Top 5 Tips for Keeping Your E-commerce Website Running Smoothly

Your website is live, the product catalog is all set, and marketing is 100% on point. Now just imagine the horror of people leaving your website without any purchases. Why? Because your website lacks proper configuration. 

Scary, isn’t it?

Running an e-commerce website can be a stressful and overwhelming experience, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. You’re constantly juggling managing inventory, shipping products, and providing excellent customer service. 

On top of that, you have to ensure that your website is functioning smoothly and your customers have a seamless shopping experience. This can be annoying. After all, you established your online business to offer products or services, not to deal with website management.

But what happens when your website encounters issues like slow loading times, broken links, or payment gateway errors? It can be frustrating for both you and your customers and can ultimately lead to lost sales and damage to your business’s reputation. 

According to the stats, 53% of people will stop engaging with a website if images won’t load or take too long to load. Visitors’ patience can last barely 5 seconds, and that’s it. If your website takes more than that to load, poof! They’re gone. And it’s not a good sign for your business. 

E-commerce maintenance and why do you need it?

E-commerce maintenance is all about keeping an online store up and running smoothly. It involves a bunch of tasks like adding new products and features to the website, making sure the site is secure from any online threats, improving the site’s performance, keeping an eye on the server, updating payment gateways, managing inventory, and providing customer support. All of these activities are important for the successful running of an e-commerce website, and they ensure that customers can shop on the website without any hassles. So, e-commerce maintenance is a vital part of running an online store, and it’s something that requires ongoing attention and care.

Now let’s talk about why e-commerce maintenance is so important for you as a business owner. Keeping your online store up-to-date and secure, can improve your website performance, increase sales, and offer a better shopping experience for customers. Regular maintenance means the website is less likely to have technical issues that could result in downtime or security breaches. This ensures that the website is always available to customers, which is essential for running a successful online business. All of these benefits can help boost the business’s reputation, attract new customers, and ultimately, increase revenue. 

In this blog, we’ll discuss the top 5 tips for ensuring that your website is optimized for performance and providing customers with a seamless online shopping experience. So, let’s get started!

Keep Your Software Up to Date

Software updates can be a hassle, but they are critical for the security and performance of your e-commerce website. Outdated software can be vulnerable to security threats and may not function properly, leading to a poor user experience. Ensure you regularly check for updates to your e-commerce platform, plugins, and any other software you use. Keeping your software up to date also ensures that you have access to the latest features and functionality.

Optimize Your Website’s Speed

In today’s fast-paced digital world, customers expect websites to load quickly. Slow page load times can drive potential customers away, resulting in lost sales. A one-second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions, and you don’t want that. Right? To keep your website running smoothly, ensure it is optimized for speed. This includes compressing images, minifying code, and leveraging caching technologies. If you’re unsure where to start, consider using a website speed-testing tool to identify areas for improvement.

Test Across Browsers

It’s not uncommon for your website layout to appear different across various browsers. While it may look excellent in Chrome, it may not be the same in Safari. To ensure a smooth user experience, it’s crucial to test your site across multiple browsers. A broken or confusing layout is likely to frustrate customers, so it’s essential to ensure that your website appears correctly on all browsers. Additionally, checking your site on major browsers on mobile devices is crucial to ensure complete responsiveness.

Monitor Your Website’s Performance

Monitoring your website’s performance is critical to ensuring it runs smoothly. Regularly checking your website’s key performance metrics can help you identify and address issues before they become significant problems. Consider using a website monitoring tool to monitor your website’s performance and receive alerts if any problems arise.

Check Loading Times 

If your website takes ages to load or if pages are taking too long to appear, you may need to invest in website maintenance. It’s essential to test your website’s loading times regularly, at least once a month, and especially when you add new content. Failing to do so can lead to slow loading times, which can be frustrating for customers, resulting in lost sales as they abandon the site.

Check Loading Times 

Managing a website in-house can be daunting in today’s fast-paced business environment. Without the necessary expertise, you may find it challenging to keep up with the latest trends and technologies, potentially causing your website to fall behind the competition. 

Outsourcing from a company that can help you with e-commerce maintenance can be your way to ensure that your website is well-maintained and optimized for maximum performance. This can lead to better user experience, higher search engine rankings, and increased conversions.

Take the stress-free road.

Remember, your website is the face of your business, and it’s crucial to make a great first impression on your potential customers. Investing time and effort into maintaining your website can improve user experience, boost conversion rates, and increase revenue. 

