Thanks for visiting our website. We *Really Appreciate* your feedback and comments. The article below is the second in our series of usability design tips. See : How to Improve Ecommerce Conversion Rates using Usability Testing
Listed below are some of the important tips that one must keep in mind while designing an E-commerce website.
1. Site Search : When a user visits online store, he is at your front door and is ready to open his wallet and shop on your ecommerce website. It is impossible to display every product on the front page of any website, so the best option is to have a Search Field displayed prominently and working efficiently. The rate of conversion is often directly proportional to how fast the customer finds what he or she is looking for. Research statistics have proven web visitors who search for a product is 4 to 5 X more likely to convert into an online sale.
2. Product Attributes & Category Filters: A online store has a large variety of products listed on its catalog, and variety of shapes, size and colors for a product family too. Adding a filter option to help narrow the search down for products by brand, attributes, category type is a must. A properly designed and implemented filter (usually in the left side of the website) will make your site easy to use and improve user experience (UX) which makes a big difference when a customer decides to purchase an item.
3. Add to Cart and Shopping Cart: Add to cart button is call to action, so it should stand out from the rest of the product page. A visually appealing and easy to use shopping cart is a must for any eCommerce website including open source Magento or other ecommerce software platforms. It is important to place the shopping cart where it is convenient for the customers to spot it. To make shopping cart button even more prominent you can place it on the header usually in the top right corner.
4. A Clean & East to Use Checkout Page: A clean check out page is again an important requisite for the design of any eCommerce site. A good check out must clearly define every part of the transaction and break up of product and added services like delivery or coupons etc used. The ease of use on this most critical part of the transaction will build a positive mindset towards your site and boost your conversion. Here is the best example of Checkout Page at Sunsetbamboo.com.
5. Product Reviews: Studies have clearly showed that any customer will give more weight to the words of a fellow customer rather that someone selling them the product. Product Reviews clearly placed on the product selection pages improve the chances of successful sale immensely. For example, Amazon product reviews not only bring more web traffic to Amazon.com but also help customers decide and purchase products.
6. Clean Product Pages: Showcasing your product on clean designed page let the products be more focused and eye catchy to customers. Cluttering the product selection page with even other product images from your site can defeat the ultimate purpose of the site itself that is to make a successful sale. Do not confuse the potential customer stick to clean designs.
7. Good Navigation: Use clean navigation everywhere. Main menu should be bold and must properly connect to each and every section of the site and product offerings. A good designer would spend some time getting the right way to do so, e.g. Drop down menus are the most widely used and serve the purpose efficiently and effectively. Another important way is to use Bread Crumbs which is easy to use and allow users to easily navigate through the site, especially where they landed on the site. With the rapid growth of Mcommerce (mobile commerce), it is most economical and better to incorporate Responsive design elements in overall structure of your ecommerce store right a the design level. This will save you much issues later on and give you access to yet another section of customers.
8. Product Images: The presentation of images take a secondary position to the content description in terms of best SEO practices, yet the old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” is equally true for an eCommerce site. A customer on eCommerce site cannot actually touch the product, so the product images must be of high quality. You can also use videos or even panoramic images to present your customer with as real display of the product as possible.
9. Search Engine Optimization (on page & off page SEO): Bringing customers to the site is still one of the key aspects for any ecommerce website to expand their customer base and boost their revenues. Make sure the site structure (layout) & architecture is optimized based on the standards of SEO best practices and guidelines from Bing, Google etc. . Use social media efficiently to create awareness about not only your site but products too. Customer engagement in social media is now part of overall Search Engine Marketing strategy of every major Ecommerce brand.
10. Newsletter Subscription (Get their Email): Building a potential buyers email list is important. Place the subscription form within content on your website because users might be looking for it: in the blog, news block, new items and sales categories, etc.
If you think there are some other points which deserve to be on this list ,please Contact Us and we will be happy to hear from you.
