The Design Of Your Ecommerce Site Can Drastically Affect Your Bottom Line
One thing that is often overlooked when it comes to selling online is the layout of the website. Having great products or prices can get you far, but without a decent site design, you will miss out on a lot of sales. Recent years have seen a surge in mobile device usage for online purchases, and it has reached a point where a site that has not been designed to be mobile-friendly it is at a serious disadvantage. Mobile-friendly websites are also used as a search engine ranking factor, making it even more important to get right. Shopify and other eCommerce builders have made it easier to make sites with great designs, but there are still a couple of aspects to keep in mind when creating your site.
All Text Must Be Clearly Visible and Reader-Friendly
Telling customers as much as possible about your product or service is always good, but nobody is going to read a “wall of text.” When confronted with large blocks of unformatted text, customers are less likely to go through the effort of finding the information. Breaking up text into smaller sections is much easier on the eyes and more appropriate for mobile devices.
Color and contrast are also important factors, so either opt for dark type on a light background or light text on a darker background for optimal readability. Don’t forget to select a font size that is comfortable to read.
Minimize Unnecessary Distractions
In the early days of the internet, animated GIFs were all the rage, but this trend has subsided in recent years. Unfortunately, some designers still think it is a good idea to add all kinds of unnecessary gimmicks to web pages to capture the attention of visitors. Distractions such as music or videos that spontaneously start playing or images that pop up can be very annoying for visitors and mar their shopping experience.
These kinds of unnecessary gimmicks are especially annoying for mobile visitors to your site and can cost them bandwidth if they are on metered plans. Not everyone appreciates loud music blaring from their device when they visit a site in a public place, so avoid adding distractions like these because they will only scare away potential customers. While it might seem like a good idea to grab the attention of customers, the truth is that you are much more likely to annoy them.
Easy Navigation Is A Must
Even if your site looks great, you will lose potential customers if they struggle to navigate to the items or information they seek. Choose an easy-to-understand layout for your site that is free from clutter to ensure that visitors can quickly find what they want. Once again, making the site mobile-friendly will ensure that people on phones or tablets can also browse the site without running into accessibility issues.
Making it easy for visitors to navigate to their shopping cart or product pages no matter where they are on the site increases the chances of them going through with their purchase. You should also ensure that all buttons and links can be navigated with ease on a mobile device with a touch screen.
Keep Your Color Scheme Professional
It should come as no surprise that if your site does not look professional, it will deter people from trusting you with their money. Use a color scheme that inspires trust instead of something garish that makes the site look unprofessional. Tailoring the color scheme to the target audience can also help.
