Online shopping accounts for £100 billion of retail sales every year in the UK alone. As a business owner, it couldn’t be a better time to create an online store especially as demand is surging.
However, in order for your eCommerce website to be a success, you need to have a winning web design strategy and effective e-commerce website design features. Want to find out more? Pens and paper at the ready, here are 5 things you need to have to make your eCommerce website successful.
A Strong USP
Despite there being lots of differences between a physical store and an online store, some similarities can’t be ignored. Namely, that you need a strong USP (unique selling point) so that your visitors know exactly what it is that you do.
Ecommerce stores can sell a variety of different items like a regular store. But, the general offering should still have a consistent flow to it. For example, you wouldn’t expect to find pyjamas for sale on a website that sold car parts. So keep your business model clear and simple for all to understand. That way, you can hone in on your target customers.
Clean Website Design
The best eCommerce websites have a layout that is easy to navigate. Clean website design matters at the best of times, but especially if you are trying to sell products. If users have to go on a long, complicated journey to find what they want, they will likely give up trying. It can be hugely beneficial to hire an experienced and local web designer.
Even if your website sells thousands of products, try to keep your pages as streamlined as possible. From the moment the user loads the homepage right through to the checkout progress, it should be simple and uninterrupted. Be wary of adding clutter to your pages, annoying popups or too many ads as it will slow down your website.
Great Imagery
When you purchase from a website, you can’t inspect the item in the same way you could on the high street. Therefore, your product imagery must shine the best light on your stock. Customers are going to want to see the product from all angles, especially if your website is fashion related.
If you’re not a natural photographer, it’s a wise investment to hire a commercial product photographer instead. The images need to be high resolution and offer value to the item with the detail that they show. Be sure to follow up your images with excellent product descriptions too.
Simple Checkout Process
The crunch time. Will your users be able to add the item to their basket, and checkout safely and easily? If your website doesn’t have a valid SSL certificate, the little padlock in the corner that tells the user their information will be safe won’t appear. This could immediately put users off, especially if their browser warns them about it. So, make sure to buy an SSL certificate if you don’t have one already.
All your users want to do is enter their details and check out. If there are endless forms to fill in that aren’t related to the sale, this is a no-no. It’s also good to offer several payment options, as you’ll open up your store to a wider clientele, especially if you want to do business internationally. Once the payment is complete, a simple message should appear along with an email confirmation.
Punchout catalogs can help simplify the checkout process for e-commerce by allowing buyers to access and purchase goods directly from their procurement system or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, without having to manually enter product information and pricing into their purchasing software.
An Excellent Marketing Strategy
There’s no point in having an amazing eCommerce website if you have no customers. Your marketing strategy should broadly target as many potential customers as possible. With the right web design tactics, you can turn your actual website into a marketing tool all by itself.
For example, you could have a popup that gives your customers a discount if they sign up to your newsletter. Within your copy, all of the headings feature H tags which are great for SEO. Your blog is also useful for SEO because you can feature relevant content to draw your customers in. Don’t forget about adding social media icons to your homepage either.
To Sum Up
Even though e-commerce is a booming market, that doesn’t mean setting up a successful online store is a piece of cake. But by putting some thought into your website design, you can drastically improve your user’s overall experience. As a result, your website visitors are more likely to purchase from you especially if it’s well designed and easy to navigate.