What is the Best Ecommerce Website Design?
The ecommerce (electronic commerce) industry is booming. Consumers are speeding up their purchases on the internet with effective ecommerce website designs that generate more income for businesses. But are you missing out?
Ecommerce has become an alternative way of doing business that offers a wide range of benefits to small, medium, and even large-sized companies. e-retailers can test or change marketing strategy, which results in reduced overheads.
Online sales in the UK are forecasted to grow by 34.7% over the next year, surging past high-street retail sales for the first time as a proportion of total spending.
With so much trade now conducted online, can businesses survive without an online option? Building an ecommerce website design from scratch requires a lot of work, careful planning, investment of time and sound business knowledge and experience.
In this post, I will explore a few of the crucial areas that need consideration when creating a successful e-commerce website for your business.
What should I consider before creating an ecommerce website?
When it comes to ecommerce, what works for one site may not necessarily work for others.
So it would be best if you had a plan before deciding how your ecommerce website will look and function. To create a successful online business, here are some business fundamentals to consider:
Is my product unique: The first thing that you need to ask yourself is whether or not your eCommerce business will focus on selling unique products? e.g. you are importing a product from overseas or manufacturing and selling your own private label product/design.
How much do you want to earn: Ecommerce is as lucrative as other businesses out there, but it also requires a significant financial investment. It might be feasible to start with small paper gains before moving on to the big league of online businesses. How much money are you willing to spend in creating an ecommerce website design for your business depends entirely on how much money you hope to make in the future.
What market am I targeting: Ecommerce is perfect for building a solid relationship with your customers and creating a lasting impression in their minds. A successful ecommerce site relies heavily on customer loyalty. If this is what you are after, then having your own ecommerce website is a better alternative to marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon, where it is difficult to build a brand presence.
What is my brand: Branding has become crucial in ecommerce because consumers prefer buying from well-established online sellers with a recognisable brand name rather than fall victim to scammers who operate under fake identities. It’s also an excellent avenue for massive product promotion at minimal costs due to the high exposure through social media channels.
Ecommerce websites that have established a loyal customer base and use online marketing to their advantage are more likely to show brand loyalty and increase their net worth.
How will I deal with security: Ecommerce businesses risk being hacked if they are not well guarded. So it’s best to look for ecommerce website design services from a reputable web designing company that will ensure your website stays safe even at the cost of spending extra money on cybersecurity.
Will I handle everything myself: Ecommerce requires you to be in charge of every aspect – starting from ecommerce website design, product listings, payment gateways integration, order processing and finally, delivery. Running an ecommerce business requires competitive research skills as well as a clear understanding of business trends. Ecommerce can be highly profitable if you have the experience and business knowledge to back it up.
How ecommerce website design can help my business?
Once you have determined how ecommerce will fit into your business plan, you need to decide on an ecommerce website design to help build your business most efficiently and cost-effectively.
What kind of ecommerce website do I want? Several ecommerce websites types are available for businesses that choose ecommerce as their preferred method of selling products online. In addition to this, there is also a range of options for pricing models and payment methods depending on the choice between B2C (business to consumer) or B2B (business to business). These ecommerce platform choices include:
eCommerce marketplaces: In these ecommerce solutions, shoppers can compare prices from different sellers and purchase goods directly from the vendor they choose. Vendors that sell their products on online marketplaces typically pay a commission for each purchase made through their store. These marketplace sites include Amazon, eBay and Alibaba.
Ecommerce marketplaces are unique from ecommerce stores in that they deal with primarily non-perishable consumer goods.
Ecommerce websites: consider the ecommerce website a more personalised ecommerce solution for businesses and ecommerce sellers who want to build a loyal customer base through marketing.
Ecommerce solutions like WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento have website marketing options that allow business owners have their site where customers can log in using their email or social media accounts to purchase products.
What is an ecommerce website design?
An ecommerce website design is a complete online store that allows users to buy all the products on your shop by using online payment methods such as credit cards or e-wallets. Ecommerce websites are an integral part of any online business. If you’re planning to start an ecommerce website for your business, then you should be familiar with the following key elements:
Ecommerce website hosting: An ecommerce host is a business that provides other entities with what they need to sell their products and services online – including web server(s) which serve the company’s website, possibly the design and specific capabilities necessary for companies to accept, process, store, transfer money for customers.
Selecting a suitable website hosting provider is critical if you wish to keep your business running smoothly. Ecommerce hosting service providers usually include online business and ecommerce software as part of their ecommerce hosting packages.
Shopping cart software: An ecommerce shopping cart is any software application used to sell goods or services online. Online shopping carts can be particularly beneficial to small businesses because, unlike traditional companies. They do not have a physical location from which they sell their products; therefore, a website shopping cart is essential in selling physical goods over the web. Online shoppers generally prefer using online payment methods such as credit cards or e-wallets when buying products on your website.
Ecommerce websites can be built in many different ways, with the most popular being WordPress WooCommerce, Shopify and Magento.
At Sanders Design we believe that WooCommerce ecommerce website design is the best platform for any business looking to take their website sales online.
Combining WooCommerce, the most popular ecommerce platform in existence, with the WordPress publishing platform that boasts over 40% of all websites as its clients mean you have access to many plugins for virtually any business need. We have a fantastic team available to provide bespoke work for those unmet needs by an existing plugin.
Accept payments online: What is an ecommerce payment processing service, e.g. PayPal? An ecommerce payment processing service is an e-payment company for eCommerce businesses, also known as e-monies or e-currencies. Such services allow customers to pay online, via the internet using dedicated e-payment websites or apps (such as PayPal). Often e-money companies will store customer information in a virtual wallet and give users access to their account anywhere they have an Internet connection.
