Themes and Mods

4 Most Important Factors Crucial to WordPress E-commerce Site's Success

There’s no denying that WordPress is an excellent choice for creating a website on  a CMS platform. After all, it holds 58.7 percent of the CMS market share, which is higher compared to all other CMS systems out there. Initially built as a blogging platform, WordPress is today acknowledged as a full-fledged CMS platform. Moreover, it can be used for building almost any sort of website – be it a blogging site, a corporate website, an e-commerce site, etc.

Here in this post, I’ll make you learn about some important factors that will help you build a successful e-commerce site on the WordPress platform.

1. Create an Strong Foundation By Choosing an Appropriate Platform

It’s a well-understood fact that a strong foundation is crucial for running a website successfully in the long run. Since, layout is the foundation of a successful website, it is important for you to select an e-commerce platform that can help you in creating an effective layout.

Luckily, there are several great platforms out there that can be used for setting up an online storefront such as Magento, WordPress, OpenCart, etc. Out of all these platforms Magento is the most preferred and trusted e-commerce platform used by online retailers for building an e-commerce store. After all, it was developed particularly for eCommerce.

But, Magento isn’t a perfect choice for building standard e-commerce sites with fewer products. So, if you want to set up an e-commerce site with less products, then you should consider choosing the WordPress platform instead.

2. Pick a Visually Appealing and Fast Performance Theme

Apart from platform, you should also focus on choosing the right template to ensure success of your e-commerce site. That’s because, your website theme design is the first thing that your users will notice about your eCommerce business. In fact, it is the entry point that plays a vital role in convincing a visitor to stay on your site.

Fortunately, you can find several (free and premium) WordPress e-commerce themes online that helps in putting up an e-shop in no time. But, remember that not all the themes are equal. While some themes might only help you set up a simple online shop, a few others can also provide advanced e-commerce functionalities. Moreover, you must also focus on choosing a template with clean code fast loading time.

It would be better if you’ll select a premium theme that features modern style design and essential e-commerce features like a shopping cart, integration with payment gateways, product overviews, etc.

3. Search For Useful E-commerce Plugins

Since WordPress wasn’t built for eCommerce, it lacks features that the Magento platform can offer. But thanks to the advent of e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce and others, many retailers are choosing WordPress as their e-commerce platform. Installing e-commerce plugins can help add advanced and essential eCommerce functionality to your WordPress powered e-shop.

Undoubtedly, WooCommerce is the best choice for adding the functionality of an online shop in your WP site. Aside this plugin, you can consider using the WP e-commerce as well, since it not only helps in selling physical inventory, but also enables you to sell digital downloads, and so on.

4. Add Short Yet Relevant Product Descriptions

While it’s true that content alone can’t help make a person make some purchasing decision in an e-commerce site, but you can’t deny the fact that without getting any information a user can’t decide if a product is useful or not. For instance, let’s suppose you want to set up a WordPress e-commerce site for selling e-books. A customer won’t buy an e-book, simply because of its cover, they’ll like to know a little about what if offers.

But avoid writing useless content in your site. Remember that only a distinct and relevant message can make your users interested in your brand. So, make sure to add short and, at the same time, useful product descriptions to provide your users an idea of what your product will offer. Also, make sure to add captivating images along with product description, as it will help in attracting (and encouraging) users to buy some item from your site.

Also, consider adding testimonials on your site, as it helps in creating trust with your users. Furthermore, allow your visitors to share their experiences about your online store. Testimonials and commenting are the two most effective ways spread your brand reach.

5. Check-out Process Must be Simple and Straightforward

This is the most crucial factor that encourage users to make purchases. Needless to say, your e-shop is of no use if cannot encourage a visitor to make some investment. But sadly, a check-out process can also make your visitors abandon your site. As a fact, 11 percent of buyers exit a site due to complicated check-out process. But, you can avoid such a scenario, by making your check-out process simple and precise.

Keep in mind that we’re dealing with the not-so-patient users today who want quick access to information, and likewise want to make purchasing decision quickly. So, make sure that your check-out process contains only relevant fields that are sufficient for selling a product, such as the customer’s name and contact information.

Conclusion

Have you been planning on starting up an e-commerce site/store on WordPress platform? Well, then make sure to consider the above discussed key factors in mind before starting your e-commerce development process.

Author Biography:
Building an E Commerce portal in today’s scenario is not much difficult or we can say is not so much easy also. Here, Samuel Dawson has shared a nice article above on building a perfect Ecommerce website. He is being a WordPress professional involved in the process to convert html to WordPress website.