Do you know that Ecommerce is one of the fastest growing industries in the world and in the year 2016, this industry accounted for a whopping 8.7 percent of the total retail spending across the globe? Yes. This is very true and statistically proven fact!
As we call it, Electronic Commerce (Ecommerce for short) simply denotes the process of buying or selling goods over the internet. The major players in the sector of electronic communication are in to retailing and world famous websites like Amazon, EBay and Alibaba needs no introduction. But there is one certain parameter that is same in all of these websites. Any guesses what it is? It is the impeccable design of the websites! This is something that makes them a major player and distinguishes them from the competition.
If you aspire to excel in the e-commerce industry, you need to have a website. And mark my words, not just an ordinary website; you need something special loaded with features that will take you higher. In this article, we are going to show you the best techniques that will help you build a superb e-commerce website.
Multi-product or Single-product?
This is one of the most important aspects when it comes to designing an e-commerce website. The layout of your website depends entirely on the product or products that you are selling. If you are selling a single product, then most probably your website will a single page. But if you are dealing with multiple products on your platform, then the layout of the site is going to be on the complex side and will obviously involve addition of multiple pages. It is not a mandate though, that a single product site will have a single page. There can be multiple pages but the content would rather be simple.
For websites selling multiple products, the number of pages is relatively proportional to the number of good a site is selling. In short, more goods, more pages.
One thing that you should keep in mind is to keep the site organized, especially if it is a multi-product site because it is bound to have multiple pages, so make sure things are in place. This is crucial because it will make things so much easier for the customers.
The Design:
The process of designing an e-commerce website is no rocket science. It is pretty much same as any other websites. But certainly, there are a few more steps involved that need to be considered. The process begins from the day you start. Choose a good website layout from the initial days and things will turn out to be better that way. Also, including images can do a great favor to your website. Good images tend to attract people towards different products and it can be vital as it intrigues interest in the buyer.
The Basic Requirements:
There are a certain qualities that every online website should possess. These parameters can distinguish you from the competition and take you a long way. Here are the qualities we are talking about-
- Being Transparent: No one is fond of e-commerce websites who do not share important information and policies with their customers. Transparency is a very crucial measure when it comes to the customer’s faith. The customer should get information about everything ranging from shipping details to refund policies. This helps in generating the customer’s trust in any website. And not only this, merchants should keep the reviews on their products visible to their customers. And not only the good ones, the not so good ones too as it makes the customers believe that the site is genuine.
- Keep It Simple: What would you like for your customer- A website that is lucid and helps him to purchase quickly or a website which confuses him? Yeah, that’s what we thought. Also, a simple website encourages customer to buy from you again and again, so you can do the math yourself.
- Developing Trust: It has a certain relationship with trust. The more transparent you will be the more trust of the customer you will gain. The architecture of your website must be good enough to make your customers believe that you can be trusted. A little insecurity in the customer’s heart can take the business away from you.
Healthy Practices for the Long Run:
Now that you know the basics, there are certain healthy habits that you would like to adopt in order to survive. The sooner you get used to them, the better it is for your business. Here is the list of those practices that will surely help you in the long run for sailing smooth.
- Images, Images and More Images: This is then game plan. In your website, make full use of images by involving them as much as you can. Images are a great way to let your customer know about your product and if taken perfectly, they can always fascinate the customers.
- Drawing Attention and Mentioning Scarcity: Again, one of the best ways to sky rocket your sales. Have you ever seen websites mentioning that only a few pieces left in stock, like two or even one? If you are in need of that product, you will freak out that someone else might snatch it up. So what you do with all your might is trying and purchases that product as quickly as possible! This is how “Highlighting Scarcity” can do wonder for any e-commerce firm. Also, throw in some suggestions of similar products or products that can make a match with a selected product, like tennis shoes along with a purchased tennis racket? It will work most of the times, we can assure you.
- Product Descriptions: Be very specific about the description of your product and try to tell the customer every important key detail of the product. The “read more” option can be really useful here as uploading too may information for the first sighting can be a bit hectic for the customer.
- Simplified Checkouts: Now we are talking! Checkouts have been the hot favorite topic during customer discussions. Customers do not need a complicated approach when it comes to checking out. The simpler it is for them, the happier they are. Make sure the checkouts in your website are simplified enough for the customers, and as a result you can have them back sooner than you expect.
- CTA: How can we forget the valuable Call to Action? It is one of the essentials of the e-commerce websites. CTA prompts a customer to the initiate to choose the product or a service. Also, it can ask the customers to sign up with your website, download the app or subscribe to email alerts. This can be very vital for your business as this will surely take the sales higher and will make the customer feel more involved.
Hope our effort was helpful for making your website a success. Do not wait up and get in the game as soon as possible. Good Luck.
