17th December 2020
Web design elements play a necessary role in creating successful online stores. The best product can be easily be overlooked if the design isn’t there to back up the whole presentation. Market researchers have shown that website design has a lasting effect on customer’s impressions, navigability, and even the credibility of an online store. The online store is one of the most significant aspects of a brand’s online presence and it’s important that the design is executed properly. Brands cannot afford any web design fails that might cause the visitors to bounce off from the online store. Thus, the online store should be designed keeping in mind the audience and should guarantee that it provides a good user experience.
We all are aware of the fact that good design creates the first impression. We often think that first impressions can be wrong or like we cannot comprehend or judge the person by their first impression. however, researches strongly indicate that first impressions have a profound impact on how we interact with people and objects. Online stores are no exception. In the digital marketplace, it only takes about 0.05 seconds, or 50 milliseconds, for a visitor to form a first opinion about the store. Their impression and hypothesis about the brand determine whether they are interested to continue browsing or are they going to abandons the store.
Now one might ask what is it about the website that impacts a user’s opinion? It’s the overall layout and design elements. In a fraction of a second, it’s the design elements on the site that decides whether a visitor likes the site or not. If the design of the store is appealing with design elements placed correctly then the visitors forms a positive impression. For example, brands hire online animated logo design services to get a super attractive and connecting logo for their websites. So, when the visitors land on the homepage, they are greeted by a powerful logo design, video content, and a lot more.
Positive impressions lead visitors to continue browsing and shopping from the site. It also has an impact on the overall interactions the visitor has with the store. When the first impression is positive, the subsequent purchasing behavior is also positive. In other words, a well-designed eCommerce store leads to a lower bounce rate and possibly a higher conversion rate.
The web design elements such as logo designs from online animated logo design services, the video content, scrolling, and navigation – all design elements are equally responsible to establish credibility. The online store could have the best content or products in the world. It might even offer superb discounts as compare to the brand’s rival. However, poor design elements could overshadow all these positives and cause visitors to stop visiting the online store.
Just how web designs play an important role to formulate the first impression, similarly, It also plays a large role in making customers trust a store. According to several Stanford studies, a good store design is important for establishing credibility.
A well-designed site indicates that the business has actually invested money in setting up the online store. From having a super easy check-out process to a super unique logo design made by online animated logo design services, they all help the customer to generate a sense of trust in the store. Poor site design usually means the site owner is not particularly not interested in customer service or appearances. Moreover, badly designed sites are associated with scammers. Potential customers may suspect that the online store is just a front for a deceptive online operation. If you want the target audience to take your e-retail venture seriously, then the web design must look professional.
Further, a good web design of the online store allows it to stand out from the competition. It’s no secret that online retail is extremely competitive in the modern age. eCommerce websites employ various tactics to beat the competition. However, good design is an easy method to stay out of the fray and attract customers. A well-designed store could help customers to differentiate your store from the competition. As customers pay attention to the aesthetics of an online store, a visually appealing site has the leg-up in the rat race to capture the most conversions. A great example of this is:
KITH’s homepage design grabs customers’ attention the minute they land on it. Visitors are met with a brand video and a harmonic, sleek color palette of white and black. The site feels clean, yet sparks interest, therefore, people want to explore different menu options like clothing, but also treats and content such as lookbooks, films, journals, and more. KITH’s catalog is big, but categories are still presented in a way that lets the visitors quickly explore and find what they are looking for.
Here are 12 key tips on executing the perfect design elements for the online store.
One of the first and prime rules is the designer should keep the eCommerce design process pretty simple. Basically follows the “KISS”—keep it simple, silly rule. When it comes to designing an e-commerce store, simplicity is always better. The more elements you have on the page like banners, pop-up ads, extra color, transitions, and pictures the more it takes away from the entire point of the website—closing a sale.
An online store doesn’t need a ton of bells and whistles—all they do is act as a distraction. Keep the design clear, clean, cluttered-free, and simple so that the customers remain focused on the products.
If the brand wants its online store to instantly connect with its audience, they need to think like their audience. Think about what elements do audience wants on their screen as soon as they land on the page. Ultimately, there are just a few things the potential customers want in an online store- that’s easy navigation, professional logo design, easy, straightforward, and hassle-free checkout process.
During the design process, the designers should put themselves in the visitor’s shoes. They should think about what kind of layout is going to be easiest for them to navigate? How can they organize the products in a way that makes sense for the end-user? How can you simplify the checkout process? When a designer thinks like their customer, they can anticipate what they want from the online store—and then design the site in order to meet those needs.
In the world of web design, it’s general knowledge that images increase conversions, for example, a number of recent case studies have shown that incorporating more relevant images into a website design increased conversions by over 40%. That’s even more accurate when it comes to online stores.
No one is going to buy a product sight unseen. If the store wants people to buy the products, they need to show them what they’re buying via high-quality product images.
Getting professional images of all products and having images of your product from multiple different angles goes a long way in building confidence and trust in the customers. If they feel confident that they know what they’re buying, they’re more likely to make a purchase. But if there are no images of the product they want to buy or low-quality images, they’re going to hesitate to make the purchase.
It is indeed very challenging to craft long descriptions for the products on an online store. Ok, so what you need to know is that many types of research have shown that most website visitors only read about 20% of the text on any given online store. Instead of reading content word for word, they simply scan or skim through the text, trying to look for key information. Therefore, it is important to keep content precise, interesting and pretty scannable to get the point across and drive sales in the process.
Another way is to break up the content—whether that’s product descriptions, blog posts, or an “about us” page. Keep it into an easy-to-scan format. Keep sentences and paragraphs short, use the bold or italic effect to grab the attention to key information, and use bulleted lists to break up large blocks of texts.
The easier the content is the more likely the customers will absorb the key messaging thus, the more likely the store will be able to make a sale.
Another way to build the credibility of the store is to incorporate social proof. When you’re designing an eCommerce site, look for ways to show the potential customers the positive feedback you’ve gotten from existing customers. Add a rating section where customers can rate the products.
Add a testimonials section, where customer photos with quotes are featured customers along with the review from customers about the product.
The more website visitors see testimonials that other people have had a positive experience shopping on this site, the more trustworthy the brand will appear. Thus, the brand will have more conversions.
It’s probably one of the least debated facts in the web design sphere that speed is important. Research has shown that it impacts everything from bounce rate over customer satisfaction to conversions and revenue.
If the online store is slow, visitors will not stick around. They can find several other stores to go to. Plus, just how speed is important for customers, similarly, it is important for search engines. The speed affects the ranking. For that reason, it’s important to invest in making the online store to load as fast as possible.
Visitors should be able to enjoy the online store through mobile. The online store should be easy to use, no matter which device they are they’re browsing. Go over the store mobile version while putting yourself in the shoes of the user, and test out every page, user action, and button.
The online store should appear cleaner and less cluttered on mobile than the desktop version, so consider minimizing page elements and scaling down some assets, like the menu.
Colors have had a psychological influence on sales long before the digital revolution. Understanding the different types of emotion that colors can elicit, one can design their eCommerce site to match certain feelings and vibes. Depending on the product and target audience, designers can use color to invoke certain feelings. For example, if the store is selling skincare products, the shades of nudes, light pink, and peach are going to complement the products.
Different colors can evoke different feelings, emotions, and actions from visitors, therefore, if the store wants its conversion to increase, they need to use those color inspirations.
So, for example, if the brand wants people to make a purchase, make the purchase button stand out by accompanying it with a bright color like red. According to color psychology, red inspires feelings of excitement and passion, which are driving factors behind spending. Many studies have also shown that making a button red can increase conversions by a whopping 34%. Or, if you want to develop and build credibility, the store can incorporate blue into their web design. Blue is not only a universally loved color, but it’s also been shown to increase feelings of trust.
Voice technology and chatbots are revolutionizing the world by making the process of placing an order simpler than ever before. For example, US consumers can now place orders from Starbucks by speaking into the Starbucks iOS mobile app or Amazon’s Alexa.
Moreover, Amazon has also capitalized on voice allowing customers to order products directly from Amazon using their Echo products.
Chatbots are another great tool to provide 24-hour customer service with little to no long-term effort. The chatbot allows 85% of all customer interactions to get handled by a chatbot by the year 2021. Using these technologies in an efficient way that works with the brand and offering is the key to succeeding.
Producing great content and offers only go so far if you aren’t giving your users the opportunity to share what you have. If the store does not have social share buttons, the brand could be missing out on a lot of social media traffic that’s generated from people.
If this phenomenon is new to you, social sharing buttons are the small tiny buttons that are around the top or bottom of blog posts and products. They contain icons of different social media websites and allow you to share the page directly on the social media channel of the customer’s choice. These buttons act as a non-pushy tool that encourages social sharing from your buyer personas.
You must be aware that savvy Internet users hate to search for obvious information. Every and all-important content should be displayed on the front and center so it’s unmissable. Cut to the chase by placing clearly defined categories of the products on the homepage of the site. Let’s say the site is about skincare products, the brand should categorize their products in order like moisturizers, serums, and vitamins.
In order for customers to fully understand what the store has to offer, the brand could create an engaging slideshow or display their best sellers on the homepage so that clients can come across basic and important information instantly. This could also be incorporated in the store with a subtle touch of animation.
Always give a thought to how long is the eCommerce website’s checkout process? Understand that visitors will probably not go through a complex process where they have to click a lot and they are redirected to a new page with a single click, forcing them to click through too many pages. This will not only annoy them but will also deter them from completing the process. In fact, a study conducted by Baymard found a long and complex checkout process was the third-most common reason for abandoned shopping carts.
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