Your ecommerce website serves as an advertising billboard for your business and the web design is the first thing your visitors notice. If you look at the history of any ecommerce business, the web design either makes or breaks the customer experience. No matter what amount of planning and execution goes into development and marketing, you would still be losing valuable customers if your ecommerce store design is not optimized. It plays a vital role in generating conversions and sales for your ecommerce business. Hence, many ecommerce businesses keep revamping their website designs to ‘wow’ the user experience.
After curating many ecommerce websites that have been doing phenomenally well, we are presenting you with some of the web design tips for you to get started. Hop in!
Ecommerce Web Design Tips to Boost Business Sales
- It’s all about the user! - Focus on creating user-centric designs. Every nitty-gritty detail of your e-commerce website design, be it the home page, product page, checkout page, product images, contact forms, you need to keep in mind the end-user experience. All of them should have the potential to drive the users to make a purchase. It should make a great impression on them that keeps them to stay on your page and eventually turn your website visitors into customers and customers into repeat customers.
- Conduct User Research - You can also conduct some user research to find what designs resonate with the users. If you are unsure of any element, you can always perform A/B test and find the navigational ease, usability, visual appeal, and overall customer satisfaction.
- Keep it simple - Remember the KISS principle - Keep it simple, silly! Go for it when you are designing your ecommerce web design. Simplicity always rules. Don’t clutter your website with numerous elements, pop-ups, flashy colors, and animations that give your website a clumsy look. A ton of bells and whistles on your site are mere distractions and do more harm than good. A cluttered web page may also take a lot of time to load, so keep a tab on what goes into your web page. So, simplify and optimize your ecommerce web design for better conversions.
- Brand Consistency - If you want to make a lasting impression on your website visitors, besides optimizing your design, you need to focus on maintaining a consistent brand image all the way through. Your logo should be visible on all the website pages. Maintain fonts and color consistency throughout the website. Even if you bring in any changes, make sure not to create a totally different web design. Keep the changes to a minimal level. The design scheme and the navigation elements should also be consistent across the website. By maintaining brand consistency, you gain more chances to stand out from your competitors.
- Grid Layouts - On any ecommerce website, there has to be a natural flow of navigation and based on the heatmap study, people tend to be more comfortable with a grid layout. It helps users to browse the products easily as the grid layout organizes them in proper rows and columns. You just need to take care of not cramming too many products in one place. You can have a few products or maintain a consistent product number on each row. This way, you can make your product catalog pages visually appealing and easily navigable. White spaces around each product give some breathing space to clearly differentiate from the others.
- Organize the Products - Product listings are very important on an ecommerce website. They have to be neatly organized into categories and these should be streamlined and organized under a nice menu bar. This lets the users have a glimpse into product categories and once a user wants to see a product, he/she should be able to browse through the categories with great ease. Neatly organized products under a mega menu goes a long way. Just make sure not to fatten up the menu with too many options and confuse the users. A drop-down menu is one of the most popular options and by hovering over each category, you can find the specific types of products.
- Easy Product Search - Most customers visit an ecommerce website when they already have a product in their mind. So, there has to be a search bar at the top without the need to scroll, to allow them to find the product they have been looking for as quickly as possible. You can also improve your search options by filtering options. They should be able to filter out the products based on different parameters. This lets the users find the product they are specific about.
- Reviews and Ratings - User-generated data like customer reviews, ratings, testimonials should be included in your ecommerce website. These have the potential to create trust in your visitors. More than 50% of the online buyers read the customer reviews before they make a purchase. It is one of the easiest ways to garner conversions. So along with proper product description, having a product-specific review helps the visitors to understand your products better.
- High-quality Product Images - The biggest pain point for any online buyer is not having the touch-and-feel experience of a physical store. A high-quality product image eases the users’ pain points drastically. A high-resolution product image is a must which can be supplemented with a product description video. Blurred images may make them think that your products may not be of high-quality. The customers should be able to click through the images and also see them from multiple angles. They should also be able to zoom-in for finer details.
- Mobile Responsive - With ecommerce moving onto the smartphones of the users, more and more websites are going the mobile way! Make sure that your web design is mobile responsive to provide the best user experience. If the experience on mobile phones isn’t responsive, you are failing in your efforts to reach more audiences and garner sales. Also, non-responsive websites are more bound to attract penalties from the search engines. Also, having a responsive design that fits any screen size and browser doesn’t call for another design for your mobile version. Ensure that the CTAs, forms, images, and all other elements work seamlessly on different channels.
- Simple Checkout - A complex checkout process results in a higher cart abandonment rate. Nothing is worse than losing a hard-won customer during the final leg of the funnel. So, focus on simplifying the checkout process on your ecommerce website. You can provide a guest check out for the customers who want to quickly finish their purchase. Even otherwise, collect only the necessary information rather than indulging in unnecessary details. Another vital aspect is the payment options. The users should be provided with the flexibility to choose the payment option of their choice. If the abandonment rates are still high, remember the odds of a visitor making a purchase on their first visit are very low. You can send out a retargeting campaign to these visitors to convince them and complete their purchase.
Conclusion
Ecommerce web design can be tricky but by following some ground rules, you would be good to go. The aforementioned tips are just to help you get started and boost your sales. If you need to scale further or need a design overhaul, you can contact our team at Skynet Technologies.
Building thriving ecommerce web design for our clients is our strongest forte. Our ecommerce UI/UX design services include custom, responsive, SEO enabled services for diverse platforms like BigCommerce, osCommerce, Magento, Drupal Commerce, WordPress and more. We hold an envious record in creating stunning interfaces that captivate users, drive engagement, and boost conversions. Let us Know About Your requirements and We’ll Get back to you as soon as possible!