subject: Design Tactics For Ecommerce Web Design [print this page] Online trading has quite become quite popular these days. There is no denying the fact that ecommerce has reached the doorstep of billions of people worldwide. Be it businessmen, working women, housewives or marketers, most people are making purchases online these days. Ecommerce definitely helps people by making their life better and easier. People prefer online shopping to save time, cross geographical boundaries and shop smartly.
Having such significance, there are millions of Ecommerce sites present on the Web. Each of the sites use different strategies to attract online shoppers. There is a competitive race going on in the ecommerce market to hook online visitors. For your ecommerce site to be successful and stand out from the crowd, your site must be 'unique' and effective in terms of design.
Here are some simple design tactics for an effective ecommerce Web design:
Theme and User Interface
Deliver a rich shopping experience to your virtual shoppers by imparting an elegant user interface in your ecommerce website. Make use of a good appealing theme with pleasant colors to showcase the products on your online store. Try using user-friendly elements that take less time to load on the Web. Place adequate images and control buttons for your products and descriptions. Use appropriate icons at the right place in your ecommerce store to convey the right messages about your services.
Navigational Design
Navigational menus are one of the prominent factors to keep customers coming back to your site. Keep the navigation very simple and basic throughout your site. Even a layman who doesn't know much about systems must be able to navigate easily and shop with less effort. Make sure that the pages are linked properly with each other. Provide possible links to the home page for quick navigation. Use fly-out menus to avoid displaying your menu items in a cluttered manner.
Quick Search Provision
For an ecommerce website, a search box is an inevitable option to help users access diverse products on your site. Many people prefer searching the required product directly rather than going through various menu items. In order to help people search quickly with less effort, you can include a search box with the 'autocomplete' feature. This feature displays the closest match once the user starts typing in the keywords. This would save a lot of time for the user while searching for a specific product on your site.
Number of Clicks
Customers who visit your ecommerce site must find it easy to reach 'Buy' within few clicks. Make sure that the path between the 'Products' and the 'Shopping Cart' page is not very long. Users may get frustrated if they are taken to many pages during the process.
Product Pricing
Pricing is one of the important factors that users consider before they buy any product. Hence, the price details for all products must be legible and visible to users. Ensure to include price tags along with the products in the same page. If the users are taken to a new page for viewing the price details, they may not wait for long and may skip the purchase. Discounts and special offers for products must also be shown along with the products on the same screen.
Apart from these features, you have to include a detailed description of all the products you sell. Include sufficient images of the products too. Also display the status of the products, if it is available at the moment or when it would be, how long will it take for shipping etc. In short, make a good display of the products with genuine details to make customers shop for products on your ecommerce store.
