Ten things every customer appreciates when buying online

There are millions of online stores, which means you have to make your digital brand stand out as much as you can. To better the chances of your business succeeding, let’s break down ten things every customer likes to see when shopping online:

A navigable store

First and foremost, your online store needs to be easy to understand and navigate. As you build your site, make sure you can click through to all the products and major pages without any issues. You can leverage a user-friendly web builder solution like PrestaShop, which offers everything you need to build an online store and grow a business from start to finish.

Fast checkout

Similarly, make sure that your checkout process is efficient and streamlined. Don’t throw up a dozen pages or barriers in between your customer putting something into a cart and buying it. Make sure all charges are clear from the get-go. You can use dedicated business accounting software that comes with crucial features like custom invoice templates and automatic billing for repeat customers to make the experience even better.

No popups

No matter how tempting it may be, avoid pop-up advertisements on your website. Visitors have already reached your landing page or are looking at a specific product, so you don’t want to drive them away by annoying them with pop-ups that clutter the screen or force them to accept cookies.

Clear pricing

As you list your products, try to come up with clear pricing so your customers always know what they will pay for each product or service on your site. This includes estimated shipping in your checkout process. The clearer your prices are, the less likely customers are to abandon carts because they didn't know how much they would owe at checkout.

Multiple ways to pay

If you make purchasing easy, you’ll get less shopping cart abandonment on your online store. And the more flexible you are in terms of payment, the more willing people will be to spend money at your online shop. 

Naturally, credit card and debit card transactions are the most important. In fact, 71% of customers report preferring to use a credit card for online purchases. 

Abandoned cart reminders

Even the most loyal customers may occasionally drop off in the middle of the purchase funnel and forget that they put a product in their carts. You can send helpful email reminders that they abandoned their carts and potentially get customers who have almost completed the purchasing process to finalize a purchase. Just be sure that the copy in these email reminders is friendly and helpful, not demanding and off-putting.

Stellar customer service

You should endeavor to offer several customer service channels for your online store, including an email address and a chat service at minimum. Using chatbots can be useful for online shoppers as it means they can get immediate support for a technical or checkout problem and won’t need to wait several hours or days for a response. It’s good for you too because you don’t have to pay 24/7 customer service employees. 

Special offers

Online shoppers love personalization and special offers, so try to provide these through email advertising as you build up your customer base. Not only does this potentially get you more sales for your best products, but it can also build long-term interest among your core audience in a way that no other strategy can match.

Fast page load times

The average attention span is going down, which means your site cannot afford to be slower than competitors. With that in mind, make sure your pages load quickly by ensuring you have solid web hosting for your ecommerce business. Your pages should load in less than a second on average. Any longer, and someone may click away to a competitor’s site or go back to Google.

Free shipping

Last but not least, try to offer free shipping to your customers if possible. A free shipping option is essentially expected these days, driven in large part because of Amazon’s and its free shipping policy for Prime members. If you can’t afford to offer flat free shipping for everyone, consider offering free shipping for customers who spend a certain amount of money in one purchase. 

Conclusion

Implementing these tips in your eCommerce business will go a long way toward building and keeping your customer base for years to come. This is how you plan for the long term as a business and leave yourself room to grow.