When running an e-commerce business, it will sometimes feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle. The reason behind this is fairly simple – a lot of people are afraid of an online hoax. Just think about it, you’re asking people to trust you with their money and their credit card information (in order to be able to buy). Sure, you can look for an HTTPS file or do your research online, while this will help you out quite a bit, you might still need more proof. A well-designed website with a decent SEO rank simply seems more credible. This is why you need to figure out how to use web design in order to get both of these things.
The most important thing for you to understand is that all of these trends come as a compromise between a technically valid choice and a visual/thematical upgrade. For instance, the same idea that is supposed to make your design sleeker and more efficient should also aim to make it more resource-friendly. In the end, you will get to grow in the two most important fields simultaneously. Seeing as how e-commerce puts special emphasis on trustworthiness, this is really the only way to make people feel safe enough while dealing with your brand.
Simple navigation and architecture
The purpose of a website is to be easy to navigate. What you need to understand is that navigating a website needs to be a simple thing for everyone. The first point that you need to focus on should definitely be intuitiveness. People need to know exactly where they’ll land if they click on which button. Second, they need to know exactly how to return to the previous page. The worst thing you can do is force them to go all the way back if they miss click. Some solve this by making you automatically switch to a new tab but this can draw a tremendous number of resources.
Second, you need to figure out the best way to handle your website architecture. Sure, going through your website should be intuitive for your audience but you need to make it easy for search engines, as well. Keep in mind that this mostly revolves around solid website architecture. In order to keep unfinished pages away from search engines, some designers use robots.txt in order to disallow access. The problem is that this may restrict access to your entire domain, which would result in your pages not being indexed, to begin with. Make sure that this is not the case.
Wrap up: Understand that the human audience needs an intuitive layout. What search engines and crawlers need is well-structured website architecture. You need to make sure both are in order.
The paradox of choice
The next thing you need to bear in mind is the paradox of choice. Namely, when people have too many options to choose from, a huge portion of them will have trouble making up their minds. During one trial, two groups of people were given a coupon for a jam. One group was presented with 6 varieties of jam while the second group was made to choose between 24 types. The results showed that people from the first group were 10 times more likely to make up their minds. This is something that anyone developing an e-commerce website should know about.
Second, it’s important that you understand that every single element that you add to the page poses an additional HTTP request. This means that it will take longer for the page to fully load (even if parts of it are cashed). It also means that the page will be slower in general. Now, since people will give you 2 to 9 seconds to persuade them to stay, it seems as if minimalism is the way to go. The lighter you make the website, the easier it will be for your audience to make the choice. It will also be a lot easier for the website to load.
Wrap up: Minimalism is probably your best choice when designing a website in 2021. It helps people make quicker decisions and it makes a website load a lot quicker.
The anatomy of a product
According to experts from a renowned web design Sydney agency, in order to reassure your customers, you need to provide them with something that they greatly miss about traditional retail. What you need is to provide them with is an idea of being able to physically examine the product. There are two ways to achieve this. The first one is the use of the anatomy of a product design trend. This means that your customers will be able to examine the product from all sides and see the details regarding all of its features and functions. Having an option of intractability or a chance to rotate the product might also be of help.
In the COVID-19 pandemic, learning online seems to be a predominant method. Moreover, you need to create photography of high-quality and high-resolution. This will allow them to zoom in as far as possible and check every detail of the product before buying it. Why should learning about a product be any different? Chances are that you’ll need a professional photographer for this. It might still not be enough. In order to get textures that are as real-like, you want to add as many renders as possible. Keep in mind that you’re making an investment towards the appeal of your products. Here, you can’t allow skimping. Investing in quality is a long-term investment that will definitely pay off.
Wrap up: In the era of the pandemic, an e-commerce business that manages to offer their clients an experience that it the closest to brick-and-mortar retail is bound to win.
Focus on screens of all sizes
In 2021, people buy your products via screens of all sizes. Sure, mobile users are still the greatest in volume but in terms of conversions, the percentages on desktop and tablets look more impressive. It seems as if there is a direct correlation between conversions and screen size. This would mean that investing in a desktop would be the safest course of action, however, this is not necessarily the case. The majority of your total sales probably still come from mobile devices. This is why mobile-friendliness and mobile-responsiveness should be your top priorities.
Also, keep in mind that there are a lot of those who find you via mobile devices and then purchase from their laptop or desktop setup. Most importantly, if you have both online and offline retail options, you should acknowledge the importance of local mobile searches for offline purchases. For a lot of people, this is a mandatory step of a customer lifecycle. First, people check you out via their phones. Then, they come to buy from you in person. Sure, for a strict e-commerce business, this is still not a huge concern but you are already working on your mobile presence, so why not?
Wrap up: While it is clear that in 2021 mobile devices and mobile users are a priority, you should never underestimate the purchasing power of desktops, laptops and tablets.
Make your e-store SEO-friendly
Working on your SEO-friendliness should always be a top priority. It’s how new buyers discover you and rank you on their arbitrary scale of trustworthiness. Regardless of whether this is the case or not, people trust higher-ranked businesses far more than they do those with a lower search engine position. Keep in mind that lower-ranked stores usually don’t even get the attention they need to stay profitable. There are numbers showing that 33% of all searches end with the user clicking on the first result. Furthermore, 95% of all searches ends on page one. In other words, getting ranked any lower than this makes you practically invisible.
In order to optimize your design for SEO, you need to start with a complete SEO audit of your e-commerce website. Make sure you have all the necessary metadata and that your pages are responsive. Previously, we’ve mentioned restricting access to certain parts of your domain. This needs to go away as soon as possible. Whenever you’re forced to choose between visuals and functionality, you should always go for functionality. After all, your audience is there to buy and it is your job to make this as easy as possible.
Wrap up: The last thing you need to do is make sure your website’s relationship with search engines is as solid as possible. So, conduct a thorough SEO audit and design your e-store according to all the relevant SEO principles.
In the end, one of the most important things about your e-commerce design is whether people trust it enough to use it. An e-commerce website is supposed to replace and replicate every step of traditional retail. It’s supposed to visually impress (curb appeal), make it easy for people to find what they need (assisted sales) and simplify the checkout process. Finding a way to achieve all of this requires a no-small deal of both organizational and technical prowess. This is something that you can’t afford to ignore.
Mianna Korben
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