For international payments, you can use any one of the leading secure payment gateways: Skrill, Authorize.net, 2Checkout and even PayPal (with their IPN).
Ecommerce website design: Your online shop will have a direct impact on brand value. It makes or break time for you and your business; it can help grow your customer base overnight if designed well but can turn them off entirely if not designed well. Ecommerce website design is a proven method to boost sales and revenue for all online businesses.
Working with a professional ecommerce website designer may cost you a little extra at the beginning, but it will be worth your time and money in the long run.
When an ecommerce site is created, it must be based on user experience. A website can be very effective for e-retailers if designed well. The objective of any online business should always be customer satisfaction, so before creating your ecommerce website, you must know what exactly your customers want from your eStore?
Designing an ecommerce website that addresses their needs is crucial for the success of any online business venture. Ecommerce websites are a highly evolved version of e-retail sites that generate more money than any other type of online business.
The ecommerce website design should be tailored to meet the needs, requirements and expectations of your target customers to build trust and gain their confidence.
What are the costs involved with running my ecommerce website?
Much like having a high street shop, having an online business involves having overheads. This includes ecommerce website design costs, ecommerce hosting costs and ecommerce website development costs. The ecommerce software updates and website hosting will also cost you a monthly fee along with yearly charges for services such as premium plugins and any subscription services.
Ecommerce hosting service providers usually include online business and ecommerce software as part of their hosting packages. But you will also need to set up a merchant account with companies like Authorize.net or PayPal.
At Sanders Design we make setting up your ecommerce website easy; we’ll do all the ecommerce website design work, ecommerce website development and take care of software updates for you. This means that you can focus on growing your business and expanding after your online ecommerce sales.
So you can relax and concentrate on marketing your ecommerce website; we’ll do the ecommerce development work for you, so if there is anything new that needs to be added to your website. Then the Sanders Design team are on hand to take care of any ecommerce website design updates.
All our ecommerce websites come with comprehensive hosting packages, including ecommerce software, secure firewalls, and 24/7 monitoring. Which will keep hackers out of your site while allowing customers access to your ecommerce store without interruption.
Designing an ecommerce website may be a time-consuming process, but it is always worth investing in professional expertise.
How do I attract more customers? How can I increase Online sales?
Your ecommerce design must be in line with the branding of your business – so be sure to incorporate the company logo throughout the store design. Think about what makes your business unique and show it off! A well-designed website should promote all of your products, but your best sellers should feature somewhere on the homepage, such as in a slider or an icon listing products that are currently on sale.
An ecommerce website design will always target the most common e-shopping activities: searching, comparing and buying products. So it’s essential to create a search box, add filters for price, colour or size and consider adding social share buttons so customers can easily find your website online. Encourage customers to buy by offering special prices on your website home page – even a message as simple as “Our best sellers this week” may well be enough to encourage additional purchases.
How do I create a successful ecommerce website design?
A good ecommerce website design needs to reflect your brand identity. It should also feel like home for your customers as every ecommerce business is meant to build an atmosphere of trust with its customers so that they come back time and again to make purchases from you.
To create a successful ecommerce website design you need certain elements:
A catchy homepage: The first thing customers see is your beautiful online shop product listings, which are on offer on just about every ecommerce website home page. This is usually the deciding factor if they will proceed to make a purchase or not. Ecommerce website designs need a compelling sales pitch for shops that sells your products in just a glance.
Easy to use navigation: Ecommerce customers are busy people – they have so many things to do that chasing e-shopping carts all around doesn’t seem like something they want to do daily. The shopping experience has got to be as smooth and stress-free as possible. Suppose you can provide everything the customer needs without putting them through the trouble of filling out forms, browsing several eWallets and selecting different shipping options. In that case, it is an added benefit.
Information about the owner: Ecommerce websites usually sell one product in bulk, but there could be hundreds of e-retailers. If you are one of those ecommerce website design owners, it’s good to provide some information about yourself so that the website doesn’t seem anonymous.
Clear and concise ecommerce website design: Ecommerce websites have to be user-friendly, and the navigation has got to be simple at all times. Customers hate having problems checking out because they can only proceed when everything is ideally in place. Ecommerce sites need to make checkout a convenient process for customers by giving them options like Google Checkout, Paypal etc., which are all effortless payments options.
Customer reviews: One great way of increasing customer loyalty on ecommerce websites is through product ratings and reviews from other users who have used the e-store. Ecommerce website designs should capitalise on that and make it easy for e-stores to ask their customers to write their reviews to update the product content accordingly.
Web analytics tools: ecommerce website design owners need all the help they get in bringing more traffic into their ecommerce stores. Ecommerce websites are meant to scale with time, so business owners have a lot of competition climbing over them at all times. How do you stand out? It is through ecommerce topic research, SEO strategies and other such marketing tactics which will enable your ecommerce website design to stand out from the rest in its niche market.
An excellent online shopping experience: The whole point here is getting as many visitors onto your ecommerce site as possible so that they can buy your products. Ecommerce website designs should make it seamless and easy for customers to carry out purchases, right from browsing for goods, selecting options, checking out and finally fulfilling the order.
Conclusion
There has never been a better time for ecommerce business owners, and every retailer should have an ecommerce website as it will help them establish their brand value in the industry.
Online businesses require bespoke web development services that cater to the needs of their customers. We are WordPress experts who specialise in creating bespoke ecommerce website designs that are carefully constructed with marketing, branding, design and development in mind.
At Sanders Design we have been helping business owners build their online businesses by providing services such as ecommerce website design, ecommerce SEO strategies, WooCommerce customisation and WordPress development.
When customers want websites that meet their needs instantly and give them complete satisfaction through every stage of the online shopping experience, it is essential to work with experienced design professionals who can provide your business with a competitive advantage.
Contact us today to see how we can improve your online sales.
