With the rising popularity of online shopping, your website needs to be ready for increased traffic if you sell products online. You already know that website design is an important part of your overall marketing strategy. However, it can also contribute to your sales.

Here are the 9 best eCommerce web design tips:

1. Declutter Your Site

Online shoppers have short attention spans. A cluttered website will not hold it. If it is difficult to find the calls-to-action, promotions, sales, shopping cart, or products, shoppers will leave your site for a simpler one.

Clean, simple designs tend to convert sales better. When it comes to eCommerce web design, less is more. Go through your website as a consumer would. From there, you can remove unnecessary content and declutter your site for a more user-friendly experience.

2. Search & Filter

If you sell hundreds of products on your site, a search feature allows consumers to find exactly what they want faster and easier. Start by adding a search bar on each page. That way, customers will be able to search anywhere on your site.

You may also add filters to allow customers to narrow the product selection based on different options or parameters. For example, filtering search results to include only items under a certain price.

3. Make Navigation Easy

Along with elements of your online store like products and promotions being easy to find, online shoppers need to be able to easily navigate through your website. Certain features like menus, sitemaps, clickable navigation buttons, and clear calls-to-action improve your website’s navigation.

4. Go Through Checkout

Your customer has made their selection. Now, it’s time for them to checkout. Many consumers abandon a shopping cart during checkout if the process is too long and complicated.

That is why you should make the checkout process as easy as possible. Using progress indicators for checkout can help you to do this as customers see where in the process they are, making them more likely to proceed to purchase.

5. Provide Payment Options

Along with major credit cards, you need to accept payment options like PayPal. To take the largest variety of payment methods possible, consider utilizing programs like Stripe or Square.

Many consumers use these options as they tend to be more secure than traditional credit cards. Providing multiple payment options shows your customers you care about their security, which makes them feel safer shopping with you.

6. Communicate with Customers

We live in a connected world. Customers need to know that they can come to you with questions or concerns, even online. Along with including your contact information like your phone number and address, you should have other methods customers can use to reach you. For example, online chat allows you to communicate directly with customers on your site.

Also, linking to your social media opens the door to more communication with customers. Along with chats through direct messaging, customers can leave reviews on your social media profiles. You can also respond to their comments on your pages, building a more positive relationship with them. Another method of communication is including contact forms on the site, which can go directly to your email address so you can respond quickly.

7. Go Mobile

Globally, 3.5 billion people, half of the world’s population, own smartphones. Of these, many use their phones to shop online. To take your mobile strategy to the next level and increase conversions, you should build a responsive eCommerce website.

How do you know if your eCommerce site is mobile-friendly?

First, check your site with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool, to discover any usability issues. Then, take advantage of features like navigation through mobile menus, easy-to-access carts, large buttons, one-page checkout, and digital wallets.

8. Increase Your Speed

You only have one chance to make a good first impression. Because website visitors have short attention spans, this is especially true in eCommerce. If a website starts to take more than three seconds to load, customers are more likely to leave your site and abandon their carts.

To improve your site’s speed, you might compress images and remove plugins you don’t actually use. Then, make sure your eCommerce website has a proper load speed by testing it with Google’s PageSpeed Insights. From there, you can make any suggested changes to improve your site’s speed.

9. Consider Your SEO

Before you can make any sales, you need to be found online. The primary way that this happens is through search engines. That is why your search engine optimization (SEO) matters.

Any good SEO strategy starts with using relevant keywords for the product you sell. From there, optimize your URLs, meta descriptions, page titles, and headings. As long as you keep this information up to date, you should be able to appear in relevant search results.

Need Help with Your eCommerce Website?

It may seem overwhelming, but eCommerce web design doesn’t have to be. If you need help designing your online store, contact Links Web Design for a free consultation. We’d be happy to discuss your options with you and build you the perfect eCommerce site.

Links Web Design is a Content Marketing Agency in Bangor, ME, and Fruitland Park, FL.