The way we do business today has changed. With the internet becoming the one-stop solution for all our needs, our customers expect us to be able to serve them digitally. Business-customer interactions have gone completely digital and while this has made it a seamless process — without complete thought and consideration this can be a big challenge.
Look at it this way — if you own a physical store and customers walk in you are physically there to help locate it, talk about it and even offer suggestions and recommendations. However, when you own an e-commerce store your customers are on their own in that sense. You may have a search option or even a chat window to help them but nothing compares to the experience of shopping online when your design and website interface makes it easy for customers to move around on their own.
Thus, your website design greatly impacts your customer experience and has a direct impact on your e-commerce sales.
You must consider the complete customer journey — from the time they land on your e-commerce store to the point they checkout — to be able to create an optimized user-flow and a seamless buying experience for them.
Design Tips to Boost E-commerce Sales
When designing your new e-commerce store, or revamping an existing one, it’s critical to think of all the design elements that make it easy, enjoyable and effective for your customers to make purchases. Let’s look at some crucial design elements that need your attention.
White Space
One cannot emphasize enough on how important it is to have adequate white space between different sections, elements and images on your website. White space refers to space you leave between the images, text and different sections so it clearly separates each of them from the other. This makes it easy for customers to give individual attention to each, makes it easy-on-the-eye and at the same time highlights all the necessary information. Without adequate white space, a website looks crammed for space and valuable information may get lost in the crowd.
Clear Call-To-Actions
A call-to-action or CTA helps your customer know exactly what they are expected to do and adds to their shopping experience. ‘Buy Now’, ‘Add to Cart’, ‘Head to Checkout’, ‘Make Payment’ etc are all direct CTAs that simplify the buying experience and make it easy for a customer to fulfil the seamless buying process you have created for them. Lack of CTAs can lead to confusions and may even force the customer to abandon your cart or website without completing the journey. Also, ensure you pick a bold colour from your defined brand colours, to design better buttons so they stand out and draw attention.
For example, the following image from ResellerClub’s Linux Reseller Hosting page clearly outlines all available plans with a ‘Buy Now’ CTA for each in a bright green colour that stands out and draws attention:
