E-Commerce Web Development Optimization For Your Modern Buyer

eCommerce has now been around for more than a generation, and if your site is still stuck in the past, then your revenue figures will be too. Just like with music and culture, the new generation demands that eCommerce sites also change to better suit their tastes. On top of that, there is a continuous change in web development technology and techniques, rendering even sites that are a year old - obsolete.

Optimizing your website with the aid of a professional eCommerce website development company can prevent this lack of appeal and facilitate your site for the modern consumer. The company will have expert web developers who can assess the deficiencies present in your eCommerce website that could be holding it back from performing well. The experts will come up with a website optimization strategy to address those shortcomings and enable the brand visibility and customer accessibility you desire.

This blog gives you a look at the optimizations that can be done to your eStore website, and how it impacts your sales figures. These technologies/techniques can be found below, and they can be incorporated by you into your site as you deem fit.

eCommerce Web Development Optimizations for the Modern Customer

1. Voice Search Integration

Alexa, Siri, and other voice assistants are now Machine Learning-driven Artificial Intelligence-based virtual entities that perform complex tasks like ordering any item you want from your favorite online store. If your eStore website cannot respond to such voice-based purchases or searches optimally, then your business takes a sales hit., as 62% of voice-enabled speaker owners conduct commerce through it.

Hire eCommerce web developers and you can have a plethora of voice assistants integrated into your website. They can also optimize the website’s technical aspects to make it easier for voice assistants to access and use the website. You can even opt for Search Engine Optimization services if your outsourcing agency is offering it, to organize the site’s content specifically for voice search. This integration and content optimization will draw more traffic to your site, and subsequently, more revenue.

2. Influencer Content Integration

Social Media influencers play a pivotal role in today’s digital marketing landscape. They command a large audience and work to develop a strong brand value for themselves on various social media sites.

These aspects make them a great asset for any brand to market its products/services to the modern customer. But, using them for your business’s marketing purposes without careful consideration may not yield a good ROI as your brand voice may be drowned in a sea of similar content.

The good news is that technology now allows you to integrate that content directly into your eCommerce website. Thus, if a prospective smartphone buyer wants to know more about their shortlisted choice, they needn’t go searching for a review video of it on a social media website. They can simply play that video right on the product page due to its integration. This increases conversion rates and draws views to your site.

3. Augmented Reality Addition

Augmented Reality is the technology that blurs the line between the physical and virtual worlds by overlaying virtual entities over physical ones. It is witnessing increasing adoption as it enhances multiple functions, including shopping. Expert web developers at an eCommerce web development company are needed to add this complex feature to your website.

Using it, customers can try on a dress or a pair of glasses without having the object in hand. A to-scale image of the item is overlaid on the surface the real object would be used on, resulting in a virtual try-on of that item. This helps increase conversions as customers will be compelled to buy the virtually tried-on item that they may have rejected otherwise. They needn't use their imagination to know if that item will suit them or not anymore.

4. Mobile-esque Modifications

The majority of the world’s internet users access it via their mobiles, and eCommerce is particularly prone to this phenomenon. eCommerce mobile applications are behind the stupendous growth of the industry as the highly-optimized interface and functioning of the apps provide a great user experience. To compete, your website should morph itself such that it can work on a mobile browser as well as its dedicated app counterpart.

You can hire eCommerce developers to modify your website such that it becomes more mobile-friendly. This means making sure the load times are as low as can be, SERPs are continuously scrollable instead of being divided into pages, variant selection options are similar to how it is on the app, etc.

You can even go even more technologically advanced and have Progressive Web Apps created. They are a hybrid between websites and mobile apps, allowing the customer to post a direct link to your website on their mobile phone’s homepage that has the appearance of an app. It offers the mobile-friendly characteristics of an app while also giving the limited-resource consumption characteristics of websites.

5. Payment Diversification

The newer generations have not just embraced technology for communication and entertainment, but also for performing important tasks like making payments online. They do this using integrated payment gateways that are present on eCommerce websites and are connected directly to the customers’ bank accounts. All it takes are a few taps on their device’s screens, and your revenue jumps.

On your end, you have to integrate as many payment processing APIs as you can into your eCommerce website so that you provide this easy payment facility to as many customers as possible. There are many payment gateway companies in the market, each with its requirements for integration. Therefore, going with an eCommerce web development company having the requisite experts is an inevitability if you want to reinforce your sales figures via payment easing.

6. Headless Commerce Adoption

Front-end and back-end are the two parts of any website that must always be in coherence for it to work as intended. At times, however, this is not the case, as many issues like high traffic, technical glitches, hardware problems, etc., can cause the two components to not maintain synchronization. At such times, the user experiences a host of website issues, like slow loading times, items added to the cart going missing, incorrect payment processing, etc.

The solution for this issue is called headless web development. In this architecture, an additional abstraction layer is added between the end user and the website via javascript. This separates the PHP logic that renders HTML data in the traditional model, instead making it control access to the data contained in the database of a content management system. The Javascript fetches the data and renders the HTML instead for the front end.

This decoupling has huge implications for user experience, a critical component for any website, but more so for an eCommerce one. It means that users don’t have to contend with backend issues that may affect the front end directly, leading to smoother site usage. For you, it means improved traffic, customer engagement, conversion rates, and brand value. Confirm with your potential eCommerce website development company if this is the development path they’ll follow while evaluating them for outsourcing.

7. Asymmetrical Design Implementation

It is common for the younger generation to demand something different from their predecessors in terms of design. This applies to website design too, with modern customers looking for a refreshing look for every website they visit. The rise of tools that help to create websites easily often goes against this by providing website layout templates that multiple websites can use. And they also tend to be symmetrical as that design language has always created clean-looking web pages.

But the trend now is for websites to have an asymmetrical layout. While it’s risky since it could spoil the look of your eCommerce website altogether, on the flipside, getting it right will reap the rewards of higher visibility and sales. An example of this layout is having your highlighted products show up on your site’s main page scattered in random positions within the main viewing space as opposed to being presented in an orderly manner.

The advantage of pursuing this layout design is that it allows you to infuse more creativity into your website. It helps make the site unique, meaning your customers and prospects can easily recognize it. This aids your branding efforts by helping you stand apart from your competition, and channels traffic more easily to your website. Implementing this in your eCommerce website requires good graphic designers along with traditional web developers, so confirm the presence of the former professionals with the eCommerce web development company that you’re outsourcing to.

8. Increased Personalization

Modern shoppers don’t want to virtually window shop on eCommerce websites to get to their desired products. They would instead prefer links to products provided to them via clickable ads, emails, mobile notifications, etc. This means your website should not only have space for such ads but also monitor user activity so that you can personalize it according to each user’s requirements.

This can be achieved by the use of advanced tracking mechanisms that capture vital KPIs and any other relevant data points on user behavior on the site. These are then analyzed, sometimes in real-time, and appropriate products are presented in ads and as recommended products on the site. Additionally, you can have the website personalize items based on a user’s region by using GPS/Geo-location technologies.

Additional filters like size, price, color, brand, etc., can be provided for further personalization by users manually. With these measures, you enable them to find their desired products very easily, thus increasing your chances of sale and reducing bounce rates.

Conclusion

The eCommerce industry still has a lot of ground to cover as more and more people gain access to the internet each year. The web development industry is also in the same boat, ready to deliver more unique and memorable user experiences through exquisite website construction. Hire eCommerce developers and you combine the best aspects of these two industries for the benefit of your eCommerce business and your customers alike. Your website will be easier to use, more engaging, have lower lag and loading times, and come with a plethora of features that boost sales figures and customer relationships.