Maintaining a competitive digital presence means having an eCommerce solution which does more than just process transactions. Learn about the five essential features your commerce platform needs to swiftly navigate today’s fast-paced digital marketplaces. Success isn’t in the slow lane. Accelerate your business vision with an eCommerce solution which has the speed and flexibility to navigate today’s busy digital markets.
5 eCommerce Features Lead to Faster and Flexible Digital Growth
This article outlines five eCommerce features your platform needs to drive rapid growth and satisfy customer expectations, including:
- Fluid, no-code content creation and preview capabilities
- Support for mobile-first development and Progressive Web Apps
- Seamless entry into multichannel marketplaces and sales channels
- Multi-site control from a centralized admin interface
- Intuitive site design and advanced experience-building tools
Content Summary
Today’s digital marketplace is a crowded battleground
Feature #1: Rapid content creation
Feature #2: Mobile commerce
Feature #3: Multichannel commerce
Feature #4: Multiple front ends, one backend
Feature #5: Flexible design and experience building
Essential features for beating the competition
Today’s digital marketplace is a crowded battleground
To win, you need every advantage you can get. And that means your eCommerce platform should do a lot more than just handle transactions. It should support competitive strategies that help you win.
A competitive commerce platform helps you create a unique customer experience and uncovers new opportunities. And it shouldn’t keep you boxed in with rigid templates. The bottom line? You need a practical solution that can address needs for immediate growth today and evolve with your business for tomorrow.
Feature #1: Rapid content creation
Content isn’t just king anymore; it’s the whole court. 87 percent of consumers rate product content very highly when deciding to buy.1 Rapid and regular content creation is an essential part of running a modern digital business.
Without fresh content, it’s also difficult to rank your site for critical SEO keywords and drive traffic there. The ability to quickly create, preview, and publish new content can give your online marketing and sales a boost.
Key Takeaway: Look for a platform with no-code content creation and preview. Bonus points for content segmentation.
87% of consumers rate product content very highly when deciding to buy. – Cracking the Consumer Code 2017, Salsify
Feature #2: Mobile commerce
50 percent of people have bought something on their smartphone.2 Mobile traffic now makes up 63 percent of all visits to US websites.3 More buyers and more traffic. Sounds great, right? But there’s a catch. All that mobile traffic isn’t necessarily converting.
Poor conversion rates are usually caused by poor responsive design. Mobile apps can offer a better experience, but they must be downloaded by users, which is a big hurdle. The ability to create a responsive website that also delivers an excellent mobile experience can help you turn your mobile traffic into sales.
Key Takeaway: Look for a platform that allows mobilefirst development and supports responsive web pages, native apps, and Progressive Web Apps.
50% of people have bought something on their smartphone. – Pew Research Center, December 2016. 3 “Mobile vs Desktop Usage in 2018: Mobile takes the lead,” Stone Temple, 2018.
Feature #3: Multichannel commerce
Amazon now represents 49 percent of US eCommerce sales, and retail and wholesale marketplaces, such as Albertson’s new digital grocery market, are now coming online as well. And there are other channels: brick and mortar, social selling, retail partnerships, etc.
Although adding new markets is straightforward in concept, adding channels can present inventory management and fulfillment challenges. A commerce platform with built-in support for multiple marketplaces can help you take advantage of these hot opportunities.
Key Takeaway: Look for a platform that’s flexible enough to support multiple marketplaces and sales channels.
Feature #4: Multiple front ends, one backend
Your business can grow fast when you add new storefronts for different locations and brands. But adding multiple storefronts can be a big challenge if you have to run them on separate commerce platforms. Why is that? Syncing data between platforms can be a nightmare. And you never get a single consolidated view of your digital business.
A commerce platform that lets you support multiple storefronts with a single administrative interface can save you time and money. It also makes it easier to see “big-picture” business results.
Key Takeaway: Look for an eCommerce platform that provides one-stop administration for all your stores.
Feature #5: Flexible design and experience building
Shopping online has been around for more than 20 years. It’s no longer a novelty to most customers. In fact, it can be downright boring as a growing number of websites offer the same “cookie-cutter” experience. Having an attractive and engaging web design is a critical part of standing out. Your eCommerce platform should come with a wide variety of design templates. It should also let you customize your user interface to create an experience that supports your brand and is truly unique.
Key Takeaway: Look for an eCommerce platform that supports numerous design themes and flexible front-end development.
Essential features for beating the competition
Here’s how the Magento platform helps your digital business compete and win:
- Ways to Bring Commerce to Customers: Rapid content creation Helpful Magento Features: Page Builder: Keep customers engaged by easily building new pages and keeping content fresh. Target content to specific audiences with customer segmentation.
- Ways to Bring Commerce to Customers: Multiple storefronts with one backend Helpful Magento Features: Magento Commerce: Unify multiple localized sites through a single admin console.
- Ways to Bring Commerce to Customers: Mobile commerce Helpful Magento Features: PWA Studios: Create responsive web pages that deliver an “app-quality” experience. Add mobile-optimized checkouts that improve conversion rates.
- Ways to Bring Commerce to Customers: Multichannel commerce Helpful Magento Features: Magento Amazon Sales Channel: Easily connect your Amazon store to your web store.
- Ways to Bring Commerce to Customers: Flexible design options Helpful Magento Features: Magento Commerce themes: Take advantage of flexible themes that let you quickly create a distinctive look and feel—or build your own UI from scratch.
Source: Magento
