Millennials and Gen Z need to trust a business before they spend their time and money on their products and/or services. The younger generations are seeking a connection with companies that offer a human face. They do not wish to buy from a faceless corporation with the sole aim of bringing in a massive profit and nothing else.
Your e-commerce store, therefore, needs to have a customer-friendly face if you wish to entice a younger demographic. This is no easy task, though, as it takes times and dedication to keep your customers happy. One small blip can amount to a bad review and a dip in sales.
The following guide is going to focus on:
- Design and layout
- A trusted hosting platform
- Website speed
- Onsite content
- Payment and shipping options
1. The effects of well-thought-out design and layout
The layout and design of your e-commerce store need to be engaging, beautiful and functioning. A disorganized website can spell trouble. Consumers will click-through to your website only to be faced with an infuriating maze of webpages. Such confusion and poor layout can lead a potential customer to quit.
Sit down with a dedicated website designer and have them professionally layout and design your website. You want your e-commerce site to represent your brand through appropriate colors, font and images, but amateurs have a knack for going overboard.
Modern website design trends include:
- Making use of whitespace
- Replacing stock images with real ones
- A clear and easy-to-use navigation bar
- Clear branding
- Crisp and neutral color schemes
- Easy-to-read font
- An appropriate amount of content
2. Why use a trusted hosting platform?
Without a reputable hosting platform, your e-commerce store may run into issues. You want your e-commerce store to have the best uptime available; any downtime can lose you sales and keep you from winning over potential customers.
3. Be lightyears ahead in speed
It is believed that 47% of visitors expect a website to load in 2 seconds – anything longer, and 40% of the visitors will leave the site. This is a massive number of people who do not wait around for slower websites, and, therefore, it is vital for your site to load quickly and with no fuss.
4. Create the correct onsite content
Your e-commerce store needs the right amount of content, as well as content that is in-depth without being too lengthy, unique while also being relevant, and optimized for the search engines without being too over-promotional. This can be a tall order.
Onsite content consists of product/service descriptions, content on all webpages including your About Us page, etc. and your online store’s blog. You do not want product descriptions to be too long, however, you will want to include some targeted keywords. Also, you want all content to be in line with your brand. If your brand is known for its down-to-earth narrative, then using professional and hard to understand language may not sit well with your customers.
However, your blog is the best way for your business to approach SEO. Use your blog to produce useful and entertaining content that is also optimized for search engines. Have a consistent content marketing strategy so that you can make full use of your e-commerce store’s blog.
If you do not have a digital marketing bone in your body, it is best to hire marketing professionals. There is little room for mistakes in digital marketing, so enlist the help of, for instance, an expert Massachusetts SEO agency.
5. A variety of payment and shipping options
To appease the masses, you need to provide your customers with a number of payment and shipping options (as well as be completely transparent in the costs). For instance, when it comes to paying, include:
- Credit/debit card payments
- PayPal
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Samsung Pay
Also, have a box for discount codes and the inclusion of gift cards.
Shipping options are much more limited, but you can have:
- Next day delivery
- Standard delivery
- Selected delivery (they choose the date and time)
- Same day delivery
The more options you have, the more likely potential customers are going to buy from you. By not including as many options as possible, you run the risk of neglecting certain people.
