Any business selling products online faces two challenges: driving traffic to the site and then converting them into paying customers. The former can be done through a number of ways, from search engine optimisation (SEO) through social media to online marketing. The latter is a little bit more tricky. You need a well designed, easy to use website that instils confidence and displays your products in an attractive manner.

While a good ecommerce website design is the first step. Consider these absolute requirements when having your ecommerce website designed.

Put the right products on the homepage – most visitors will come directly to your homepage so you need to grab their attention right away and make it clear what your site is all about at the same time. Putting your best selling products, your special offers or your products for the season right up front with good quality images will demonstrate what you sell and entice the visitor further into the site and closer to the checkout!

The often overlooked part of good ecommerce website design is the sales copy – you will need to invest time and even money in this if you are to be successful. It needs to clearly express the BENEFITS of your products, not just the FEATURES.

Customers buy from brands and companies they trust so your ecommerce website needs to demonstrate that you’re a real company, a real business, able to fulfil your promises and supply products of the highest quality.

Consider these options for your website in order to do that:

Create an About Us page – customers want to know who they are dealing with. An About Us page which includes details about the company and your full contact details (which should also be on a Contact Us page) will often be visited before a customer decides to buy from you.

Make it personal – if it suits your business, then adding the names and pictures of your customer facing staff (at least) will help make a customer feel as if they know you, breeding that confidence you’re after.

In the press? Tell the world! – add a section to your website that contains all the media coverage you receive. If your local newspaper or radio station mentions you, then you must be doing something right and your customers will be much more likely to trust you.

Add a Testimonials section – nothing makes a customer more comfortable than knowing other people have bought and used your products and been happy with them. Testimonials from satisfied customers saying how happy they are with your products and service are a great way to demonstrate your quality.

Be clear on your returns policy – customers who know they can return their product with a minimum fuss if it is not what they wanted or were expecting are far more likely to buy from you. Don’t be afraid that you’ll end up with hundreds of returned products and thousands of pounds of returns – it rarely happens, but knowing they CAN is what a customer wants to hear.

Add a Privacy Policy – confidence in your business will grow further if you make it clear that you will never share a customer’s personal details, especially their email address.

There are many more steps you can take to building the success of your ecommerce website but getting the basics right in the first place is vital.

Author Bio: This article was written on behalf of Fluid Creativity, specialists in ecommerce website design, Manchester.

Category: Business Management
Keywords: ecommerce websites, conversion rates, website design, ecommerce design