16 Mistakes to Avoid while Designing and Developing an Ecommerce Website
Ecommerce means commercial transactions done electronically. Any business entity should electronically hold the attention of its customers, beyond the two seconds standard time. And not to forget customer retainer-ship. The ecommerce website design needs to be visually stunning portrait of a sticky site. Create ecommerce website, that inspires trust and inclusiveness. The buyer should feel a part of the community. Making after-sales user experience more fulfilling and facilitating further conversions, should be the goal of every e-retailer. Of course, unless you are an ecommerce giant like the Amazon, who is also big on after-sales conversions.
As per FireclickIndex, a global leader in web metrics and analytics states, in the recent years online global conversion rate was 4.2%. The figure has been cited in an article by Ameri Commerce, a B2B ecommerce agency. Drawing upon this statistic, let’s dive deeper into our understanding of how to bring out the best in ecommerce web design and web development.
Ecommerce Website Development
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- Know your CMS
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Getting the web design right and putting in place an interface that is sticky and attractive are the result of clarity of purpose and careful planning. To be able to do this, one must first buy a good Content Management Software (CMS). Make a short list of all the objectives you want to achieve during ecommerce website development via this CMS. Also list down all the components you would want to include in this website.
For starters, do a market survey of CMS options available in the market and what can best meet your requisites. Pick one that answers all the needs of your business website. “Remember that no CMS is the best for everyone” says Manan Ghadawala the founder of 21Twelve Interactive, a mobile app development company in India and USA. Even though both these, operate in the same industry, so don’t settle until you have the best match for your site. The CMS you use will determine the scale of the ecommerce website development.
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- Cost-cut where possible
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You may feel tempted to settle for a product which saves cost but that would be a quality compromise. In the bargain, critical factors such as SEO could get affected. Therefore, pick a CMS product that can be a long-term asset investment. Also factor-in the staff training cost. As you go on to create ecommerce website leaving loose ends for lower investments is not advisable. Your ecommerce web development will be at risk. Magento has good options where one can skilfully choose as per budget.
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- Complex checkout and shopping cart
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Next, as you proceed with your ecommerce website development, play close attention to the check-out page. This is the last place, where you can grab the customer before he exists. The attractiveness, the call to action placed here on this page will help in the final decision. Your conversions and sales depend on it.
A quick and easy checkout is a must, else you may lose a potential customer. Keep it simple, have an option of guest check out for buyers who don’t have the patience or time to create a new account. And if one selects the registration option, keep it to a single screen, if possible. A quantitative study of reasons for abandonment revealed that 28% of customers said the checkout process complicated and 37% abandoned the cart during checkout as they were asked to create an account. As mentioned in a written piece by Rakesh Jain, CEO and Co-founder of Mobicommerce, an ecommerce website and mobile app development company. You could lose your consumer to a complicated and confusing shopping cart as well. A smart move will support your ecommerce web development.
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- Multiple payment gateways
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As you create ecommerce website, look for a CMS with more than one payment methods. Different people will be using different kinds of payment methods. “What about the person who doesn’t have a credit card and wants to pay straight from their bank account?” You have to offer as many payment solutions as is practically possible. For instance, the CMS Magento is multilingual and multi currency, choosing will help you save a lot of business. As you go on with your ecommerce website development, this point should be well thought out.
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- Club products as per usage or similarity
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As with the physical shopping experience, create a design that facilitates a connected item sale, displayed on the same page. These days, there are sophisticated AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools to do this, but you can also do it manually with UI/UX. So, if it’s a laptop purchase the website must show related products such, as a laptop bag or a mouse. Purchase a CMS that will support this style of web design and web development.
Ecommerce Website Design
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- Excess information is a big NO!
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The website content has to be specific and bang on. Most of the time, you and your development team do little focus on user experience and more on SEO. But the result will be a haywire website. Do not overfeed information, else the customer might be confused or frustrated. Use your words wisely. How the overall information in various forms comes to play in the ecommerce website design considering other factors is very important. One of the major web design mistakes businesses tend to make.
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- Trust atmosphere
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Walk the talk. Create a website that speaks trust. Security is the foundation for trust. A coded connection will keep unauthorised access in check and keep sensitive information secure. Issue a message to say, “you care about your customer’s security”. All this comes for a nominal cost. Ingrain the trust quality into your ecommerce website design.
