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  • Santanu Mandal

    Project Manager

  • Published: Feb 17,2025

  • 13 minutes read

Top Features Online Shoppers Expect from eCommerce Websites in 2025

Top Must-Have Features in eCommerce Websites
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    Still unsure about launching an ecommerce company? With online shopping booming, there has never been a better time to commit. And, the stats confirm this growing trend.   

    • According to a  Hostinger study, 49% of customers complete their online shopping journey
    • Statista projects global retail ecommerce sales to reach $4.3 billion by 2025 and $5.9 billion by 2029 showing an annual CAGR of 8.02%.

    Now that we have established the need for an online store, you need to research the right features to integrate during your ecommerce website development project. The aim is to focus on those features that enhance UX and drive conversions.

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    Ecommerce Website Development: Establishing Your Online Connect

    How do you connect with your customers? Offline, it’s through a storefront. Online, it has to be through your app or website. Remember, your online presence must be not only strong, but also relevant. Figure out your business plan and connect with a professional ecommerce development company that can help. Luckily, we’ve built a checklist to help you with everything you need to create an ecommerce website.

    Ecommerce website development checklist


    There’s also a couple of statutory requirements you need to comply with :

    • Getting the business license
    • Drafting the terms of use and privacy policy

    Remember to include features your online shoppers expect from your website. By doing this, you will offer a personalized shopping experience and improve user engagement and satisfaction.

    Your ecommerce website’s features will directly impact your bottom line. And, that’s why you need to ask yourself, what features should you integrate? Don’t worry! In our next section, we’ll guide you on integrating the best ecommerce features. 

    Ecommerce Website Features: Powering Your Online Growth And Success

    Your online customers drive your ecommerce store’s success. But attracting them is not enough. Your website must engage, delight, and convert visitors into loyal buyers. More critically, entice your customers to complete their shopping process. Why is this critical? Because cart abandonment is a common challenge most ecommerce companies grapple with.  You can overcome this by integrating the most relevant ecommerce website features for your customers and align your website with their expectations.

    We’ve compiled a list of thoroughly researched features that impact all aspects of a user journey, right from selection to payment, delivery, and after-sales support. These features also align with the latest trends in ecommerce for 2025. By integrating these features, you can

    • Cater to evolving customer demands
    • Make your website future-ready

    Here’s a list of features you must integrate into your ecommerce website.  

    The Future Is Smart–Offer – A Personalized Shopping Companion

    When you visit a physical store, a salesperson is designated to help you through the buying process. It feels nice to have someone validate your selections or offer suggestions. You can also provide such personalized shopping experiences through your online store. Check out how.

    Artificial Intelligence- Get Smart, Get Fast

    Artificial Intelligence- Get Smart, Get Fast-min

    With AI taking center stage with its predictive and analytical capabilities, you can offer personalized shopping experiences for all your users. Also, AI suggestions are smarter, faster, and more intuitive.

    In the past, personalization relied on broad categories like demographics and location. Today, people want hyper-personalization. It is the latest online shopping trend. AI-driven hyperpersonalization analyzes real-time behaviors to predict and fulfill user needs, a game-changer in ecommerce trends.

    • What they browse
    • What they buy
    • What they reject
    • Where they hesitate


    With this data, AI helps you understand the “WHY” behind these actions. With this information, you can anticipate customer needs and offer intuitive suggestions, converting user experience from mundane to memorable. The result? They stay engaged, they browse longer, and they buy more. In the process, you minimize your cart abandonment woes.

    Interestingly, with AI-powered insights, you don’t just give them what they are looking for. You can also introduce them to products or services they were not consciously looking for. For example, if someone is looking for coffee, you can also suggest deals on coffee mugs, tea, sugar, or coffee makers. This cross-selling will increase your sales and revenue. You will have experienced this when shopping on Amazon. Its powerful AI-driven recommendations are so apt that you invariably buy more than you intended. Such is the power of AI, and such is the impact of personalization today.

