taking care of existing customers, as well as providing adequate customer support. In addition, based on the analysis of all data you can adjust your offer, prices, packaging, delivery…if necessary.

Of course, all the factors you have just read were an overview of the most important elements only. There are many more things to take be taken into consideration, and we are there for you – to listen to your wishes first, and then use our knowledge and experience in order to help you provide your customers with a shopping experience they will recommend you for.

Author: Vanja Nikolić