E-commerce is steadily changing the world of business, and this year, new trends have bonded with the tech boom to add more power to how businesses are operated online. To move your business forward and not lag behind in the ever evolving world of e-commerce, it is necessary for you to understand the best practices of e-commerce website design.
Since this form of doing business is only going to get more popular in every part of the world, the designing of e-commerce websites should include the use of big data to maximise mobile online shopping.
In this article, you will get to know more about designing e-commerce websites, how to know you need one, and the best steps to take in order to stand out.
Here are the types of e-commerce websites:
E-commerce website for dropshipping business
Dropshipping is a unique type of buying and selling business. Here, there is no inventory record and the needs of the buyers are fulfilled by the supplier after they have expressed a desire to buy on the dropshipping e-commerce website.
This type of e-commerce business has a lot of advantages over the regular retail model. Some of which include lower investment, diversity, reduced risk, flexible location, and most importantly, it saves time and resources because there is no need for a warehouse.
Even if dropshipping has shortcomings like unstable quality control, dependence on suppliers, and low profit margins due to competition, these problems can be traced to complications in shipping as well as a poor e-commerce website.
When it comes to web design for this business model, factors like shorter site loading times, innovative brand storytelling, cute carts, customer-friendly prices, and video marketing are the new trends that are helping business owners to eliminate those shortcomings and get the best out of this fulfilling business model.
Some of the most successful dropshipping stores in 2022 are bluecrate, Inspire Unfit, mooshe socks, and Gadgetox.
E-commerce website for services
User experience and ease of payment should be the main focus when building a website for selling services. People should also be able to make payments in a matter of seconds without any glitches. The use of subscription models should also be added to your website because it encourages long-term patronage and customer loyalty.
To get the best out of this kind of business, your e-commerce service website should have more features that are going to make you stand out from your competitors.
Some of these features include a price calculator; a clearly curated list of services; a good display of highly demanded services alongside good reviews so as to encourage people to buy them; and different price options with respect to how a customer wants a particular service to be rendered.
Car wash websites give people the option of a full-service car wash, an exterior car wash, a brushless car wash, and several others. If you apply this example to any service you offer, customers will find the multiple options more interesting. So your website has to cover all these important trends.
Some of the best-selling e-commerce services are car washing, dry cleaning, home and office cleaning, babysitting services, and pet care services.
E-commerce website for physical goods
During the 2020 pandemic, e-commerce retail business increased by 43%. And experts are predicting that by the end of 2022, it will be worth over 5.5 trillion dollars. This is a very encouraging prediction, and if you adjust your plans to meet what customers are looking for, you will make a tremendous profit.
When designing your website, the first thing you should prioritise is customer security. Invest in cybersecurity and protect the payment details of your customers. If your business has a reputation for this, your customers will increase because getting hacked is an online shopper’s greatest fear.
Another way to boost your business is to make free shipping available. You could grant this to customers that meet a certain number of items per day or per week. It all depends on the product you sell.
The omni-channel strategy is also effective here, and this can be maximised when you apply UX trends that improve CX—the incorporation of AI can make a huge difference in your business.
E-commerce website for digital stores
Digital products are in higher demand every year, and 2022 is no different. In order to sell items like music, photographs, ebooks, and other digital products, your website has to be in sync with the latest trends for this type of business.
These trends include multiple payment options, “buy now” buttons, subscription models, and the use of multiple languages since you are not only targeting people in your country.
“Free trials” will also encourage more sales because people will want to subscribe and continue using your product after enjoying it for a week or two.
People easily lose interest in a website when links do not take them directly to the intended location. Make sure that there are no annoying redirects on your website. Even if it is meant for advertisements, people will find it tricky and may even suspect a security breach, so make sure all links are straightforward.
What makes an e-commerce website outstanding?
The gains of having an e-commerce business cannot be overemphasised, but you need to put in the work. So, as you plan how to design a profitable e-commerce website, here are the important characteristics you should take note of:
E-commerce website design should be simple
You’re probably wondering why it would be advantageous for your e-commerce website to be simple.
Well, many business owners have made the mistake of designing websites that have too many elements, yet they wonder why they are not making sales. The answer is right there on their screen—there is just too much to see!
When it comes to designing a website for a business, less is always more. If you have too many banners, colours, graphics, videos, and whatnot, it will be a distraction to your visitors who just want to be encouraged to buy things.
