Not all websites are the same. This is especially true with retail websites that offer online shopping. Retail website designs that produce online sales are what brands require to succeed online. A well architected retail website can drastically increase sales, conversion rates, and customer loyalty. Not all industries are the same as well. There much to consider with retail website designs.
Each industry may have its own norm, standards, and level of consumer expectations. These expectations should be met by brands that wish to receive sales and acquire customers. Certain industries are much more competitive and ecommerce websites have to incorporate features to stay ahead of competitors. There is much to consider with retail website designs.
To produce online sales, ecommerce websites should have the below elements. These elements can be implemented through the proper design and development. Experienced ecommerce service providers should already be familiar with ecommerce best practices. To help retail brands, below are some key areas to review and improve upon.
The ecommerce home page layout and details.
This can’t be stressed enough! The home page is critical. Most site visitors start on the home page. The home page should not be short, lack details, or features. Features such as a well created product slider. It should show top products, including review stars, pricing, and of course the name of the product. Have enough text copy (500+ words) for search engines and marketing efforts. Highly visible call to action and incentives popping of the page in strategic areas of the home page.
Clearly show contact info in the header and footer.
Yes, it is online commerce, but consumers still want to know that if required they can reach someone. Clearly show contact information such as phone number, email, address, chat feature, etc. in the header and footer of the website. This ensures that the contact information is always visible on top and bottom of each page of the website. Consistency builds trust and user-friendliness with consumers and site visitors.
Structure main navigation correctly for best results.
The main navigation is not always properly structured with ecommerce websites. This hurts customer service, sales, and conversion rates overall. The main site navigation has to accommodate the retail SEO campaign, provide customer service, and showcase the unique attributes of the brand. This is not always accomplished. This should be correctly established from the beginning if possible.
Retail websites should have a very active blog.
Many retail websites offering online commerce include a blog. The retail blog is an important aspect of online marketing, trust building with the desired audience, and much much more. Retail ecommerce websites should have a very active blog (5-6 articles per week). Ecommorce website pages are indexed by over 400% more with an active blog. The blog articles must be unique, not copied. They should be relevant, informative, and optimized for search results.
Key areas of the ecommerce website should be correctly used.
There are areas throughout an ecommerce website that are very important. These areas are where eyes are drawn too, or important real estate due to the nature of the page. Key areas are highly visible to the site visitors, which makes them much more important. How those areas are utilized can improve or do the opposite to results. Key icons, features, information, call to actions, and so on should be placed there.
Page speed is too important to ignore for better results.
Page speed is very important! Search engines such as Google include it within their audit for each page and website. Ability to rank is highly impacted by this. There are many ways to improve page speed on retail websites with ecommerce. Retail brands can test their websites for free with Google. Here is a link for page speed website audit. Then, the proper work can be scheduled and executed to improve page speed, online search rankings, and sales.
Do not publish stock or low-quality product photography.
The potential customer can’t touch and feel the products. If a video is not available, the product photos are the only visual aid. Retail website designs that produce sales use professional product photography. High quality photos, multiple shots for each product, and close-ups. The photos should have a white background for the shopping pages. The CMS commerce application should allow for zoom ability for shop product photographs.
Retail brands that wish to improve their online activity, sales, and conversion rates should speak to experts. Professionals who understand the nature of ecommerce websites and specific industries can help retail brands improve online operations, infrastructures, sales efforts, and so on. Consulting services may be helpful as well. Speaking with an expert prior to allocating a budget for the work can be a great way to start. For a professional retail ecommerce website speak with a reputable agency that has enough experience with retail website designs that produce online sales.
Retail website designs that produce results.
