Just about everything is online these days – including shopping. That’s why there’s never been a better time than now to be in the eCommerce industry! Whether you’re selling t-shirts, jewelry, or just about anything, you need to have a high-quality designed eCommerce website. But we get it – running your business and creating a killer website simultaneously can be challenging! That’s why we have crafted our top 8 website design tips for a fantastic eCommerce website.
What makes an eCommerce website well designed?
Web design is crucial when it comes to creating an eCommerce website and if you are looking to grow traffic. Good eCommerce web designs include using the right colors, images, fonts, and graphics to help visitors purchase your products. Your eCommerce website should not only attract customers but provide a great user experience while showing off your products and services offered.
Well, how exactly do you do all that? How do you create and design the website that will push customers to take action and checkout?
Top 8 eCommerce Website Design Tips
Here are the top 8 eCommerce website design tips that’ll take your eCommerce’s website to the next level!
1. Keep it clean and simple
This is one of the most essential rules you should follow when designing your website. Simple is almost always better. The more you have going on within a page (think pop-ups, banners, bright colors, and different fonts) can take away from the website’s purpose – to help you close a sale.
Leen Heyne, an eCommerce store that sells jewelry, keeps their website’s design clean, clear and minimalistic.
Don’t worry about packing in a ton of bells and whistles. Instead, minimize distraction. By keeping your design crisp and clear, you can use the “fancy stuff” to emphasize certain aspects of your site that help drive customer action.
2. Prioritize branding
With millions of sites popping up on the web, maintaining a consistent aesthetic and branding is mission-critical to standing out. We bet you’ve stumbled across a website where something seemed…off. If you took time to think about it, the lack of branding probably stood out to you like a sore thumb. When it comes to e-shopping, customers desire to purchase from established brands, not faceless, nameless sites that look like they might steal your credit card information!
Building trust is essential in driving sales. Thus, it would help if you put some serious thought into branding. Good branding is similar to the DNA of your business. It shows off what your company is all about and how you’re different from competitors. Good branding or bad branding can be a deal-breaker in building a connection with your audience.
Harry’s consistent use of branding elevates it above over brands in the shaving industry.
If you aren’t sure what your branding is, it may be time to define your brand. Ask yourself a few questions to help determine your branding:
- You have three words to describe your brand. What would they be?
- If my brand was a person, who would it be?
- What differentiates my brand from an eCommerce business similar to mine?
- What does my company do better than others on the market?
Once you know a bit more about who you are, you can work that into the branding on your website. If you need help determining the specifics, feel free to contact us. We specialize in web design, development, and business branding.
3. Use Color Wisely
Remember what we said about branding? It’s essential to keep it simple. Choose your colors wisely and sparingly. Color can be a potent tool, especially when you understand the psychology behind color. Use it to your advantage.
Think about famous brands – what colors come to mind when you picture them? Usually, few colors will stand out connected to a particular emotion. Different colors cause different emotions and feelings, such as the color red.
The use of color (in this image, the color red), immediately draws attention, driving the customer to purchase.
There is a reason many fast food companies primarily use red in their branding (think McDonald’s, Wendy’s, or Burger King). Red inspires a feeling of passion and excitement, which are driving factors behind spending. Studies show that making your checkout button red can increase conversions by over 34 percent!
Take a look at the color palette and choose colors that inspire the emotions you’d like to draw out of your customers. Blue, for example, encourages feelings of trust and calm. There’s a reason why blue is the go-to color in the business world.
Using the right colors across your site can be a huge asset.
4. High-Quality Images
Images can increase conversion; this is a well-known fact in the world of web design. This is even more true when it comes to the eCommerce industry. People don’t want to buy a product they can’t see! If you desire people to purchase from you, you will have to show them what they are buying with high-quality images. If your pictures aren’t high quality enough, then you may need to get professional shots taken. If your customers feel confident knowing what they are buying, they are more likely to purchase.
Just go ahead and do yourself a favor – make sure you have high-quality images of whatever you are selling on your website!
5. Scannable Content
While you could spend days crafting long descriptions for the products on your website, that may be a waste of time. Studies show that web visitors read only about 20 percent of the text on a given page. This means your web pages shouldn’t contain too much information, or people will glaze over it. Instead, you need to ensure your content is scannable!
Break up your content either using headings or product descriptions. Make it easy to scan. Keep paragraphs short, and feel free to use bolding to bring attention to important information.
The easier it is to scan your content, the more likely readers will absorb the important messaging and click purchase.
6. Make Your Site Look Professional
With thousands of websites popping up every day on the internet, you must ensure that your content is professional. What do we mean by professional?
Bite’s website is professional, with consistent branding, clear messaging and crisp images.
A professional site makes sure customers feel comfortable submitting their personal information to you (i.e., credit card information!). A professional website is also 100 percent free of typos and misspelled words. On top of this, your website should have consistent, high-quality branding on every page, photos should be professionally taken, and your overall design should look modern and clean.
The bottomline is this – if you want your customers to take you seriously, you need to show them you are taking business seriously. And this is done by showing off a professional website.
7. Use Social Proof
Trust is a critical element of making a sale online. Another way to bolster trust is through reviews and testimonials. Even if you haven’t been in the business long, you probably have a few positive reviews handy. Publicize those reviews on your website! People want to see what other people think of the product – both the good and the bad.
It could also be a great idea to add a ratings and reviews section to your site or products. That way, as you make more sales, your customers will help market your products for you. It may even be beneficial for you to ask customers to review products. This could be a great blog post that also works to improve your image and footprint online.
The more people see other customers having a positive experience shopping with you, the more trustworthy you will seem. And, the more trustworthy you are, the more likely customers will buy and keep buying.
8. Make Your Site Responsive
Did you know that over 40 percent of eCommerce purchases are made on smartphones? Your site must be responsive to mobile users! If it’s not easy for shoppers to access your site, look through your products, and checkout via their cell phones, then you’ll lose customers quickly!
Ready To Implement These Ecommerce Website Design Tips?
We understand that eCommerce is website design can be tricky. There are a lot of things to think about when creating the perfect site for shopping. However, incorporating the above tips will help your site not only look great but convert!
What are you waiting for? If you’d like more advice, need a website overhaul, branding advice, or simply need some help with your website, we’re here to help! We offer complete, comprehensive services for eCommerce businesses. Whether you need a little help or an entirely brand new website, we’ve got you covered.
