Web design is the key to the best customer experience. It especially becomes unavoidable to design a user-friendly website when increasing e-commerce conversions is your ultimate objective. There are numerous e-commerce store design tricks that you can follow to increase e-commerce sales and conversions.
Many businesses think that they only need to have a Shopify store where they can list their products and start selling.
But, online selling is a lot more than just setting up an e-commerce store and listing products.
In this article, we've put together some of the most proven e-commerce store design hacks to help your e-commerce store convert your website visitors into long-term buyers.
1. Mobile Responsive Design
Did you know more than 12 billion people worldwide use the internet from their mobile phones? Although mobile responsiveness is such a crucial factor, many Shopify stores are still not mobile-friendly.
Mobile responsiveness means choosing the web design that works equally well on your desktop and smartphone.
As a Shopify store owner, your priority should be to choose an effective e-commerce web design that your customers can use on their desktops and mobile phones for a complete user experience.
2. SSL Certificate
SSL, also known as a secure socket layer, is the soul of your website structure. Its purpose is to shield your sensitive information as it travels across the web.
In other words, an SSL certificate adds that additional security layer to your site structure that only enables your targeted server to read information sent from your device.
In addition to encryption, an SSL certificate also provides authentication. With authentication, you can make sure that the information you're sending to the server is traveling toward the right recipient and not to a trickster trying to steal your sensitive information.
Google has also included an SSL certificate in its list of requirements in 2018. For an e-commerce store, it is particularly important because customers only want to share their credit card or bank info with the platforms that hold SSL certificates.
3. Colour Palette
Another effective e-commerce store design trick to boost e-commerce conversion is to use the right color palette.
If you have already chosen colors for your brand while creating a logo, make sure your entire website remains consistent with those color combinations.
As a general rule, you must not stick to the same colors. Instead, you can choose complementary colors that can perfectly go along with your Shopify theme.
For instance, if you've chosen blue for the branding, you can choose cooler colors for the rest of your website.
The nature of your brand and the product range you offer also plays a crucial role. Just take a simple example here. If you're a fashion designer company, the colors on your website should reflect bold and bright fashion-driven colors.
Apart from that, you must also pay attention to the meaning each color conveys. For instance, yellow symbolizes joy and happiness, Green represents freshness, and you can use red if you offer something that relates to strength or passion.
4. Simple Navigation
The next most critical e-commerce store design trick to increase e-commerce sales is to have simple and user-friendly navigation on your website.
No matter how beautiful and functional your product range is, nobody is going to buy anything if they cannot easily find it first.
So, you need to have a simple and easy-to-navigate website that does not confuse your website visitors and impact their buying decisions.
Your website visitors should be able to decide where they need to go by just having a single glance.
According to KoMarketing, 50% of referral traffic is going to use the navigation menu available on your website, while the other 50% will use the search box option and call-to-action (CTAs) available on your web pages to find their desired information.
To increase your e-commerce sales and convert 50% of potential customers who are using your navigation menu, you must break down your product range into categories and subcategories for stress-free navigation.
Increasing your e-commerce sales by designing navigation that enables buyers to find what they’re looking for is a result-driven e-commerce store design hack.
5. Prominent Contact Info
We all know how important it is to have a 'Contact Us' page on our websites. In fact, it is one of the standard pages we see almost in every Shopify store.
Unfortunately, many e-commerce stores fail to leverage the power of this important tab just because it is not prominently visible on their website.
The placement of the Contact Us page is critical as it enables potential customers to have their questions answered before or during the buying process.
Provide your website visitors choices by including phone number, email id, and a contact form that site visitors can use to ask questions.
6. High-Quality Product Images
One of the biggest challenges for e-commerce store owners is to make the most out of their computer screens to communicate the benefits and features of their products.
Since you cannot provide a tactile buying experience in which a buyer can touch your product, you have to depict the benefits using high-quality images.
You must have heard a lot about using images and videos to boost e-commerce conversion. But did you know you can't achieve your desired results unless you use the right types of pictures?
Here are a few things you should consider before you choose images for your Shopify store.
Image Size
The image size you select for your products should reflect the types of products you have on your website.
You can also conduct some A/B tests to determine the right size of images you can use for your e-commerce store.
Image Quality
If you're looking to increase e-commerce sales for your Shopify store, you must never settle for blurry or low-quality product images.
Make sure each image listed on your website is HD quality and captured using the latest equipment. You need to set up an ecommerce photography studio for this, but your equipment doesn't have to be so expensive. Don't forget to optimize images before you post them on your website.
Use A-Zoom Feature
Another brilliant e-commerce design trick is to use a zoom function for your images. This will help you show the details and texture of your products.
