A web design can have a massive impact on conversion rates and the number of overall sales for an online business. Much like in a physical store, layout and presentation are often deciding factors in whether a potential customer commits to exchanging their hard-earned cash for your goods or services. Follow these tips to make your website an efficient and productive source of revenue to grow and expand your business.
1. Shopping Cart
Always have the customer’s shopping cart visible after they’ve added an item to it. If they have to go searching through menus to find what’s in their cart, your customer may become annoyed and simply leave. By having the shopping cart present on every page, checking what they’ve added to their cart will be as smooth and as hassle-free as possible for the customer.
A highly visible shopping cart is also conducive to a more efficient transition from shopping to purchasing, as it’s easier for the customer to click through to the payment screen. Make the cart stand out by choosing bright and contrasting colors so the client will know where to find it.
2. Calls to Action
Every sales opportunity needs a compelling call to action. With online sales, the CTA commonly manifests itself as an “add to cart” button. It’s important that this button is conspicuous and instantly recognizable to any would-be customer. The text must be clear and concise to leave no doubt as to what it does.
Use bright, cheery colors for the button’s background to help reinforce the accessibility and positivity associated with clicking through to the payment page. The CTA is a crucial and sometimes overlooked aspect of online sales, and getting it right will significantly improve your conversion rates. To read more about Calls to Action, read “How to Improve Your Websites Calls to Action”
3. Product Pages
Your product pages need to include a lot of information, so you need to prioritize the most important elements, such as the product image and specifications. Reserve the best space on the page for an enticing image of the product. Customers have short attention spans, so a picture is the most efficient and instantaneous means of conveying what you’re selling.
Product reviews and extended descriptions are secondary information that can be placed further down the page, and customers will scroll to read it if their interest is piqued. Clarity is the most important aspect in website design to consider when constructing your product pages, so keep them simple, place the most salient information first, and avoid clutter at all costs.
4. Navigation
Customers must be able to navigate your website easily and without confusion. Take the time to construct simple and clear navigation paths for clients to browse your products and services quickly. Aesthetics comes second to functionality, so remove your artistic hat and take a more pragmatic approach.
Break your products or services down into categories and sub-categories to save space and improve customer experience. Include a way to return to previous groups or pages so that users can retrace their steps. If the client can easily peruse all the different categories available to them, conversion rates will improve dramatically.
5. Checkout
The checkout page needs to be focused solely on the customer completing the transaction. Remove any menus or “back” buttons, so the user isn’t distracted from the task. Don’t try to sell more products on the checkout page; focus purely on completing the initial transaction as soon as possible.
Simplify the process by reducing the overall number of clicks needed to complete the transaction; the fewer the clicks, the greater the conversion rate. A streamlined checkout page is the simplest way of increasing your sales.
Cleaning up and optimizing your sales pages is one of the most worthwhile things you can do to improve conversion rates and increase sales. Your website is your online storefront, and the way it looks and functions is vital to the customer experience. Even the smallest changes can have a dramatic impact on the site’s effectiveness as a sales tool.
If you need assistance with your ecommerce website design or need to develop one, contact us today!
