Does your ecommerce website look a million dollars but it’s not serving its most important purpose…converting?
While having a good-looking website never hurts (see section 3 🙂), when designing ecommerce websites it shouldn’t be the main focus. Instead, priority should always be given to converting visitors into customers and first-time buyers into repeat shoppers.
There are many factors at play when it comes to conversion rate optimisation, but the most tangible to your target market is your website. Your website should be designed using only best practice techniques with a view to growing your customer base.
SEO Web Logistics is therefore sharing 10 design tips to implement on your ecommerce website to maximise conversion opportunities and, ultimately, increase your revenue.
5. Use videos
6. Improve your page loading time
9. Scatter CTA buttons on your website
The hero section of any website is the first content a web visitor sees when they land. It therefore should capture attention and be complete with all the necessary information about a brand’s product or service.
The goal of the hero section is to be a mini-version of your website, which can convert on its own. It should answer these four key questions:
Growing numbers of people are solely using their phones to surf the internet and as part of this are completing transactions via their mobile. Website designers and marketers are having to respond accordingly,
A growing trend is mobile-first web design, which is the prioritisation of mobile web design, making desktop design secondary. While you can never forget the desktop design completely, this approach can make sense as more half of internet traffic comes from mobiles.
It is therefore hugely important to know your audience – are they primarily using mobile phones or desktops? Once you figure that out, it is a fairly easy decision.
Another benefit of mobile-first web design is that your website can easily integrate with the phone’s functionalities, therefore streamlining the user experience. A common example is a “Call now” button automatically dialing the number from the website (rather than needing to change apps).
OK, so I know I implied looks don’t matter too much at the top of this blog. But truth be told they do a little bit. While it shouldn’t be your number one priority, a website that has wow factor and makes me want to stay and hover will always have a place in my heart.
We, humans, are visual beings, and we deduce the most information from what we see. We quickly form opinions on whether something is pleasing or unpleasant to look at. And this decision influences the likelihood of us staying a while on websites or hitting the back button.
Social proof is information on your website designed to win over the trust of your visitors. This can be done through a variety of techniques and ideally in combination. Examples include:
Whenever the opportunity presents itself, use videos. Videos are a great way to present content, whether it be blogs, tutorials, or just a clip explaining the history of the company.
According to a study by Vidyard, 98% of marketers agree that videos convert more than text. There are a few reasons why this is the case:
You can have everything set up on your website perfectly, but if it takes 30 seconds to load your visitors are as good as gone. Page loading time must be kept to a minimum to optimise your chances of converting visitors. We are talking about two to three seconds, max.
We are super internet impatient these days. If we have to wait, we’ll instead move onto the next website (your competitor). This is the reason why websites with a slow load time tend to get high bounce rates (people exiting the website without performing any action).
So, make sure that you improve your page loading time by compressing images (but not sacrificing the quality), using a good and reliable web host and ditching unnecessary information on your website.
Be sure to view our article: Top 15 Ways To Speed Up Your Website In 2023.
If your service or product is complicated and requires considerable information to prove its value, you may wish to consider dropdowns.
Dropdowns (also sometimes called accordions) are sections hidden behind dropdown buttons. On ecommerce websites, they are commonly used for frequently asked questions (FAQs) and product descriptions on individual product pages.
Using these ensures your page remains uncluttered, and encourages the user to explore for the information they need.
If you own an ecommerce website, you should use lifestyle images of your products. These are effective because they show your product in action. It’s all about evoking the emotions of the website visitor, so they can imagine themselves with your product.
This is exactly how IKEA presents its products. Their point of difference is having showrooms that look like actual bedrooms, kitchens, dining rooms, and more. When you visit an IKEA store, you can easily imagine how their products may work in your home.
Pro tip: ask your shoppers to take photos of themselves using or consuming the products and tag you on Instagram (you can incentivise them by doing so). You can then use the lifestyle images as social proof on your website.
The goal of adding multiple call-to-action (CTA) buttons on your website is to make it convenient for your visitors to find and make a decision on their next step. Ideally, you need at least one CTA button for each section of your website. You can customise each CTA depending on the context of each section.
Importantly, when you have multiple CTA buttons scattered on your website pages, your visitors won’t have to scroll up and down when they are ready to make a purchasing decision.
Putting a progress bar on your website can not only help your visitors understand how long your transaction experience is (ideally short, BTW) but also gamify the experience.
A progress bar is a good reminder to your visitors that your website is transparent and well structured. This is especially effective if your website has a multiple-page checkout system.
It eases customer concerns that there are only required to fill a handful of fields and that the checkout process is organised and easy.
Having a multiple-page checkout system without a progress bar can lead to a higher cart abandonment rate – and, as you may already know, remarketing to customers can bring challenges and additional expense.
SEO Web Logistics has put together a 30 page booklet called Your Gold Coast Marketing Guide 2022 (COVID edition), which is full of marketing ideas, explanations and insights. We know COVID has been tough on many local businesses and hopefully our booklet can provide your business with some marketing inspiration!
