In the dynamic world of technology, crafting an eCommerce Website combines science and art. A business’s constant motive is to create a positive online presence in users’ minds and deliver the best possible results. In this huge market, survival is not the only purpose of businesses anymore, as they now strive for substantial growth and development.
Table of Contents
To maintain longevity in the market, businesses must try to keep themselves a step ahead of their potential competitors. This can be done with the process of thorough planning in all the departments of the business. One such factor is crafting an eCommerce Website.
In this informative article, we dive deep into the importance of a good website and how you could craft one while keeping in mind some important aspects.
Importance of Crafting an eCommerce Website
In the digital age, where there is cut-throat competition in the market, offering your users the best services is essential. One of the most important services you could provide them is efficiency on your official website.
A good eCommerce website is paramount as online shopping has become an integral part of everyone’s life. Crafting a website requires a lot of planning but can offer various advantages in the long run. Let us take a look at a few advantages that tell you the pros of a well-crafted website.
Creates a Good Brand Image
When you professionally display your products or services, it creates a good brand image for your business. This also leaves a good first impression on the users.
Edge Over Competitors
When you provide the best services with a touch of professionalism, you stand out in the market. This gives you an edge over your competitors.
Helps Retain Consumer
Well-developed websites help retain users, and it is essential as it indicates that you are providing them with the best services compared to your competitors.
Global Reach
Online business is limitless as it operates 24/7 and has a global reach. This constant availability is vital in increasing the consumer base and revenue.
Provides Data Insights
A website provides you with valuable data insights that help you make important business decisions that could even be game-changers. Proper analysis of data could help your business dominate in the market.
Having so many advantages, having a good eCommerce website for your business becomes pivotal.
7 Key Design Secrets for Crafting an eCommerce Website
Crafting an eCommerce website is a process that demands systematic planning, designing, and execution. Each step should be carefully considered in the crafting work. When a consumer clicks on your website, they are going to have a lot of expectations from it, and to meet those, you need to design the website with utmost care.
Your target audience is users of all kinds and from all parts of the world. In this crafting endeavor, it is also crucial to consider other factors while making the website’s blueprint. Here, we discuss 7 key design secrets that explain what an ideal eCommerce website should have.
1. User-Friendly Experience
The first and foremost thing that is going to matter the most is how good the user’s experience is. The interface of a website should be simple to understand yet attractive, and they should feel at ease while exploring your website. The user will eventually get confused if the interface is rigid, and you could potentially lose a consumer.
For a good user-friendly experience, the website should have the following factors:
- A Good Menu Structure:
This includes categorizing and providing different sections for different kinds of products. There should be enough space between the two categories to avoid confusion. - Search Optimization:
A user should be able to use search filters so they can easily find the product they are looking for. The more filters a website provides, the faster the product is found.
Related Post: 8 Ways To Enhance Your Website User Experience
2. Compatible on All Devices
In the era where mobile devices have become an integral part of our lives, the users should be kept in mind while designing a website. An eCommerce website is available over the internet; any user should be able to access it through any device. To give a seamless experience to your users, it is essential to optimize the website so that it can be accessed from any device.
Currently, more than half of online shopping is done through mobile devices, and the number will only increase. If your website is optimized for the same, your business can avoid losing potential consumers over time. So, designing and optimizing your website for all devices is advisable.
3. Top-Notch Visuals
Users cannot touch, feel, or interact with the product displayed on an eCommerce Website. So, the only thing they can rely on is the product’s visuals displayed on the website. However, how you display a product in pictures matters a lot as that is the sole thing that the user has in front of them while shopping online.
An additional feature you could provide your users is to add a zoom-in option to the pictures so they could have a closer look at the product. This gives the user a better picture of the design and texture of the product.
This is what your user expects from the visuals you provide:
Quality Pictures
This can be done through professional photography of the product or service that is being provided. This should include high-resolution pictures along with shots from multiple angles. Other factors like proper lighting, background, and positioning should also be considered.
Product Description
Detailed product description provides a comprehensive picture of the product. Descriptions narrate the entire story, including the features of the product, how it differs from its competitors, and how it will serve your purpose.
Reviews and Ratings
Nothing markets a product better than online consumer reviews. Genuine reviews help convince newer users to buy the product. In other words, it gives an extra push to users to acquire the product they are looking for.
4. Easy Checkout Process
The best part of online shopping is going to the online cart and ordering the desired product. But imagine the spoilsport if the ordering process is so confusing and rigid that you have to go back and understand the process entirely from scratch. This is not going to leave a good impression on the users.
