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eCommerce Website Design
Many of you are probably already asking why eCommerce website
design is different from any other website design. They all need
to be attractive, well organized and use the right colors that
fits the website spirit and so on. Your instincts are good.
However a close look at some successful eCommerce websites will
reveal the conceptual differences that are typical in a
successful eCommerce website.
An eCommerce website needs to follow certain selling principles:
1. Give the user a pleasant experience during his online
shopping.
2. Make certain you provide sufficient information on who owns
the website and why they should be trusted.
3. The website must be easy to use. If it isn't, the visitor
will go to your competitor.
Those principles are not new. We all know those basics from our
day to day experiences in the mall, shopping center and every
other market place that is waiting for us to open up our
wallets. The big challenge for a web designer is how to
translate those conventional marketing techniques to the virtual
world of the internet. I'm sure you've all noticed that in most
supermarkets the bread stand is placed at the far end of the
building, yet you can smell the fresh bread at the entrance
(sometimes they even use a special air duct to carry the
smells). That has been done deliberately. Marketers use our
sense of smell to draw us through the store where we are exposed
to all sorts of tempting goodies as we go to get our loaf of
bread.
How do you draw an imaginarily path in a web page? A path
designed to lead the visitor to do what you want him to
do...make an online purchase. Unlike the supermarket our website
has no smell. In a website the distance from one point to the
other is pretty much the same, so the exit is always right
there. In a website you can try to order the "shelf" in the way
you think will best expose the visitor to many of your products,
but there is always a chance that he will find a short cut to
another page that can also be the way off your site.
As can be see, although putting your products on the web is much
easier then renting space and opening a supermarket. However,
selling your products on the web can be difficult.
A good eCommerce website design will lead the visitor to the
right page in one click or two at the most. Sometime web
designers will use techniques that would never be considered for
non-eCommerce websites. Everyone has seen at least one sales
letter website. On these web pages the only link is to the order
form. Sales letters are not the most typical eCommerce website
because they usually sell only one product. That allows the web
designer the ability to exaggerate the one click principle and
make it an advantage. All the facts about the product have been
presented to the user is a smart way while every few lines he
has the option to click on the order form. If he is not yet
convinced he will have the option to continue to read more facts
and testimonials about the products. Believe it or not, those
sales letter websites are actually selling.
"What about online shops?" Online shops have to deal with more
then one product. Of course, the greater number of products
increases the complexity of the website. Sophisticated eCommerce
websites use a variety of personalization technologies in an
effort to determine the best selection of products to offer to
the visitor. Personalization technologies are a major part of
advanced eCommerce websites. However this topic is beyond the
scope of this article. The cleverness of an eCommerce website's
personalization technology has a major influence on its design.
The first to use such technology was Amazon.com who decided to
push their client's books to a visitor based on that visitor's
past orders combined with the statistics they had collected on
all visitors used to predict what someone looking at a specific
book might also be interested in reading. Today the goal is to
try to predict what to offer the user on his first visit as well.
An eCommerce web design is also about the layout. One important
aspect is where the user's eyes look first when accessing a web
page. Lots of research has been done on this topic. Most
research showed that the middle left side area will attract the
most attention followed by the center of the page. By using
these techniques web designers try to draw the "walking path"
for the visitor's eye, much like what was done at the
supermarket. An experienced eCommerce web designer will know how
to create designs to meets those demands.
If you are about to open an eCommerce website or you are already
own one, make sure you understand the web design principles for
online selling. Consider consulting with an experienced website
designer preferably someone who has experience with eCommerce
websites.
Good luck with your sales.
About the author:
About the Author:
Warren Baker is an Internet business consultant for
WebDesigners123.
WebDesigners123 connects the Freelance Web Designer with
Webmasters who need their services.
If you would like to read more of Warren Baker's writings,
visit our Website
Design Articles page.