Basics Of Ecommerce Web Design
by Ray Yee
Design and Layout
Before we cover the basics of designing an ecommerce website, let me ask you a
simple question: Which do you think is more likely to succeed? A website with a
clear, simple and professional design, which is well targeted at the niche
market? Or a website with flashy animation, graphics or audio that detracts from
its primary purpose - to convert visitors to customers?
Obviously, a clear and professional design is better able to convert online visitors
to paying customers. When designing your website, pay attention to the following:
Since the online community is generally impatient, your homepage must be able to
capture the visitors' attention within the first few seconds, or they are likely
to lose interest quickly and leave your website. In general, you should aim to
capture the visitors' interest within the first ten seconds of their visit and
persuade them to continue browsing your site. Thus, your headlines and sub-
headlines should be well written to catch the visitors' attention and get them
to continue reading.
Your salescopy are the words that capture your visitors' attention and compel
them to make purchases. A good balance between salescopy and graphics on your
website enables you to present the value of your products effectively. Do not
focus solely on either aspect - a good balance of both gives you a sales process
with the highest chance of sales.
Navigation must be consistent. Your navigation links must be named clearly, and
your navigation menu should be placed consistently on a specific location of
your web pages, like horizontally across the top or vertically on the left. As
a rule of thumb, your visitor should be able to access any information they're
looking for with a maximum of three additional clicks.
The opt-in offer is a web form that you can use to collect the visitors' email
addresses. Apart from getting visitors to buy from you, the secondary purpose of
your site should be to collect the visitors' email addresses, allowing you to
send product promotions to them in future. Hence, your opt-in offer must be
placed at a prominent spot on your website, e.g. on the top-left corner of your
homepage, to yield the highest visitor opt-in rate.
When designing your website, there is one crucial point you need to keep in mind
- your website serves as a platform to display your catalogue of products to
your customers. The aim of your website is then to convert the visitors of your
website into buyers.
Remember to focus on leading the visitor through the sales process step-by-step.
Produce clear instructions and directions to tell the visitor what to do, and
not leave the visitor to figure out how to make a purchase. This is an extremely
important factor influencing the conversion rate of your website.
Images
The images you display on your site should mainly comprise of photographs of
your products. Do not include fanciful 'cartoon' graphics or animation - these
make your site appear unprofessional, and drive your visitors away in a hurry!
With regards to the image file formats, all your photograph files should be in
the JPG format. This is the best format to display your pictures with excellent
quality and low file size at the same time. Don't forget - the time it takes for
your webpage to load should be capped at a minimum.
On the other hand, images like your business logo and navigation buttons should
be in GIF format. These pictures do not require resolution as high as your
photographs - and the GIF format offers the lowest size for such files.
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