It's time to start learning about e-commerce stores. An e-commerce store is a store that sells its products online. In an e-commerce store, customers can search or browse for products, add them to a virtual shopping cart, and pay for their purchase online. In order for customers to easily shop online, an e-commerce store should include several basic elements that are considered best practice. These should be easily recognizable elements that customers can expect to find on almost any e-commerce site they visit. Let's cover some of those elements now. First there's a homepage, which is the main page of a website. In an e-commerce store, the homepage helps customers understand what types of products a company sells. It also helps customers find the information they need. And it serves as a main hub that connects to other pages on the website. At the top of an e-commerce store is a navigation bar, which is a collection of links to other pages within the website. The navigation bar helps customers find the section of a website that will be most useful for them. It typically stays at the top of the website no matter which page a customer is on. The navigation bar includes a menu with links to products which are generally organized by department or category. For example, the menu may include a link to the overall appliances page as well as secondary links to the refrigerator and washing machine pages. The navigation bar may include links to other important pages as well. For example, featured deals, a weekly ad, gift registries, or customer support. An e-commerce store also includes search functionality, such as a search bar. If the customer knows what they want to find, they can enter it into the search field to get the results from the store based on their search. Besides the menu and search elements, the navigation bar typically includes a link to create or sign in to an account. This allows customers to do things like create or edit their account information, update their payment information, and access previous orders. Once a customer navigates deeper into the website, they'll find product detail pages, sometimes called PDPs, which provide information about a specific product. Product detail pages may include a description, images, specifications, and reviews, as well as other information about the product. When a customer finds a product they want to buy, they can add it to their digital shopping cart. The navigation bar includes a link to the shopping cart, so that the customer can access it anytime. By clicking on this link, customers can go directly to their shopping cart and view their current order at any time during the buying process. When they're finished shopping, they can easily go to their shopping cart and enter the checkout process. Every e-commerce store includes a digital checkout system, that allows customers to enter their shipping and payment information and complete their purchase online. The checkout process is a key part to the customer journey. You'll learn more about it later, as well as how to remove any friction that could keep customers from completing their purchase. Other pages that are important to include in an e-commerce store include links to customer support, contact information, return and exchange policies, and shipping information. It's also important for e-commerce stores to have a responsive website if possible. A responsive website means that the site is designed to work on all types of devices, including computers, mobile phones, and tablets. Having a responsive website makes the customer browsing experience easier and more efficient, which typically leads to better conversion rates. An e-commerce store should also be accessible to all users. Web accessibility means that a website or mobile app is designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use it. 71% of people with disabilities leave a website immediately, if it's not accessible. Also many enhancements made for accessibility improve all users' experiences. Video captions are a great example of an accessibility tool that many users find valuable. Ultimately, each user is unique. So designing for accessibility is an important way to address the many different ways people navigate websites. If a business also has brick-and-mortar stores, a store locator is important to include. Customers often visit a store's website first in order to research products and find stores in their area. They may also want to buy products online and pick them up in store, if the option is available. In an e-commerce role, you may hear this called BOPIS, which means "buy online, pick up in store." Each of these elements is important to help customers find what they need in an e-commerce store. Many of these elements, such as the shopping cart and digital checkout system, are part of the store's e-commerce platform. Most e-commerce stores are built on an e-commerce platform, which allows you to do things like add and update products, manage customer orders, receive payments, handle shipping and fulfillment, and more, all in one place. An e-commerce platform often includes built-in tools and templates to make creating and managing an e-commerce store easier. Coming up next, you'll learn more about e-commerce stores and platforms. Keep up the great work.