    Voice And Image Search–Say It, See It, Find It

    Voice And Image Search

    For many users, typing is boring. Leverage the power of Voice and Image search to cater to users who can’t or don’t want to type. Integrating voice and image search simplifies product discovery, making shopping effortless and engaging. Have you ever tried out Google Lens? You’ll be amazed at the convenience it offers by letting users search for products using a picture. 

    Integrate these features into your eCommerce ecosystem to enhance the shopping experience. Enable customers to upload images or use voice search to find products effortlessly. With AI-powered search, your store can interpret and fulfill these requests, making shopping faster, easier, and more intuitive. Ensure your online store is ready to meet these evolving demands.

    Hyper-Personalization– The Power Of Immersive Shopping

    Once you’ve personalized your customer’s shopping experience, you must elevate it. Subtly influence our customers with interactive tools to hook them and entice them to explore further, try on new products, and increase their cart value.

    Augmented Reality–See The Virtual To Love The Real

    Hyper-Personalization

    What do you do when you go to a physical store? You try on or explore new things. Whether they are clothes, electronic gadgets, books, accessories or something else. You buy when you are sure. But seeing a picture online and opting for it does not give your users the same assurance. So why not introduce your online buyers to the same experience and seal the buying decision? 

    Through augmented reality, your customers can experience a product firsthand. 

    Integrate AR to let your customers virtually try your products and interact with them. Once they know how a piece of furniture will look in their room or whether their chosen dress will fit them, they can finalize their purchase without any doubt. There will be fewer returns and replacements, saving you money and time. 

    Check out how IKEA’s AR app IKEA Place bridges the gap between their online and offline store by allowing users to visualize furniture placements in their homes, enabling customers to experience the real through the virtual. The result? Their customers shop with more confidence, increasing their goodwill and sales. 

    Short-Form Videos–Enjoy Seeing The Magic Unfold

    Short-Form Videos

    Once upon a time, images were everything. Today, customers know images do not give the complete picture. Their demands have evolved. They want to see their products in action. One of the best ways to do this is through integrating short-form videos. These can be tutorials, real-life experiences, how-to-use videos, behind-the-scenes videos, customer testimonials, or even advertisements, a big part of mobile e-commerce today. 

    • IBM frequently showcases its AI innovations, puts across cybersecurity tips etc., using short-form videos
    • HubSpot, a leading CRM, uses short-form videos for e-learning
    • Salesforce leverages short-form explainer videos to talk about CRM automation, customer engagement tools, AI-driven analytics, etc.

    These are just a few examples. You can also use the video content innovatively to project the benefits of your products. With their short duration, they capture user attention immediately because they are so visually appealing. This increases user engagement and significantly influences purchasing decisions.

    Trust–The New Currency Of Ecommerce

    Everyone seeks validation. With peer experiences being a big thing in e-commerce today, you must integrate them in your ecommerce ecosystem. When customers hear about the benefits of your product from their peers they are more likely to trust your product. And, you can use this validation to increase your conversions organically. 

    User-Generated Content – Voices You Can Trust

    User-Generated Content

    Product descriptions and brand promises are essential, but customer trust is built on authentic, user-generated experiences. Shoppers tend to trust real-life experiences shared by real people, because they influence real purchases, while helping you increase your userbase through positive word-of-mouth publicity.

    Statistically, it’s been observed that customers look for customer product reviews and testimonials before taking the final call. It’s why the best-ever design for the ecommerce website is completely customer-centric. Such designs help customers validate their buying decisions. 

    User-generated content or UGC is a powerful tool to build authenticity, credibility, and trust. Use UGC to give your customers the confidence that people using your products have genuinely benefitted from them. Show them how your product has added value by solving pain points.

    GitHub, Stack Overflow and Quora thrive on user-generated content. Encourage your customers to share their experiences. Let them speak to you. Interact with them, and ask questions. And let your customer-speak become an integral part of your brand story. 

