A “Not-To-Do” List for Ecommerce Business Websites [Guest Post]
August 22, 2018 | Posted in Guest Post
|When setting up an ecommerce business website, you will read and learn a lot about what to do and what steps to follow. However, it is just as important to know what NOT to do to avoid wasting your precious time and money as well as to ensure the path to your success is made easier and shorter. So, here’s a list of 13 ecommerce website design tips you should utilize when creating or improving your ecommerce business site.
1. Using poor quality pictures
When it comes to buying online, it is after all the pictures that influence customers to buy a product, hence having high-quality, detailed pictures for every product is a must. The pictures should have features that allow close up views of the product from different angles as well as in the various colors it is available in. You can make use of the various photo editing software’s such as Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, Portrait Professional in creating the best images for your website.
2. A confusing navigation system
See to it that visitors do not get frustrated and confused as they navigate through the ecommerce store. Things like browsing through products, adding items to the cart, checking out, etc. should be intuitive and straightforward. If things seem too complex, they will very likely give up and move on to purchase items from another store. So, make sure to design a user-friendly navigation system.
3. Having no or copied product descriptions
Copying a manufacturer’s description will only hurt SEO and your website will not appear in any of the top search results. Whereas creating unique and honest product descriptions with information on the product’s features such as quality, material and dimensions will make your website stand out, appear trustworthy as well as increase its SEO rankings. Therefore, with the website being more easily discoverable, it can convince customers to purchase the products, ultimately increasing sales.
4. Having no available customer service
Offering customer service is a key marketing strategy in retaining customers and building interaction. This can be done with emails, phones, social media or live chat which allows customers to be heard and taken care of. Customer service will also entail having an easy return policy as well as being friendly and responsive.
5. Limit shipping options
Limiting options to just one method will likely cause customers to abandon their shopping carts. It is therefore important to have several shipping options that customers can choose from based on its cost and delivery time.
6. Using a generic domain name
Domain names act as an identity which helps develop a brand image. Having a generic domain name is much harder to recall or promote, causing businesses to lose potential repeat customers. Whereas a domain name that incorporates keywords relevant to the products it sells not only helps increase its SEO but also develops its brand recognition, enabling customers to remember and recognize it and make future purchases.
7. Skipping the “About Us’ page
Although the “About Us” page can be seemingly useless, analytics suggest that it is one of the most frequently visited pages by visitors. As a result, the significance of an “About Us” page cannot be underestimated and overlooked. Customers are always interested in knowing about a business’s background story, how they came to be, as well as how their products make them stand apart from others, and this eventually works in connecting them better with the business.
8. Not having a logo
With the rising numbers of ecommerce stores, it is now crucial to have a logo to set oneself apart from other businesses, be recognized and remembered. Moreover, businesses with a logo are not just attention-grabbing but also give a sense of authenticity and trust.
9. Not sending emails to customers
Email marketing is a great tool to keep your customers engaged and build customer loyalty. If done right it will help generate a large number of sales and profits or it may cause people to feel annoyed with you spamming their inboxes. So, the aim is to send relevant and personalized emails to customers based on the things they are interested in, judging from their purchasing behavior while limiting the frequency at which you send them. The emails could also offer exclusive deals, new products and discounts keeping customers connected to your brand.
10. Lacking proper security
Businesses that solely run on online transactions, their security cannot be compromised. Implementing security systems such as an SSL certificate can ensure the customers that their valuable information is secure enough to make purchases.
11. Not having a mobile-friendly website
As the majority of people access the Internet through their phones, it is not surprising that most online purchases are also made over it. Consequently, it becomes crucial to optimize one’s ecommerce website with a responsive design that allows items to be displayed based on the screen’s width creating a seamless, easy shopping experience.
12. Not having any product reviews
No matter how much you boast about your products, their importance does not come anywhere near product reviews by customers. It is their reviews that shows other customers that there are people actually buying the business’s products, hence establishing its genuineness. This, in turn, enables future customers to confidently make well-informed purchases. Furthermore, it acts as a marketing strategy to attract more customers, build trust and even achieve high SEO rankings. Depending on the type of reviews and suggestions you get, you should work to improve your products likewise. You can ask for reviews by simply sending emails to customers to rate the items they have purchased from you recently.
13. Not identifying the target audience
Achieving success in your business will require identification of who your target audience is and then tailoring products that help to better serve them. This process requires studying their behavioral data to create customer profiles as well as gathering information such as their age, gender, lifestyle, etc. in developing marketing strategies accordingly. Since this specific group of people are the ones who will mainly use and benefit from your products, targeting products towards them will save your marketing efforts on the lesser interested audience.
Overall…
Simply setting up an ecommerce business website won’t do, one has to dedicate a lot of time and effort for it to become successful. But with all these ecommerce website design tips, you will surely have the upper hand and can effortlessly lead your ecommerce business to success.
About the author
Andrew is the CEO of Next Level Web, a trusted marketing agency based in San Diego, California. He has three lovely daughters and the most patient wife of all time. They specialize in Web Design, Search Engine Optimization, PPC Advertising, and Email Marketing (The Agency – not the daughters… yet).