In the world of e-commerce, having a well-designed online store can make all the difference in attracting and retaining customers.
Your website is essentially your digital storefront, and just like a physical store, it needs to be attractive, easy to navigate, and optimized for sales. With the rapid growth of e-commerce in recent years, it’s more important than ever to position your online store for success.
Big stores like Walmart and Amazon, and even small stores have seen growth in their sales. The reason behind this is that the customers’ appetite for online shopping has increased over the years. This is especially the effect of the pandemic.
What do these companies have in common? Their website design is highly optimized for customer conversion and is spot on.
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In this blog post, we’ll explore the key design elements that can help you create an effective e-commerce website that drives sales and revenue growth. From user experience and navigation to branding and product display, we’ll cover the essential components of successful e-commerce website design.
Whether you’re just starting out with your online store or looking to improve an existing one, this post will provide you with valuable insights and practical tips to position your business for long-term growth…
Here is a youtube link you can know more about which are the Best Framework for E-commerce Web Development & Every Business & Start-up should know about this
What is Required to Build a Beautiful and High-Performing Website?
Whether you plan to build a national retail operation or a hobby side-project, the first thing you need is an e-commerce platform to help you build the best e-commerce store.
An e-commerce platform is a platform that lets you set up an online store and control its sales, marketing, and other operations.
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There are three main types of e-commerce platforms in the market :
- Open source
- SaaS
- Headless commerce
Each of them includes a toolkit for building an online store like a page builder, a checkout page, payment gateway integrations, and more. The distinction between those e-commerce platforms is found in the levels:
- Customization
- Performance
- In-built feature set
SaaS platforms offer you out–of–the–box e-commerce design experience. You can design a store using drag-and-drop options within hours. The trade-off is that you cannot customize the website after a certain limit.
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Open-source platforms are like a blank canvas. That means you have to design everything from scratch. You will have to have a coder on a call with you and you can design any kind of website you want.
You can choose between headless commerce and Open SaaS platforms like BigCommerce, SaaS platforms like Shopify (which offers headless commerce but has strict API call per second limits), SaaS website builders like Squarespace and Wix, and open source platforms like Magento (which lacks a native theme editor) and WooCommerce (technically an e-commerce plugin). Such e-commerce solutions do not limit your design capabilities, allowing you to create beautiful and one-of-a-kind websites. You are not required to create core commerce functionality from the ground up.
Whatever store builder you choose, make sure it has the following features :
- Mobile Responsiveness
46 % of consumers do online shopping including research on mobile phones. If you don’t have a mobile responsive website you will be losing a ton of business. A good business ensures that all consumers, no matter what platform they use, have a good on–site experience.
- Customization Opportunities
“Beauty” is a highly subjective evaluation. However, when it comes to web design, “good looks” usually refer to a user-friendly layout, aesthetically pleasing typography and iconography, clear visuals, and other on-site design elements that set your store apart from the competition.
If your e-commerce platform lacks customization features and beautiful ready-to-use templates, you will be forced to fit into the same mold as hundreds of other stores, with little room to demonstrate how your brand stands out.
- Easy-to-Follow Site Navigation
The term “navigation” refers to all of the UI elements that users can use to access specific information on your website. The header navigation menu, product category pages, filters, on-site search, and footer are examples of these. When your e-commerce platform limits your ability to create custom navigation paths, you’ll end up with a visually appealing but functional website that few customers will want to use, and your conversion rate will suffer as a result.
- Unique User Experience
Delight encourages customers to finish their purchases and then shop some more. What ignites that sense of delight and propels a brand to new heights? The best marketing tools in the world won’t help if your website disappoints them.
Well–thought user experience – UX.
UX is critical in ensuring that your website is functional, intuitive, dependable, user-friendly, and simple to navigate. These factors increase the pleasure of interacting with it and cause other good things to happen.
Best e-Commerce Website Design Examples
Let’s examine some examples!
