Since the e-commerce site for your business is the only medium of interaction between you and your potential customers, it has to be carefully designed. That makes the design phase one of the most challenging aspects of developing an e-commerce site. E-commerce websites must have their own unique character that is aimed to point the visitor to the simple task of making an online purchase. In this article, we will try to consider some of the major design aspects that you must incorporate in your eCommerce website.
The first thing to remember is that a good e-commerce website design will lead the visitor to the right page in one click or two at the maximum. Of course, a greater number of products being offered increases the complexity of the website. That means you have to adjust and plot the layout to make sure that the visitors will not have to invest too much time in reaching the page that they are looking for. Use various usability principles in order to achieve this. Another thing to consider is that simple doesn’t necessarily mean boring. A justifiable website design means that all the elements you display to the user are clutter free. Whitespace enables your site to breath so don’t be too keen on filling up the whole screen. Also, remember that an annoyed customer is a lost customer so make sure that your pages don’t take too much time to load. Readily provide the customer with a straightforward description of the product and an image for more reference. If you put too much unnecessary information, the customer will get impatient and might just end up on your competitor’s website. You must, therefore, prevent that from happening. Security is also an important factor in gaining the customer’s trust. You must guarantee the customers that their private details will not be disclosed to any third party. The security of your online payment processing is of paramount importance to the customer because it is their money that they are putting on your trust. Make certain you provide sufficient information about who owns the website and why you should be trusted. An instant response will also add to customer satisfaction. Once the customer places an order, the site must be designed to immediately provide the transaction details to the customer such as the total amount to be paid, the shipping fee, mode of payment, delivery days and the like.
It’s safe to say that creating a design for an e-commerce website is not as simple because not only do you have to follow the basic design principles of building a website, you must also follow additional principles for e-commerce websites. But an excellent e-commerce site design will help bring customers back to your site.
