Top 17 Features of E-commerce Website That You Should Not Miss

In today's competitive market, the features of your e-commerce website can make or break your success.

From building trust with customers to offering a seamless shopping experience, the right features will help you dominate the market and create a loyal following.

But with so many options available, where do you start?  Join us in this blog to see the top 17 must-have features of an e-commerce website that you absolutely shouldn't miss!

Why You Should Implement Top Features of E-commerce Website on Your Site

It is challenging to choose the best features for your online store website when you have so many options. We recommend taking it easy, not getting overwhelmed, and creating a shopping list of your features.

E-commerce is indeed a fast-growing industry, and the stakes are high. It’s crucial to pay attention to your business goals, needs, and objectives when deciding upon a basic ecommerce website template on an ecommerce website builder or a custom e-commerce web development.

This step plays a significant role as it will decide how your business will evolve. If you make the wrong decision, you can spend way more money than necessary to get started as an online service product seller.

As a business owner, you should keep in mind that when it comes to e-commerce business, everything is about the shopping experience of users, and your efforts should focus on creating personalized experiences for your online shoppers.

Hence, your platform must be fully aligned with your business objectives, and support features that your target audience expects and wants in your platform. If you fail, sorry to say, but your audience will be engaging and buying from your competitor's website, not yours!

Must Read: How Much Does Website Design Cost in India?

17 Must-Have Features of E-commerce Website That Your Customer Want

Now that you know why implementing these features is crucial for attracting visitors and converting them into customers, you might be excited to see what these top features are.

But, before we get into it, it’s important to know that not all website trends, such as cool animations, 360-degree product previews, dynamic product search, and trying things before buying features guarantee a high conversion rate or an outstanding user experience.

There are essential features of an e-commerce website that ensure a relevant online presence and make you a competitive business.

That being said, let’s explore together the top 17 features that you should add to your website to  provide fantastic shopping experiences to your customers and grow your business:

1. User-Friendly Design

User-friendly design is perhaps the most important feature of an e-commerce website that your customers want on your site.

As we mentioned earlier, a good user experience is key to the success of an online shopping platform.

If your visitors can’t find their way around your website or struggle to find what they are looking for, there is a high chance they’ll quickly leave your site and start searching on the many other online retailers.

Therefore, it’s crucial to use e-commerce UX/UI best practices and prioritize the customer experience. To do this, you can create a simple, straightforward, high-quality homepage, include a simple search bar, clearly list category pages in the navigation bar, and focus on creating a responsive website.

2. Site Search

Only some site visitors have the patience to move from page to page to find what they really want. Most would instead leave the site and then go through that stress.

In this case, you should add a power search feature to your e-commerce site. Also, it should be good enough to give smart auto-suggestions, just the same way Google and Amazon do.

Here we have an example of the ‘Site Search’ feature on the Amazon website.

When you add the search option, you also need to implement it on all your pages. In fact, it should have 100% visibility across your platform.

Searchers should find it quickly no matter where they are on your site; additionally, focus on keeping it simple; there’s no need to use a fancy search bar.  Just add some visual cues, such as a magnifying icon to let customers know it’s a search bar.

By utilizing Custom Web Development Services, you can ensure that your search feature is optimally designed and integrated, providing a seamless and efficient user experience across your entire platform.

Explore More: 8 Useful Tips for Automotive Website Design to Attract More Customers

3. High Quality Pictures

Pictures tell more than text. This is the reason why you must add photos to your list of must-have features of an e-commerce website.

Ensure that a professional photographer takes the pictures and videos, as the visuals should be good enough to represent your brand and appeal to your visitors.

Not just high-quality pictures, but today, online shoppers expect to see multiple angles of your products and real people using or wearing your products.

Thus, the pictures should have the zoom-in feature and, if possible, add a  360-degree overview.

Another critical point to consider is having fast-loading photos. According to Adobe, 39% of visitors will leave your website if the pictures take less time to load.

In short, focus on displaying multiple high-quality images of the product, be clear and high resolution, and most importantly, should be optimized for page load time.

4. Extensive Product Page

In this essential e-commerce features list, an informative and engaging product page is undeniably one of the most important functionalities.

Not only does it help you convey the value of your products but also the customers can understand if they really want to purchase the items.

When you design the product page, include sections for featured products, best sellers, exclusive items, related products, or top savers. This will motivate customers to keep exploring your website.