- LARQ
LARQ employs sharp product images and animations to pique our interest in something as simple as drinking water. The reusable water bottle retailer persuades us to join their Bottle Movement and explore more of their stylish products with spot-on copywriting, color-block product features, and an interactive plastic waste calculator.
Adding multi–regional capabilities was another pivot moment for LARQ. After that their sales increased by 80%.
- Burrow
It is a modular furniture retailer store, it avoided using words in favor of a home page video to demonstrate its main value proposition: assembling new furniture can be fun, quick, and tool-free. Burrow uses a mix of product and lifestyle images to help you visualize their latest designs in your home, customize them for the perfect fit, and order in just a few clicks.
- Skull Candy
Skullcandy gets a lot of praise, but it’s difficult to do better with an e-commerce store. To achieve that sleek, lux feel, they expertly offset bright colors with a signature black website design. Products are simple to find, watch in great detail on video, and then read about the specs. Skullcandy’s website is a delightful sensory experience due to its expert use of visuals, material design elements, and video.
8 Step E-Commerce Website Design Checklist
Here are some things you need to prepare for your e-store launch :
- Homepage
- Category Pages
- Product Landing Pages
- Checkout Pages
- About Us
- Search Bar and Search, Result Page
- Account Registration and Log-in Forms
- Email Subscription Form
Now, let’s talk about all of this one by one.
- Homepage
A homepage serves as a digital showroom for your online business, serving as the first point of contact between you and a possible customer. With only 3 seconds to make a strong first impression, you must be strategic with your homepage design choices.
High-clearing e-commerce home pages share these elements :
• Clear set of product categories in the header or the sidebar section.
• Hero image (main image ) featuring the main product or offer.
• Curated presentation of recommended items, trending items, and product categories.
• Enter and exit pop-ups.
The structure of the homepage doesn’t necessarily have to be like this. It depends on two things – your industry and customer’s preferences.
For example, Jeni‘s ice cream asks the customer in the beginning if they want to order from their nearby stalls or ship nationwide.
- Category Page
Category pages help you arrange your products and make them easier to find. Customers that are digitally distracted want quick information, especially when using mobile devices. As a result, you must provide customers with easy access to the things they desire.
It is necessary for SEO. An incorrect parent-child relationship can result in the undercutting of your ranks in search results.
Ensure that each category page has:
- Product Page
For e-commerce, the design of the product page is crucial. If your listings are unattractive, whether you offer t-shirts or tyers, your traffic and conversions will never increase. At least, your product page should include the following:
• High-quality product photos.
• Product specs: name, color, price, key features, etc.
• Buy and save for later buttons
• Detailed product description
• Social proof /customer reviews
• Related products
You can add some extra features like video demos, check–in-store options, back-in-store alerts, etc.
- Checkout Pages
According to the Baymard Institute, a variety of factors can cause a buyer to abandon their shopping cart:
Most of these can be prevented by taking care of your checkout page and following these instructions :
• Enable ‘Guest Checkout’ for first-time customers. They can create their accounts after the first purchase.
• Minimize the number of required fields in your form. 7 to 8 fields are enough for an e-commerce website to get the required information from its customers.
• Clearly list all the payment methods you accept (PayPal, Paytm, etc ).
• Pre-checkout disclosure of all possible prices. A sticky banner advising visitors of the ‘free shipping’ barrier can be placed. Fees for handling should be included in the product pricing. Pre-checkout, apply applicable sales taxes automatically.
- About Us Page
An “About” page should not be treated as an afterthought, especially if you’re in B2B e-commerce. Because the “About Us” page is one of the first things that 52 percent of company purchasers want to see on the vendor’s website.
There are many ways to craft an attractive about us page for an e-commerce company :
• Tell a story about your products
• Introduce your team
• Present your company values
• Talk about your history
• Present your future vision
Avoid sales pitching but do use good product visuals.
- Search Results Page
Larger e-commerce companies must consider the on-site search experience carefully.
