Your Store Homepage is Incomplete
Invest in it now!
Have you had an e-commerce website forever, but somehow you haven’t made it to the top? You probably might have tried a lot of things, but they didn’t really work out.
Homepages are the face of your brand and this is why all the top websites spend the most of their resources on designing the UX of their homepage. Visual, content, browsing experience, it all starts here, and here is an example that portrays how color, logo, product montage, etc. can create a lasting impression. Your homepage basically functions as both an introduction to your brand and a set of coded guidelines meant to help both new and existing customers navigate your website to find what they need. Much like a landing page, every detail in it should build towards making a strong first impression and inspiring an intended action, whether the goal of your homepage is to sell your products or get email subscribers.
There’s no single way to design a homepage. Store homepage is not important only because it’s the first page people see, but it is a trailer of your store. It should give people just enough idea about everything you’re offering and at the same time not reveal too much.
Homepage Pop-ups: Annoying or Necessary
Homepage pop-ups are welcome pop-ups that entice the visitors to keep browsing. Pop-ups designed to collect information can be annoying. Nobody wants to visit your website and give you personal info right away. But pop-ups can work, and they can easily give you higher conversion rates if you know exactly what you need to do with them!
So, what do you do? You create pop-ups that offer a takeaway and emphasize on tangible giveaways like a welcome message with a curated offer on the store. Make the visitor feel welcome and connected with the message, your offer, and your website’s design.
Let’s take Tada for example:
Tada offers minimalistic designs to minimize the distracting element, and you as a store owner can collect the information you need to build a relationship. For example, birthdays are an excellent substitute for emails and this prevents the user from being repulsed by some potential spam. Also, since Tada gives you the flexibility to customize the pop-ups according to your choice, you can go for anything you feel will connect you to the customer rather than annoy them away! You can also ask them questions connected to their taste, which can help you navigate them to a list of similar products!
Let your homepage pop-ups bring your visitor closer to your brand than take them away!
Product Montage: What and How Much To Share
Your homepage is lacking in content if it doesn’t display your products, i.e. what you offer. This is why you need a product montage. What is a product montage anyway, you ask? It is the technique of selecting, editing, and bringing together a separate section of products! This montage should have the trending items, the most sold, the sought-after ones, etc. If prices are mentioned, make sure it matches the checkout cost. Added costs outside the homepage can increase the bounce rate.
Also, just adding a product to the homepage isn’t enough. Bring in vibrancy and bring in aesthetics. Your visitor should want to look at your products? How do you make it visually appealing? You can opt for a changing display that will grab attention immediately. But, make sure you continue to update it every now and then according to the sales, popularity, or even seasons and festivals.
Here is a comparative example of two websites that show the difference between having a product montage as opposed to not having one.
The voice of the brand is the defining factor that determines the design, the elements that will go on the homepage. For a luxury brand, the key factor might be the face of the brand. But it caters to a niche audience who understands why they are visiting the store. This may not work for online stores looking for higher conversions and lower bounce rates. This design gives very little information about the product or the range that they offer. It requires the visitors to take a series of actions to reach where they can check your products, compare them and make a decision to purchase.
On the other hand, the first design showcases the products on the homepage, directly leading the visitors to a purchase decision. It shows the entire range of products, requires less attention span on the user’s behalf and offers a direct insight into what the store is all about. For e-commerce businesses, grabbing and retaining attention is the key to more sales and better conversion. Having a product montage acts as a trailer for your entire store, where the user knows the story without having to watch the entire movie. And in the world of short attention spans and countless distractions, this is exactly what you need.
Reviews: Combination of Good, Bad, and Resolutions
Customers are smarter now. Today, 97% of customers read product reviews before they make a purchase decision. 89% of them believe online reviews to be an indispensable resource in the process. On the flip side, 85% of consumers search for negative reviews to make informed purchase decisions. And this number hits the roof to 91% among consumers from the ages of 18–29.
Yes, reviews really can make or break your brand’s growth. But on any platform, you will inevitably receive some negative reviews. So, how do you respond to them? For that, you need a smart game plan!
First, how about displaying negative reviews on your homepage along with a note on how you have resolved them? That way, your customers will know you are authentic and also that when a problem arises, you will handle or resolve it effectively!
Second, negative reviews can actually be a good idea, because bad reviews give customers an idea of the worst-case scenario. They want to know what can go wrong to understand how much it will affect them. Too many positive reviews can look fake to some shoppers, so you need to watch out. Under rare circumstances, you can edit or delete a summary if it is too much for a website. It is understandable why no one wishes to get a bad rating. Nonetheless, a single negative review among a slew of positives will not likely harm your business.
Take Amazon, Google, and Yelp, for example. All these websites show both positive and negative feedback and don’t shy away from it. In addition, these websites or apps have terms of service or community guidelines document where they mention how they handle reviews.
Conclusion
As you probably would have understood by now, there is no single great way to design your homepage. Aspects like user demographics, branding, number of products, marketing channels, and a lot more can influence your user’s behavior in a variety of ways.
This is why it is so imperative to always view your homepage as a work in progress rather than a finished product. Use the traffic and sales you generate to measure the effectiveness of your homepage and make adjustments time and again.
