5 Must-Have Features for E-commerce Websites in 2024

In e-commerce, the goals are constant: get new shoppers, make big sales, and keep customers.

What does change, though, is the e-commerce shopper and their needs. Consider a time in the past, such as the year 2020. You’ll notice how the details about commerce greatly influenced the characteristics and features we used while constructing our online shops.

If you want to keep up with e-commerce trends, it’s not just about UI design trends or hi-tech functionality that the top 1% of e-commerce brands and their shoppers are benefiting from. While you need to know about the latest hot new trend, more importantly is how the world is changing the general consumer and, by extension, their shopping habits.

This is where eCommerce website design services come in. These specialists help you translate those changing consumer needs into a website that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also intuitively designed to meet their expectations.

Also, read Mobile App Development Trends To Watch Out For In 2024

Top Must-Have Features for E-commerce Websites in 2024

The game of e-commerce is constantly evolving. Today’s online shoppers crave a personalised experience that feels effortless and secure. To stay ahead, your website needs to be more than just a digital shelf. Here are the top features that will transform your online store into a conversion machine in 2024:

1. Personalisation for a Tailored Shopping Journey

Generic online storefronts are no longer in fashion. Today’s smart shoppers look for a customised experience that suits their specific requirements and tastes. Do the following steps to achieve this:

• Product Recommendations
Use customer data (like a history of purchases or how they browse) to suggest products that are related to what they have bought before or their past behaviour. Doing this can help make customers happier and also improve sales by showing them items they might not have thought about yet.

• Smart Search and Filtering
Assist shoppers in quickly finding products through a strong search feature that comprehends natural language questions and provides automatic suggestions. Enhance this with extensive filtering alternatives such as size, colour, brand, price range, or even customer ratings to aid customers in efficiently focusing their searches.

2. Subscriptions

In 2024, it will also be possible for consumers to save money by using subscriptions. This method enhances the ease of buying from a brand.

The PYMNTS survey discovered an interesting result, which is that subscriptions typically prove more successful than loyalty programmes and memberships in encouraging customers to spend more. Among the people surveyed:

• 37% spend more money with brands that offer subscriptions.

• 28% spend more with brands with memberships.

• 27% spend more as loyalty programme members.

Furthermore, subscriptions can assist in stabilising your e-commerce brand’s sales by generating regular income. Therefore, if the company you are creating this e-commerce product for is also concerned about inflation, it may be beneficial to include subscriptions in your store, but only if it is appropriate.

3. Frictionless Checkout: Streamlining the Path to Purchase

A checkout process that is complicated can truly kill conversions. This is how you make sure the final step of buying goes smoothly and quickly:

• Guest Checkout
Let guests make purchases without making them register. Give an option for guest checkout, particularly for those visiting your store for the first time.

• Many Payment Choices
Serve different customer preferences by having various secure payment methods like credit cards, debit cards, digital wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, and even buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) choices.

• Saved Payment Information
Provide a method for customers to save their payment details so they don’t need to enter them again each time they make a purchase.

4. Breadcrumbs

No, it’s not regarding crumbs of bread sprinkled with seasoning. Within the realm of e-commerce website creation, a breadcrumb trail refers to an advanced website navigation element that displays where a user is located on the site. This can typically be seen on websites with abundant product categories that are arranged in a hierarchy. Breadcrumbs are a chain of links showing the location of the user within the site’s structure. They are separated by (>).

These visual aids that show where people are on your e-commerce store also assist Google in understanding the structure of your site. Breadcrumbs aid with website navigation by making it easy for users to navigate between a product catalogue, categories, and homepages.

5. Enhanced Reality for Augmented Product Visualisation

AR is creating a new path in the e-commerce area. It helps customers virtually “put” products in their homes or on themselves, which closes the difference between the internet and real shopping. These are the advantages:

• Boosted Trust in Buying Choices
AR assists in reducing uncertainty by enabling customers to virtually “try on” products before purchasing them, such as seeing how furniture might look in their living room or how clothes might fit their frame. This decreases the chances of returns due to size or style issues.

• Enhanced Participation and Brand Narratives
AR experiences may encourage more involvement with your brand and goods, making the story of your business memorable.

6. Voice Search Optimisation: Convenience at Your Fingertips

Voice search is getting more popular each day, especially on mobile devices. To make your website ready for voice search:

• Use Long-Tail Keywords
When people search using voice, they usually speak in longer and more conversational phrases. Make sure to optimise your product descriptions and content with these long-tail keywords so that your website can have a better ranking in voice searches.

• Mobile-First Design
Give importance to a responsive and easy-to-use mobile website, as the majority of voice searches are done on mobile devices.

Read our latest blog on the Effective Ways To Make Your Brand Stand Out In 2024

Final thoughts

If you are creating digital products for large e-commerce brands or small startups, it is important to keep updated. Understand what the trends of the upcoming year may be like, but also take care not to fully commit to a new style or technology that could soon change.

The most effective approach for an website development company is to observe how the world is changing consumer behaviour. By anticipating shopper needs and preferences, you can design user experiences that resonate with them in the present moment. This foresight allows you to empower your clients to maintain high conversion rates, even amidst the ever-evolving e-commerce landscape.