According to a reputable statistics site, there are 263 million Americans who shop by category online. Among the popular categories are fashion, media, and electronics. Amazon, eBay, and Aliexpress are considered to be the most established brands and retail giants in the World Wide Web.

Among the benefits of online purchase sites are convenience, better prices, variety of items, no crowds, no pressure, ease in price comparison, privacy in purchasing, and access to cheaper inventory. It’s convenient to shop in the comfort of your home. You do your research about the item that you want to buy by going through the various product review sites that give you a comparison of their features and prices. There is no salesperson who will waste your time with his sales pitch and pressure you to buy his company’s products or services. You are left to decide on your own at a time that is convenient to you. There is no need to go out so you save time, effort as well as skip the crowds. You can search for cheaper items as those that are on sale or used and save tons of money for that.

There may be some benefits of online shopping stores but the Web is a saturated market and eCommerce sites face the challenges brought about by tough competitors as well as the advancement of technology and the ever-changing consumer preferences.

The effective online store website

In order to stay in business, online shopping websites consider the following factors when managing their website, products, and marketing:

1. Organized website. Make your website intuitive and pleasing to the eyes. Ensure that it loads fast, images are intact and the links are working well. A poorly organized online purchase site will frustrate the audience and they will leave the site right away.
2. Mobile-friendly site. Most online buyers use their smartphones to purchase their items online. It is very essential for an online purchase site to make sure that their site is optimized for mobile users and their customers find it easy to navigate the site from their smartphones.
3. Good quality products with accurate inventory. In order to develop your brand, sell products that have good quality and ensure that the inventory is updated. When shipping your items, double-check for any damage. Ensure that their photos are taken in high-definition and their descriptions are accurate.
4. Variety of Payment Options. An eCommerce site that provides various payment getaways to cater to their buyers’ preferences will prove to be something that can encourage more online purchases and less abandoned carts.

Strategies that ensure security of buyers

• Reputable platform/secure web environment. Website owners need to ensure that their eCommerce platform is trustworthy to create a secure web environment for their buyers. Opt for a secondary authentication and ensure that your server is safe from hackers.
• Additional layers of security. Configure firewalls manually to allow genuine traffic and restrict access of harmful viruses into the website.
• Regular updates. Make sure that the website is functioning properly and safety is maintained. Update the SSL certificates and renew those that are expiring.
• Regular backup schedule. Backups are a great help in case website crashes. To prevent losses, the site must recover as soon as possible.
• Secure payment gateway. Your prospective buyers need to feel secure when they use their credit card details to pay for the items they buy. A payment gateway that uses suitable encryption and enables SSL certificates would be great.
• Management of data/Privacy. Data protection laws include ensuring customers’ privacy. It is not advisable to store data but if you have to delete records, be sure that the data can’t be accessed by the wrong people.

Keeping an online shopping website is a very tough job. However, everyone who has experienced managing an online purchase store can attest to the fact that keeping their site alive amidst bigger online shopping sites is a very challenging task.

Source by Evangeline Alfeche