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How to Upgrade Your E-Commerce Website Features

For any business, whether they are concerned primarily with e-commerce or not, the need to continuously improve, augment and hone their digital presence remains a key priority – no matter how much time they have already devoted to their site.

It is, after all, emblematic of the internet as-a-whole that we can never consider ourselves ‘finished’ with site development. Since its introduction almost thirty years ago, the world wide web has facilitated a continuous state of change for countless creatives, meaning that, in order to keep up, we all need to give precedence to upgrading and developing what is already bringing in its fair share of success.

Read just a few of our top tips for upgrading your e-commerce website, below.

 

Utilise a High Quality Print on Demand Service

Print on demand, or POD, offers a huge range of benefits for businesses of all sizes.

It is, of course, always preferable for you to utilise a POD service that is already integrated within your existing e-commerce platform. This is part of the reason why utilizing a fully-integrated website builder has come to represent something of a paradigm for e-commerce businesses. For instance, the Wix POD feature available via their comprehensive platform enables businesses to mock-up their own personalized products (and, of course, create corresponding product pages) before fulfilling orders via a convenient and cost-effective dropshipping solution.

What this enables in the first instance is a quality range of unique and branded products. In time, it allows for unbridled growth, as businesses needn’t be limited by their own capacity for product creation, stock management, or order fulfilment.

 

Plan More Digital Events and Special Offers

When it comes to maintaining a digital storefront, it is all too easy for the days to turn into weeks, and for those weeks to define the entire experience users find each time they return to your site. In essence, even if growth is apparent behind the scenes – and your business is experiencing tremendous success doing precisely what it has always done – that’s not to say that your customers will detect the same atmosphere of success and excitement when they visit your site.

It is for this reason that regularly updating your site, ringing in the changes, diversifying your product offerings all come highly recommended, so as to encourage return visits (and with greater frequency).

For this same reason, however, you should also make a concerted effort to organize more online  events and special offers.

These episodes will provide invaluable fuel to the home fire of your existing site, giving you plenty of enticing fodder for your email marketing strategy, and social media – from Twitter posts to building your brand on IGTV.

 

Invest More into Product Photography and Videography

Creating the face of your product catalogue, and ensuring that every one of your products is presented in a manner worthy of its quality and value, is something that any e-commerce business owner should be continuously working toward. In the very early days of the internet, it may well have sufficed to offer one or two digital photographs but, these days, not only do online shoppers see good product presentation as a benchmark of quality, but their perception of your business – that all-important first-impression – is also profoundly impacted.

Users can and will be swayed by high quality photography, and a consistent commitment to detail. This is not something that can be overlooked, postponed, or done on a spontaneous basis; it must be strategic, professional, and uniform across your site in order to bear the sort of fruit for which you are hoping.

 

Follow Up in Order to Gain Invaluable User Reviews and Photos

It is an immutable fact of life – and, more than any other area of it, the internet – that no degree of commitment or time spent on perfecting your website and/or products can replace the authenticity and value of user reviews.

In all likelihood, anyone reading this article has purchased products and services online. As a customer, it is much easier to understand the significance of user reviews than it is when you are viewing the situation as an e-commerce business owner. When it comes to our own sites, it is only natural that we are far more interested in those aspects we can control – such as the design, the products, and services on offer – than those largely independent variables, such as customer opinions.

These opinions are, however, essential to your ability to paint an honest, accurate and clear portrait of your own brand.

If you work in the fashion industry, then including customers’ own photos not only reassures customers of the item’s quality before they buy, but it also allows you to take a stance as a business, and commit to a more diverse representation for different bodies.

This is, of course, just one example of the wider impact made by enabling your own customers to hold sway within the confines of your website, but it should offer significant insight into how valuable your own customer-base is to upgrading your website beyond the bare mechanics of e-commerce.