Mitash SEO, e-Commerce, Shopping Cart, Web Design & Development Blog

Since this final article focuses on the importance of design in the usability of ecommerce websites, let’s get back to the basics of design. To begin with, design has been defined as ‘the purposeful or inventive arrangement of parts or details’. To put it simply, design in relation to websites is an amalgamation of appearance and usability. Design more often than not defines the user experience and is important to the functionality of a product, especially when everything depends on how a product is perceived and used.
Thus in an E-commerce website, a well-defined website design will influence how the user perceives your website and spur their interest to further explore it.  

Strategic image placement

While shopping in the off-line world, you may have noticed how supermarkets create elaborate floor plans to attract your attention and ensure that you browse through all the products in their various aisles. You must do the same for your eCommerce website to attract online shoppers and compel them to browse and purchase products from you.

You can start by creating something like a window display that one would have in an off-line store. All you need to do is to strategically place images of the products you sell, for each of your departments various sections.

Audio-visual product descriptions

The image of your product should be accompanied by audio-visual content that demonstrates how your product is used and displays its features along with the user benefits. Research has proven that online shoppers are extremely video savvy and prefer viewing a product in real time, instead of merely reading the product description. By incorporating product videos on your product page, you can create a potent ecommerce solution.

Create product review and rating sections

Alongside your product image and description, your ecommerce site should also include a customer review and rating section to further augment your sales. When customers are given the liberty to rate and review your product it improves your sites credibility while allowing customers to interact with one another and delivers prospective buyers with unbiased information. Once again studies indicate that ecommerce sites which include customer reviews and ratings increase product sales by well over 25%.

Recommend relevant add-ons

Most online shoppers in the buy-mode are quite literally an easy target to gain you sales, if only you play it right. While browsing, they are most likely to click on the first link that comes their way. Hence it makes great business sense for you to place relevant product suggestions on the product page of every item they browse. For instance, if you sell sportswear, on your product page for trainers, you could suggest add-ons like a nice pair of coordinated track pants or socks to go with it. While this add-on suggestion may involve some extra scripting and require a more elaborately designed website, it is sure to benefit you with additional shopping from your customers.

Create last-minute deals

Now that the customer is heading straight towards making the payment after finalising his order via your shopping cart software’s interface, don’t leave him by himself. Continue to engage him with exciting offers. Create last-minute deals that he would find interesting and therefore difficult to resist. The last-minute deal is an extension of the earlier recommendation offer; however it’s more of an impulse purchase.
All you need to do is offer an affordable item that will again accessorise or add-on to the product that the customer is purchasing, which makes him believe that it is important to add to his shopping cart, especially at the price you are offering it to him for. Most shoppers will buy-in to this last-minute deal offer in the belief that these extra items will not make too much of a difference to the total amount.

Single-page checkout

While an ecommerce website should be visually appealing, it must also include an important usable feature of a single-page checkout. Thoroughly verify your e-commerce shopping cart solution, as the checkout process is built into it. When customers realise that they have to keep on clicking through your web store’s checkout process to make a purchase, they will certainly get bored and sign-off midway in the shopping process.

Finally, gaining greater profits is not merely about attracting more customers to purchase from you. It is much easier and advantageous to attract the same number of customers to buy more from you. As you are achieving this increased profit without paying more for additional traffic or optimizations.

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