To build a fantastic on-site search experience, follow these steps:
• Make the search bar easy to discover
• Suggest auto-completes
• Provide results for misspelled words
• Personalize search results using analytics
• Support image searches and text queries
- Account Registration and Login Forms
Don’t get too worked up about login forms. They should be brief, gradual, and frictionless. Request that the shopper first supply basic information (email/password) or connect in with one of their social media accounts. After you’ve completed the registration process, you can request shipping and billing information. Allow users to save and reuse their contact information in an address book for everyone’s convenience.
- Email Newsletter Forms
A well-executed e-commerce email marketing campaign can increase recurring visits and conversions to your website. Before you can market, you must first create your email list. Give your newsletter a prominent spot on the site and a sticky or pop-up version in the footer to encourage subscribers. You can provide a minor discount for a membership to entice first-time buyers.
10 Expert Advice on E-commerce Website Design
We’ve discussed and demonstrated how a successful e-commerce design looks and what pages it needs.
Let’s go into the how-to section and speak about some design advice for store owners.
- Keep It Simple
The customer must be able to see the path to buy right away. Before you add a new design element to the page, consider whether it will help or hinder the customer journey. It’s a good idea to start with a simple landing page. As you learn more about your audience’s behaviors and preferences, add more conversion-inducing components.
- Conversion is About Satisfaction
The joy of interacting with your brand is enhanced by a positive user experience. Examine each page after you’ve completed the original design. To boost your store conversion rates, figure out where you can remove friction and add extra delight.
- A Custom Store Protects You From Competitors
Branding is a valuable tool for forming emotional bonds with your audience and converting them into outspoken brand evangelists. A long-time favorite brand is more likely to be promoted by four out of five customers. You’re ensuring your place as a long-time favorite brand, one encounter at a time, by establishing a unique online buying experience.
- A Great User Experience Should Always Come First
Attractive rates, innovative promotions, and eye-catching banners are still crucial, but their impact is diminished if the whole user experience is clumsy. Prioritize establishing a high level of website usability and performance. Work on more graphic design aspects.
- Embrace Flat Design
Flat design has now established a “classic” aesthetic on the internet. And it’s not without reason. The following are the basic principles of flat design:
• To speed up information processing, create a clear hierarchy.
• Iconography that emphasizes action and flexible design.
• We use known patterns to help us understand affordances rapidly.
All of these factors combine to create a fantastic e-commerce experience.
- Be Distinct
Year after year, the e-commerce market becomes more crowded. Your e-commerce business’s branding, iconography, website features, and on-site experience should all work together to highlight your unique value proposition and set it apart from the competition.
- Think CRO When Designing a Website
Data can back up your design hunches. If you’re revamping, look at your customer’s lifecycle, evaluate their browsing behaviors, and run usability tests with a focus group. Learn everything you can about their browsing behaviors then implement what you’ve learned into your design. Your e-commerce design should appeal to your target audience.
- Show, Don’t Tell
Great e-commerce websites use visual cues to guide customers through their shopping experience. In the discovery process, each aspect serves a strategic role. Conversions can be accelerated with the use of tooltips and service messages. If you have to explain each new step then the design you’ve chosen isn’t right for your company.
- Don’t Make Your Customer Think
It should be simple to find and buy products online. Provide each visitor with a clear path to purchase by using navigation bars, simple information architecture, and strategically positioned call-to-actions. You may improve conversion rates by reducing cognitive load at each step of the purchasing process.
- Seek First Hand Customer Data and Feedback
It may be tempting to apply all of the e-commerce best practices available on the internet. The more the merrier isn’t always the case. Every practice does not work for every merchant in the same way. As a business owner, instead of relying on conventional wisdom, base your design decisions on first-hand client data and feedback. This way, you’ll be able to build a one-of-a-kind user experience that will leave an impression on your target audience and encourage them to become more devoted to your business.
Wrapping Up
Good e-commerce website design is all about major updates. Begin with the most important pages and create quick prototypes. Try them out with your team to see if you can come up with any alliterations. Launch a new look and solicit feedback from your customers.
