Web designers often encounter the issue where e-commerce business owners may underestimate the role and significance of design decisions. This is critically incorrect, as ignoring web design principles only leads to losses for the business.
For e-commerce, the outward appearance is particularly crucial. The design determines how potential customers perceive your brand, whether they feel inclined to make a purchase, or if they'll return for more, and much more.
So today, I will share with you the main components of web design that impact the success and profitability of a business. I will also showcase some good examples to look up to when you're planning to create the design of your website from scratch or considering a redesign.
If you want to get more web deisgn expert advice, check out our previous article.
What makes web design crucial for eCommerce enterprises?
Web design plays a critical role in shaping a successful online business in the realm of e-commerce. Below are some significant facts and figures that underscore the importance of effective web design for e-commerce:
- According to Adobe's research, nearly 40% of users will leave a website if it has poor design or unpleasant navigation.
- Approximately 75% of consumers acknowledge that they learn about a company or brand through its website.
- Google's data highlights the paramount importance of mobile web design in e-commerce, as 53% of users will exit a website if it's not optimized for mobile devices.
- As per Kissmetrics statistics, the average overall conversion rate for e-commerce stands at approximately 2-3%. By enhancing web design, you can boost this conversion rate.
- Web design also impacts page loading speed, with 47% of consumers expecting a website to load in 2 seconds or less. Sluggish sites risk losing customers.
- According to Akamai, even a mere 1-second delay in page loading can result in a loss of approximately 7% in conversions.
- Effective web design also contributes to improving the user experience. According to Forrester, an enhanced user experience can lead to a 400% increase in conversions.
These figures and facts affirm that effective web design in e-commerce is pivotal for attracting users, increasing conversions, and enhancing the overall success of online businesses.
Here you can read about how bad design can crush your business.
What are the key elements in web design for building a successful eCommerce website?
Here, I'll outline the key components that should be present on your e-commerce website. If you can find a professional or a company that adheres to all the necessary rules and trends, the growth of your online project will be rapid and noticeable.
Your website should include various calls to action to guide visitors. You want your CTAs to be consistent in what they encourage readers to do and how they appear. When visitors see CTAs on your site, they should prompt a specific thought and action. The effectiveness of CTAs depends on the specificity of the call to action, the button design, and the offer they lead to. Work on this in collaboration with marketing and web design experts.
Customer reviews can serve as a strong motivator in the decision-making process for a purchase. Sometimes, potential customers have a few doubts, and these doubts can be dispelled with positive feedback from previous customers. It's preferable to have plenty of these reviews. Video reviews are excellent if available, but text reviews work too. Your website must feature a place for reviews, whether it's a dedicated page or a reviews section for each product. This is what significantly expedites the purchase decision for potential customers.
Online filtering too often disappoints and frustrates users, making it challenging for customers to access a convenient range of relevant results. You're already doing your potential customers a huge favor if you avoid freezing the user interface on a single input, offer text input fallback, and refrain from automatically scrolling users on a single input. You can discuss more secrets of convenient and attractive filters with us during the consultation.
Visual Product Presentation can be one of the most critical aspects of your e-commerce website. It's what helps your users "buy in" and often serves as their first introduction to your product. Ensure that your images are of high quality and aesthetically appealing. Your product photos should evoke the desire to purchase. Furthermore, allow your customers to see the product in the context of its use.
Additionally, allows customers to view an enlarged version of the photo in a lightbox or with zoom functionality. For more insights on creating an attractive product presentation, you can discuss it with a professional commercial photographer or marketer.
In today's digital landscape, 55% of people opt for mobile devices when shopping, surpassing desktops and laptops. This underscores the vital importance of mobile SEO. As a result, mobile responsiveness is a non-negotiable feature for your e-commerce website. Your site must offer seamless viewing on any device.
A responsive design entails text that automatically adjusts to ensure readability on smaller screens, adaptable navigation placement depending on the device's orientation, fewer images for quicker load times, and sufficient spacing around links to facilitate easy thumb clicks.
Possibly the biggest roadblock to conversions in your online store is the checkout process. Poorly planned or designed checkouts can lead to a loss of up to 67% of potential customers. Striking the right balance between functionality, usability, and trust-building is essential for delivering an excellent checkout experience.
To achieve this, ensure you have a prominent and clear "checkout" button, avoid springing unexpected costs at the last moment, optimize your site for fast loading times (especially on mobile devices), make it easy for customers to edit their cart contents, clearly present shipping details, include product images in the cart view, display trusted security logos, maintain a clean and simple checkout layout (less clutter is preferable), and offer easy access to customer support.
Your website should be easy to navigate, or else visitors will leave. The navigation on your site should be user-friendly, including clear headings and subheadings to help your audience quickly locate the information they need. Put yourself in the shoes of first-time visitors. How easy is it for them to find their way around your site?
A homepage is a website’s digital window that offers visitors a peek inside so they can decide if they want to venture further into the site.
When visitors see a clean and simple homepage layout, clear and updated content, and easy navigation on a homepage, they feel welcomed. A good homepage design tells visitors it’s worth their time to explore a brand’s offerings and go deeper into the site.
But the purpose of a homepage doesn’t end with introductions. It’s a cornerstone in building brand identity, driving audience engagement, and triggering conversions. To ensure that your homepage does all of this and more, here are eight key elements to incorporate into its design.
- Choose the right eCommerce platform
The choice of platform for your e-commerce project will also determine the capabilities and attractiveness of your web design.
Some hosting services provide basic options, where you have to develop and create the website on your own. Others offer ready-made website designs optimized for both computer and mobile viewing.
If you need assistance in selecting a CMS system for your project and customizing the design to fit your business, feel free to get in touch with us.
- Contact Page
You need to add all necessary and accessible contact information to your website. This will help you earn the trust of your customers, knowing they can reach out to you anytime they want. Most successful e-commerce website development services also require the addition of a feedback option.
This way, your customers can get in touch with you if they have any questions. If you're unable to communicate with them directly, a simple feedback form is likely to be sufficient.
Do you want to learn more about trends in web design that will be relevant in 2024? Read our previous article
Summary
As you've likely gathered, good web design can be a significant driver of your success, while poor web design can practically kill your store. In this article, I've provided an overview of the importance of web design for e-commerce projects. If you need consultation, have additional questions, or have any doubts, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're here to guide you on all matters related to creating, integrating, and adapting a new design for your online business.
