What elements can be found on the best ecommerce website design? Take a moment, go on Google and search for the top 10 ecommerce websites. Of course, you will get several results. Click on one or two that appeals to you and just leave it open on a tab of your browser.
After reading the elements listed here, compare them to the features of the websites listed in the top 10 and see whether or not the elements are present. Deal? Great! Let’s get started.
Did you know that ecommerce sales are expected to hit 4.88 trillion US dollars worldwide by 2021? And this number will only continue to rise as ecommerce is positioning to take over from physical stores. More and more people prefer to stay in the comfort of their homes and order online, thanks to ecommerce. As a result, more businesses too have little to no choice but to come online.
Perhaps you are one of such stores that have decided to take your business online by launching an ecommerce store. Good move. You have taken a step in the right direction. With your ecommerce store, you’d be able to attract more customers to your business from different parts of the world (depending on your market).
As part of the preparation to go online, you’ve created a logo for your business. You may have also decided to come up with a new name for the online store. You’ve planned the market strategy so you seem all set. You have just one thing left – the web design.
There are several ecommerce websites template online to choose from to ease this process. The challenge is knowing which one is best for you. To answer this, you need to understand the goal of ecommerce web design.
The Goal of Ecommerce Website design
The primary goal of an ecommerce website is conversion. You want to be able to get everyone who visits your website to patronize you.
Every visitor is a potential buyer. Your ecommerce website’s responsibility begins with attracting these potential customers, then engage them before ultimately converting them. For this to be possible, your website has to be SEO-friendly with nice layouts and easy navigation.
Your website has to be able to provide the necessary information and motivation to continue at every stage of the customer’s journey. Getting it wrong at any point in the journey may hurt your sales greatly because the effect won’t just be on one visitor, but on virtually every visitor to your online store.
The 7 Elements of a Great Ecommerce Store
All of these requires having certain elements in place on your ecommerce website. These are the same elements you’d find in the best ecommerce websites out there. You’d find them in the top 10 ecommerce websites opened in the other tab as agreed.
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Simple and Clean Design
Findings show that 48% of people judge the credibility of a business using its website design. That sums up the importance your website design to your business. Busy designs with unnecessary aesthetics may leave your customers confused than impressed. A simple design however with simple colour combination and fonts is magical.
In other words, the more aesthetics you try to add to your website, the more you are causing potential distractions to your visitors that keeps them from the goal of conversion. Removing these unnecessary details will enable you get their attention to what matters on the site.
Another advantage of a simple web design is that it loads faster and that alone reduces bounce rate. So, simplicity is the first element for a great ecommerce website. Don’t try to have a website that impresses visitors, rather aim for an efficient website that converts visitors.
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Detailed Product Description
Make shopping experience easier for your customers by providing all the necessary information you can about a product. You can structure them in such a way that they can decide how much or less information they want to see.
If there are relevant blog posts or videos on a product, there is no better place to link them than in the product description.
Not providing enough information on a product may lead your visitors to other websites in search of additional information. And you know how that usually ends? Well, they hardly ever come back.
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Reviews and Ratings
Your visitors know you are a business with the sole aim of making profit. They know you will stop at nothing to convince them that a product is good for them. So, they won’t decide to get a product based only on what the descriptions say; they will be on the lookout for what previous buyers think of the product. This is where reviews and ratings come in.
This element is one of the best ecommerce solutions. It allows previous buyers of a product to share their experience which often results in either motivating others to buy the same product or discouraging them from moving anywhere near it.
Not all businesses will be bold enough to add this feature to their site for the fear of negative reviews. However, you should have it if you are a genuine business and you’re confident your product does everything in its description
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Mobile Responsiveness
Majority of shoppers do their shopping from their mobile devices. It’s therefore imperative that your site is optimized for mobile use for the best experience for your users.
Creating an ecommerce store that’s only accessible on desktop computer is as good as having a physical store on the part of the city not accessible for majority of the population.
Your ecommerce website should be responsive and function effectively irrespective of the device used in accessing it.
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Relevant and High-Quality Product Images
Imagine ecommerce without product images. Imagine all you see about a product online is just its name. You most likely wouldn’t patronize that ecommerce store.
Apparently, one of the disadvantages of buying online is that customers don’t get to feel and touch what they want to buy. That’s a problem that has no solution till date. Technology is full of surprises though, so who knows, there may be a solution to it in the future. However, as of today, no, you can’t feel and touch a product online.
And this is why having a quality image for the product is important. These images help visitors to form their first impression of the product; features and descriptions will only further solidify that. Also, it has a way of determining the level of trust customers would have in the store. Or would you trust a store that cannot afford good camera to take quality pictures of their products?
Online stores filled with pixelated, small or just a picture of each product may be getting high traffic, but will have low conversion rate.
This explains why getting a good camera to take varieties of pictures of your products should be a major part of your budget for your ecommerce web design. Ecommerce shoppers want to see the products from different angle and point of view. And when possible, they want to see the product in action. If it’s a wrist watch, for instance, they want to see it on someone’s wrist to have an idea how it will look on theirs.
You can also add a 360-degree video that puts on display, the key features of the product.
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Easy Navigation
Have you been on a website and you’re clueless where to go or what to do to get what you want? Now, that’s exactly the kind of website design you don’t want for your ecommerce store.
Your site navigation should make it easy for shoppers to find their way on your website without stress. This is the number one reason why some ecommerce stores have low conversion rates. Customers constantly have to think at every point on what to do next. The title of Steve Krug’s book on website design says it all – “Don’t Make me Think”. You make customers think, you make them leave.
Here are some tips to make sure your ecommerce website is easy to navigate:
- Primary Navigation Menu
You can get inspiration for this from major ecommerce stores around. The main navigation menu is usually located at the top left corner of the site.
- Product Categories
Use meaningful and relatable categories, subcategories and labels to organize your product. Men’s shoes, for instance, shouldn’t be in the same product category as Children’s cloths.
- Search Bar
The top of every page on your ecommerce website should have a search bar. With this, your visitors can instantly search for a particular product they want.
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Easy Checkout
This is one of the most important part of an ecommerce website design. This is the point where a visitor converts to a buyer. It is the point where the goal of the website is fulfilled.
Your ecommerce website should focus on giving your customers the best checkout experience. Adding of items to cart should be easy for buyers and there should be no confusion during checkout. Also, they should be able to view all that they have in their carts.
Again, keep it clean and simple. Your checkout page should allow easy form-filling, guest check out option and multiple secured payment options.
Something Extra…
Localisation
eCommerce stores thrive on localisation. Did you know that 55% of consumers prefer online shopping in their mother language? Large stores like Amazon and eBay have specific websites dedicated to shoppers browsing from specific geographic locations. For instance, shoppers from Canada are automatically redirected to amazon.ca.
Localisation in content, style and language give international buyers an online shopping experience that they can relate to. The possibilities of who you can reach with a localized eCommerce site are endless. Considering that 74% of customers are likely to buy from an online store for a second time if the customer support is provided in their mother tongue; localisation is vital.
Conclusion
Don’t forget to compare these elements to what you have on the top 10 ecommerce websites. You’d find that all the elements listed here are present on all of them.
Growing your business online requires having an amazing website design. These 7 elements are what make an ecommerce site amazing. So, go ahead, use them for your ecommerce website design and watch your business grow. Don’t forget to always evaluate and look out for where to improve or adjust.