5 Must-Haves for a Successful E-Commerce Website
Custom web design is essential to the growth of any business. Whether a corporation, small business or anything in between, every company has unique goals. Templates can help to get a website up and running, but they don’t serve your objectives specifically. This is why custom design is so valuable.
Our combined experience working with clients in the following industries has allowed us to pinpoint where design can influence your key performance metrics (KPIs) most.
In part one of this series, we’ll be explaining some of the major areas where professional web design is crucial for a successful e-commerce website.
1. ADVANCED SEARCH AND FILTERING
If you’re selling products online, you want your customers to be able to find them quickly. User experience (UX) design and custom development ensures that products are easy to find, and simple to purchase.
We optimize e-commerce websites for cross-sells and up-sells, which have a huge impact on your revenue. Cross-selling is recommending additional products to a customer, and up-selling is recommending a comparable higher-end product.
2. INTUITIVE NAVIGATION
Information about your business should be easy for customers to locate. For example, visitors are less likely to buy from e-commerce sites if contact information is hard to find. Professional UX design considers subtleties like this that affect your sales. No one should ever feel lost on your website — they should be able to easily browse through and know where they are in relation to everything. Not only does this give them confidence in your business, it improves search engine optimization (SEO).
3. STRONG VISUALS
High-quality product photography is essential to selling online. Shoppers want to see exactly what they’re buying, so if a product comes in more than one color, it’s important to show each variation. It also helps to show products in use. Photographs should be simple and clean, focused on showcasing the product itself.
4. EMPHASIS AND MESSAGING
Messaging includes copywriting and visuals. Both should work harmoniously to tell the story of your brand. This is done through intentional emphasis throughout the design, guiding customers by removing clutter and prioritizing calls to action. Calls to action can be anything from requesting a quote, to signing up for your newsletter, to adding an item to the shopping cart. There must always be a clear path for the user.
5. SOCIAL PROOF
Social proof is especially important, and there are design practices that support this. For instance, customer reviews should always be visible. In addition, social sharing buttons should be promoted. If your design includes ways to involve happy customers, this will attract more happy customers.
Stay tuned! Next week we’ll share some of the must-haves for a successful website in education.
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Alaina is a UX designer and developer at Idea Kraft. You can find her discussing developer tips and design news on Twitter @AlainaVirginia.
