Once on a company's homepage, 86% of visitors want to see information about that company's products/services (KoMarketing). That being said, it places a huge amount of responsibility on a site’s navigation to successfully guide visitors from the homepage to the shopping cart.

eCommerce websites should consider making a customer login function, wishlists and having an always-present search bar on the homepage are key features to help users find what they’re looking for, in the least amount of time.

User-friendly navigation complements effective product marketing by acting as a natural guide for website visitors to focus on product/service differentiators rather than getting frustrated with figuring out where they need to go, to find validating information to actually make a purchase.

Recently there’s been a LOT of buzz around whether bending the rules and working outside of wireframe grids is a best practice designers want to introduce to their designs but the reality remains asymmetry has the power to add a huge degree of dynamism to your user experience to really attract and capture the audience’s attention, which happens to be the main commodity of trade for digital marketers worldwide. According to Shopify “With careful use of asymmetrical positioning of text, overlapping images, and irregular shapes, you can add originality into a client's site without sacrificing usability.” Take for example the Phoebe James clothing brand, they use irregular shapes and abstract movements to introduce new collections of their clothing, with the visual appeal matching the eclectic vibe of their clothing style.

At 73 to 81%, live chat has the highest satisfaction level for any customer service channel. Why? Mainly because consumers want responses in real-time and that’s exactly what it provides.

While many consumers do opt for emailing or more recently texting customer service, hyper-convenience is the new normal and as such, real-time visitors to your website like the comfort of knowing they can ask specific questions about the product/service value presented on your website. That can be anything from clarification to where your firm ships to, to whether that to-die-for mustard yellow kaftan will be back in stock in medium any time soon.

Live chats can also be used as a tactic to aid in cart abandonment by popping up when users have moved to the online checkout page. It ensures the user has the opportunity to ask any pending questions which may be stalling from clicking that purchase button in the next few seconds. The top three players in the live chat software market are LivePerson, Zendesk, and LiveChat.

Ecommerce sites built on platforms like Shopify and Wordpress make it pretty simple to install free and paid loyalty programs to attract new, prospective target users to your product’s unique value proposition regardless of whether you’re selling products or services.

According to annexcloud.com, 54% of consumers say that they would consider doing more business with a company for loyalty rewards. That’s predominantly because consumers attribute the rewards received from a loyalty program to the brand actively caring about their purchase and it adds a positive, emotive tone to the transaction.

Popular programs like smile.io and Loyalty Lion are popular front runners in the most used programs but if you do a search in the app store that most applies to you, you’ll find adding a loyalty program after building an eCommerce site is like putting the cherry on top! According to Bond, the top five sectors in which spend increases when a consumer is a member of the loyalty program are:

Some consumers only care about how your product affects their bottom line. Some are looking for high-quality goods and services. Some might be after both. The reality is consumers want clear, concise narratives, visuals and graphics to help them determine whether this is the right product for their needs and in turn, provide successful marketing ROI for your business

Effective content marketing can go a long way when it comes to creating brand credibility and provoking user trust. Simple features such as whether there are free trials to access, you accept credit cards, or a 1-1 demo can be booked, are all quick wins to get your users aware of your brand’s core value to them and push them further down the sales funnel towards conversion since these characteristics are qualifying questions they’re already looking to be answered by your site’s content.

This is often an underestimated feature of any website, educational and eCommerce but it has the potential to do significant damage to the user impression of your brand. 44% of website visitors will leave a company's website if there's no contact information or phone number (KoMarketing) and that’s significantly damaging to your ability to convert consumers quickly.

Furthermore, once on a company's homepage, 64% of visitors want to see the company's contact information. A decade ago, a website was a nice ‘add-on’ to your small business’s marketing efforts but today, online commerce platforms are digital storefronts and users want to feel secure and comfortable in sharing their personal information with the brand.