More businesses than ever before are making forays into the world of eCommerce. Whether you are a tyro or a tycoon, your business needs recognition, and customers must be able to find you from anywhere.
With an increasing number of customers or prospective buyers coming online to do their shopping, businesses must have full-fledged online stores in place. With that said, eCommerce is not easy. In fact, it can be one of the toughest challenges to tackle for even an industry veteran.
That is why there are so many eCommerce platforms out there, vying for new clients to use their software. Some sell themselves through their well-integrated themes, user-friendly interfaces, easy navigation, check-in and checkout eCommerce features, and extensive customization.
Choosing the most versatile, powerful, and cost-effective eCommerce platform for your business is no easy task, and careful consideration is vital. Your decision can actually make or break your business in the coming years because it will affect your business’s ability to deliver great customer shopping experiences. Migration is an option if anything, but it can be long, draining, and ultimately unsatisfying.
So how should you make your choice? While the answer ultimately depends on the specific needs of your business, the platform you decide to use should have some bare-minimum features. To help with this, we have compiled an eCommerce checklist of 10 features that must be available on your next or first eCommerce platform.
1. Responsive Website Builder
An eCommerce platform’s website builder software should be flexible enough that you can create exactly the kind of online store you want. However, all that work will be for nothing if it cannot fit within screens of any dimension.
Instead of basing the layout based solely on its desktop appearance, you should think about all the potential customers who conduct their online shopping on their phones. According to eCommerce statistics, mobile users comprise 53% of all online store traffic and 30% of sales. That is where the concept of responsive design comes in.
Responsive website builders allow technicians and graphic designers to create sites that automatically adjust their layouts to match the dimensions of the window or screen. The best software can do this without compromising any features or load speed. More people can visit responsive websites from more devices, which naturally translates to more sales.
2. Optimized Shopping Cart & Checkout Process
Shopping cart software is what makes an online store function — otherwise, it is just a website, and people could not order anything. It is not enough just to have a shopping cart available. Adding items to it and making the final purchase should be as smooth and convenient as possible. Otherwise, your customers will turn to a rival who can provide that simple experience.
One feature we recommend is a shopping cart saver. This would enable people to start adding items to a cart and finish their orders at different, more convenient times. Related to this is the wish list, where people can manually save items that pique their interest. They can return to the ideas, make a decision, and order what they want.
For the checkout, you must choose wisely between the selection of one-page & three-page checkout wisely. If you are aiming at higher conversions, keeping all checkout information on one page might be handier. A three-page checkout might work well if you include a progress bar, or a similar tool showing them exactly where they are in the process.
3. Reliable & Secure Hosting
Web hosting services store people’s websites on servers and provide public access to them. The service you select must be one that you can trust to keep your website running. If it does not offer at least a 99.9% uptime guarantee, then look elsewhere.
Security is also vital because customers must share highly sensitive information in order to make a transaction. Make sure that your website has an SSL certificate along with secure Level 1 PCI hosting so that this information stays just between your store and your client.
4. Cart Abandonment Solutions 
According to some recent statistics on consumer behavior online, 73% of all shopping carts are abandoned for various reasons. It is not always intentional — sometimes, people just forget their cart or close out the tab on accident. Your chosen eCommerce platform should include customizable automated recovery emails that can be sent as needed.
For cases where the abandonment was intentional, you increase your chances of winning them over by embedding discount incentives. You will only know if these methods work if your platform offers detailed reporting and analysis of abandoned and recovered carts.
5. Payment Methods
Appealing to the widest amount of customers possible requires meeting them where they are, and that extends to the very end of the checkout process. It should not only be as easy as possible for customers but also accept a wide range of payment options.
All popular credit cards, such as Visa and MasterCard, must be compatible with your payment gateway. Keeping up with the latest payment alternatives — Google Pay, Apple Pay, Bitcoin, and PayPal, among others — should be a mandate. In addition, if you sell at a brick-and-mortar location, your online store should have a built-in point of sale (POS) systems in place before their big launch.
6. Shipping Tools
Printing accurate shipping labels ensures that every order reaches its designated destination in a timely fashion. If you operate with a dropshipping model, you need to be able to trust that the supplier holding your inventory will deliver the goods the way your customers would want.
The eCommerce platform you choose must also support integrating your preferred shipping solutions into the plan. Quick shipping is always a plus for customers, but reliability is the key to winning their loyalty.
7. Automatic Tax Calculation
The final cost for an item may be quite different depending on whether the sale is in-state, interstate, or international. You need to make sure that customers are charged nothing more than the amounts stipulated by the relevant tax laws.
That is why Your chosen eCommerce platform must have, as a built-in feature, automatic calculation of tax rates based on the store and customer location. Integrating with tax solutions and customizing tax rates for specific products listed on your business site is a prerequisite for your store’s checkout process.
8. Order Management
Online tracking tools are essential for users who are always on the go. One popular example is software that automatically sends email status updates about the whereabouts of a customer’s order and the status of delivery. Similarly, you can find platforms with various tools that encourage visitors to sign up for subscription services.
Just as important is that online customers these days often also fret about your displayed Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) system. It details out the replacement, repair and refund rules in case of product returns through your online store.
Finally, selling online gives you access to multiple marketplaces beyond your storefront, such as Facebook, Amazon, and eBay. You can only gain access to them, though, if your platform offers multi-channel support. Automatic and synchronized inventory updates, in particular, are a must-have.
9. Inventory Management
Regardless of where you sell your products, modern buyers will be more inclined to buy them if they can see them beforehand. Product images & videos are, therefore, quite essential factors in determining sales. Do not treat them lightly.
Some platforms are more generous with inventory space than others. If possible, look for one that can support unlimited product options and product variants. Of course, if you have a massive selection of items for sale, you need to give customers an easy way to find what they seek. That is where systematic and organized product categorization features cine in.
With this in mind, you may also want to find a platform that offers advantages for both upselling and cross-selling. See if any of the features can encourage visitors to go for higher-end versions or variants of the products in their cart or wish list. Showing related items, like Amazon’s “customers, also bought” roll, may also increase sales.
10. Marketing & SEO Tools
SEO is key to the success of your online business, as a higher ranking on search engine results pages gives your site a significant edge over the competition. Customizable SEO features should allow you to edit meta tags, page titles, and URL slugs. Of course, content is the best way to bump up your SEO scores. Most eCommerce platforms have built-in blogging software capable of driving major traffic to your site.
Additionally, email marketing software and social media integrations can work wonders in increasing visitors, engagement, and, as a result, sales. These really are bare basics, especially nowadays. Your platform must have them if you hope to rise above your rivals.
Summary
Without an iota of doubt, choosing the right eCommerce platform can play a major part in the success of any internet-based entrepreneurial endeavor. You ought to take your online business to the next level using comprehensive eCommerce platforms with all the features on this checklist. If your current platform lacks any of them, you must look into migration. If it has all of them, you must learn how to make the most of them.
Author: Gonzalo Gil
Founder and CEO of Shift4Shop, a leading online store builder ranked as the best shopping cart software for SEO. As an eCommerce expert, Gonzalo works with businesses of all sizes to help them build their online presence and succeed in selling online.
