Home, Header & Footer
1.
Top level domain with HTTPs
An ecommerce site must have a top level domain with a
secured connection. If your site exclusively serves a certain country, then use
a country code domain.
2.
Business logo
Place your business logo at a prominent position of the
header. Preferably near the left.
3.
User-friendly navigation
A clear navigation bar improves the UX of your site –
mandatory for every page.
4.
Wishlist
Sometimes, a customer may be interested in a product but
decide to buy it later. Or a customer may find a product interesting and want
to check that later for more details. A wishlist allows them to store a list of
these products so that they can easily find them next time they visit your
site.
5.
Customer login
Your site should definitely let the customers register
and login. It’s best to place this on the top bar for easy access.
6.
Store finder
If your ecommerce site has physical stores or pick-up
points, a store locator at the top bar can make them easy for your customers to
find.
7.
Language options
If your ecommerce site has multiple versions for
different regions, then you can include language options to let users switch
between different languages/regions.
8.
Shopping cart
Obviously, the shopping cart is an integral part of any
ecommerce site. The best position to place it is the upper right corner.
9.
Search bar
If you optimise your search bar properly, it can become a
powerful tool for conversions.
10.
Phone number
Whether it be enquiring about a particular product or clarifying
business hours, customers may need to call you for various reasons. Mentioning
the contact number at the top makes this easy for them.
11.
Highlighted UVP
Why should a customer buy from you and not your
competitors? Use Unique Value Propositions or UVPs mentions those things about
your business that make it special.
12.
Risk reducers
Include a few good risk reducers, such as free shipping
and return offers at this point to attract your potential customers.
13.
Loyalty program
Mention things like reward points and other special
offers for your long time customers. Include a link that takes them to more a
more detailed offer page.
14.
CTA to push people to product collections and important sales pages
Include important product categories and relevant Call To
Action buttons here. You may also provide links to sales and special offers
pages.
15.
Featured products or Best selling products or New arrivals
You may manually add featured products or automate the
process to show a list of best selling products here.
16.
Personalised items
You can show potential customers items based on their
search or purchasing history. This is a very effective way to increase sales.
17.
Text content
Including some description about your business is
important from an SEO perspective. Also, a potential new customer will be able
to quickly know about you from this.
18.
FAQ, returns and exchanges, store locator, shipping information, order tracking
etc.
These pages are important for your customers. So provide
links to them at the footer with a title, something like Customer care can be
appropriate.
19.
Contact us
It’s good to provide several ways to contact your
business. Phone, email and inquiry form submission are three common ones.
20.
Newsletter signup
As a modern ecommerce site, you should have a newsletter
signup form that collects your customers’ email addresses. You can send them
special offers and inform new product arrivals.
21.
Payment system icons
It’s customary to include payment system icons at the
bottom of the page. This lets your customers quickly know which payment systems
you accept.
22.
Social Media links
Providing links to your social media accounts at the
bottom of the page lets your customers stay connected with your brand.
23.
Link to about pages
Here you may include a link to your more detailed About
us page including affiliate, press and career pages.
24.
Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, Sitemap
These standard documents and the sitemap can be placed at
the bottom of the page.
25.
Live Chat
Live chat is common on many ecommerce sites nowadays. But
to implement and maintain a proper live chat option requires careful planning
and resources.
Category Page
26.
Consistent image size
The product images in a category page should have a
consistent size. It’s not just about the resolution, they should have a similar
amount of whitespace at the borders too.
27.
Breadcrumb navigation
Breadcrumb navigation helps the visitors to easily browse
through product categories. You can include it right below the main navigation
bar.
28.
Show the number of products displaying in the page
Generally, a page can’t show all the products that there
are under a certain category. But every page should show the customers the
total number of products and the range that they are viewing.
29.
Product filtering and sorting
Product filtering allows customers to filter products
based on different attributes. For example, a clothing store may use gender,
size, colour etc. as its filtering options. The sorting allows viewing products
on ascending or descending order of price and arrival.
30.
Page description field
At this part, include a short general description of the
category. This is mostly for the search engines.
Product Page
31.
Product title
This is simply the name of the product. The name of each
product should definitely be unique, but maybe with different colours and
sizes, if applicable.
32.
Good quality of images with zoom in functionality
At the product pages, there should be high-quality images
that can be zoomed in to view particular parts of the product.
33.
Pricing information with potential sales or discounts
Apart from mentioning the product price, it’s a good idea
to mention if there’s any discount or promotional offers. The common practice
is to strike through the previous price and write the new price with the
discount percentage in brackets.
34.
A field to change purchase quantities
Just below the product price, there should be an option
to change the product quantity. That way, the customers can easily select the
number of items they want to buy.
35.
Product variables (if necessary)
Some variables like colour and size of a physical product
should be selectable right from the product page.
36.
Add to cart button
The Add to Cart button should be prominently displayed
beside the product image.
37.
Trust signal around “Add to Cart” button
It’s a very good idea to mention a few trust signals near
the add to cart button. This influences the subconscious of the customers on
making the purchasing decision.
38.
Add to Wish List and Compare button on each product page
Wish list enables the customers to store a product if
they want to buy that later. A compare feature can also be very useful for
them.
39.
Social share buttons for each ecommerce product
Let your customers share their favourite products. Adding
social share (and send link via email) buttons is a really great way to reach
more people.
40.
Product description
Product specifications and descriptions are absolutely
essential parts of the page. Try to include all the essential information a
customer may look for.
42.
Consumer reviews on products
This part will let the customers read, rate and give
reviews to products. As we have shown, the average rating and number of reviews
should also be shown right below the product name above.
43.
Related products
Include a list of related products at the bottom of the
page. This may prompt the customer to find the product that he/she wants.
Customer Checkout, Shopping Cart and Wishlist
44.
Accept all payment methods
Your ecommerce site should accept most of the payment
methods that are popular among your customers.
45.
Cart details
Mention all details regarding what the customer has in
the cart. It should definitely the product name, price and quantity of
individual products.
46.
Final price
Obviously, after mentioning the price of each individual
products your checkout page should also mention the total price. Don’t forget
to mention the individual amounts of discount, shipping cost and tax.
47.
Shipping method (offer low shipping cost)
Your customers will find multiple shipping options very
convenient. There should be at least one low-cost shipping option.
48.
Billing address and shipping address
It’s common to have two address fields. One for billing
address and another for shipping address. For many customers these two are
different.