Keys to a Successful E-Commerce Business

While getting into the online business world may seem easy, creating a good name and establishing a  solid business is the real challenge. The truth is, not all entrepreneurs succeed in this field because not all online websites provide the best services and leave a lasting impression on their consumers. The internet is also one of the most competitive marketing platforms in any business market.

In this webinar hosted by Convert, Kevin Eichelberger of Blue Acorn talks about eCommerce conversion optimization and the keys to having a successful online business. You can watch the complete webinar here. Unlike the good old days when providing convenience was already enough, consumers nowadays are wiser. They are always on the look-out for e-stores that are highly proficient, and they would never settle for anything less than what they deserve—and that’s convenience, security, and comfort all wrapped up in one. So if you are in for the challenge, let’s get started on the various ways in which you can create a good image and provide the right business in the field.

Optimizing Loading Speed

The main aim of e-Commerce is simply to state, but audacious in scope— providing the best to the consumers. Since shoppers are visiting your store to save time and to shop for all the items that they need minus the hassle of going to actual shops, one of the areas that you greatly need to concentrate on is the loading speed of your site.

[Tweet “1 in 4 people will abandon a website if it takes longer than 4 seconds for it to load”]

If your pages take ages to load, you would definitely irritate your consumers and there is a high probability that they will ditch the idea of buying anything from your site. You never want this to happen because aside from convert visits into profits, what you want the most is to attract traffic in the first place.

Browser Caching

Once a shopper clicks a particular link, there is information being requested first before the consumer becomes capable of viewing the page. Leveraging your browser caching through reducing the number HTTP requests can shorten the loading time of your page, while reducing the fees that you have to pay for the host of your site. Isn’t this a win-win situation?

Images

Before you go live, you always have to check for areas in your page that you can highly improve. Optimizing the images that you post on your site will help you decrease your page’s loading time without compromising the quality of the photos. Having the right images on your website can be one of the most enticing and attracting elements of your website.

CSS Sprites

Speaking of images, CSS Sprites are definitely a gift to all entrepreneurs who wish to take advantage of the visuals without having to worry about the site getting too slow to load. According to Website Optimization,

CSS sprites group multiple images into one composite image and display them using CSS background positioning. You can save a significant amount of HTTP requests by consolidating your images into one or more composite sprites and using CSS to selectively display parts of the sprite within your web page.

This means that the number of round trips, request overhead, downloading delays and the number of bytes a certain web page downloads are significantly reduced. So if you are worried about compromising speed because of the number of images you wish to include in your site, hush, my dear, and let CSS Sprite do all the magic in your page.

Reduce Redirects and Request Size

Minimize what you can while you still can. Reducing the number of redirects also lessens waiting time for shoppers since it greatly cuts extra RTT’s. In the like manner, keeping those request headers and cookies small can definitely make your audience’s waiting time go shorter.

Compress What You Can Compress

This may be a little cliche, but compressing really works wonders for any webpage. With the help of GZIP, your chosen resources can be compressed in a single file, making it easier for the audience to download information from your site.

Internet Security

Consumers are only going to buy your products if they would feel safe and secure. One way of showing your dearly beloved shoppers that trust-worthy professionals are behind your site is through your shipping and returns policies. Since a lot of shoppers tend to abandon their carts once they do not get a full understanding of the shop’s policies, it is crucial that you stir clear of anything ambiguous and make sure that your audience gets a good grip of all of your shipping and returns policies. Always keep in mind that free shipping is a very major attraction.

And lastly, always make the shoppers feel that they are guided. This way, you can rise above others in the field and fully succeed in the virtual domain. If you want to learn more about this, or if you want to view the entire webinar, click here.