So, take action today and implement these tips to keep your e-commerce website running smoothly. And if you ever need help or support, don’t hesitate to contact experts who can provide the necessary development and e-commerce maintenance services to keep your website in top shape. By doing so, you’ll be able to provide your customers with a seamless online shopping experience and take your e-commerce business to new heights!

We know you need a website that runs like clockwork! But always keeping it up-to-date, secure, and bug-free can be challenging. That’s where Galaxy Weblinks comes in. Galaxy Weblinks is an e-commerce maintenance company that provides top-notch e-commerce maintenance services for your online store, so you can focus on running your business. 

Selecting The Right Ecommerce Platform – The Key Factors

Setting up a shop online? Yes it is easier than setting one up made of bricks and mortar but comes with its own set of complications. 

Ecommerce isn’t easy. The insane level of competition aside, your problems begin even before you’ve begun to build your website. The first important decision that you need to make is selecting the best Ecommerce platform to build your website. The options are numerous and they all seem to offer some distinctive features that make this choice so difficult. 

We have listed a few key considerations to help you select the right Ecommerce platform.

How secure is the platform?

One of the first things that you should consider in your Ecommerce platform is the language it is based on. The platforms based on object-oriented programming language come with embedded security protocols and are, therefore, considered safer. Magento and Shopify pay extra attention to reduce the vulnerabilities of websites with two factor authentication. 

The platforms which do not have multi factor authentication to protect sensitive information, security plugins can provide that extra layer of safety.

A platform is safe when –

  • An Ecommerce platform should conduct security audits for sustaining websites.
  • It should safeguard sensitive data from breaches and attacks.
  • To prevent any monetary frauds, an Ecommerce platform should be PCI and SSL certified.

Is it SEO friendly?

39% of Ecommerce traffic comes from direct searches. This makes it a good reason for you to take SEO considerations into account.

Popularity of a website depends on various factors with content playing a significant role in attracting the audience towards the site. To understand things better, ask questions like, does the Ecommerce platform allow you to write meta-information about the product or is there Google site map support? These questions are important as they have a direct impact on SEO rankings of the site.

Onveos is a perfect choice if you are considering SEO as a selection factor because it provides independent fields for SEO elements. Other than this you can also go for Magento, WooCommerce, and OpenCart as they play a significant role in inbound marketing initiatives.

Responsiveness 

A responsive web design is a must have for a great user-experience from a desktop to tablets and mobiles of various sizes and orientations.

Having a separate mobile and desktop site requires having different marketing campaigns, product information & banners, catalogues, etc. Platforms like Magento and WooCommerce have various responsive themes and templates to make websites vertically stacked.

Shopify even lets you edit HTML and CSS directly. You can change the colors, size, and positioning of any element on the page within the platform.

Does the platform provide multi-channel support?

Always prefer a platform that lets you sell products or services across different channels like Instagram, FB Messenger, Amazon, and others. It increases the revenue percentage on the whole. The best multi-channel Ecommerce platforms are Shopify, BigCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento, and WooCommerce. 

As soon as you choose a platform, your next step should be towards understanding the audience. It will help you analyse what your end users are looking for and how they buy things online.

Adding more channels will increase the task of managing and tracking inventory systems. Centralised management of the data creates diversified selling options in online marketplaces. Multi-channel selling increases the revenue of Ecommerce sites.

What are the key plugins and integrations?

Even though an Ecommerce platform has all the things to run an online business, it still needs integrations and plugins to add crucial functionalities like Payment gateways, Tax calculators, Inventory management, etc.

You’ll find a popular bunch of essential plugins and integrations that are common to all the platforms. But your platform of choice should be the one that has an active community and supports plugins and integrations relevant to your business.

How important is the pricing of the platform?

Price of an Ecommerce platform depends on multiple factors like design, setup configuration, custom development, maintenance, and so on.

The per month cost of Shopify platform starts from $9 and goes till $299 whereas Volusion starts from $15 and goes upto $299. Shopify is a perfect choice if you are looking for multiple features and add ons in your app. You can select Volusion for a more selling-focused experience.

BigCommerce has the highest starting price of $29.5 followed by 3dcart at $29. BigCommerce is one of the best platforms for SEO considerations. 3dCart is a feature rich platform that builds and manages online stores real well.

