Spurred by the recent challenges faced by the brick and mortar shops, businesses are moving to online shopping stores. However, e-commerce website maintenance is tricky though vital. The online store needs to be updated frequently to match the market expectations as well as to keep up with the new technology issues.
The Indian e-commerce sector is a $50 billion industry and is growing rapidly. Marketers who often overlook the importance of e-commerce website maintenance run into problems like slow speed, compromised security, and loss of customers.
The question is How to maintain an e-commerce store?
Well, here is a checklist you can refer to while maintaining and updating your e-commerce website for optimum performance.
Product and price updates
As the business grows, you add more products to the online store. With every new product, you need to add a product page with detailed information. You may also want to keep an eye on the price changes during discounts or sale period. Regularly updating the products and prices will keep the users informed and provide them with the latest information.
Monitor website speed
The website loading speed directly affects customer behavior. A slow-loading website drives customers away and no marketer wants that. Thus, check for the parameters that impact the website speed like image file size, unwanted code sequence, broken links, etc, and constantly monitor the speed to keep it under 4 seconds to keep the customers engaged.
Check for website security
Whether you’re using WordPress, Shopify, Magento, or any other CMS, one of the most important website parameters is security. To mitigate the risk of sensitive data loss and breach, you need to enhance website security.
Website Design updates
The design should be a dynamic part of your e-commerce store and you need to keep up with the growing design trends. A small change in the color, image, logo, CTA, or text can impact the user’s purchase behavior drastically. Ensure that any design changes you make to the store are properly tested for improving the website performance.
Review website SEO and content
Content is what your customers consume when they land on your e-commerce store. As a marketer, your goal is to engage the audience and establish a relationship that makes them repeat and loyal customers. This is where the content like the product description plays a huge role. The writeup you provide should be meaningful and relevant to what your customers are looking for.
This will also help improve SEO rankings. As a result, the numbers as well as the quality of customers visiting your website goes up, increasing the conversion rate.
Also, keep a close eye on fake reviews and comments. They can hinder the buying process for other customers.
Don’t forget to backup the website regularly
To save the precious data from getting lost due to a website crash or a virus attack, it is important to take backups regularly. It not only saves information about your products/services but also your invaluable customer details.
Check for browser and device compatibility:
With increasing Internet penetration, the number of smartphone users in India is on a rise with close to 700 million in the year 2020. Customers now access the Internet using different browsers on multiple devices. It is your responsibility as a marketer, to create a website that supports all browsers and is compatible with varied devices.
Check for website functionality
Test the website navigation, CTA buttons, contact forms, social media links, internal/external links to the website, and the overall user flow for proper functioning and reduce the chances of a breakdown. Make sure all the links are working and there are no 404, 301, or 302 errors.
One of the major factors that influence a customer’s buying decision is the product checkout process. Ensure that you reduce the number of clicks between finding and buying the product. Make the process so smooth that the customer finds it delightful.
Gather customer feedback for continuous improvements
Your customers are your biggest critics. Set up a process to gather customer feedback and look for opportunities to improve. You may be surprised to see what your customers have to say about your brand. Let this be your improvement mechanism and provide a delightful experience to your customers.
Monitor Google Analytics and Webmaster data
For further analysis of the website performance, keep a track of GA and Google Search Console data. This will help you understand if the SEO and other marketing efforts you are doing are successful or not. The search console will also assist you in identifying and fixing any broken links or technical errors.
Conclusion
Feel free to refer to this checklist periodically to ensure that your e-commerce website performs at top-notch levels and generates a large number of big-ticket sales for you.
At eBizIndia, we develop and maintain e-commerce websites based on WordPress, Shopify, Magento, and other systems for higher conversion of visitors to sales. Contact us for your website maintenance needs and we will work together to make your e-commerce store more profitable.