In our latest article, we provided a list of some of the most important features of a performant ecommerce website. Today, we would like to bring you more resources from ecommerce field specialists:

• Performance Metrics for Ecommerce
• 25 ECommerce Web Designs
• Tips for Creating an Excellent E-Commerce Website
• Planning your E-Commerce Website
• 10 Ecommerce Design Tips for Increasing Conversions

In our latest article, we provided a list of some of the most popular e-commerce platforms together with their primary features. In today’s blog post, we will discuss the most important features of an ecommerce website and will offer some tips and suggestions to building an effective ecommerce website.

Competition among online stores is so strong one may only survive by focusing on two key aspects: understanding what customers want and how to ease the buying process. Usually, the cleanest and most practical website design will make it simple for your customers to buy. So, a user friendly site is a critical component.

Before starting down the path to create an ecommerce website, one should factor in concepts like:

1. Simplicity: The website design should be simple, because complicated and excessive backgrounds can distract the website’s visitors. You should choose background colors that will not distract users’ attention from the product itself.
2. Speed: If it takes too long to download, users can easily turn away from your website and purchase items from another online competitor. Design a web page that loads quickly.
3. Usability: Consider providing more avenues in order for the user to find items, since customers look for products in many different ways. Some know exactly what they are looking for; others only have a perceived notion. Customers should be able to quickly navigate through an items database and easily find what they need. Provide a logical category structure and put your items in more than one category. Showcase featured products on your website’s homepage to let your customers know what products they might be interested in. Keep your search bar visible and accessible.
4. Product presentation: Product images play a fundamental role in the purchase process. Use clear images with high resolution. Furthermore, think of using more than one picture and display the item from more than one view. Give users the opportunity to zoom in and out and turn around products. Keep the product description text simple and accurate and use clear and brief titles.
5. Checkout: Too many pages in the purchase path can be the reason why one doesn’t complete his/her online sale or leaves the shopping cart. Simplify the checkout process by designing a step-by-step process or a one-page checkout. Also, make sure your checkout forms are not too long.
6. Security: Display clear pricing and shipping information, along with clear labels for all items or additional services. Establish fair practices that will be followed by your company and make them clear in your privacy policy. Your website visitors should be able to view clear return policies and have easy access to customer service.

At CodeMyIMAGE, we believe creating effective ecommerce websites requires a clear understanding of the available technology and knowledge about the way different users browse websites. We are aware that, for any resulting online order, ecommerce websites need to support a great user experience.

In our latest article we shared our vision on the GetShopped eCommerce application. Today, we would like to bring you more resources on the newest eCommerce solutions:

• Getshopped – The Features You’ll Love
• eCommerce for Start-ups and Small Business
• Five Best Online Website Builders
• Ecommerce Solutions Expected to Make Waves in 2011

Lately, there has been a boom in online stores, changing the web into a very competitive marketplace. If you are considering an online store for your business, then you should think strategically about your choice for an eCommerce solution. In our last post, we reviewed the most popular eCommerce platforms but we also want to make you aware of some up-and-coming solutions that you may want to consider as they offer more innovative and effective features.

In today’s post, we want to provide you with more insight into the features of GetShopped eCommerce platform.

GetShopped is the perfect choice for any WordPress fan. Developed exclusively for WordPress, GetShopped includes many enhancements previously not available for a WordPress application. And like other open source solutions, It too is a free.

GetShopped is 100% customizable, so it enables the flexibility of your own HTML and CSS and having complete control over the look and feel of the store. It supports all the major online payment service providers like PayPal, Google Checkout, Chronopay, Authorize, eWay Payment, iDEAL, BluePay, DPS, Paystation and SagePay.

Choosing GetShopped ecommerce platform offers various other benefits:

It integrates perfectly with your WordPress CMS

• Works with any standards compliant WordPress theme
• Supports regular WordPress widgets and other plug-in

It is a great marketing tool

• Coupon/discount pricing rules
• Quantity discounts
• Free shipping options
• Cross-sells on product pages
• Uses a share this button
• Integrates with Facebook Marketplace
• Integrates with Google Base
• Integrates with Campaign Monitor for advanced email marketing
• Integrates with Intense Debate for shared comments

It is a search engine friendly plug-in

• Meta-information for products and categories
• RSS feeds for products and categories
• Integrates with the All in One SEO plug-in for WordPress.

Furthermore, GetShopped provides other important purchasing options for your online store, such as:

• International support – multi-lingual; support for multiple currencies; specific countries targeting option.

• Shipping options – flexible built-in shipping rate calculators; domestic and global shipping rates; flat rate shipping; table rate shipping, weight rate shipping.

• Easy checkout - one-page checkout or stepped checkout; checkout without account/guest checkout.

At CodeMyIMAGE, we can help you integrate your designs with the GetShopped platform very easily, making sure that both design and layout are fully customized according to your specifications!

Are you designing an Ecommerce website and need a very flexible platform to integrate it to? Then you may want to recommend X-Cart software to your client, built with open source code.

X-Cart is a template based content management system which enables the client the freedom to change the look and feel of their shopping cart system and customize it in the way they want or in such a way to meet the needs of their ecommerce business.

At CodeMyIMAGE, we can help you integrate your designs with the X-Cart Ecommerce platform very easily, making sure that both design and layout are fully customized according to your specifications! Choosing X-Cart software offers even more benefits and we recommend it because:

1. The code is optimized for fast performance with up to 500000 products, depending on the server configuration your client chooses.
2. X-Cart has a W3C-compliant storefront with a CSS-based layout.  And it comes with multiple Ecommerce design templates that are fully customizable.
3. X-Cart is highly extensible. The simple PHP code and template-based storefront make it easy for your client to manage and create a world class online store.
4. Your website pages can be indexed by all major search engines.  Also, users can define custom META tags, titles, and URLs for each category, to improve page ranking for their online store. This makes X-Cart a SEO friendly platform.
5. AJAX-based components and intuitive navigation improve the user experience.

So, if you were uncertain about the possibilities of using X-cart, now you can consider the options and make the recommendation that best suits you or your clients needs.