Checklist for Designing an eCommerce Site That Sells
Each January, most of us are accustomed to setting goals for the new year. Those goals will look different for every individual, likely including new ways for your career or your organization to flourish. Companies should evaluate and consider the revenue opportunities presented by a well-designed eCommerce site for 2019. In this blog post, we’ll present a checklist of items you need to consider before undertaking any eCommerce website design project alongside statistics to back them up.
eCommerce Site Checklist
- Mobile Responsive Design
Users are becoming more accustomed to purchasing products online using mobile devices. Market research firm, eMarketer, projects that over 50% of eCommerce purchases will be made using a mobile device by 2021. The percentage of purchases using mobile devices increased by 5% from 2017 to 2018, and that trend is expected to grow exponentially with the rollout of 5G networks across the US in 2019 and 2020. eCommerce sites that fail to display properly on mobile devices are leaving money on the table.
Mobile responsive design implies that a website maintains all of its user-friendly design even when being viewed on a non-desktop device. Depending on your preferences, this could take the form of more streamlined navigation, automatic adjustment of website elements like product photos and descriptions, or more readable text. If you’re in the business of selling, you need your webstore to be as user-friendly and accessible as possible.
- Chatbots and Automated Marketing Features
There are numerous features available to brands which make a website easier to use and information more easy to find. Pega reports that 34% of online retail consumers utilize chatbots powered by AI while shopping. Online retail specifically saw the largest percentage of adoption across verticals including banking, financial services, and insurance. Think about it practically: if you are looking to buy a new gadget, but are unsure which model to buy, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to compare prices, reviews, and features within an intuitive chatbot interface? We think so.
- Incorporate Omnichannel Approach into Website’s Design
Omnichannel eCommerce is a hot topic lately. What does it mean? It means utilizing many channels – website, email, social media, SMS, brick & mortar, etc. – to sell your products. In a day and age where there are so many consumers with so many different shopping preferences, it’s critical not to leave anyone out. During the research phase of a purchasing decision, as evidenced by the graph below published by Statista, consumers are using many different channels during their Buyer’s Journey. It’s essential for an eCommerce site to take that into consideration. Incorporate social media integrations into the website’s design so product updates and recent posts are viewable within your store. Add a newsletter signup CTA (call to action) at convenient locations so your one-time purchasers turn into repeat customers.
- High-Quality Product Imagery and Video
An eCommerce website which elegantly displays specifications of products using high-quality, relevant product images and short video clips will convert at a much higher rate than sites that do not include quality product visuals. Consumers want to know what they’re buying before clicking the “Add to Cart” button, and the visual medium is one of the most effective ways to inform the user and earn that click. Product photography and video is a worthwhile investment when building an eCommerce site.
- Mobile Reviews, Coupons, and Product Comparisons
A survey conducted in 2015 found that nearly half of smartphone users used their devices to read customer reviews of products they were considering buying. With the adoption of technology constantly increasing, these trends are still applicable today. Using coupons and comparing prices between competitors were actions fueled by mobile devices during shopping activities. When designing an eCommerce site, consider including readily available product reviews and comparisons within the metadata of each product where that information is available. This can help convince your website visitors to become your customers.
- UX Design with an Emphasis on Conversion Rate
The number of digital buyers has steadily increased each year since 2014 and is projected to rise to over 2 billion people in the year 2020. This means there is an increasing opportunity to attract new customers online each year. However, if your eCommerce site attracts visitors but doesn’t convert them, the investment in this new webstore will be all for naught. Q3 of 2018 saw the lowest average conversion rate of online shoppers over the last five quarters. This is why professional UX design is so important. eCommerce initiatives are not just about competing for traffic; they’re also about converting that traffic into customers and avid fans of your products or services.
eCommerce Website Design
If you’re considering designing, building, and launching an eCommerce initiative in 2019, contact us for a quote. Check out this custom eCommerce project we delivered for Hunter Fan for an example of work we love doing.