    The placement of user-generated content is as important as what it says. A well-placed review or an unfiltered customer photo of the product has much more impact than even the costliest ad campaigns. You must ensure their proper placement to maximize impact and results.

    Social Selling–Real Experiences, Real Impact

    Social Selling

    How do you react when you see the “common man” raving about certain products on social media? It piques your curiosity by catching your attention. But more importantly, you trust their experience and even start thinking about buying the product. This makes social selling one of the hottest trends in the ecommerce industry. 

    Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok have a considerable reach. Statistics obtained from the Global Web Index say about 63.8% of the global population uses some social media platform. They spend an average of 2 hours and 19 minutes using social media platforms. These figures speak for themselves. 

    You must leverage these social media hours because your customers are not just browsing different social media platforms. These people trust real opinions and allow social media content to influence their buying power. You miss out if your brand is not part of this conversation. Think about how much influence these users will have on your ecommerce business if they start recommending your products. 

    We live in an interconnected world. Your ecommerce website cannot remain in a silo. Integrate social media links within your website and refurbish your social media platforms with real-time videos, reels, stories, or anything that helps establish an emotional connection. You never know when an Instagram user might just read your product reviews and make a purchase from within the app. 

    Today, shopping has progressed from an individual and family affair to a huge social affair. You must leverage this interconnectedness to grow your brand awareness and build a formidable brand presence. Remember, if people instantly recall memorable user shopping experiences at the mention of your brand, you have aced the ecommerce race.

    Human-Centered Websites–Focussing On The Psychology Of Buying

    What induces people to buy? Most will say need. Need can be both organic or created. Traditional print media ads had aced the offline game. How do you ace your online game? By designing marketing campaigns that reward customers for buying your products, you can incentivize customers and generate demand. 

    Discounts And Offers–Unlock Value With Every Click

    Discounts and Offers

    Who refuses a good deal? A well-timed price discount or an exclusive offer might just be the nudge your hesitant customer needs to complete the purchase. Think Black Friday Sale! What does it do? Entice you to buy more!

    While this would previously have sufficed, customer expectations have evolved. Now, they look for value beyond random price cuts. They want personalized deals, money or otherwise, on products they want to buy. So, tailor your discounts and pricing offers to suit the individual tastes of your customers. They can range from BOGO offers, other price benefits, limited-time offers, members-only deals, and reward programs. The list is endless.

    The best route is to connect with the ecommerce development experts, who will help automate and integrate personalized offers into your ecommerce website development strategy. The results will speak for themselves. 

    Loyalty Programs–Awarding Every Interaction

    Deals allow customers to save money, but loyalty programs make them feel valued. To your customers, a loyalty program feels like they’ve unlocked something special that differentiates them from others. They make customers feel like they are a part of the company. This appreciation, in turn, converts one-time buyers into loyal customers. Take, for example, the Google Cloud Partner Advantage Program. Here, Google rewards all businesses and IT professionals who use its cloud services regularly. 

    Creating loyalty programs isn’t just about collecting points and encashing or exchanging them. The best programs create memorable experiences that engage and encourage your users to return.

    What you gain here goes beyond merely affecting the balance sheet. Happy customers easily become your brand ambassadors. The organic positive reviews they post help attract more customers, causing a rippling effect that ultimately elevates your ROI. 

    Final Touch–A Smooth User Experience 

    As technology evolves, so do customer expectations. To stay ahead, businesses must not only meet these expectations but exceed them by continuously innovating. Also, remember to follow the latest trends of online shopping diligently. They will help you understand what features to integrate based on what your customers expect.

    Improved Navigation–Effortless Journeys, Instant Access

    What separates a great shopping experience from a good one? Is it price? Is it the deals you offer? No. It is the experience you create. 

