Online shopping has easily overtaken regular shopping these days. It offers the easiest means of decision making for products before purchase. However, developing an eCommerce website is definitely no easy task (even if it’s on WordPress) given the thousands of eCommerce sites out there and the competition as well.
In this article we will cover some of the best fundamentals of eCommerce web design.
You could have the best products to offer your customers and the best services, but the first thing online visitors expect to see from your store is its design. If the layout of your online store does nothing to pique the interest of your audience, then you’re missing out on potential sales.
According to TechCrunch’s 2016 statistics, 79% of US customers prefer to shop online. In order to create an online store with a riveting eCommerce web design, we have prepared a list of fundamental steps that can help you out:
Fundamentals of Ecommerce Web Design
- High-Quality Product Imagery
- Unique Design Elements
- Easy to Navigate
- Responsive
- Simple Call-To-Actions
- Minimalist Layout
- Utilize Product Descriptions and Reviews
High-Quality Product Imagery
It is highly essential and a standard for any website in general to have photography of superb quality. Gone are the days when it was okay to use standard quality imagery, but higher user expectations have changed that.
High-quality images evoke a sense of professionalism and trust within your target audience. This is done by showing various shots of your products from several angles, which thereby motivates your audience to buy them in the end. You can for instance, put jewelry on models to give your product a better appeal to your customers.
Of course, do not just limit yourself to photos of your products. You have to show them in action as well using high-quality videos. This will give users a much better idea of how a product truly delivers. Popular examples of this include smartphones, computer games, television sets, DVD players and more.
Unique Design Elements
Unique-Design-ElementsDon’t just go with a cookie-cutter web design template that are readily-made available online for everyone to access. Doing this will never make your online store stand out in terms of uniqueness. Instead, you must opt for a design that is in sync with your niche.
Your website’s design largely depends on the products you sell and your target audience’s needs. Implement unique design components to your website so that it not only looks stellar but also enables your audience to focus on your products. Newtime shoppers tend to focus more on attractive designs than anything else.
It is better to enlist the aid of a professional web designer, otherwise, you can opt for websites that offer free but unique web design templates such as Colorlib.
Easy to Navigate
A good looking site is only worth trying if it works well with a typical shopper. You must ensure that your WordPress-developed ecommerce site’s design makes it easy for users to understand how to browse around. In short, your website needs to be easy to navigate.
Your website must have a menu that shows various categories and products just so your customers know where they are and what they should do. Assign specific categories to your product to help customers find exactly what they’re looking for. For example, if your store specializes in electronics, then you should give the following categories:
- TV
- Computer
- Video Games
- Phones
- Audio
You can also further refine your categories by adding tags to each of your products. This will make navigation faster and less of a hassle for your customers.
Responsive
Mobile shoppers account for the larger portion of your store’s market. Therefore, it is a must for you to optimize your eCommerce store’s design to ensure it is user-friendly on all devices, including mobile.
There are some designers that tend to use large-file-size images, heavy HTML coding, and other methods to make their website more appealing. However, it only works as far as appearance goes as the speed of the entire store is reduced as a result. Ecommerce sites must never resort to such tactics because it would just frustrate visitors and force them to bounce from your site.
What’s more, is that Google and other search engines won’t bother crawling websites that load very slow. So in the end, there is more harm than good in having a good-looking website that is not responsive at all. As a solution, you must install WordPress plugins such as Yoast, Smush, and WP Super Cache
Simple Call-To-Actions
Call-to-actions are also highly important elements to consider for a brilliant eCommerce web design for the sake of increasing your store’s conversion rates and generating more revenue. Examples of CTAs include:
- Subscribe
- Download
- Buy now
- Join now
- Learn more
Because your website is already loaded with so much content, you have to make sure that your CTAs stand out from everything else. A good practice would be to turn all of your CTAs into buttons of specific and outstanding shape, size and color. Make these buttons in a way that gain the interest of customers all throughout your page. This will help your online store achieve a higher CTR.
Minimalist Layout
There is no need to give your ecommerce website the most expensive Christmas makeover the world has ever seen. After all, the true aim of your website in the end is to encourage users to purchase your brand’s products and services. If your customers are too distracted by everything on your store without buying anything in the end, then there is no point in putting your products for sale.
Simplicity is where the money truly lies, literally. Choose an appropriate color palette, good-looking, sufficient white space and only go for the most appropriate design elements after carefully reviewing your site.
Utilize Product Descriptions and Reviews
A product’s description and reviews are strong factors in influencing your customer’s decision to buy your product. Be sure that you include attractive fonts, images, videos, and that the description reveals every desirable aspect that are in line with your customers’ needs.
Ensure that the product reviews are clearly visible in the eyes of the consumer. Hearing other people praising the product in an analytical manner is a great way to convince them to purchase it for themselves. Use the five-star rating system as it is the easiest to employ.
Final Words
I hope this article was helpful and I guarantee you guys are going to use all the fundamentals of superb Ecommerce Web Design that are really good. If you have any comments or suggestions feel free to tell us via the comments section below.
