Sep
What’s Important When Designing E-Commerce Sites
Although web design is a creative profession, there are rules within which this creativity has to be contained. The site you’re designing has to be standardized not just because it should be viewable with any kind of browser and conform to other written and unwritten policies of the web, but also because it has to be tailored according to the needs and preferences of those who use it the most. There are some sites that demand a greater amount of customization than others – corporate sites that exist only for PR purposes and to provide general information can be designed according to the whims of the owners and/or the designer; however, when you’re designing a site that sells services or products, you need to ensure that it’s the users of the site who are most comfortable with its design.
- The first and foremost aspect of importance is that of security – if you don’t provide a secure and trusted portal through which customers can pay for goods and services using their credit cards and bank accounts, people are never going to return to your online store. The thing about the Internet is that there is a great deal of anonymity involved; so to establish your credentials, it is essential that you build trust in your customers. And the only way to do this is by providing a safe portal that they can use to shop from the comfort of the homes.
- E-commerce sites must be tailored to shoppers’ convenience, and buying products must be easy – if they cannot find product information easily, if adding and removing products to and from the shopping cart are not straightforward tasks, and if links and buttons are not clearly visible and marked unambiguously, they are likely to go to the next e-commerce site to continue their shopping. So if you don’t offer products and services that are unique, you must ensure that you differentiate your site and offer quality as a unique aspect, one that converts the online equivalent of window shoppers into regular buyers.
- Sites that sell products must have pictures that are of good quality, sometimes featuring the product from different angles – shoppers like to know what they’re getting before they click on the payment link. However, photos increase the loading time of a site, so you need to find the ideal compromise between the quality of the pictures and their loading time if you want your visitors to enjoy their shopping experience.
- I’ve seen some e-commerce sites that adopted dodgy practices when it comes to price – the price on the product page is different from the one shown on the checkout page, and if the shopper doesn’t double check, they’re in for a surprise when they receive their credit card bill. While pricing display and policy may have nothing to do with website design, when a site adopts spurious practices that are bordering on unethical, it reflects on every aspect of the site, right down to the design.
- And finally, search options must be clearly defined on a good e-commerce site – the main advantage when you shop online is that you can do so from the convenience of your home. And if you don’t facilitate easy search options so that shoppers can find what they’re looking for, you’re bound to lose visitors and the site is bound to lose customers.
Each site has different creation rules, most of which are unwritten but must be implicitly understood and followed. And when it comes to e-commerce sites, if you goof up, it means you lose out on more than just traffic.
By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Bailey Digger, she writes on the topic of web design degree programs . She welcomes your comments at her email id: Baileyd@webdesigndegree.com.
Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.Related posts:
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For me the most important things on marketing sites is the information of the product, pictures of the goods and an easy way to navigate the site. The easier it is to get where you are going and know what you are getting, the more likely people are to use and buy from the site.
Great outline! It is so important to establish credibility by providing a safe and secure way to pay. With so much fraud out there, I think people are becoming more vigilant and are less likely to use a site that seems in the least bit questionable. Protecting your customers is a sure way to make sure that they come back again and again.
I agree with Trevor about the security of payment,.and regarding to the graphical user interface of the site it should be eye friendly and user friendly of course. I like e commerce which has a nice blending of colors.
thanks,
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Justin, very good info. I would add to that it’s important to have an opt-in area where the visitor can leave their contact info.
That way you can keep marketing to the people who don’t buy the first visit. I see this all the time with information product sites but it’s rarely used effectively with ecommerce.
I’m surprised by your suggestion that sites sometimes show a different price at checkout. This is so immoral! And surely illegal? How do they get away with it?!
An e-commerce site has to be tailored with the customer in mind, I’ve seen a lot of sites which offer little assistance in getting around, and which makes it hard for the customer to really find good explanations on a certain denomination.
Make sure you are with good template, easy to looking, find search, pricing … etc…
Pretty good tips here mate. I love it that security of those created sites comes up on the top of this list. Really helpful for newbies, like me, who happens to be just beggining my own online journey.
Thanks a lot for passing along such an informative article here with us, i enjoyed reading your post thoroughly. Great share!
I agree with Trevor about the security of payment,.and regarding to the graphical user interface of the site it should be eye friendly and user friendly of course. I like e commerce which has a nice blending of colors.
Great post on e-commerce issues. I was looking for some interesting e-commerce sites and this post gives me great inspiration. It’s amazing how professional they should look and some are not that difficult.
Nice post, thanks for sharing this useful information with us. Keep going dear to provide us such a important resources.
Thanks for sharing this useful information.
Thanks for providing useful information.
Thanks for sharing this useful blog.
Thanks
Thanks a lot for passing along such an informative article here with us,
Professionalism shown in all aspects of our ecommerce sites will definitely bring in sales and repeat sales as well. Great post. Thanks.
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It is a very nice post .We get more information about e-commerce in your blog.Thanks sharing with you.
Agreed, as the old saying, the customer is first priority, web activities should be dealt with the same.
Agreed, as the old saying, the customer is first priority, web activities should be dealt with the same.
“Sites that sell products must have pictures that are of good quality, sometimes featuring the product from different angles – shoppers like to know what they’re getting before they click on the payment link.”
-I think this is a big deal. For example, on sites like eBay and craigslist, posts with poor pictures give off a poor sense of the product.
Very interesting key points. I generally rank the User experience on top. That include ease of web site access, good quality images, clean navigation and shopping cart presentation.
The pricing comes second although in most case if that number can be related to the quality of your website. It’s all about perception just like high end brick-and-mortar stores carry higher price tags.
The biggest choking point in online transaction for physical goods is the shipping cost or its proportion to the actual merchandise value.
Security is the last but not least point that can break or seal the deal. Again security is part of the perception of reputation.
thanks for you article. very interesting and informative
Article is super. it is very useful tips for website designers and developers
Thanks you, I like this post it is very good and informative. I am sure that this post will be very helpful and informative to all readers.
Pretty good tips here mate.
Make sure you are with good template (:
I think what is most important is making sure that the customers are going to find what they need easily and quickly. I have only just now started to dive into this but that is what I feel is necessary.
Wow it is amazing.I think I should try it into my Ecommerce Website so that it can get a lot of visitors..
Thanks for this blog.I’ll share it with my friends.
Question about the (ooh as I’m typing I just noticed the neat input font for your comments box — that’s cool!)… anyway, your blog post mentions security and credentials. What are your thoughts on those trust-type decals some webmasters put on their pages? Do you feel they help to provide assurances to visitors? Thanks!
Thanks and good question. It DEFINITELY makes a difference from a conversion stand point. Those emblems add trust and credibility in the eyes of website visitors.
Thanks for the quick answer! Do they add any kind of credibility points with the search engines? Or is it just considered another outbound link?
Customer’s convenience, safety, and trust should be considered when designing a website. Always keep in mind that eCommerce website are created to have a good communication and easier transaction with your customers.
I maybe starting an e-commerce site. This post gives me a perfect heads up.
Talking about security, do you buy branded SSL cert from provider like Verisign?