You’ll always have plenty of ‘design’ work to do between conversion optimization, new product landing pages, and seasonal promotions. Because your e-commerce platform provider has taken care of the functional and performance requirements, you can concentrate on the creative aspect of the process. And continue to outperform yourself with each new design variation!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The process of developing an online store for your business to sell digitally to target consumers is known as e-commerce website design. You must plan, develop, and arrange your information and products for successful presentation on the Internet in order to create an e-commerce website.
. Clear navigation, effective information architecture, optimized product landing pages, and simple checkout are four critical characteristics of a good e-commerce website design. All of them add up to excellent usability.
Conversion rate optimization features are the most desired e-commerce website design features. User-generated reviews wish lists, high-quality images, demo videos, product suggestions, find-in-store search, one-click checkout, support for numerous payment choices, and a mobile-friendly design with all of the above are among them.
Even if you don’t know how to code, you can build an e-commerce website by following these steps.
· Decide on a specialty after doing some research.
· Make a list of the items you want to sell.
· Create a business plan.
· Find an e-commerce platform or a website builder for e-commerce.
· Choose a name for your company and register a domain.
· Create payment options.
Your e-commerce store will be tested and published
Ans. The user experience should be prioritized by small e-commerce shops in the same manner that it is by larger e-commerce stores. This necessitates the use of responsive, mobile-friendly designs as well as easy filtering and navigation. Invest in high-quality images as well, and don’t skimp on payment method support.
Effective navigation is critical for large e-commerce stores. More time should be spent defining the best information architecture for displaying your stock. To expedite product discovery, create different product category groupings and sub-groups. Invest in a robust on-site product search that allows for many filtering choices, such as price, product category, size, color, season, and so on. Your design should naturally encourage discovery rather than exacerbating feelings of overload caused by the sheer amount of options available.
Ans. Personalization is the most popular e-commerce website design trend right now, as most e-commerce buyers demand it by default. Dynamic landing pages, data-driven product suggestions, upsells and cross-sells, as well as product quizzes and curated revisions, can all help create a more personalized user experience.
No, the majority of solid e-commerce themes aren’t available for free. They are, however, well worth the investment. Premium e-commerce themes are bug-free, SEO-optimized, and fully secure (unlike free ones). Most paid e-commerce website themes additionally provide support and troubleshooting.
It is more expensive to build a fully customized e-commerce website rather than use an e-commerce platform. If you want a totally customized design for less money and sooner, a headless approach to e-commerce development is the way to go
Ans. BigCommerce should be at the top of your list! We provide all of the fundamental e-commerce website design elements you’ll need to create any size e-store. Smaller businesses select us because we offer all of the essential commerce capabilities as well as aesthetic design tools at a low cost. Our open SaaS platform is popular among enterprise clients since it allows for unlimited design and integration with other apps. So you can concentrate on running your business instead of worrying about backend development and upkeep.
Q. Are B2B Commerce stores designed similarly to B2C Commerce stores?
B2B e-commerce stores follow the same UX design trends as B2C e-commerce stores, however, their structure is slightly different. Due to the longer sales cycle in B2B, such retailers place a greater emphasis on collecting TOFU and MOFU prospects rather than luring a fast conversion like B2C stores do. Longer product landing pages, featuring demo videos and comprehensive product descriptions, CTA forms offering to request a product demo, and schedule a call, and longer check-out forms, asking for a minimum order quantity and offering payment plans and pricing calculators for large-volume orders are some of the key design elements for a B2B e-commerce store
In conclusion, designing an e-commerce website that is optimized for growth and revenue requires careful attention to a variety of design elements. By focusing on user experience, navigation, branding, and product display, you can create an online store that attracts and retains customers, boosts sales, and positions your business for long-term success.
At My Digital Sketch, we understand the importance of effective e-commerce website design and development, and we have the expertise and experience to help you achieve your growth goals. Whether you’re looking to create a new online store or improve an existing one, we can provide you with custom website development solutions tailored to your unique business needs.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you take your e-commerce business to the next level.
