The future of retail after COVID-19: The importance of E-commerce

The sad reality for any company in the retail industry is that there is no going back to the way things once were. This is because, before a global pandemic hit, the physical brick and mortar storefronts were struggling to stay open and compete with the online competition. 

While COVID-19 has completely transformed a consumer’s online behavior, research shows that consumers are not going to swiftly change their habits post COVID-19. 

Post- COVID-19, consumers are still going to expect the adoption of BOPIS systems that companies put in place such as online ordering and contactless pick-up options and continue their online shopping behaviors with a predicted increase of up to 30 percent! 

A brick and mortar store now not only has to comply with state and city regulations, keep their consumer’s overall health and concerns in mind, their staff safe and continue to provide their current products and services without skipping a bit. 

Well, to say that can be overwhelming is an understatement. With this in mind, a retail space needs to offer a seamless and even omnichannel e-commerce strategy for its consumers to continue to stay competitive in their local and national space. 

A consumer is searching for that seamless experience from the first page they find and to the final checkout option. Because of this, the rise of e-commerce companies is undoubtedly one of the biggest and fastest growing business opportunities during the last seven months of COVID-19. 

What are our ecommerce website designers Omaha suggestions on creating this seamless experience? 

Importance of e-commerce

The rise of e-commerce during COVID-19 

While there have been many industries and companies affected globally by the pandemic, companies who were already digital before the pandemic felt the effect a bit less. This is because their strategies were already set in place, or for some companies, all they had to do was turn on their checkout option. 

It is a double edged sword, those companies who were already digital were able to adapt, but at the same time, companies who were a bit behind even if they were digital still struggled to continue “business as usual.” 

While it took some time, a number of companies who offer their services and/or products digitally are finding themselves with sales and even a spike in their sales! 

Here is a shocking study that all retail companies need to keep in mind this holiday season, even with the pandemic, consumers are still expecting to spend the same amount of money this year and some plan on increasing their budget. 

This means that the holiday season could possibly not change at all from last year to this year for companies, which means, a company has to be ready for the chaos now! Our ecommerce website designers Omaha suggest that companies provide a seamless, easy experience with their website design and shopping platforms. 

Ecommerce designs

How fast is your website? 

As the shift from brick and mortar continues and the rise of e-commerce continues throughout the holiday season, a website’s first impression has never been more important. 

A website has two seconds to make a positive impression on consumers before they hit the back button and a split half a second for search engines. What does this mean for an e-commerce website? 

Amazon lost over $6 billion in sales when their website took one second longer to load, and our experts can confidently say that if Amazon lost this much money, how much money is your company losing each year due to slow loading speeds? 

A slow loading website can be from a number of factors such as an old template, bulky code, very large images and videos and others frustrating factors for companies and consumers alike, but it is important for a company to get this fixed before the holiday season. 

With this in mind, why are images so important on an e-commerce website? 

How are the images? 

While e-commerce stops the common experiences that consumers have in a brick and mortar store such as touching and physically seeing a product, e-commerce also provides for more convenience and can give consumers a different experience online. 

The images on e-commerce websites are critical because consumers are losing out on that physical experience. Is the color going to be different when it arrives? What if it doesn’t fit properly? These are common questions that we have all asked ourselves as consumers, and as ecommerce website designer Omaha experts, we have a way to help answer these questions better simply with images! 

All images should be properly formatted and sized for each category and product. Depending on the CMS that a company is using, there is usually a spot that tells you the dimensions for each image. This helps to keep the image in the best format possible, but if that is not the case, always download images as JPEG to be safe. While the quality is a bit less of PNG, this helps to ensure that the larger image does not slow down the website. 

Make sure it is responsive 

Mobile search traffic now accounts for 50 percent of all search queries, and while this might have declined during COVID-19, it is important to still have a website optimized for mobile devices. If your e-commerce website is not responsive, this is possibly losing your company a couple to thousands of sales. 

A responsive website design allows for that seamless, easy and positive shopping experience for all your consumers. This is important because online there is not someone greeting the customers. There isn’t someone there helping them with their dressing room, finding new sizes or even chit-chatting with them. The design is the first impression of your company. 

Navigation 

How are consumers moving from page to page? While this seems like one of the least important elements, in reality, this is one of the most important notions for any website out there! 94 percent of consumers state that they want a website that is easy to navigate. This helps to create that seamless experience while providing an intuitive design and website! 

These are the top features of a successful e-commerce website! While there are plenty of others, there are some that should come before the others!