Aside from this, add customer product reviews, similar product recommendations, and pop-ups.

You can also add micro animations on your product page that will help you improve the overall user experience and highlight areas of a page where you’d like your customers to pay more attention.

Usually, the micro-interactions take the form of confirmation messages, hover animations, scrolling visuals, transition animation, sound effects, and error messages.

5. Mobile Friendly Features

In today’s modern marketplace,  online shopping consumers are increasingly reliant on their mobile devices.

According to a survey by Rakuten Insight on online shopping behavior in India conducted in 2022, about 83% of consumers used their smartphone or mobile to purchase online. On the other hand, 12% of consumers used their tablets for online shopping.

In other words, most customers want to browse online shopping stores on their phones, so including mobile optimization in your ecommerce website design is vital.

Ensure that your web design is automatically modified for the screen size and shape of smartphones to enhance your conversion rate and keep customers happy.

6. Product Reviews

Review features of an e-commerce website can help you drive social proof and improve customer loyalty, ultimately building digital trust with your customers.

Reviews are creative ecommerce website design features that drive social proof and improve customer loyalty. According to Entrepreneur, 88% of consumers trust online testimonials as much as personal recommendations.

Based on your website functionality, online stores can apply modules from the most popular review platforms such as Yelp, Trustpilot, and Facebook.

In fact, customer reviews are one of the most essential B2B e-commerce website features that can help you boost your website’s credibility and prove that you have paying customers.

Additionally, customer reviews will add keywords to your online shop, which enhance your site SEO ((search engine optimization), which is another main element for any ecommerce website.

Here’s an example of eBay that allows customers to rate and review products, displaying reviews below the product descriptions and sponsored items.

Don’t Miss: How to Get Rid of Negative Google Reviews & Strategies to Handle Them

7. A Well-Designed Shopping Cart

A shopping cart is one of the features that differentiate e-commerce websites from each other.

One of the ways you can satisfy your buyers and guarantee fantastic shopping experiences is by making it easy to add or remove products, go back to the product page to make changes, or purchase new items.

More than 70% of shoppers leave a website before completing a transaction due to a complex checkout process.

Therefore, it’s recommended to have a simple checkout page that includes a picture of the teams in the shopping car, their names, and details such as size, color, price, etc.

Also Read: How to Develop a Web Portal For Your Business

8. Return Policy

As not all sales go well, implementing a return policy feature in your e-commerce website is essential.

Sometimes, customers receive the wrong product, such as the item being in the wrong size or different color, or they might also not want the product anymore.

Regardless of the reason, the customers expect a return option in the online store. Hence, you need to add this feature. Can customers return products for free, or will there be a charge they’ll need to pay?

What is the minimum waiting time for returns? Can customers exchange an item for another?

These are some of the questions you need to answer in your return policy.

9. Order Tracking

After the customer places an order, the very first question that comes to their mind is when their order will arrive.

So, add order tracking features to your website and make it simple for customers to check their current order status.

The above example of Myntra clearly demonstrates how you can implement this feature on your e-commerce website.

10. Push Notifications

When it comes to must-have features of an e-commerce website, push notifications functionality is undeniably one of them. Implementing push notifications can help capture your e-commerce store visitors as subscribers.

This feature allows visitors to subscribe to your latest updates in their browser. When you have deals you want to notify subscribers of, you can send a message that will be delivered to their notification center via their browser. So, if you want to stay connected with your customers, you should definitely implement this feature.

11. Multiple Payment Option

The online payment system is an essential element of e-commerce platforms. If you’re selling online, your website should accept online payments.

Payment gateway increases customer data security and online transactions and prevents fraud. Payment options play a vital role in buying decisions and closing the sales funnel.

If your customers cannot complete online purchases using their preferred payment method, they will go to your competitors.

That’s why it’s best to integrate multiple payment options. It could be debit cards, credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers, UPI payments, wallets, and more.

Choose online payment options with low to no transaction fees and additional payment security features.

The more payment options, the more efficient and user-friendly the checkout process will be; the more completed transactions, the higher the conversion rate and revenue.

Read More: A Complete Guide on How to Develop a Secure and Feature-Rich UPI Payment App in 2024

12. Chatbots

One of the biggest advantages of running an online store is its ability to generate revenue, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, throughout the year. That also means providing support to your customers during those hours as well.

According to a survey conducted by LivePerson, of 5,000 consumers, positive sentiment about the use of chatbots nearly doubled between 2020 and 2021, from 31% to 61%.

