The fashion industry is leveraging e-commerce technology to the fullest. People are going online to buy their favorite clothing apparel and designer outfits. In 2020, it has been observed that 58% of the worldwide population made an online purchase, and nearly half of those purchases were related to clothing, accessories, and footwear. The e-commerce industry is having the most impact on the fashion industry.
It has been expected that by 2022, the online fashion industry can reach a valuation of $765 billion, an increase of $281 billion. Currently, nearly 27% of the fashion industry is online which can increase up to 36% in four years as per a recent report from Forrester.
There are many reasons why customers go online for buying clothing apparel such as:
- Can wander many choices just by sitting at their desk
- Higher chances of finding a bargain
- Availability of real reviews of products
Hence, if you are in the fashion industry and haven’t taken your business online yet, then this is the best time to go online. In today’s article, we will go through the best features that you must implement in your online fashion store. These user-friendly features will let you deliver an excellent shopping experience that will drive sales.
Best Features for your online fashion store:
We have divided these features into 6 main categories. Let’s go through each one of them:
a. An attractive HomePage
The homepage of an online store is its most visited page. It where the visitors starts their journey and starts knowing about the brand and its background. There is a major role of the navigation and the search functionality to guide users to the essential pages and products of the store. Thus, these elements should be user-friendly and easily visible to the users.
Navigation:
Most online customers start their shopping journey from the main site page. If your site look is common, then you might have a menu that navigates to the different sections or pages of the site on the top of the homepage. This navigation menu lets the users know where are they on the site, where they have been, where they will be navigated.
From the customers’ perspective, their major concern is “Is this site has the product that I am looking for? “ Main navigation with a drop-down menu gives a structure to the site, helps customers to know about the products, and guide them through purchasing journey.
Autocomplete Search:
As per the Google research insights, customers don’t follow a predictable path to make a purchase and have a clear understanding of what to find before they start shopping. The second insight is that the purchasing process allows customers to get answers to questions related to life. Thus, if your e-commerce store emphasizes your brand, products, and offline store information, it is commendable.
Let’s mention the basics of search in an e-commerce store. The search is maybe the first medium by which a customer interacts with your store. It is performed by filtering products according to user queries. Thus sorting and filtering are the main features of search in your site.
We always recommended an autocomplete search. You can also use the search box to recommended certain products in the drop-down list while a customer types a word or phrase. It also leads to an increase in on-site time total by all site visitors, familiarizes with the product range, and helps to draw attention to the current offers.
Banners:
Banners are the highly attractive and noticeable element on the site. It guides the users to categories or products, tells customers about good deals, offers, and give them a chance to save and buy the desired piece. You can use many different types of banners or sliders on your homepage and other important pages of your site.
Banners give you the flexibility to showcase the products and best-selling items for engaging customers, increase sales, and convert site visitors into customers.
b. Category & Product Pages That Sell:
There should be intuitive categories for the customers. The category page leads to the products for different customers’ groups and additional offers.
Most importantly, while creating the category don’t think only about the customer demographics but also the everyday needs of the real person. It would be best if you can add specific categories for special occasions or to particular needs. Some trendy features for the category and product pages are:
Interactive Swatches:
Interactive Swatches allow the customers to check the product in different colours in the product listing i.e. without compelling the users to visit the product details page. This feature saves the time of customers and allows them for more shopping.
Care Guide:
You must have seen a care guide tucked in clothing mentioning how to wash or clean the fragment. It is also useful for your fashion e-commerce store. If you have used some specific materials while creating the products then they may require special treatment. Thus, a care guide section on the product details page will be highly helpful for the users.
Quick Product View:
The customers can check the essential details of the product from the product listing page using the Quick Product View feature. This feature showcases the products in the fastest possible way and attracts customers to buy them faster. They can see the size, colour, product details, and additional products for more purchases.
Alternative Views Feature:
In this feature, the product is shown to the customers from different views or angles for a better understanding. You can use this feature by placing multiple pictures of products taken at different angles.
Custom Product:
This is additional functionality that may or may not be required in your store. The customers can choose different criteria for a customized product. It can be even a separate page on which the customers can select a custom print for a t-shirt, dress, etc. The customers can get their desired style and make them loyal to the brand.
You May Also Like:
“You May Also Like” or “Customers Also Bought” or you can name it in a different manner, but this section is a very strong instrument for cross-selling. Using it, you can showcase the home page, product page, and checkout page.
About Us Page That Builds Trust
This page is for showcasing creativity and storytelling. You can tell the users your brand story, sharing your company’s history, interesting facts and figures, and engage with the audience. You can also place your mission statement, give some more details about the product/service, and fill in on your plans. This could be a strategy for optimizing the manufacturing process or product improvement and innovative approaches in client care.
LookBook that showcases:
A lookbook is a collection of pictures or models accumulated at a place to show the clothing line. This is a handy page to represent your brand and tell about your upcoming collections. It is useful for notifying customers about new pieces and attracting them with creative images.
Checkout page that converts:
One Step Checkout:
The checkout page is the final stage of the shopping journey of a customer. A customer has already spent his precious time finding and adding the product to the cart, now they want to checkout as quickly as possible. If a customer sees many forms and pages, they may get frustrated and will leave the cart abandoned. To avoid any such scenarios, you can use one-step checkout along with a guest checkout option.
There will be a maximum of 3 forms in that, one for the delivery, and the second one is for payment details.
Partial Payment:
The customers can make payments in two or more payments through partial payment functionality. It is mostly used in B2B businesses but also available in B2C too. Some payment provides offer partial payment or pay later functionality, so customers can buy their desired products and pay later when they have money.
Gift Cards:
Gift cards are physical or digital vouchers that are used to get some products or to give a voucher to another person. Customers can get a gift for a particular purchase, or it can serve as a discount for another purchase.
Wrapping Up:
In this article, we have gone through many different features that you can implement in your fashion e-commerce store. At Ceymox Technologies, the best e-commerce development agency in India, we are having expertise in implementing such features and functionalities. Let us know your requirements.