A few steps should be considered to avoid all this and make the checkout process hassle-free.
Include Lesser Steps
The more steps you add, the more complexity you invite in the checkout process. Ensure that there are a few steps included.
One-Page Checkout
One-page checkout simplifies the process, and this is how users could save time from the tedious checkout process.
5. Site Authenticity
User safety should be given the utmost priority in an eCommerce Website. Crafting a secure website helps to build a bond of trust between the business and the users. A secured URL of a website starts with ‘https’ where the ‘s’ stands for secure, and it also means it has acquired the Secure Sockets Level (SSL) Certificate. If the ‘s’ is missing, it means the website is not secured and is likely to share the user’s information with a third party.
These are the points you should keep in mind while creating a secured website:
Security
Acquire an SSL certificate. This assures the users that their information and data are safe with the business and will not be leaked to a third party under any circumstances.
Provide Authentic Reviews
Many times, websites leave a dummy review to manipulate users into buying something without revealing the correct information about the product. This plants a seed of doubt in the minds of the consumers.
6. Speed Optimization
In this fast-moving world of the internet, imagine you develop an attractive website that is not properly optimized and is not efficient enough to perform quick functions. The outcomes of it? You will lose potential consumers. To avoid doing so, it is important to develop a website that is compatible with all devices and will operate similarly.
It is important to note that users expect instant results, and rightly so. If the website cannot deliver quick results, users will eventually run out of patience, and you will lose another potential consumer. A slow-loading website increases bounce rates and decreases conversion rates.
Here are the steps you could take to provide speed optimization experience to users:
Upload Compressed Images
Uploading compressed images reduces their size but maintains the image’s quality. This reduces the load from the website.
Code Optimization
Extra spaces, characters, and line breaks in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript codings may occupy a lot of space. Removing those will help optimize the speed of the website.
Monitor and Analyze Performance
Some tools like GTmatrix and Google PageSpeed sheets can help you monitor and analyze the performance of the website. If any problem is encountered, this software will detect it.
Regular Updates and Maintenance
Regularly updating and maintaining the website helps keep its speed intact. This includes fixing the bugs and glitches regularly if you find any.
Related Post: How to Speed Up Your WordPress Website?
7. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
In this dynamic market, you would certainly want your eCommerce Website to stand out in comparison to other websites of your competitors. For this, you need Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO helps you attract organic traffic to your website, and this is how the user base of your business increases.
For successful Search Engine Optimization, you need to add the right keywords related to the subject matter you are addressing. Moreover, including a good meta description, maintaining the keyword density, and writing a product description are also necessary to target the right audience in the market.
Consider these factors while optimizing your website:
Use User-Friendly URLs:
This includes choosing a user-friendly URL with proper keywords that are easy to read and understand. The use of generic URLs should be avoided because if it gets repeated, finding your website will get difficult.
Add Internal Links
The internal links you add should somehow relate to the product. It improves the overall traffic on your website.
Secure Websites
Make sure that you acquire an SSL certificate to give your users a safe experience when they enter your website.
Boost engagements and interactions (Bonus Tip)
One of the most important factors of eCommerce is giving your users a sense of belongingness. They should feel comfortable while they are surfing on the website. To do so, engaging and interacting with users is crucial. The better the engagement and interaction is, the more likely you are to get new users to your website.
A user shops alone in an online store, so interacting with them is the best way to make them feel like they are not alone in the shopping process. Here is how you could do so:
Provide a Live Chat
Nowadays, websites provide an AI bot that chats with the users and solves their queries. However, if you want to talk to the AI bot, you can talk to the authorities. Just like how you get a shopping assistant in physical stores, this becomes your online assistant.
Recommend Products to Users
Recommending users products that are related to what they are looking for could be the best way to make them feel involved in the shopping process. For instance, recommending phone cases is a good idea when they are looking for mobile devices.
Email Sign-Ups
Now that you know what they are looking for, you can ask them to sign up with their email so they get notified when there are exclusive deals available on the website. This enhances the overall user experience.
Conclusion
A good eCommerce Website helps you retain your users and also attract new ones. In this comprehensive exploration, we embarked on the journey of a dynamic world of eCommerce website design and discussed the 7 important key secrets to develop that could potentially help you take your business to new heights.
Having said this, it is equally important to optimize the website for speed as well as a search engine to ensure a seamless experience for the users. Not to forget that security should be the topmost priority while crafting an eCommerce website.
