Ecommerce website development has gained popularity over the years after the boom of Ecommerce. Website design of an ecommerce site is very important for its success. Anything that is presented well and organized is preferred by people compared to an ill presented clutter of items. Latest stats say that, 38% of people will leave a website if it has unattractive layout or content.

 

2016 Small Business Marketing Trends Report says that “In a crowded market, having a website that simply serves as a brochure is no longer competitive.” Your Ecommerce website will not stay in competition if it serves as just a brochure for your product. A web design is not just an appealing, aesthetic look but it is much more than that ranging from customer experience to convincing your customer through the process. To stay ahead of your competitors, your website design should project your product quality, instill the sense of trust in the minds of your users and be useable. In short, your website should be a mirror to your product.

Some of the best e commerce website examples include Souq.com, amazon.com, Alibaba etc.

Ecommerce website essential tips

Ecommerce web design should mainly aim at making the customer journey starting from viewing the product to the checkout stage seamless. Here are some tips followed by Top Ecommerce Development Companies to develop best ecommerce website design.

 

Include search filter

Add filters in the website to refine the customer search to what he is looking for. This saves the user a lot of time and effort and precisely the customer end up with what they are looking for easily. Keep options for them to be able to bounce back to their choices too.

 

Noticeable search bar

The search bar in the website will help the user to find what he is looking for almost immediately. Including this in your website will precisely save the customer’s time navigating through the site when he is already sure on what he wants exactly. The search bar should be evident enough in the homepage that the user should be able to find it at a glance.

 

Notify out of Stock items:

It is best to not remove the out of stock items For SEO purposes. It is better to keep the product on the site instead of removing it and adding it again. Keep the out of stock images blurred out and “Add a notify me when in stock button”. If the out of stock items are not mentioned clearly then you will probably end up cancelling the order of the customer who ordered that product.

 

Add HQ Media

Having HQ images in your website adds value to the sales and helps the customer imagine the look and feel of the product. Adding a 360-degree view of the product is even more advisable. Customers can click and drag to rotate the product they’re looking at and see it from all angles. Adding rich media and HQ videos is an added advantage for an interactive product.

 

Easy navigation:

The Navigation in your site should be simple enough for the customer to hunt down the product he has in his mind. The navigation in the page should also be seamless and simple enough for the user to understand where he is going.

Adding super menus can help you declutter your page effectively.

Using breadcrumbs is also a good option to making the navigation of your site simple for the user. 

 

Surprise Shipping charges:

Customers do not like surprises and it will be considered as a breach of trust. It is always good to be clear about the shipping and handling charges right from the beginning to avoid a frustrated customer abandoning the cart midway.

 

SEO Optimization:

Your site must be SEO optimized to appear in the top 10 pages of search engines. This is highly crucial to get the user attention to your site. However, Ad’s and pay per click are also other options to gain visibility. Optimize your site well from the SEO perspective with a faster performing site.

 

Include newsletter

This is highly important for you to generate leads and develop your email list. Add attractive offers to encourage users to subscribe the newsletter and make it attractive for the users to sign up.

 

Simple and clean layout

The contents of the website must be presented in a clean and clear manner that the customers will not get intimidated seeing the layout of the website. Make use of white space efficiently so that users can focus on the important portions of the website. Using a card layout to display products also helps to keep your website clean and organized.

The product images in the website that are spread out in their own space should have a clear description and price. The “Save for later” and “Add to cart” buttons should also be prominent and clear.

 

Simplified checkout:

Keep the checkout process as simple as possible. Don’t force the customer to register in order to buy your product. It is better to avoid a lot of unnecessary fields for the user to fill in. limit checkout form fields to only important details.  It will be even better if you can load or suggest the previously filled data in case of a registered customer

Once the customer has moved to checkout page, remove ads, sidebar navigation, other product promotions etc. that hinder the path to goal.

Keep the checkout page as simple as possible by avoiding other contents in the page that will irritate the user. Single-page checkouts are said to have the highest conversion rates; If is okay to have multiple page checkouts too but make sure that there aren’t too many steps as people tend to easily give up on a purchase if it’s taking them too long.

