Top 10 Essential Elements Of Effective eCommerce Website Design
There has been a great deal of transformation when it comes to running businesses over the last two decades. Commercial organisations have greatly evolved in terms of how they operate by setting up online stores and building up their brand around their products and services and key customers, this is called eCommerce. The mode of businesses has shifted from being physical to very much internet based. Here are some of the elements of eCommerce website design that are a must have for any online business that wants to progress and keep up with their competitors.
The Use Of Customer Names
It’s a common desire of every individual to be recognised by their name, and this is exactly why effective salesmen at any retail outlet exploit their customers’ same need. They will ask you what your name is, and then call you by that each and every time they want to address you. Very simple but very effective!
The very best eCommerce website solutions also require you to incorporate personalisation, as it makes their customers feel special and more important. Therefore, when you go for sign up options on your webpage, don’t forget to add the name feature too. There are a few plus points why you should be including the names of your customers. Firstly, it’s very easy and quick to write out their name rather than any other personal information. Secondly, people are not really bothered or feel agitated about sharing their first name and finally using their name every time they visit your store will make your customers feel special each time they are coming onto your site.
Bestseller Products On Homepage
Just like in a physical retail store, your customer will always want to look at your products that are best sellers, so It’s important to do that same on your online store, thus it’s quite important to showcase your top products on your front page. This will generally save your customers time and it will also make them feel good about your service as they know other customers have liked and been happy with the product for it to appear on your bestsellers list.
Product Collections
You should be bundling up all your similar kinds of products in one place; this will generally be called Product Collection or just Collection pages. Products can be assembled on the basis of seasons, product categories, new arrivals, sales, anything like that. The most important upside of using product collections is that they get ranked on search engines very well. However, you will have to keep updating or replacing your assemblages regularly. Doing this is going to retain your new potential customers based on their interests.
You should also add in a list of recommended products on your site too, this makes it even more personal. People will generally buy on the basis of what the last customer has searched for. Today there are plugins which can be put into place to do this automatically and will be different for each and every customer depending on their previous history. A good example of this would be Nosto, a great personalisation tool which recommended products will be bespoke to each and every customer based on their previous shopping history.
Zoom Options For Images
For most sites with displayed images, the common mistake here is not adding in a zoom feature. Nobody will buy a product without looking at it in full detail. Especially when it comes to online stores where the buyer will only have the image of the product to go by instead of a physical store where they can physically have it in front of them. Only when a customer who visits your site is fully satisfied with the look of the product will they continue to buy it so adding in the zoom feature will increase that chance. Just make sure that the images you use are of high quality so they don’t blur while trying to zoom in and out.
Shipping Details
It’s strongly advised to add a shipping or delivery option at the top of the site; they are most commonly pinned to the header of the site. A special care must be taken to give full information about varying shipping costs based on geological locations. The best approach here is to offer a completely free delivery service as you won’t have to worry about adding this feature and also it will generally attract more customers to your site if you offer free shipping, you will also notice when offering free shipping rates your cart abandonment will also decrease too.
Contact Info & Feedback
It’s considered to be the best practice to add your contact information on your site. This will help you gain that initial trust of your potential buyers by knowing that they can reach you anytime they want. If something goes wrong, your customer will have the option to let you know about it. This, in turn, will help you make and sustain long-term relationships with your customers in the future.
Most of the successful eCommerce website development services also call for adding a feedback option. This way, your customers will be able to directly chat with you about any queries they may have. If you are not able to be on hand 24/7 a simple feedback form clearly labelled will probably be enough. It’s important to keep in mind that these feedback forms should be regularly monitored and you should send replied within a good time limit.
Ratings & Reviews
One of the most significant eCommerce website solutions includes the addition of ratings and reviews to your webpage. A successful onsite design is like a community where the owners of the page and the customers work in a cooperative manner. Customers will not only purchase products from your site but will also recommend it to others. These positive words of mouth can add great value to your site.
Some web page owners are a little shy about adding reviews as an option. They fear customers will be over critical of their products or service. Think about it this way, if you aren’t confident about the quality of your products or service then how can you expect your customers to be. The key here is to not shy away from negative feedback but embrace it and use it in order to improve in the future.
Still unsure about having reviews? At least have star ratings for your products. You can utilise the given evaluations of your products to produce convenient filters. It will also be very easy for consumers to select the highest rated product and compared to reviews, ratings are much easier to get from your customers.
Price Filters
A lot of eCommerce solutions will emphasize including price filters embedded in the webpage. Price filters are widely used in the eCommerce website development services industry, which is why they will need extra attention and care. You have to make sure that you offer your customers the ability to sort out your products based on their price tag. You are also required to add the relevant information in case the price does not include a cost of shipping. The overall details of the pricing should be totally transparent and there should be no hidden charges. The idea is to make your customers feel that they trust your brand which will retain them for a longer period to of time and will more likely make them loyal to your store.
Wishlists
Wishlists are features recommended by most eCommerce sites that allow your customers to save a product for the future just in case they don’t have enough money to complete the purchase now. This way you are giving your customers a chance to keep an item aside for them for a potential purchase at a later date. People will often forget what they have seen and liked on a site from their previous visit, but a wishlist definitely helps them recall what they have seen before and then more likely to make the purchase. You can even go a step further by sending your customer’s gentle reminders about the decreased prices on your store and if something in their wishlist is running low on stock giving them a small prompt may entice that sale. Don’t forget to make your wishlist catchy and interesting to look at so that potential customers can see it clearly on your webpage and they will actually want to use it.
Sharing Option
Many eCommerce website designs greatly stress on offering a sharing feature. Adding in short links with the share options; this will allow your customers to let others know about your product listings. Nowadays, having a share feature on your site is a huge plus, as most people will be on a least one form of social media. It’s important to take into consideration that your site is also mobile friendly, as the majority of users will come to your site via their smartphones. The share options could be for both social platforms but also SMS too.
In short, eCommerce website development services and eCommerce design solutions are great ways to boost your webpage. The online business world is constantly evolving you must be aware of the changing trends in order to make your site more functioning and user-friendly or your competitors will just overtake you and leave you behind. All of the essential features of eCommerce website design discussed above are just to kickstart your company. This is not everything that you can do with your site but just use these tips as your bare minimum in which you can always work up from.
