E-commerce has been growing steadily for years. In 2013, e-commerce sites will require a special focus and dedication to maximize their value. Much the way a physical store focuses on details like lighting and music, those details can make a big difference for an e-commerce site. One huge advantage is that e-commerce allows you to test possible improvements and then implement the ones that deliver the best results.

There are three important stages for a site visitor: promote, engage and action. The promote step is everything done to drive traffic to the site. This is a critical step and must be established effectively for both new prospects and returning customers. The engage step is what is done to interact with visitors when they are at the site, whether they are searching for a specific item or just browsing, not sure exactly what they want. The site must funnel searchers to exactly what they are looking for very quickly and easily, and it must make it easy for browsers to explore the site and become engaged with a variety of items. Once you have engaged the visitor, you need them to take action. This could be as simple as adding a product to a wish list, signing up for a mailing list or making a purchase. All of these actions are important, because they give you data to start promoting to these users.

To accomplish this, your business model needs compelling return policies, shipping rates and other attractive features. and your site must be:

• Fast and scalable as demand grows, without breaking your wallet
• Visually appealing and able to build credibility and trust through style
• Suitable to highlight the brands sold
• Simple to use
• Organized, with a hierarchy that supports simple intuitive navigation and browsing for related products and promotions
• Able to support promotions in terms of placement, such as on the homepage, and price) and coupons
• Easy to search, letting users find and buy what they want quickly and easily
• Sales-friendly, allowing users to breeze through the checkout process and “close the deal”
• Equally functional on mobile and desktop devices

Ultimately, over time, the site must learn from “watching” visitors to see what they are doing (and not doing) and how they respond to different tests. The site must experiment with language, checkout processes and other tools and be very data-driven to switch to the features that are producing the maximum results.