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What Does Every eCommerce Site Need in 2026? The Essential Features

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Oliver McKeown
Oliver McKeown Head of Digital
August 4, 2026
Read time: 10 Minute Read

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Table of contents

Introduction

I’ve lost count of the number of times a business has come to us convinced their sales problem is a product problem, when it’s really an experience problem. Their stock is fine. Their site is the issue.

Today’s customers are demanding, and they know that if one site makes them work for it, the next one won’t – so the experience is the shop. With online now making up around 28% of all UK retail spending, in a market worth roughly £286 billion, and more than half of those purchases happening on a phone, that’s not a small thing to get wrong.

And there’s a new wrinkle in 2026 that didn’t exist when we first wrote this: customers are discovering products by asking an AI. ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity. So the features that matter now have to win over two audiences – people, and the machines increasingly recommending you to them.

These are the ones I’d fight for on any build, each framed as a question I actually get asked. A quick warning before we start: almost no site does all of them well. That’s the opportunity.

What makes a good mobile eCommerce experience?

A good mobile experience means never making it hard to find a product, get an answer, add to basket or check out – designed for the phone first, not the desktop. Smartphones now generate close to 80% of UK retail site traffic and over 70% of all online orders. The catch is that mobile still converts at roughly half the rate of desktop, which means a clunky mobile journey is where most stores quietly lose money. Clean navigation, smart filters, on-site search and comparison tools aren’t nice-to-haves – they’re the difference between a sale and a bounce. If you only fix one thing on this whole list, make it this one. Everything else is built on top of it.

Why does site speed matter for an online store?

Site speed matters because shoppers abandon slow sites and Google factors page experience into rankings, so a sluggish store costs you twice – in conversions and in visibility. Google measures this through its Core Web Vitals metrics, and every extra second of load time drags your completion rate down, especially on mobile. Whatever else you add to your site, protect load speed fiercely: a beautiful page that takes five seconds to appear isn’t beautiful to anyone.

Welling Ironmongery Performance Score

What product content do online shoppers expect?

Shoppers expect to see everything before they buy – multiple angles, every colour and variation, and ideally video or a 360° view. Gone are the days when a single photo and a sentence of text would do; the more you show, the more confident, and more likely to buy, they are. In 2026, short-form product video and augmented-reality “view in your room” or “try it on” tools are increasingly expected in categories like fashion, furniture and beauty. Just keep an eye on file sizes, so all that rich media doesn’t wreck the load speed you worked to protect.






    Do product reviews actually increase sales?

    Yes – reviews are one of the most powerful forms of social proof there is, and a visible bank of genuine ratings reassures hesitant shoppers and lifts conversion. The vast majority of shoppers now read reviews before buying, and many won’t purchase a product rated below four stars. And don’t panic about the occasional bad one. A wall of flawless five stars can actually read as fake – a few three- and four-star reviews with a thoughtful reply underneath do more for trust than a suspiciously perfect record. How you respond says as much about your brand as the review does.

    Ecommerce Reviews

    How do you make an eCommerce checkout feel secure?

    You make a checkout feel secure with visible trust signals: SSL, recognised payment badges and an easy-to-find returns policy. Over half of shoppers admit to hesitating at checkout over payment-security doubts, and clear trust signals have been shown to reduce abandonment by up to around a quarter. At Zinc, we build most of our eCommerce clients on WooCommerce or Shopify – both secure platforms with plenty of scope to harden further – and we’d always insist on an SSL certificate wherever personal data is exchanged. That padlock in the address bar is quiet, constant reassurance – and honestly, in 2026 it’s table stakes. If you’re still asking customers to hand over card details on a page without it, that’s the first thing I’d fix, before anything else on this list.

    Secure Ecommerce Store

    Why do customers abandon their baskets?

    When we redesigned the online shop for the University of St Andrews, getting the fundamentals right – a cleaner journey, clearer information and a smoother path to checkout – helped drive a 35% increase in online revenue. Not from a single clever trick, but from removing friction at every step, including the nasty little surprises at the end.

    What does a good eCommerce checkout look like?

    A good checkout is short, flexible and frictionless. Offer a guest checkout, because being forced to create an account is one of the top reasons shoppers walk away. Keep forms short – usability research points to around 12–14 fields as the sweet spot. And offer the payment methods people actually use: roughly three-quarters of mobile shoppers now prefer digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, and Buy Now, Pay Later options (now FCA-regulated) are increasingly expected. Stores that add express, one-tap checkout regularly see double-digit lifts in completion rates.

    How does AI improve the online shopping experience?

