Yep, it’s true… an e-commerce website is there for you to sell your products or services, however, how often have you visited an e-commerce website, and then thought… nah, I don’t trust this website?

That feeling normally comes from the website itself having a fairly non-descript look and feel, you know… the sort that just looks like everyone else’s website.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that when setting up your e-commerce website, you should remember that before anything else, it will be a reflection of your business, and it should clearly demonstrate your brand, your products & services, and your values.

Shopping online has become ever more common over the past couple of years, but what people need hasn’t, so make sure you are appealing to both the needs & wants of your potential buyers. You should aim to be the authority in what you sell, and where you sell it.

That’s why we believe in building from the ground up, as considering every design element is critical. It needs to be visually appealing, clear, simple to use, and of course attractive to the user. This way you will ensure that the user will follow through to the checkout.

Your homepage – the first port of call…

Often the first impression someone will have of your business is when visiting your website and landing upon the homepage – This is often where users start their journey with you… so, make it count!

Keep it clean, give them an overview of what you have to offer, but make sure this is backed-up by your branding & key messages.

So, things to keep in mind for the homepage include:

• A logo, and not just any logo… your logo. This will be the identifier for them, especially if they have seen it before! But, if they haven’t seen it before, it’ll be something they remember in the future.
• Your brand theme, this should be a colour scheme that matches your brand guidelines, and if you don’t have a set of ‘brand guidelines’, now may be the right time to get them sorted, as this can be a major recognition point.
• Fonts can say a lot about your business, so choose wisely as fonts will provide a clear sense of your personality. Some fonts are more formal, and some are more fun, so you need to get the balance right.
• Visualisation is incredibly important, don’t put pictures up of cute cats if you’re selling fruit & veg, what relevance does that have? It’ll just put people off, as they’ll think you’re not serious about them, and you need to be! Make it obvious from the word go, and only use images appropriate to what you sell.
• Consider the navigation of the page, what do you want your customers to do? If your goal is to drive sales, make sure that links to your products pages, for example, are prominent and not just a top-navigation link
• Contacts and social media links that make it easy to connect with you directly and find you on other platforms

Make it easier for the visitor…

Throughout the design process of your website the UX (user experience) needs to be firmly in your mind. Do you create the right prompts for navigation that will lead your potential customers to what you’re wanting them to look at? Don’t make it confusing… the clearer the better.

The navigation often will lead visitors to the part of your website where the visitor can buy products or services from you. But don’t forget important elements such as first-party data capture, which is becoming increasingly important with the demise of third-party cookies in the near future.

It doesn’t matter what you’d like the path to be for your potential customers, you will need to follow ‘good practices’ to help make the visitor experience a pleasurable one, including:

• Ensure consistency with your branding throughout the website, with the main header logo being the ‘quick navigation’ back to the homepage.
• Placeholders that will allow the visitors to navigate the website with ease, but also allow them to find familiar points within the website.
• Often forgotten, but key with an e-commerce website is a search bar that will allow visitors find what they’re looking for quickly.
• Categorisation that will help visitors move easily between the different products & service you have to offer.
• Include the ability for the visitor to ‘filter’ the products shown, allowing them to find a specific item on product pages.

Pretty as a picture…

Often overlooked, and in our experience something that is vitally important to the success of your website, are the images that you use to display your product or service on your e-commerce website.

Visually impactful and compelling photos will really make a difference. You should consider producing images that are professionally done, cropped consistently, and form the image you want to portrait for your business.

Planning the images to ensure they deliver the same look and feel that you want for your brand & website should be in the forefront of your mind. Visitors should ‘make a connection’ between the images they are seeing versus the website they are navigating.

The images should be of a consistent size for every product of service listing, be of a same style, and positioned similarly. This will save you a host of issues when uploading new products & services to the website, including the all-important optimisation of the images to ensure the site loads quickly across all devices.

Cater for those on the move…

A huge percentage of users are likely to be navigating your website from their mobile device, so please make sure you have a mobile experience as good as the one planned for desktop usage. A responsive design approach will mean increased engagement with your website, and ultimately more sales!

Most website development takes place on a desktop computer, and we’re always surprised by the number of websites that don’t then perform as well in their mobile versions. In our experience, the percentage of users entering a website from their mobile device often vastly out ways the numbers of those visiting from a desktop or laptop, so responsive design should be at the top of your mind.

Before ‘pushing the button’ to set your e-commerce website live, please ensure that it has been tested on multiple devices, including mobiles, tablets, along with desktops & laptops. Also considering the different operating systems such as Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and Macs. There may be some things that don’t work on a certain device, or a specific operating system, so these should also be ironed out before the ‘go live’.

Building trust…

Have you ever visited a website that you just didn’t trust? Whilst most of the areas already covered go some way to building trust, it’s always good to back this up with other elements, such as social media.

Are you active on social media? Do you gather reviews? This type of information can be invaluable to include within your website marketing efforts, helping to break down barriers to sales and build trust.

In particular, adding modules that display customer reviews from trusted platforms such as Google & Trustpilot can put those potential customers minds at rest, as real feedback from existing customers adds invaluable insight into the products and operation of your business.

This approach helps visitors see that other customers have been helped, enjoyed, and gained value from dealing with your business, or buying a product or service. It’s a powerful way to convey the worth of what you have to offer.

Keep in touch (with relevant information)…

In an ever-changing e-commerce world, it is vitally important to deliver relevant information to your past, current or potential customers. Understand their buying habits on your website and send out marketing emails to suit this behaviour, this way you’ll get far more engagement and ultimately more repeat sales.

We know that the demise of the third-party cookie is imminent, so be sure to include a ‘future proof’ way of communicating with customers. Whilst newsletter sign ups can be very effective, and should certainly be included, we also HIGHLY recommend that you look to integrate a CDP (Customer Data Platform) into your design & build.

To do this you’ll need good CTA’s (Call To Actions) throughout the website, preferably different CTA’s that capture the information relevant to their interests – these should then be linked to your customer data platforms, allowing you to communicate with your customers in a much more engaging way.

Simple is as simple does…

All your hard work in all the other areas of your website could be in vain if you’ve got them to the point of purchase, they hit the checkout, and guess what…you’ve got a confusing & over complicated checkout. Sure, as sure can be, they will abort and likely won’t return!

You want the checkout to be a seamless, simple process. Be sure that the checkout page is easy to understand & navigate, and that the information you need is clear and well-defined.

Consideration needs to be given to the shipping options, different mailing and billing addresses, contact details, and any other key elements required to complete transaction. Make it easy for people to pay you!

An e-commerce website can make a considerable difference to your business success, so having the right strategies and best practices in place from the outset can make your website stand out against the plethora of other e-commerce websites available to the consumer.