5 Must-Haves for Today's E-Commerce Website

E-commerce has come a long way in the last few years. We now have phases of the online shopping experience going back to the 90s up to the modern, fully social shopping experience.

The current e-commerce website looks very little like what shopping looked like even a few years ago, but not everyone is on board. There are still a lot of sites that are more "traditional" in their shopping experience. If your website still offers the same layout as it did even just a few years ago, it may be time for an upgrade. So check out these modern trends in e-commerce and see if you need to integrate the latest technology into your online store.

Social...very social

Shopping has always been about the social experience. There's nothing quite like window shopping with your friends or trying on a pair of shoes to get your friend's opinion. Ecommerce doesn't come close. Or at least it didn't until recently. Now shopping has become quite the social experience online when you have sites like Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook that are intimately intertwined with most shopping experiences.

Top e-commerce sites, such as Amazon.com, include social media buttons on each page so that customers can easily share products or purchases with friends and family. Others also provide the option to sign in using social media accounts. To really capitalize on the sharing feature, some websites also encourage social sharing immediately after someone leaves a review or makes a purchase simply by placing social sharing widgets on the Thank You page. While Facebook and Twitter are definitely the big social sites to include, do your research and find out where customers most commonly share your products.

Mobile optimized

Another major change has been the use of mobile phones for shopping. Sites used to have a one-size fits all approach. Then came the mobile version of a site. Now, sites utilize responsive web design and adaptive web design to present the same information in different formats.

To really improve conversions via mobile shoppers, e-commerce sites have to remember that mobile customers are usually on the go and simply wanting a quick and easy experience, whether it's researching prices or making a purchase. You can simplify a site for mobile by including a banner and a menu that only includes options that mobile users need, such as popular products, categories of products, a product search, account login, or whatever your customers seem to access via your mobile site. Check out these 10 laws for a successful mobile e-commerce site to see more excellent tips and examples on mobile design.

Ratings rule

People love to have their opinions heard - by both their social circles and you, the vendor. Rating systems give people the opportunity to both praise (or pummel) the store from which they've purchased. In turn, others who may be interested in a product can read reviews and ratings to get a sense of your level of service.

Rating systems are just about mandatory these days. Not having any reviews can be worse than having poor to medicocre ratings. It's risky. You can use this risky business to your advantage, though. Take the feedback and the invaluable data and turn it into something that empowers and improves what you do. Plus, negative reviews can actually increase consumer purchases by as much as 67%! Most commonly, e-commerce websites place the opportunity for reviews on each product page. For those of your customers who are less verbal, offer a way for them to click on stars to simply rate a product without having to leave a comment if so desired.

One-click wonders

Finally, modern e-commerce sites make it easy to purchase and move on. It's not about loading up a "shopping cart" any more. People buy one thing and get out. More and more data indicates that consumers shop for a single item and they're done, especially when shopping through a mobile device. A recent study, in fact, found a 20% improvement when consumers had the option to complete a purchase on one click. You can try to upsell, but you may want to leave this for after the purchase. Shoppers online want a fast, easy to use purchasing process unencumbered by the likes of confirming what's in their cart.

Give them the option to buy with a one-click like purchase and keep the cart as a back up if you must. For instance, you could remove the shopping cart option from your mobile version but allow customers to use it if needed when accessing your desktop version. But don't be surprised if you abandon the cart just like consumers are doing. Top e-commerce sites such as iTunes have certainly found single-click purchasing to be a huge success.

A modern e-commerce site is increasingly social, optimized for all kinds of browsing devices, has a rating system, and makes it fast and easy to purchase. Is your system up to speed or do you still have shopping cart isolated from the outside social media world?

What’s Your $5 Comedy Special?

In recent months, three popular comedians have taken an innovative approach to releasing new material.

Thumbing their noses at traditional media distribution labels and cable networks, Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari and Jim Gaffigan opted instead to cut out every middleman possible by offering their latest comedy specials directly to the public. For $5. As digital content available exclusively on their own websites.

And how did they fare? To cite just one example, in the first 12 days after Louis C.K.’s “Live at the Beacon Theater” special was released, it grossed over $1 million. Even factoring in production costs, bonuses for his staff and charitable contributions, that still leaves a sizable chunk of change for C.K. himself.

This is certainly not the first time that someone – or a few someones – have eliminated the costs and barriers associated with the old school rules of media and marketing. Bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have released albums directly to their fans with no help from record labels.

However, this is the first time we’ve seen this trend cross over to other artistic endeavors, and it presents a compelling model for any company that’s interested reaching their customers more effectively.

Here’s what you can learn from the success of the $5 comedy special:

Direct communication

What business doesn’t want to hear directly from their customers?

Granted, you might not always like what they have to say. But in both good times and bad, the benefits of direct communication are immeasurable.

It’s a fact of doing business that your customers are going to talk about your products or services. When you open the lines of communication and give them ways to funnel that feedback directly to you, you can learn exactly what they want and what they need.

And the flow of this communication doesn’t run in one direction only. When you build a solid foundation of trust with your customers, you’ll earn their permission to command their attention when you have something important to share with them.

Ease of use

How easy is it to go to a website, pay $5, click a link and download a comedy routine?

When you remove the barriers to acquiring your product or services, you’ll instantly increase the number of people who are interested in obtaining those products or services.

Make it easy for your potential customers to find and access what they need, and they’ll reward you by buying what you’re selling.

Lower costs

The rise of social media has allowed artists like bands and comedians to forgo (or at least lessen their dependence on) traditional vehicles for advertising and promotion and the burdensome expenses that go with them.

By “marketing” directly to their fans, these digital media pioneers can offer their release at a lower price point while keeping the lion’s share of the revenue in their own pockets. It’s a win for both the artist and the fan.

In the same manner, when you can find creative ways to eliminate the traditional middlemen of marketing and distribution by promoting and selling your products directly to your customers, you can drop your prices while simultaneously improving your profit margins.

The power of evangelists

The fundamental element underlying the success of this no-middleman approach is having a tribe of people who love what you stand for and will help you spread your message.

Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari and Jim Gaffigan all have loyal fanbases that not only bought their comedy specials but boasted about doing so to all their Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

Before you can cut out the middleman, you must invest in cultivating a community around your brand. You need to build strong relationships with your customers and fans so that you have an army of enthusiasts who will not only buy from you but will be your advocates as well.

Doing this requires caring for your customers in ways that are more than pocketbook-deep. You must approach the task of fulfilling their needs with authenticity and passion and give them reasons to feel passionate about it, too.

Survival of the smartest

The takeaway here is this: to compete effectively in today’s marketplace, you must identify your tribe and give them what they want, in the way they want it and at the price they want to pay for it.

No matter what you’re selling, there’s a good chance you can streamline the methods by which you promote and distribute your products or services so that the process of acquiring them is faster, easier and more direct.

So the challenge we leave you with is this: What is your $5 comedy special?