How to Do E-commerce Web Design the Right Way
It often seems that today, everyone is trying to sell something online. Traditional brick and mortar shops are going online and new entrepreneurs are doing everything they can to get a piece of that online shopping cake.
In order to be successful at all, the first thing you will need is a website. However, it cannot be just any kind of a website. It needs to be a perfectly envisioned and professionally executed exercise in ecommerce web design, which is a very idiosyncratic and demanding kind of web design.
So, how to do it the right way?
Simple Look:
There is one characteristic that the vast majority of successful ecommerce websites share and that is the simplistic look. No one wants to wade through cascading menus, incessant videos and five fonts on a 2-square-inch area when they’re trying to do their online shopping. They are shopping online because they want to do it easily and quickly. And a clean design makes this possible.
In essence, the ecommerce website should only have the features that are crucial for the shopping experience, two, three colors at the most and no crazy fonts that will just annoy people. Keep things simple and business-like.
Respectable Speed:
It is often said that the loading times can make or break an ecommerce website and this is definitely true. The guys from KISSmetrics have done their research and they have come up with this infographic where you can clearly see how the speed of the online shopping website influences the bottom line. You will find plenty of interesting information in this infographic and it all comes down to this – the more it takes for your website to load, the less sales will you make.
Because of this, you will want to do everything in your power to make your ecommerce website as fast-loading as humanly possible. If you have to choose between speed and pretty much anything else (apart from functionality), you need to choose speed.
Mobile-Friendliness:
We talked to people from Infinity Technologies, a website design firm from Sydney, Australia and they told us that there is absolutely no point in setting up an ecommerce website that will not be mobile-friendly. With the ever-increasing number of mobile internet shoppers, having an ecommerce website that will exclude them is literally suicide.
Keep in mind, however, that it is not just about your site being accessible via mobile devices, it needs to be 100% functional. The experience of the mobile user needs to be comparable to that of a desktop user and not just a poor version of it.
Community Feel:
“Man is by nature a social animal”.
This is a quote from one of the smartest guys that ever lived, Aristotle. He wrote this more than 2,000 years ago and we can see how right he was when we look at social media and various online communities that have captivated internet users ever since they were born.
This feeling of community and social integration is therefore something that you will want to allow on your ecommerce website. Or at least an illusion of it. For instance, you can allow your shoppers to comment on the products or services that they purchased, maybe give some sort of ratings. This will make them feel like they are not just wallets, but informed and participating members of a community.
Closing word:
Keep in mind, please, that these are just the very basic requirements that an ecommerce website needs to fulfil in order to be successful. Also, remember that just because you have met these requirements it does not mean that your website WILL be successful. However, without these, it is highly unlikely if not impossible that it will.