A dynamic website gives you the opportunity to create an outstanding experience for your customers.Here are five very important step to creating a functional, converting ecommerce website.
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Keep It Simple
Your website should be easy to navigate, easy enough for a customer to find products. If you have ever visited websites that are confusing, difficult to navigate, or just unattractive, you likely did not spend much time on that website at all.
Your menu should be clear and easy to navigate to the exact product the customer wants. You may want to use sub-categories that make it even easier for the customer to see what you have and any pertinent information regarding it.
If you have a lot of products, then you need is a Mega Menu, which would accommodate categories and products. For example, if you’re selling clothing, you might have a category titled “Men”. When the visitor opens this category, there is a list of men’s products that include: casual jackets, trousers, shirts, neckties, handkerchiefs, and any additional products. You would likely have a similar category for women and perhaps children. Items that are for everyone might be listed in a separate category.
In this way, visitors can quickly browse through the products that interest them. They can hone in on exactly what they want to find. When you have a product that comes in many sizes or options, such as T-shirts with logos and pictures, you need to make these options clearly available to your customers.
It doesn’t matter what you’re selling, customers should immediately understand what features and benefits are available when they purchase your product. Having this content on your product ordering page will help to sell it.
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Make Your Product Stand Out
An extremely important point to remember to implement on your ecommerce website is that when you show a product, it needs to be shown with excellent high-resolution photographs, a professional description, and numbered points highlighting he product’s qualities. If there are any other perks such as free shipping, be sure the customer sees it prominently on the page. The more candid information your site gives, the better. It helps them compare your product with those of other sellers.
The more visitors know and understand about your company and your products, the more they’re going to have confidence in making a purchase — and bringing in the revenue you want and need.
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Make It Easy To Buy More Than One Item
Often a customer will consider buying more than one product. Experience in the industry has shown that many visitors choose to buy more than one product.
Be sure to add a Shopping Cart to your ecommerce website. A shopping cart, just as in a grocery store, allows customers to pick out all the different items they want and drop them in. In that way, when they get to the checkout, they have everything together for payment.
It’s important to make it easy for customers, just as in a store, to add or remove different products, and at all times, customers should be able to see a display of the cost of everything in the shopping cart.
Although some customers may not like this, when a customer leaves items in a shopping cart, a brief email reminder may make the difference between a sale and a lost customer.
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Product Scarcity
An important fact to remember, one that can make the difference between a sale and no sale, is to indicate to the visitor that there are only a few of the items left, so it’s important to order now to avoid FOMO (fear of missing out). You can do this by having a small box that tells the customer there are only 3 left, or even only one. Some go so far as to add something like: “Only three left. Order today before they’re gone!”
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Make it Easy for Anyone to Buy
Too many sites require that a potential customer open an account with them before ordering. Big mistake! You want to make it easy for your customers to shop. Having to go through the tedious task of first opening an account with the visitor’s name, address, and all the information required can turn some shoppers away. Your goal should be to make it as easy and pleasant as possible for anyone to buy your products.
Another important point: Never store credit card information. Having a 3rd party payment gateway keeps customers’ credit card information safe.
Get Ecommerce Website Design to Improve Your Site
Bearing all the above in mind, success in achieving your goals means that every aspect of your website should be professional.
Good website design costs, of course. But the difference in revenue will more than pay for that. At Search Marketing Resource, we partner with our clients to ensure your design and ecommerce site is set up to compete with your competitors with key functionality. See some of our ecommerce website design examples here!
If you’re ready to take the next step, contact us for a website design services quote!
