Because of the multitude of online stores currently available, online shoppers already have a clear picture of the kind of services they expect to receive, and will more often than not refuse anything less than they expect. To add to this, online Joomla stores jostling for supremacy have inadvertently raised the expectation bar, and this has led to shoppers having very high expectations, as well as a lot of choices.
You can compete in the current shark tank of eCommerce if your Joomla e-store has a great product strategy, and at least the following boxes ticked.
- Full uptime and fast loading speeds: According to Brendan Wilde, Marketing Manager at Umbrellar, “…online shoppers have no patience for e-commerce sites that are slow to load or are frequently unavailable due to recurrent downtime. It’s because of this we never recommend shared hosting services to our clients…”. Online shoppers prefer doing their business online because they expect a quick response and quicker results. If your online Joomla store can’t offer this, then you can expect fewer customers to offer you their money.
- A mobile-friendly shopping site: Around 50% of online shoppers have come to prefer shopping on their mobile devices rather than with a computer. As an online business owner, you need to offer your customers the goods and services they want via the means they prefer – their mobile devices. To accomplish this, you’ll have to ensure your Joomla shopping site is designed to be viewable across all screen dimensions – small to medium mobile device screens and large computer screens.
- Competitive shipping options: As earlier mentioned, e-commerce has become very competitive, and one of the ways some businesses are getting ahead of others is by offering either free shipping or cheap shipping. To compete with this, you’ll need to develop a way to also deliver orders cheaply or for free, because customers will opt for the e-commerce site with the more affordable shipping option.
- A user-friendly site: One of the advantages of online shopping is the ease of buying goods compared to visiting a physical store. To ensure this advantage isn’t nullified, customers need to find your e-commerce site easy to navigate. Fortunately, platforms such as Joomla! make it easy to build an e-commerce site that users will find easy to use. An e-commerce site that is difficult or confusing to navigate will be a major turn-off for shoppers who are looking for the fastest and easiest means of getting what they want.
- Product images and descriptions that sell your products: Product images and descriptions on your site play a big role in influencing an online shopper’s decision -’to buy or not to buy’. Product images and videos are essential because they are the only way a shopper can get a visual clue of what they are buying. While a product description describes the features and uniqueness of each product, there is nothing like actually seeing it. While striving to make your products look and sound good, make sure both pictures and descriptions are as true to life as possible. Details that exaggerate the quality of a product can lead to not only returns of purchased items but also bad reviews that can negatively affect your business’ reputation. Your business could also face legal action for false advertising.
- Reviews: Customer reviews are important to online shoppers because they guide them on their shopping choices. With reviews, a shopper is able to determine if a product will be a good buy or not. If your site lacks customer reviews, it will cause distrust for your site and its services because customers will believe you have something to hide. Joomla has a good library of testimonial and review extensions for you to choose from, so there really is no excuse for missing this off your site.
Now that you’ve put in place features that give you a fighting chance of being a successful online business owner, the next thing you need to ensure is the security of your site and your customers.
Once an online store begins witnessing success and an increase in sales, that’s when the site becomes most at risk to attacks. To prepare and secure your site against such attacks, you can follow the simple steps stated below.
- Make sure you are on a secure eCommerce platform: Most successful online stores are built on reliable platforms, such as Joomla!. Such a platform will provide a foundation of safety that your business can rely on to deliver essential features. Joomla provides:
- - Regular updates that will patch vulnerabilities and protect your site
- - Plugins and other extensions for added security
- - An extended debugging mode and error reports
- - Delivering notifications anytime there’s unusual activity on your site
- Install SSL Certificates: To secure transactions on your online Joomla site, SSL is very important. SSL certificates function by authenticating the identity of any users on your site. It also encrypts data and shields it from unauthorized access. To ensure secured connectivity and data transfer between customers and your site, SSL certificates are essential. To know if your site is already SSL certificate protected, simply look out for HTTPS (instead of HTTP) in the address bar alongside the padlock icon.
- Put in place a Two Factor Authentication system (2FA): Instead of relying solely on your password to protect your Joomla site from being breached, you can also install 2FA. What this does is give your site an extra layer of security by asking for two means of identification – your normal password and a code that will be sent to your phone number. If hackers manage to get your password, they still can’t get into your site unless they have the code sent to your phone.
- Make sure your site is on a dedicated web hosting service or at least a Virtual Private Network to avoid being intercepted by a malicious third party. A shared web hosting service is not an option, due to security, performance, and server reputation considerations.
- And, finally, educate your customers and employees concerning information (credit card, private information, etc.) security practices.
On a final note, Joomla provides a solid foundation for your online store, offering a powerful and reliable CMS that facilitates ease of use and extensibility. It is an open-source solution and free to use.
Some Secure Joomla Template Options for Business-Minded e-Commerce sites
Let’s finish by taking a look at some updated, secure Joomla templates that you can find on our site to get you started. With a rich array of visually appealing, user-friendly, power framework templates that come with top-class technical support, Joomla has over the years become a leading choice of website designers and owners; especially e-commerce entrepreneurs.
Here are a few of our inspiring web themes suitable for different categories of online store at a friendly price.
1. Hot Drones
Hot Drones offers all the key features of a responsive e-commerce site and is powered by the J2Store component, which seamlessly integrates with it. The template is clean and highlights well the e-store products on sale. It can even be used for sites that don’t sell anything.
2. Ice Cream
As the name suggests, this theme is ideal for online sites that produce, sell or deliver ice cream and confectionery. With its white background color and another accented color, which spotlights the powerful images of the ice cream cups, the Ice Cream template gives the viewer/shopper a neat, salivating-worthy feel.
3. Hot Vineyard
E-store winemakers and sellers will love the responsive, niche-perfect Hot Vineyard template. It’s also ideal for producers of fruits and vegetables, as well as bars and restaurants.
4. Fast Food Template
This template is a find for serious fast food restaurants and restaurants with food delivery services. The lip-smacking, easy-to-navigate template serves a good first impression for your business.
5. Hot Tea
This theme screams class and elegance with its light, one accent color, and uncrowded appeal. It’s not just a match for the most popular beverages on the planet but could fit many different kinds of websites.