Today, seeing the importance of customer support many online stores use chatbots to help online shoppers with basic questions and navigate them to specific products or support pages.

So, don’t forget to add a chatbot to your e-commerce website.

13. Coupon Codes

When we go on an online shopping website to purchase something, we often search for coupon codes when presented with a coupon or discount box on a checkout page.

According to Statista, in 2020, 88% of consumers in the USA used coupons when shopping.

If you want your customers to come again and again and want to finish the checkout process, simply give them great deals via your won coupon codes.

When visitors click on View Offers, they will get additional offers and coupon codes to apply at checkout, and also because there will be a coupon code expiry date, the customer will hit the order without delay.

14. Product Availability Filters

Product search filters are absolutely top features of an e-commerce website as they allow customers to find the products they are looking for quickly and with ease.

An AI-powered search engine will be even better as your website will be able to predict a user’s query. Filters help shoppers narrow down product lists and focus on the products they’re actually interested in, skipping over the pages and products they don’t need.

This will give you the best chance to convert customers based on fast availability.

15. Loyalty Program

Who doesn’t want to increase customer retention rate? One way to do this with your e-commerce platform is to offer a loyalty program.

These are generally free or paid programs where customers get private or early access to the best deals and discounts.

Many retailers allow customers to collect points as per purchase that lead to various rewards, such as a specific amount off your next purchase or a free product.

So you can also provide a rewards program for your loyal customers. They can join for free and earn points redeemable for products and services online and in-store.

16. FAQ Page

You have return information on your site, which is great, but what if the shoppers cannot easily find it? It’s useless. You can use the FAQ page to display this critical information.

A frequently asked question page is a must-have feature for every e-commerce website. On this page, you can not only showcase the return policy information but also answer potential questions that your customers might have.

For example, they might also want to know about your shipping time and offers. If you don’t answer these questions, most visitors will leave.

When you design and develop your e-commerce website, you should have a detailed FAQ page, too.

17. Personal Data Policy

The last one in this list of top features of an e-commerce website is the personal data policy feature.

Based on where your e-commerce store is established and the target audience it serves, your site may need a policy that notifies visitors of the data that is collected about them on your website using cookies from the website and other analytics tools.

Security plays a significant role in online shopping, so you should pay attention to this. By offering transparency about the data being collected, you’ll be able to build trust with your customers.

Read Next: How to Choose the Best E-commerce Website Development Agency

In Closing

The best features of an e-commerce website are not limited to the abovementioned list; you can add to them based on your business budget and scope. Still, these 17 features of online business will help you start building an unforgettable customer experience.

If you want to build fresh or you're already running a website that lacks these essential features and wants to redesign, contact Arramton.

Our team of web developers and designers has helped more than 100 e-commerce partners achieve what they deserve. We aim to build e-commerce websites that don't just look appealing but also convert visitors into loyal customers and click into sales.

So, if you want to become our client and get the best solution for your business requirements, Get in touch with us today!

FAQs on Features of E-commerce Website

Q. What are the main elements of an eCommerce website?

Ans. The main elements of an e-commerce website include a user-friendly interface for browsing, high-quality product descriptions & images, secure payment options, a clear shopping cart & checkout process, and robust search functionality for easy navigation.

Q. What are the 5 C's of e-commerce?

Ans. The 5 C's of e-commerce are:

• Company (your brand identity),

• Collaborators (partnerships), 

• Customers (understanding their needs), 

• Competitors (analyzing their strategies), and 

• Context (market trends).

Q. How to make an eCommerce website unique?

Ans. To make an e-commerce website unique, you can offer personalized customer experience, exclusive products or bundles, implement loyalty programs, and incorporate engaging content like product stories or tutorials.

Q. Can I build my own eCommerce website?

Ans. Yes! There are website builders with e-commerce functionalities. However, if you want a more comprehensive platform, consider hiring a professional e-commerce website developer.

Q. What are the main functions of an eCommerce website?

Ans. E-commerce websites allow product display & browsing, order processing, secure online payments, customer account management (orders & wishlists), and order fulfillment functionalities.

Q. What are the 3 pillars of secure e-commerce?

Ans. The three pillars of secure e-commerce are:

1. Data security (encryption for customer information),
2. Payment security (PCI compliance for transactions), and
3. Fraud prevention measures to protect both customers and businesses.