As eCommerce has become the major player in the global retail market, running an online store is a highly competitive business in 2020. If you’re planning to launch an eCommerce store, we’ve got some good news for you. WordPress made entering the eCommerce world easier than ever before. We’ve gathered the best practices to help you build a WordPress-powered eCommerce store.
Why use WordPress for building an eCommerce store?
WordPress has been around for 17 years now. What was originally adopted by bloggers as a content management system, is now being employed for creating websites for all kinds of businesses. Did you know that 35% of all websites are WordPress-powered? Many companies choose WordPress for creating their eCommerce websites because it is an open-source system that offers a huge number of themes, plugins, and upgrades. This means that you can build a powerful website with all the tools necessary for selling large volumes of products and managing payments. Without further ado, let’s take a look at six tips essential for launching a WordPress eCommerce website in 2020.
High-quality images are a must:
Research suggests that human brains process visual information 60,000 times faster compared to text, and 90% of all information our brains receive is visual. That’s why in eCommerce, it’s particularly important to pay special attention to your visual content.
Let’s all agree that it’s frustrating when you can’t really see what you’re buying online. For that reason, all product images should be zoomable, high-quality, and multi-angle.Use interactive content:
Interactive content has become a showstopper of eCommerce websites. Using animated GIFs or illustrations is great for grabbing customers’ attention and showing the benefits of your products. Apple is well known for delivering first-class interactive content.
Product sliders are another great way to incorporate visual content into your online store. Sliders are great for product promotion because they invite customers to view more products. Suggesting matching products is a great way of using sliders in online retail. For instance, instead of offering similar products, you can offer a total look. Here’s how Reebok offers to “complete the look” with other products.
Incorporate parallax scrolling:
Even though parallax scrolling has been around for a while, the trend doesn’t seem to go away in 2020. Parallax scrolling is when the new chunks of information are showing while users scroll down the webpage. When you incorporate parallax scrolling, it adds an extra dynamic to your design, which is great for catching attention. Gucci does a great job creatively employing parallax scrolling.
Choose your eCommerce plugin carefully:
One way to add an eCommerce section to your WordPress website is by using a plugin. Each plugin offers a set of functionalities and features from payment solutions to integrations. Some plugins are great for selling services online, while others are better suited for physical products that require shipping. Let’s figure out what to look for in a plugin for your eCommerce website.
- Payment gateways. Your plugin must offer support for your preferred payment gateways. Some plugins provide this feature by default, while others require extensions.
- Integration. It’s important that your eCommerce plugin offers integrations for third-party apps. To manage your business, you’ll need to integrate email marketing services, accounting software, and other applications.
- Customer support. Last but not least, your plugin should offer support options.
And don’t forget about your theme:
There are a lot of beautifully designed WordPress themes out there that are not suited for eCommerce websites. That’s why it’s so important to choose an established eCommerce-specific theme to build a professionally-looking online store. Let’s see what you should look for in an eCommerce theme.
- Design options: Design is probably the most important aspect when choosing your theme. Look for large selections of design templates and customization features.
- Integration: Similarly to plugins, your theme should work with your other eCommerce software and with plugins themselves.
- Regular updates: Choose a theme that includes regular updates, and that has been updated within the last six months.
- Responsive design: Your theme should be mobile-friendly, responsive, and display all of your content properly across various devices.
- SEO: Choose a theme that supports search engine optimization. You should be able to link similar products to one another, create metadata for images and meta descriptions for pages, as well as hyperlink images to content.
- Design options: Design is probably the most important aspect when choosing your theme. Look for large selections of design templates and customization features.
- Get creative with your marketing blog:
Launching a marketing blog brings a lot of benefits. Firstly, it brands you as an expert in your industry and gives you a friendly voice. Secondly, it’s a great way to engage your customers and boost your conversion rates. And finally, it’s a free marketing platform that you can use for product announcements.
Your eCommerce store blog can contain lots of useful content. Educational articles, how-to, and step-by-step guides are the most popular forms of blogging. For example, if your brand inspires sustainability and produces recyclable products, you can write blog posts about how you produce your products and why recyclable materials are important. If you struggle with writing, try using grammar checking services like Grammarly to improve your writing. Besides posting traditional written content, you can add videos, infographics, or even podcasts.
Final thoughts
Hopefully, now you’re a bit closer to creating an eCommerce store. Before you move further to taking action, let’s wrap up what you’ve learned about planning your online store. High-quality visuals are a must. You can take it a step beyond images and offer interactive content to showcase your products. Illustrations, GIFs, product sliders, and parallax scrolling will help you keep customers glued to the screen. It’s crucial to choose your plugins and themes carefully. And finally, you can breathe in some fresh air into the old marketing blog by posting explainer videos, infographics, and other non-written content.
