As an e-commerce business, your goal is to attract and keep as many clients as possible. And while in the past few decades people did this by using marketing tricks and schemes, today people value and are loyal to businesses that are honest and transparent.
Taking this into consideration, it is very important to have your story front and center and present your company and your passion for it in a way that is clear for any viewer. An e-commerce website has a bigger task than any other ordinary site. Using colors, pictures, fonts, and other design elements, an e-commerce website not only has to attract and keep visitors interested but drives them to take action by actually purchasing a product from the site. Here are some tips to create the most compelling and captivating e-commerce website to take your business to the next level.
Put Your Brand Front and Center
Branding is everything, especially for e-commerce business websites. People want to purchase from established brands. It not only makes your website look more polished, but it also makes them feel safe. A professional company, a neat website, and a memorable brand logo will make customers feel more welcome, and they’ll be more likely to purchase from your site.
If you’re not sure yet what your brand is exactly, here are some ways to define your company in just a few words, to make it clear who you and – most importantly – your company is.
- If your brand was a person, what kind of person would it be?
- If all your desired customers were one person, what kind of person would that be?
- Answer these three questions: How? Why? Who?
- What are you trying to elevate?
- Name three people/brands/companies who could be your competition
Answering these few questions will make it clear to you what your brand is. Make sure to write it down, because this could make a great elevator pitch that you can use live, or present on your website.
Think Like Your Customers
Try to take a step back and view your website as a customer. What do they want to see? Why are they there? As an e-commerce company, it’s crucial to foresee why your customers are there and show that front and center, otherwise they’ll leave.
Make your website easily accessible, and easy to navigate around, so everyone can find everything easily. Think about what people look for when entering a store. They want everything laid out, they want it to be fast, hassle-free, and fruitful. Try to reinvent that experience on a virtual platform, by making the experience just that: easy, fast, enjoyable.
Read Like Your Customers
Studies show that viewers only read around 20% of all texts shown on a page of a website. If that is true, you might not even be reading this. People feel comfortable when they can get all the important information by just skimming the page in a few seconds. But when they see an overwhelming amount of descriptions and texts, they tend to leave. Especially if it’s an e-commerce website, as people are there to shop, not read.
If, however, you need to write a lot of texts, you can use design elements like colors, shapes, and pictures to separate your texts and make the page seem more breezy. Otherwise, texts shouldn’t have to be as long as on other sites, as the only text you truly need is brief descriptions, a short introduction, and a contact information page.
Smart Design
Great customer experience is reached through design. Your website should be easy to navigate around, with only the necessary pages, and perfect categorization. Shopping should be a breeze. Using colors, fonts, high-quality pictures, and creating an overall atmosphere, you can reach the goal that is customer satisfaction.
For an e-commerce website, the most important things in design are pictures and colors. Decorative pictures and colors should complement each other, and the style of the website should embrace these main colors represented by the pictures and main colors. These decorative designs give the atmosphere of your “store” and inside are your products.
The style in which your products are presented should be complemented by the overall theme/style of your website, but the most important thing is showing your product in a clear way. This means using high-quality pictures from different angles, using custom zoom options, and a clear (but simple) description of the materials used.
Simple Checkout
The most crucial place on the entire website is the checkout page. This is when your goal is nearly met, you just need to give them that last nudge to make the purchase. To make this as smooth and quick as possible, you need to understand the thinking of your customers.
Firstly, most customers shopping on e-commerce websites are afraid of the quality of the product and the smoothness of delivery. To nullify this problem, make sure to highlight all around your page, you are there to help them. Give them a guarantee, or a chance to send back the product if it’s not to their liking. This should be the only thing that can be advertised throughout your page because this will guarantee that customers will reach the checkout.
Secondly, they don’t want to be there either. And the more time they spend there, the more time they have to overthink their decision and change their minds. Checkout should be designed beautifully, it should be clear, simple, and fast. You can even implement a scanner so that they can scan their cards, feed the website the information, and don’t even have to spend time typing up their bank info. This is the most crucial part, and at the same time, it should be the page people see the least.
The number one key to a successful e-commerce website and business is keeping in mind the goal of the business, aligning it with the goal of the customer, and trying to reinvent the atmosphere of a beautiful shop with a much simpler operation.
You need a website that shows off your trustworthy and established brand, tells them your short story and leads them straight to your website that ushers them directly to the most simple checkout that anyone’s ever seen. Keep these three steps in mind, and you can’t go wrong.