 

Prominent CTA’s

Calls to action are very crucial for any website. The CTA’s are one of the key factors that take you to your goal. You must plan well on when you are going to place them in your website, what they should look like, and where they lead your customers to. You can also take a look on your competitors’ website to get an idea of do’s and don’ts to place CTA’s and get an idea on what will work out. Large, prominent and attractive CTA buttons are the most effective to prompt the customers to take action. Care should be taken that the CTA’s are contrasting and visible so that it reaches the eye of the customer. A CTA done right will earn you a lot of leads.

 

Effective Customer Service:

Place your contact details in a noticeable place in your page so that you can get feedbacks and address customer problems through it.

Don’t forget to mention your working hours in the website so that you don’t want to miss out the call of a customer and lose his trust. You can also spread your branches of customer service by being available on social media messengers, calls, chats etc.

Ecommerce home page design best practices:

Simple Homepage

Keep the contents of your homepage simple. It is not necessary to clutter all the contents on the first page itself. You can keep a crisp headline, sub headline and an image to describe the product in the homepage

The heading and sub headline should provide an effective message representing your brand that will convince the user to stay and scroll. You can experiment on which will improve conversion using A/B testing. Adding a Carousel with featured products also attracts the crowd.

 

Effective Navigation

Add simple navigation in your website so that the users who visit your webpage can find what they are looking for.

You can also feature the most sought-after products in your homepage to take the user to that page directly without delay. It is always better not to leave the navigation to customer’s guess, provide clear pathways.

 

Responsiveness

Keep your page responsive across all devices so that you don’t leave out any of the customers. If you focus on computer users alone then you will miss out on a huge chunk of potential customers who love shopping through their smartphones. Design your website for all even though you have an app, as there are users who do not prefer to download an app unless they trust the brand.

Additional benefits that responsiveness fetches you are better search ranking, unbroken content updates for all devices, and a seamless customer experience. Additionally, A/B testing is much easier for you to do with a unified codebase.

Ecommerce Design Mistakes that Could Be Killing Your Sales

Vague Value proposition

Value proposition has to be clear, crisp, and convincing enough for the customer to buy your product or service. Your statement should have the power to persuade your customer that your product or service will add more value than any of your competitor’s product. Your site should communicate what you sell very clearly without confusing your customer.

The Important elements of any good value proposition are

• A simple and clear headline that describes the purpose of the website.
• A convincing content on how the product will add value and why you are the best choice.
• Testimonials and social proofs.
• High Quality product images. 

 

Improper use of Images

In an ecommerce site, your product images play a key role in the look and feel of the product. Bad quality images or badly photographed products will cost you a fortune.

A study by Visual Website Optimizer states that inclusion of larger images and product description viewable on mouse hover increased the sales by 9.46%. A good HQ image will give the buyers who are investing a sense of confidence on the quality of the product.

 

Failing to use contrast CTA’s:

Larger images are more noticeable than smaller ones. Keep your action buttons prominent and visible to encourage the user to take necessary action instead of searching for it.  Note to make the crucial elements larger and in contrast colour to stand out from the rest of the page. Also, care should be taken that the unimportant elements don’t get all the attention as it will result in the user getting diverted from the CTA’s.

 

The Site Doesn't Look Trustworthy

Trust is the base of any ecommerce transaction or purchase. If you are an already recognized brand, then the brand name will bring you the trust factor. But if you are a growing business, developing the trust is very important.

Your site has to be the mirror to your product quality and trustworthiness. Adding social proof, testimonials, reviews and trust badges adds to the trustworthy.

 

Conclusion

With these tips we are sure that you can build a great design that leads to greater conversions. If you are a business who is looking to build an ecommerce website from scratch, then it is recommended to approach the best ecommerce web designer from Top ecommerce development companies. To help the start-ups, SMBs & large enterprises, eDesk HUB has curated a list of internationally acclaimed top eCommerce developers. Being the leading eCommerce design and development companies, these companies design & develop powerful eCommerce solutions that provide premium shopping experience to customers.

If you already have a website, you can apply these tips with A/B testing and check which suits you best. You can also seek the help of an ecommerce website development services to do it for you.