Mat O'Connor

If none of this applies to you, and there are not many brands that have these skills in-house then make sure you find a suitable agency partner who not only has these skills but can demonstrate that they can deliver not just a working eCommerce store but one that meets your requirements and supports your goals.

We see a lot of brands that copy and paste the descriptions from their suppliers, this is harmful as they are generally not optimised for SEO or your customer's needs and tend to lack the details required to generate a sale. As time-consuming as it may be investing resources to write unique descriptions that are engaging, SEO-friendly and help the customer make a decision will go a long way to setting you apart from your competitors and ultimately result it greater sales.

Customer Experience (CX) is understated and often confused with User Experience (UX). CX isn't just about the website, it's the whole journey and should be used to inform the UX/UI of the website. Amazon is a great example here where the CX doesn't necessarily mean the best looking. Everything from the marketing, the experience on-site, delivery and the touch points after a purchase are all about the customer, brands that see the most sustainable growth focus on CX.

eCommerce stores need to grow with your business and also with the needs and demands of your customers. Where possible try and plan your 5-year, 3-year and current-year goals, this will help you identify the right platform that will scale inline with your plans, it will also highlight what level of support you'll need whilst giving you a way to measure the success of any activity such as SEO, PPC, Growth Development and CRO.

Speed is a massive factor in attracting customers to an e-commerce store, not only does it deliver and better user experience but it also plays a big part in Google's ranking algorithm, using free tools such as the Google PageSpeed Insights checker will help you optimise the website for use and marketing.

Adding in interactive elements helps to engage visitors, keep in mind though that there is a fine line between deepening the user experience and bloating a website. Elements like parallax and background videos should be used sparingly otherwise this can slow a webpage down, ultimately making the visitor bounce before they even see these features.