10 MUST HAVE FEATURES IN YOUR ECOMMERCE PLATFORM FOR 2025
A simple e-commerce app with only a product listing and a shopping cart was great in 2015. But this simplicity won't get you so far in 2025. Even if your prices are the lowest, you cannot earn good revenue if you do not adapt to the latest trends.
You need a leading ecommerce platform with all essential features to get sales and conversions. Online businesses that offer both basic and advanced features attract the most customers.
10 Qualities of a Leading Ecommerce Platform
There are many digital ecommerce platforms available in the market. Large numbers do make selection difficult. This post is about 10 features that your leading ecommerce platform must have. Let's start. Here are the essential platform features when it comes to online stores.
1. Intuitive & User-friendly Navigation
This is the first step. The user just reached your website or app. They want to find their desired item. This process of finding should be easy for them. For that, easy navigation is critical.
This applies in brick-and-mortar stores as well. If the items are not correctly labelled, users will be frustrated soon. If you have clear categories and signs among aisles, the chances of sales will increase.
Similarly, online stores must have clear call-to-action and add-to-cart buttons. A leading ecommerce platform always comes with super easy and smooth navigation. The checkout process is also simplistic.
2. Easy Options for Search & Filter
Search and filter options are crucial. You will find them in every leading ecommerce platform. All big ecommerce platforms provide these options. It is because users love them.
Surveys show that 69% of shoppers directly go to the search bar . The same study also shows that 80% exit instantly if they do not find good search options.
Let's say if your eCommerce store sells smartphones. Your customer has the following requirements:
? Cell phones should cost less than 400 pounds.
? RAM should be more than 8 GB.
? Storage should be at least 256 GB.
Does it not sound like finding a needle in a haystack? It should not, ideally. There should be options in your e-commerce app with relevant intent. The navigation bars should allow customers to type what they want. Once they enter details, the app should help them narrow down their choice. It could be based on price, colour, size, and other specs.
3. Personalisation
It could be no less than a challenge to offer a tailored user experience to every individual, but the results are worth the hard work. Research shows that 80% of customers are likelier to buy from a company that offers a personalised experience.
But how to offer such an experience? The answer is one simple word: data.
Customer data allows you to understand customer preferences and recommend products according to their needs. Go for the ecommerce platform that allows you to gather data and offer personalised experience to every customer.
You can offer them with personalised homepages to get higher conversion rates. Another practice is offering personalised coupon codes, discounts, and other offers. Also, you can send personalised emails, and reminders.
4. Push Notifications
You may have experienced this. You are scrolling your social media feed, and you receive a notification and realise you are buying something.
That is precisely the way push notifications work.
As a business owner, they allow you to send messages to your users. You can use them to bring them back to the online store and engage with amazing discounts and the latest promotions and updates. These little notifications are a great strategy to engage your customers.
5. Customer Reviews & Ratings
Online reviews of your customers matter a lot. 93% of customers say it strongly influences their buying decision. Therefore, there is no question of a leading ecommerce platform not having this feature.
There are certain limitations in online business. Customers cannot feel and touch the product. Technologies such as Augmented Reality have made things better, but still, it cannot match the experience of brick-and-mortar stores.
So, the trust factor is critical. If there are customer reviews and ratings, your customers feel psychologically safe buying from you. It is one of the most essential ecommerce platform features.
6. Order Tracking
Again, customer trust is hard to develop in online business. There should be proper order tracking so customers can place the order with peace of mind. They will be sure to have transparency and visibility at all stages of their ordering journey. Data shows that 90% of customers want this feature.
They want to know if their order is in the phase of confirmation, packing, dispatch, or out for delivery. Best ecommerce software solutions help you overcome the limitations of online business.
Also, your customer support team will not have to manually update customers about the status of their orders. Hence, they will have time for productive activities. Look for digital ecommerce platforms that provide order tracking.
7. Multiple Payment Options
You only get customers from one city, town, or country when you have an offline store. Most of them use the same payment methods. However, the dynamics of online business are totally the opposite.
Your customer could be living in another corner of the world. A leading ecommerce platform must have diverse payment options. Research shows that 7% of customers abandon their carts due to poor payment methods .
Some other reasons for cart abandonment are long forms and unclear call to actions. Make your payment methods diverse and effortless. It would be best if they could checkout as guests, too, if they want. You will lose a chunk of customers if you do not allow purchase without sign up.
8. App Analytics
Make sure you choose the best platform for e-commerce, which gives a comprehensive analytics dashboard. It should give you a bird' s-eye view of all important metrics. You must have access to customer and business insights to make innovative and data-driven decisions. This is the data that we also talked about in point number 3 of personalisation.
9. Dynamic Pricing
As the name suggests, real-time price adjustment should be possible. It could be based on availability, supply and demand, and competitor pricing. Thus, you can increase revenue.
10. Latest Technologies
Today's consumers are intelligent and tech-savvy. Their brand loyalty increases when a brand incorporates the latest technologies like Augmented Reality and voice and visual search.
Augmented Reality is one of the critical features of ecommerce stores. They fill the gap of natural feel and touch. Customer can see how a dress looks on them or how a sofa looks in their room.
Similarly, when it comes to eCommerce, customers also want voice and visual search. They may want to find something and cannot write a 500-word description, nor do they know its name. A simple voice and visual search can save them from endless scrolling.
Conclusion
So, a leading ecommerce platform will help you skyrocket your sales with basic and advanced features. Make sure you find the one that fits your needs. It should be able to offer the best user experience, provide good data analytics, and be equipped with the latest technologies.
WoWcommerce is one of the leading ecommerce platforms that helps you develop a strong ecommerce presence that make shopping easy for your customers.