In case a third party is providing the web hosting services or IT support, demand the needed certificates from the vendor. In an article by Delightfully Designing they mention that back in 2017, Google had declared that any ecommerce website that requires a login must have a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate, else it will down its rankings. SSL is a standard security web technology that creates an encrypted link between the web’s server and browser. All data passing through it, remains guarded. Magento comes with the SSL certificate.
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- Shipping services
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The shipping service is a key factor in a ecommerce website design. It comes at a stage where the purchase will be finalised, you cannot afford to lose a prospect. Your ecommerce website design must weave in more than one shipping options. If one channel fails, due to unforeseen circumstances, the purchase can be completed. The shipping information listed down must be in a clear form. Wether it’s the pin code checker or the delivery options or the type of service. Convey it in the most uncomplicated manner.
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- Approachable customer service
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Precise customer service procedure and contact details is also a must. The buyer has to feel confident that if anything goes wrong in the quality, sales, payment or any department, there is someone on the other side to resolve the issue. A messy customer service procedure is one of the web design mistakes, which gives out a wrong message. Create ecommerce website with customer friendly vibes and elements.
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- Image quality
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Image quality is the essence of an ecommerce website design. Would you ever hang out on a website that displays low-resolution product images? Skullcandy’s website is the best example of excellent quality product pictures. The images, the design should pitch in with the big picture. Research says 64% of the buyers feel quality of the product image affects buying decision. If you check the website of Oakstreet Bookmakers, the American brand, you will how a product is to be presented. There are no additional diversions here and the product description provides all the information. Magento has excellent quality images. Any package you can choose to create ecommerce website, Magento will have great picture quality.
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- Visible contact details
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Display your company’s contact information in a clear and noticeable manner. That brings in authenticity. The consumer feels comfortable about putting in their credit card details on your site, says Cameron Chapman, a professional web and graphic designer. Keep this in mind when while you create ecommerce website for your business. Make it a top priority as while you work on your ecommerce website design.
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- Be loud with the word of mouth
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A review page helps draw business, as per a study done by Moz, a branding agency – ‘67% of online buyer decision is affected by reviews. This includes social media reviews on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. No prizes for guessing ‘shareability’ also impacts sales. In the modern world this is among web design mistakes you cannot afford to make.
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- Navigation usability
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An ecommerce website dealing in more than one business domains such as electronics, furniture and so on, should make sure that the site has excellent navigation capabilities. It must promise a no-frills, no-fuss shopping experience. Talking about Nordstrom, the international ecommerce shopping brand, it is very good at the filtering option. Your customer should immediately get what they are looking for. Bad navigation can affect traffic, search engine results and page rankings. Your site won’t appear on the first five-page of Google search. Create simple, user-friendly navigation. Use website analysis for help. Ecommerce website design will have no meaning without good navigation design.
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- Onsite search compatibility
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Consumers who use the site search feature give higher conversion. Many systems today do not perform this function well. Keep a check on yours and speak to your web developer to find solutions. Illustratively there are plug-in options available at a reasonable cost, to make a search easy. As per research first WebLinc, on-site searchers are 216% more likely to lead to purchase than the regular ones. Informs Neil Patel in his write up, How Site Search is Killing Your Conversion Rate (And How to Fix It). Create ecommerce website skillfully to integrate a good search ability.
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- Minimalistic Interface
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Make it minimal. Do not over feed your consumer with information. Do not overwhelm with design features either. A to-the-point, neat interface will give you a competitive edge. Web design and web development has to be used wisely here.
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- Have a mobile version of your ecommerce portal
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“Numerous studies and mobile ecommerce statistics indicate that mobile traffic became just as strong as desktop traffic in 2015,” says Justin Smith, CEO of Outer Box, a firm that provides web designing, ecommerce and SEO service. Statistics indicate that buyers usually research a product on their handheld device. Indeed, 57% consumers will not recommend your business if the mobile version is not up to the mark, and worse, 40% will jump to the competition’s mobile app. Ecommerce webd evelopment is not complete without a mobile app.
Magento possess security, scalability, SEO, speed, clarity, amazing payment gateways, quality images and more at an affordable rate. In today’s scenario any ecommerce website development will find a best companion in Magento. Bearing all these factors discussed above, the not converted 95.8% potential customers apart from minimum 4.2% conversion, studied by the internationally recognized, FireclickIndex can now be converted. Go gun for them.