Display Product Images From Different Angles
Display your products from different angles to show high levels of detail. You can also use 3D dynamic image technology that will allow your customers to rotate the image and check its dimensions from each side.
Avoid Run-Of-The-Mill Stock Images
Using run-of-the-mill stock images can erode the customer's trust. To build trust and boost e-commerce conversion, you have to ensure that each image posted on your store is original and high-quality.
7. Short And Informative Videos
According to research, 93% of marketers use videos to boost e-commerce sales and conversions.
What videos do is build excitement, trigger interest, and build trust when you embed them on your landing page. You can also add informative tutorials and How-to videos on product pages to draw attention.
The length of your videos also plays an important role. According to Wistia, videos up to 2 minutes long get the most engagement.
All in all, video is a powerful medium that you can use to increase e-commerce sales. Check out our ecommerce video marketing guide for more details.
8. Prominent Shipping & Return Policies
Buyers are most interested in knowing about the return and refund options the store offers that they can refer to if they do not like the product or get the wrong size.
Just ensure your return and refund policy is prominently listed on the header or footer section of your Home page so that buyers can access them without any difficulty.
9. GDPR Compliance
No problem if you're doing business from outside the EU country. However, you'll have to comply with the recent GDPR policies if you're located in the EU country.
10. Privacy Policy
Next on our list of the most effective e-commerce design tricks is having a prominently visible privacy policy on your website. When it comes to increasing e-commerce sales for your Shopify store, it is crucial to understand that the trust factor is foremost.
Remember, you're asking your customers to share their confidential information such as bank details, credit card numbers, etc. In exchange, you must provide them with easy access to your well-curated privacy policy so that they can trust your brand and feel no hesitation in buying from your website.
11. Highlight Your Free Shipping Offer
A free delivery option has been a proven way to increase e-commerce sales. Apart from that, it also improves an average order value and helps build a loyal customer base.
You can use various design elements on your website to market your Free Shipping Offer.
Read our guide on "The Ultimate Guide On How To Use Free Shipping For Ecommerce Success" to know how you can use free shipping for more conversions and turn them into eCommerce success.
12. Make Your Search Box More Visible
The next e-commerce store design trick you can follow to boost e-commerce conversions is making the search function more visible.
Even if you have the best products in the world, you cannot sell them to the right customers if they don't find them on your website.
Your website visitors are more likely to complete the checkout process if they find their required products.
For the majority of customers, the shopping process starts by entering a keyword in the search box available on your website. So, make sure this option is visible on your homepage.
You can also incorporate a filtering feature to help your customers with a sorting process.
13. Display Social Proofs
According to research, customers prefer buying from an e-commerce website that includes customer reviews as their website design element.
You may also categorize ratings based on different factors. For example, if you own a clothing brand, you can publish a rating based on design, comfort, and quality.
14. Simple Checkout Process
No matter how wonderful your product range is, all of your selling efforts will go down the drain if your store loses a customer at a checkout point.
According to SleekNote, the average cart abandonment rate across different industries is over 69.57%.
As an e-commerce store owner, your ultimate objective should be to promote complete transactions. The checkout process should be as simple as possible.
Instead of having your customers make a new account, you should consider offering a guest checkout option.
Forcing your customers to make an account from scratch just to make a purchase could be a major turnoff. Remember, the more simple your checkout process is, the more likely they're to convert.
15. Add A Value-driven Blogs Section
One of the most effective yet often neglected e-commerce tricks is adding relevant and informative product guides and tutorials to your Shopify store. For this, you need to have a dedicated blog section where you can post comprehensive buyer's guides and how-to articles.
Here, it is important to understand that e-commerce sales material and content are different from other content you see on an everyday basis. These buyer's guides and tutorials are designed to help customers make their buying decision.
Established Shopify stores can even use these guides to recommend relevant cross-selling products.
Why Do You Need To Invest In Effective E-Commerce Design Tricks?
Potential Buyers Always Prefer A Well-Designed Website
One of the studies conducted by Adobe reveals that customers would like to spend time on websites that offer maximum customer experience. This can be achieved by adding the must-have ecommerce website features.
An effective e-commerce store design is a foolproof way to generate sales and increase traffic.
Effective E-Commerce Web Design Builds Trust
Online buyers need some sort of indication that they're dealing with a credible business. When you invest your time, money, and effort into your website design, it becomes easier for your customers to trust your brand. This eventually results in more sales and conversions for your e-commerce store.
A Well-Designed E-Commerce Store Reduces Load Time
Last but not least, a well-designed e-commerce store with a simple and consistent navigation menu significantly reduces the load speed of your website.
By optimizing your website design, you offer a better customer experience to your website visitors. Needless to say, you get a noticeable influx of referral traffic when you already have a list of positive reviews and recommendations on your website.
Trisha Ballesteros