What to Consider When Designing an E-Commerce Website

Selling online can lead to huge opportunities for your business. Developing an E-Commerce website will allow you to sell your product globally 24/7. But successfully selling your product online takes a bit more thought than just simply slapping your products into a database and uploading them to your website. It takes planning to create a pleasing online shopping experience and to convert your site visitors into paying customers. This is why it’s so important to know what to consider when designing an E-Commerce website.

Website Look and Feel

One extremely well known E-Commerce website, Amazon.com, seems to be brought up constantly when discussing the look and feel of a new E-Commerce website. It’s a fantastic site and the design works extremely well when selling a plethora of products. However, chances are your business is NOTHING like Amazon; do you really want your website to look just it?

Instead of focusing on making your site look like another, focus on the design elements or themes that will match the personality of your business to create a unique shopping experience for your ideal customers. Think about how these design ideas could potentially be carried over to other branding materials like letterheads, business cards and even social media accounts.

Quality Product Information

Keep the design tasteful and product driven. Over-the-top animations and graphics probably never helped you decide which product to buy and they won’t suddenly help your potential customers either. The quality of the information you provide is far more important.

Shopping online is different from shopping in a brick and mortar store. Your customers cannot physically examine and handle your product before they buy it. Make sure you have a detailed, well-written description for each and every one of your products; this will help your customers feel more confident making a purchase.

I cannot stress enough how important images are to the success of your e-commerce website. Your customers will want to look through high-quality images to get an idea of exactly what they are buying. Would you feel comfortable making a purchase from a site that uses images you can barely understand or see? I didn’t think so.

If you haven’t already, consider getting professional photographs taken for each of your products. Plan on having a few shots taken for each product as well as a few images for Call to Action sections on your site, such as a rotating header on the homepage or social media advertising.

Keep it Simple

Nothing turns a potential customer away faster than a website that is too complicated to use. Consider little additions such as an “Add to Cart” button directly on the product landing pages, having related products display when viewing a product’s details and allowing anonymous checkout. Small details such as these can keep a customer browsing your website.

Easy and Pain-Free Checkout

If customers will be checking out directly on your website you will want to make sure the process is simple and user-friendly. Using image thumbnails for each product will help remind your customers exactly what they are buying. Simple things like allowing the user to remove and update quantities for products directly in the shopping cart can prevent a lot of headaches. It’s also a great idea to have links to your policies and contact info clearly visible so the customer won’t have to dig through your site if any questions arise during checkout.

Keeping your e-commerce website design simple, user-friendly, and informative will ensure the best experience possible for both you and your customers. Remember to always keep your customers in mind while designing your website and to never implement something you yourself wouldn’t use. If you ever have any questions, don’t hesitate to contactus at Keystone Click for some help or let us know in our comments.