Ecommerce Website Design: 9 Things to Keep in Mind

According to Stanford web credibility research, 75% of web users make judgments about a company’s credibility based on its website design. This makes e-commerce website design really important.

Ace site design is as important for an e-commerce website as interior design for a brick-and-mortar store. If it’s good, more product purchases will happen; if not, even interested visitors will walk away without shopping. 

In this blog, Techosquare will tell you about 9 things to keep in mind while designing an e-commerce website. Consider the following points in mind while designing your online store and we guarantee higher sales and engagement!

#1 Keep it simple

Keep your e-commerce website design simple. That’s because when you make it too complex, you forget the obvious. In other words, if you use too many CTAs, blocks, different colors, and pop-ups, it will become too cluttered and the same will impact performance.

An e-commerce store with a neat design and smooth capabilities retains attention, improves loading time, increases sales, and helps you save a lot of money. Use a limited color palette inspired by your logo. Also, include copious amounts of white space!

#2 Follow Hick’s law

Seasoned entrepreneurs are aware of the Hick–Hyman law but if you aren’t, this psychological principle states that the more choices you are going to present your visitors with, the more time they will take to make a final decision about which option is best.

This real-world rule applies to the e-commerce world as well. Ask your design team to reduce the number of menu items while designing your online store. Instead of using endless product scrolling, create pages that need to be navigated manually.

#3 Use premium images and videos

According to a 2018 survey from Salsify, 60% of shoppers in the United States check out an average of three or four images before making a purchase from an ecommerce website. What’s more, 48% of shoppers watch product videos before going through anything else.

These figures made one thing clear - images and videos have the potential to move your customers from consideration to conversion. Add high-quality images to let your buyers examine the product carefully. Keep the background plain to put more focus on every single detail of your products.

#4 Keep customers in mind

Lou Gerstner once said, ‘everything starts with the customer’ and we think he's 100% right! Literally, everything in this world begins and circles around consumers. If it doesn't, it totally should. This includes your marketing tactics, sales, brand presence, and of course, your e-commerce website.

Keep your customers in mind while designing your online shop. Make sure every single detail of your site, from product pages to their corresponding images and contact forms to the checkout page facilitates the user's decision to make a purchase.  

Rather than a store owner, start thinking like a customer. Get a second opinion by requesting your friends to look over your website and check if it's user-friendly. Take their opinion with a grain of salt though! You need not implement every suggestion that comes your way.

#5 Visibility of critical elements

One of the most important ecommerce website design tips that every entrepreneur should be aware of. While shopping on Amazon, you must have noticed that it has a dynamic shopping cart icon in the top right corner of every product page.

While the navigation is visible almost always throughout the website, it disappears as soon as you enter the checkout process. The point being that visibility and unavailability of certain elements can help you increase conversion rates and the same should be kept in mind during your design process.

Add a 'view cart' button at the top corner or navigation while designing your ecommerce website. Ensure that it changes in real time and is recognizable, just like a shopping bag. Follow similar accessibility guidelines to gain more psychological points.

Detailed guide on responsive website design for businesses

#6 Don’t distract your customers 

Imagine you are watching your favorite TV show and your phone keeps ringing again and again. You will definitely feel distracted and want to give up the show. Your customers also feel the same when you include too much information and distractions (like popups) on your e-commerce website.

Now, this does not in any way mean you should not write a detailed product description or include bullet points. Of course, you can but just make sure that everything is organized in a way that doesn’t distract your customers from making a purchase. Keep it simple, keep it minimal.

#7 Make navigation clear

Navigation of e-commerce websites is super important. If your visitor can’t reach the product he wants to buy, then, he is going to hightail from your store as quick as flash and head straight to your competitor’s store.

We bet you don’t want that to happen, right? Organize your product categories and pages correctly. Divide it into clear parts, with only important links on your main menu. In case your store has a lot of pages, add them to second-level or third-level menus.

A lot of online stores also use footers to help people navigate to relevant pages.

#8 Include reviews and testimonials

Almost everyone reads online reviews before making a purchase except people with very strong brand loyalty. No, we are not making this up! According to Big Commerce, 91% of people read reviews and 84% trust them as much as they would a personal recommendation. Long story short, reviews are INEVITABLE.

Ask your web design service provider to integrate a review module right below the product description. Make it easy for verified shoppers to leave reviews and feedback for future customers. If you are planning to launch a multi vendor marketplace, this is super important!

Trust us, customer reviews are a quick and easy way to promote sales and conversions.

#9 Ensure checkout is a breeze

You are standing in a McDonald's queue with your order in your hand. But there’s a twist! You are unable to pay using your credit card because there’s a technical issue with the payment machine. We bet you will want to leave the order right there and zoom out. Your shoppers will also feel the same if they find your checkout process to be sluggish.

Make the checkout process a breeze. Ensure its design is clean, simple, and easy to navigate. Give your customers the option to register for your site or to check out as a guest. Let them know what information they need to fill out; what are different shipping options available and what they need to do if they want to return the order.

A straightforward and pain-free checkout process can turn your potential customers into permanent ones and make them shop from your e-commerce website again and again.

Above are some useful tips to consider while designing your e-commerce website in 2021. Remember, e-commerce design and development is tricky and one mistake could cost you a lot of customers. That’s why we recommend hiring a talented team of designers and developers to build the same!

Team Techosquare has been helping businesses launch aesthetically pleasing online stores for many years now. Need a quote for your online store? Request the same by sending an email to info@techosquare.com.

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