Your design should be simple, clear, and neat, and must prioritise the message of your brand, not the beauty of your designer skills. When people visit your website and see a clear path to making a purchase, you will be making more sales in no time.
Use high-quality imagery for your E-commerce website
Everybody knows the value of visuals on a website, so as you build yours, make sure that you don’t upload images that are of poor quality. Images improve conversion rates, so only take high-quality pictures and let your customers see what they should be buying.
Take pictures from different angles so that your customers will feel confident about what you have to offer. If you have the money to pay a professional photographer, hire one. Especially if your product has a lot to do with visuals. For example, if you are a make-up artist or a cake decorator, you will need professional-level photographs.
Include customer reviews
Trust is a very important part of business. If people feel they can trust your brand, they will not hesitate to buy your products. So always let them see what other customers are saying about your company.
Reviews instigate trust but also help customers to form an opinion about your business practices such as shipping, returns, and general customer experience.
People like to check what others are saying before making their own decision, so you can encourage customers to include their photos and pictures of what they bought from you in their reviews.
It should be easy to navigate
Making your website easy to navigate is a necessity. This is because people have a short attention span and if it is chunky, visitors will not enjoy the shopping experience as they’ll have to search through multiple menus, which is quite stressful.
Remember that you have competitors on every angle of the internet, so do your best to make things as easy as possible for your customers. From the moment they arrive until they check out, they should have no reason to feel stressed.
Categorise your products clearly, so that anyone visiting will know where to click in order to see the type of product or service they need. Anything other than this will push them straight to the website of your nearest competitor.
Visitors should be able to scan your pages
While it is important to compose good text for your website, the truth is that most people will not read it. If someone is visiting your e-commerce website, it is because they want to see what you have to sell and check if it matches what they want to buy. No one is interested in going through every detail of your awesomely crafted text.
So the best way to go about this is to make sure your text is scannable. People should be able to roll their eyes around the content on your site and pick out important details that will tell them about your brand and also encourage them to buy from you.
To achieve this, break up the content of your page into categories. Use keywords where necessary. Apply bullets, numbers, tables, and even use unique headings to draw attention to details.
Let your headlines be attractive and good enough to pass the message, since most people make decisions based on a headline. If your website is easy to scan through, you will be able to communicate better with your visitors—this will improve traffic, and eventually, sales.
It should be mobile-friendly
As far as the internet is concerned, mobile users have surpassed desktop users. If you are creating a website for a business, developing mobile first is a must.
It doesn’t matter if your business is targeting young or old people, as long as it is connected to the internet, people should be able to use their phones to get the same quality they would get on a desktop. This will broaden your reach and increase traffic.
The importance of a good e-commerce web designer
Now that you know the different types of e-commerce websites and how they can help your business. It would be wrong of you not to get one for yourself. And as you plan to set up your own “Amazon” or “Ebay”, the importance of a good web designer should not elude you.
Your e-commerce web designer should have a track record of excellence so that you can be sure that they will do a good job for you. Without a high-quality designer, you will end up with a mediocre website and customers will not want to navigate it.
A good e-commerce web designer will understand your business model and apply the necessary strategy to keep customers engaged. Any web designer can create a website for you. But only an experienced e-commerce web designer that understands SEO, the use of brand terms, global navigation, and so many other factors that lead to a successful business, can give you the best e-commerce website.
Your customers need the best shopping experience and apart from that, your visitors need to see what will encourage them to check your site more often and eventually make a purchase. So a trusted tech and marketing expert like the Four Drunk Parrots is exactly what your business needs.
Four Drunk Parrots is responsible for the amazing websites of the following companies:
- Mobility & Wellness
- Sol Alpaca
- Vintage Sol
- FreeSpirit Group
- Glassart Gallery
- Hooked on Brewing
- Olive Gap Farm
- Mermaid Collective
- Pocket Herbs
- Moe Moe Design
- Etiko
- Farm2Maarket
- Mighty Able
- Peptides Clinic
….just to mention a few.
Conclusion
As you ensure that you have the best products and services in your industry, have it in mind that the impact of an e-commerce website on the growth of a business in today’s world cannot be overemphasised.
So make it your priority to only work with a web designer that understands how your target market and competitors will behave. This will help you convert effectively and put you ahead of your competitors.