    AI improves the shopping experience by making a site feel like it knows the shopper. AI-driven on-site search that understands natural language, recommendations based on real behaviour, and personalised merchandising all help the right product reach the right person faster. Done well, it’s the modern equivalent of a good shop assistant – a “customers also bought” row that lifts average order value, or a search bar that returns the right result even when someone spells it wrong or describes it vaguely. You will also soon by able to measure AI visibility in Google Search Console.

    Do special offers and urgency actually work in eCommerce?

    Yes – time-limited discounts and clear savings remain one of the most reliable ways to turn browsers into buyers. There’s nothing like a percentage off and a ticking clock to get orders flooding in. Build space into your design for promo banners and countdown callouts in the highest-intent spots – the top of the homepage and on product pages, right where shoppers are primed to purchase. In 2026, the smart move is to pair urgency with personalisation: a returning visitor’s abandoned item, or a first-order incentive, so the offer feels relevant rather than generic.

    What makes a good call to action on an eCommerce site?

    A good call to action guides the customer toward the next step – buy, subscribe, or add more to the basket – without friction. It’s an old-school tactic that still works. Great examples are a “Related Items” or “Customers also bought” row when someone adds to their cart, which lifts average order value, or bundled products that smooth the buying decision. The rule of thumb: every key page should have one clear, obvious primary action rather than several competing buttons pulling attention in different directions.

    Does my eCommerce site need to be accessible?

    Yes – accessibility is now both good practice and, increasingly, a legal expectation. The European Accessibility Act came into force in June 2025, bringing accessibility requirements for many businesses selling into the EU, and the UK’s Equality Act already expects reasonable provision. Beyond compliance, an accessible site – proper contrast, keyboard navigation, alt text, clear labelling – is simply more usable for everyone, and it widens your potential customer base rather than quietly excluding part of it.

    You get products into AI answers with clean structure, accurate product schema and clear, well-organised information that machines can read and trust. Shoppers increasingly start by asking an AI assistant “where can I buy X,” and the sites that get surfaced are the ones built to be understood. This is the eCommerce side of Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) – making sure that when someone asks an AI for a product recommendation, your store is in the answer rather than invisible to it. I think this becomes as important as ranking on page one of Google, and sooner than most people expect. The stores that treat it as a priority now will have a real head start.

    At Zinc, we design and build eCommerce sites that bring these principles together in a way that looks beautiful and works hard – for your customers, and for the search and AI engines that send them to you.

    Frequently asked questions

    What features does an eCommerce website need?
    At a minimum, a modern eCommerce site needs a mobile-first design, fast load speed, rich product content, customer reviews, a secure and transparent checkout, clear pricing and delivery information, compelling offers and calls to action, accessibility, and increasingly, visibility in AI search. Most struggling stores are missing several of these.
    What is the most common reason for online cart abandonment?
    Unexpected extra costs. Shipping, taxes and fees that appear late in the checkout are the number one reason shoppers abandon their baskets, cited by nearly half of all abandoners. Showing the full price early is one of the highest-impact fixes available.
    How much of UK eCommerce happens on mobile?
    More than half of UK online purchases now happen on a phone, and smartphones account for close to 80% of retail site traffic and over 70% of orders. Mobile still converts at a lower rate than desktop, which is exactly why optimising the mobile experience delivers the biggest gains.
    Should I build my online store on WooCommerce or Shopify?
    Both are strong, secure platforms and the right choice depends on your needs. Shopify is quick to launch and fully hosted; WooCommerce offers more flexibility and control if you’re already on WordPress. At Zinc we work with both and recommend based on your catalogue, budget and how much custom functionality you need.
    What is AEO for eCommerce?
    Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring your site and product data so AI tools like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and Perplexity can understand and recommend you. For an online store, that means clean product schema, clear information architecture and content that answers real buyer questions — so you appear when shoppers ask an AI what to buy.
    Does an accessible website really matter for sales?
    Yes. Beyond the legal expectations introduced by the European Accessibility Act in 2025, an accessible site is more usable for everyone and reaches customers a non-accessible site would exclude. Good accessibility and good UX are largely the same thing.

    Sources: ONS – Retail Sales, Great Britain · Baymard Institute – Cart Abandonment Statistics · Statista – UK Mobile Commerce · Mordor Intelligence – UK eCommerce Market · UK Finance – UK Payment Markets · European Commission – European Accessibility Act

    Picture of Oliver McKeown

    Oliver McKeown

    Head of Digital

    Oliver McKeown is Head of Digital at Zinc Digital, the Northamptonshire-based agency he joined as an apprentice straight from school and has helped grow for over 15 years. His background spans design and development strategies, giving him a rare view across both the creative and technical sides of a project. Based in Northamptonshire, he is known for a hands-on, people-first approach to leading teams and clients through digital change.


    You can connect with Oliver McKeown at LinkedIn

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