    When customers visit your ecommerce store, they look for a smooth, intuitive browsing experience that will take them to checkout quickly. You must ensure this. Discuss the technicalities involved with your e-commerce developer. Common navigation features like smart filters, predictive search, precise product categorization, etc., significantly improve your navigation. Integrate them for a seamless user journey. 

    Frictionless Checkout–Pay With Ease, Shop With Confidence

    Frictionless Checkout

    A clunky checkout process takes the joy out of shopping. It is also the easiest way to lose a customer. Remember, when someone is ready to buy, they want to pay quickly and move on. So ensure your checkout process has no extra steps or unnecessary fields that encourage second-guessing.

    Most online shoppers prefer one-click payments, multiple payment options and saved preferences. So your goal is simple. Make paying effortless.

    Invest in the above features. They might make your ecommerce web development relatively more costly. But remember, what you invest today, will reap handsome gains tomorrow. 

    Conclusion 

    The ecommerce landscape has evolved. From simply buying products to looking for experiences that engage and delight, customer expectations have changed. This change is driving online ecommerce trends today.

    We are here if you need help integrating them into your e-commerce website.  Leverage our ecommerce web development services to ensure seamless navigation, intuitive search, immersive interactions, and a smooth browsing and checkout process. Contact now for a no-obligation consultation.

    At Unified Infotech, personalized recommendations, social validation, and rewarding user engagement are essential. We integrate them to offer value, both to you and your users. Remember, when you invest in us, you are investing in innovation. We anticipate user needs and build experience-driven shopping experiences that give you a competitive edge, allowing you to thrive in a hyper-competitive ecommerce marketplace.

    Santanu Mandal

    Project Manager

    "Santanu Mandal, Project Manager at Unified Infotech, leads with precision and dedication to deliver successful projects. He is not just a tech enthusiast but also a complex problem solver. With a focus on detail, Santanu ensures projects meet and exceed expectations.”

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

    What are the 5 C’s of e-commerce?

    Most ecommerce companies judge their business viability and position in the competitive ecommerce market using the 5Cs. Every ecommerce web developer must also emphasize them during e-commerce web development. These include:

    • Company indicative of the sustainable feature or characteristic that will give you a competitive advantage 
    • Collaborations that refer to ecommerce web development companies, digital marketing experts, SEO analysts, and the like, your enablers for success
    • Customers, the most critical “C” of e-commerce, deal with your buyers, users, and browsers
    • Competitors, whom you must research to integrate their advantages and overcome their pain points
    • Context refers to all factors that can impact your ecommerce business in any way

    Analyzing these five factors will give you the insights required to set up a winning ecommerce strategy. Implement it to understand and regulate your ecommerce journey.

    Why is user experience important in ecommerce?

    Users translate into one time and then loyal customers. Experience is the catalyst for this transition. Users who visit your website decide within the first few seconds whether they will stay on or bounce. If they like your website, they will explore it and give you the chance to convert them. Hence, the user experience plays a leading role in your ecommerce success. Prioritize it by integrating relevant elements and techniques within your ecommerce web development.

    How to hire a good ecommerce web development company?

    Collaborating with a good ecommerce web development agency is important since they help define your digital roadmap. You will depend on them for the aesthetics, functionalities, security, and performance of your ecommerce website. Hence, be very diligent in your research. Prioritize the below-given factors to ensure the right choice.

    • Your requirements and business objectives
    • Budget and timelines
    • Communication
    • Technical expertise
    • Post-launch support

    Before starting your research, ensure you have your requirements mapped out. Knowing what you want will help filter out those companies that do not cater to your needs.

    What are the critical functions of a good e-commerce website?

    Traditionally, ecommerce websites were only involved in showcasing and selling products and services. Today, with evolving customer expectations, ecommerce websites have undergone a seachange. Now they look to create experiences that resonate with their customers by simplifying navigation, integrating advanced search features, ensuring good page speed, personalizing content, etc. The sales and revenue generation happens automatically.

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