The Top 5 Critical Rules of Ecommerce Web Design

Are you looking to add eCommerce to your website and boost your physical shop? Successful online stores follow different web design rules than other types of sites. Here are five critical guidelines we follow when setting small businesses up with eCommerce!

Rule #1: Keep The Design Simple

Having a lot of features might sound impressive, but an overdesigned site can overwhelm customers and even scare them away. If your eCommerce website’s goal is to generate sales, the way to do that is to make sure the customer gets the information they need in the quickest way possible. To keep everything simple, focus on some features, including: 

• User-friendly navigation
• Tools like search bars 
• High-quality product images accompanied by detailed product descriptions unique to your site 
• Prominent contact and support information 
• Readable terms and conditions related to purchases, return policies, and shipping

 

Rule #2: Optimize Your Site To Get To Know Your Customers

Knowing your customers intimately is a huge competitive advantage. Figure out who your customers are and what they’re buying with information like keyword searches; this way, you’ll understand what’s taking them to your site, where they’re going, and how long they’re sticking around. By knowing your customers, you can understand what they need.

One key metric to watch is your site’s “bounce rate.” The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who navigate away from your website after viewing only one page. The Google Analytics Dashboard makes this an easy thing to watch, but you have to do something with this information, too!

This means making content that they want to engage with; a site with a high bounce rate will have low conversions. Making content that is relevant to your audience is important for Google, too; this search engine’s algorithms cares about how deep people navigate into your site.

 

Rule #3: Get Visitors To Leave Information With You

Keywords and search engine optimization are necessary, but you’ll want to follow up with your customers, too! This means encouraging visitors to leave their information with you with little details like call-to-action pop-ups, newsletter sign-ups, and more. This way, you have more opportunities to reach out and entice them back to your site.

If you can afford it, offer visitors specials and discounts to encourage them to leave their email. Build that list and you can start using one of the most effective forms of digital marketing: email campaigns! You’ll have a direct line to customers to tell them about any new products, promotions, and events.

 

Rule #4: Encourage Product Reviews

Product reviews are an essential part of eCommerce web design branding and marketing. They are important for your branding, helping build trust and loyalty while giving new customers a reason to choose your shop instead of the competition. 

It’s important for your SEO strategy, too. The quantity and quality of reviews left on your Google Business profile are one of the most important ranking factors for local SEO. These reviews give search engines the “social” proof you need to convince them your eCommerce site is trustworthy!

 

 

Rule #5: Show That Your Site Is Secure

eCommerce sites have to convey trust and security to customers. The best way to do this is by communicating how secure the process is at all stages of your website! You can show your customers how seriously you take security by highlighting badges and icons, making the contact information easy to find, and pointing visitors to your policies on shipping and returns.