Conclusion

Before you zero in on any platform, match your website’s specific needs with the platform’s features and estimated cost. Ecommerce platforms can also utilize AI, VR, Chatbots, and Blockchain to help your online business stay relevant.We know how important it is for you to get things right as your business is in question. If you’ve any doubts related to Ecommerce platforms and if you need assistance developing one then feel free talk to us here.

6 factors to consider before choosing your e-commerce platform

Setting up a shop online? Well it’s easier than setting one up made of bricks and mortar.

But it doesn’t mean that E-commerce is easy. The insane level of competition aside, your problems start even before you’ve begun to build your website. You start with zeroing in on an e-commerce platform for your business but the options are numerous and all seem to offer similar functionalities. It can be a bit confusing.

This is not a comprehensive list but we intend to simplify the selection for you. So here are some factors like pricing, payment gateways supported, security, etc. to help you select the right e-commerce platform.

1. How secure is the platform?

One of the first things that you should consider in your e-commerce platform is that the language it is based on. Because the platforms based on object-oriented programming language come with embedded security protocols and hence are considered safer.

Magento and Shopify pay extra attention to reduce the vulnerabilities of websites with two factor authentication. And for platforms which do not have multi factor authentication to protect sensitive information, security plugins can provide that extra layer of safety.

A platform is safe when-

  • An e-commerce platform should conduct security audits for sustaining websites.
  • It should safeguard sensitive data from breaches and attacks.
  • Also, to prevent any monetary frauds an e-commerce platform should be PCI and SSL certified.

2. If it is SEO friendly

39% of e-commerce traffic comes from direct searches. This is a good reason for you to take SEO considerations into account.

Popularity of a website depends on various factors with content playing a significant role in attracting the audience towards the site. To understand things better, ask questions like, does the e-commerce platform allow you to write meta-information about the product or is there Google site map support? These questions are important as they have a direct impact on SEO rankings of the site.

Onveos is a perfect choice if you are considering SEO as a selection factor because it provides independent fields for SEO elements. Other than this you can also go for Magento, Woocommerce, and OpenCart as they play a significant role in inbound marketing initiatives.

3. Responsiveness

A responsive web design helps in providing a great user-experience from a desktop to tablets and mobiles of various sizes and orientations.

Having a separate mobile and desktop site requires having different marketing campaigns, product information & banners, catalogues, etc. Platforms like Magento and WooCommerce have various responsive themes and templates to make websites vertically stacked.

Shopify even lets you edit HTML and CSS directly. You can change the colors, size, and positioning of any element on the page within the platform.

4. Multi-channel support

Always prefer a platform that lets you sell product or service across different channels like Instagram, FB Messenger, Amazon, and others. It increases the revenue percentage on whole.

The best multi-channel e-commerce platforms are Shopify, Big Commerce, PrestaShop, Magento, and Woo Commerce. As soon as you choose a platform, your next step should be towards understanding the audience. It will help you analyse what your end users are looking for and how do they buy things online.

Adding more channels will increase the task of managing and tracking inventory system. Centralised management of the data creates diversified selling options in online marketplaces. Multi-channel selling increases the revenue of e-commerce sites.

5. Plugins and integrations

Even though an e-commerce platform has all the things to run an online business, it still needs integrations and plugins to add crucial functionalities like Payment gateways, Tax calculators, Inventory management, etc.

You’ll find a popular bunch of essential plugins and integrations that are common to all the platforms. But your platform of choice should be the one that has an active community and supports plugins and integrations relevant to your business.

6. Last but not the least, compare the price

Price of an e-commerce platform depends on multiple factors like design, setup configuration, custom development, maintenance, and so on.

The per month cost of Shopify platform starts from $9 and goes till $299 whereas Volusion starts from $15 and goes upto $299. Shopify is a perfect choice if you are looking for multiple features and add ons in your app. You can select Volusion for a more selling-focused experience.

Big-commerce has the highest starting price of $29.5 followed by 3dcart at $29. Big commerce is one of the best platforms for SEO considerations. 3dCart is a feature rich platform that builds and manages online stores real well.

Before you zero in on any platform, match your website’s specific needs with the platform’s features and estimated cost. E-commerce platforms can also utilize AI, VR, Chatbots, and Blockchain to help your online business stay relevant.

We know how important is it for you to get things right as your business is in question. If you’ve any doubts related to e-commerce platforms and if you need assistance developing one then feel free talk to us here.