Ecommerce Site Design – The Functionality

There are a lot of things that people look at when they start developing an ecommerce website. Unfortunately though, so many people want to break the simple rules to produce something that is extremely unique. I do not have a problem with unique websites, but many times they go so far against the rules of Ecommerce Site Design that they end up hurting themselves more than they help. Below I have several rules that you should consider when developing your website. If you feel that you break any of these rules, you should really contemplate whether what you are doing is productive to your goal in an ecommerce business.

Rule #1: Place your best selling products at the forefront.

In several of the articles you may have already read, I have been stressing the fact that you have to test what is working. Checking how many sales you are making on specific products is no different. It works similar for almost all companies. Generally, they have one product or service that they are well known for. Others are side items that are generally purchased along with your main product. Therefore, if you are going to sell laptops, you do not want your customers to have to sift through hundred of laptops bags before they ever come across one. Your specials and hottest items should be directly on the front page where they are easily visible and enticing to the buyers.

Rule #2: Make it easy for your visitors to search for products.

This is especially the case if you have a website that will have a lot of products on it. You should break down your products into relevant categories, have those categories easily visible. If all else fails, you may want to have a search feature to. There are numerous ecommerce sites where I have used their search feature before. It is frustrating though when it does not work. So if you have a search option, make sure it is functional. Overall though, if your visitors can not find the products they are looking for, they will leave as quickly as they came.

Rule #3: Make the order process easy to complete.

The hardest part to get people to convert in many websites cases is the transition from adding the product to the shopping cart to actually completing the order. However, many companies make it so difficult that they probably lose a good portion of their business before they ever get the opportunity to charge a credit card. I am going to go ahead and pick on GoDaddy here. It is without a doubt one of the best domain registrar companies in the world. But their ordering process is terrible. I have told friends who are not very computer savvy to order from there and probably most than half of the time I have to spend time walking them through so that they do not get other products that they do not need. Many turned away from GoDaddy until I was able to help them. For those that might have registered there but did not have anyone to help them with the process, they probably lost them as a customer before the ordering process was completed. Do not do this! The order process should be easy, you should be straight-forward and it should be able to be completed within a few minutes after basic information has been input.

Rule #4: Make it easy for website visitors to contact you.

You will find when you look at many ecommerce stores that there are numerous ways to contact the business. There is good reason for this. You do not want to lose out on what people call “leads”. Essentially, anyone who contacts you for information about your product is considered a high quality “lead”. In fact, it is stated in some places that as many as 30% of those who contact you about your product will end up buying from you. However, it is safe to assume that if they are unable to contact you or you do not respond that you are losing out on a lot of business. For this reason, I would encourage you to allow people email you, use a web form, submit a support ticket, or give you a phone call. Perhaps, you should also have several avenues to make it easier. These forms of contact should be extremely visible and easy to access. For example, if you have a phone number for your ecommerce business, this should be directly on the front page.

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Ecommerce Site Design – The Visual Aspects

Within my six years of web development experience, I have learned a lot. Primarily it was through my own mistakes. Below are some of the things that I had encountered early on. I would highly recommend that while you are in your web design process that you really take into consideration some of the aspects that I mention below. It will make your site more visually appearing and will help drastically in converting your ecommerce website into actual sales.

Make your website easy to read.

For some, this may seem fairly logical. However, many times people get caught up in trying to find cool looking font for their logos or text on their website. Also, for many people they find that the tiny font is extremely cute. It just looks prettier for some reason. However, having a cute font or a cute sized text throughout your website does very little for you. In fact, it hurts you. While I am not going to say that you should totally avoid making your text presentable and appealing, its primary function should always be to clearly tell the reader something you want them to know. You certainly do not want to put an age restriction on your website by keeping the elderly from being able to read what you have on it.

Colors are important.

I have been in web design for a long time and colors have quickly changed. I am not going to tell you that you need to go with a specific color because that is not the case at all. Rather, you should always stick to a color scheme of some kind. Back in the 90’s many websites were extremely colorful. People had their websites look like rainbows a lot of the time. There was a lot of animation and this quickly diminished as businesses started taking their websites more seriously. There is something that gives an old or unprofessional appearance when a solid color scheme is not completed throughout an entire website. Yes, this even goes for the ordering process where you may be using pre-written software. You can and should modify it.

Always have a logo that brands your company.

Most people do not really think of this too much. It sometimes gets overlooked but you should always have a logo that brands your company. What I mean by branding your company is that it should be something that people can see and immediately recognize your business. A classic example is the bitten apple that all Mac computers have on it. It is not overly complex, it is simple, and yet regardless of what color it is, people can still recognize that as being associated with Macintosh.

Your website should be easy to navigate.

It does not matter how creative you can get with a navigation menu, it should always be very easy and simple to navigate. When people come to your ecommerce website they are looking for a product more than likely. If they have a difficult time finding what they want, or have a difficult time working their way to where the products are, they will quickly leave. Generally, it is stated that you have seven seconds to give a visitor some reason to stay. That means if your website takes three seconds to load, you are now down to four. If they do not see an easy path to the product they are looking for, they will leave and go elsewhere. It is a requirement that your navigation on your website to different pages be as simple, easy to find, and easy to use as possible.

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