How to build a winning website design for your online store: Drive traffic to your business and increase your sales!

Your website is the equivalent of a brick-and-mortar shop front - first impressions are everything. The more customers (traffic) your website design attracts, the higher your sales.

Think about shopping in person at your local shopping centre or mall. When you approach a new store for the first time, would you stick around for long if there were boxes everywhere blocking your path?  If there was inches of dust in the window display, and cobwebs around, would you be willing to stay?  

How about if you have a question or want to try something on - what if there was no sales assistant there to help you?

We need to consider the user experience of our website visitors the same way you would if they were visiting you in real life.  That is, you need to make a great first impression and help guide them through your store in order to make a sale.

Now obviously we can’t do that as easily online, however there are 10 crucial elements that will help you do that online in order to scale your business to a million dollar a year eCommerce store like mine, iland co.

Ok let me share with you exactly what these are:

• Strong homepage - know what it is you do/offer above the fold
  
  

Your homepage is the very first impression you visitors usually get.  It needs to be clear within just a few seconds what it is you do, and who you serve.  Ideally this will be obvious ‘above the fold’ without browsers having to scroll down too far to discover whether they are in the right place.

Aside from the first glimpse of what visitors see, the homepage should also be appealing and attractive to encourage visitors to click through to another page.  You can do this via banners or lifestyle images highlighting best sellers, new arrivals or other points of interest.

• Social Proof - reviews / as seen in
  
  

Your website design should include elements that install trust for your visitors.  Many people have heard about online scams and are still scared about being ripped off online.  Plus most website visitors will be on your site for the very first time and probably have never heard of you before, so it’s your job to reassure them that you are a real life, legitimate business that won’t take their money and run.

You can do this via displaying reviews from previous customers, through badges showing telling your visitors that your site and payment methods are secure.  You can also have a section highlighting ‘as seen in’ showing any media outlets or magazines you have been featured in.  All of these things contribute to the ‘know, like and trust’ factor that customers need to feel confident to make a purchase from you.

• Easy navigation
  
  

It goes without saying that your website design needs to be easy to navigate.  Having confusing menus, pop out menus that aren’t fully visible or easily clickable will contribute to a high bounce rate and losing customers very quickly.

Think about your customers shopping journey with you and map out the logical steps or ‘clicks’ they will need to take in order to purchase from you easily.  Test the checkout process yourself on different devices and even enlist family or friends to help you too and provide feedback on the experience.  Issue them 100% off gift cards to make a transaction and then cancel it.  It’s important that customers can actually buy from you after all.

• Killer product pages - inc. photos, descriptions, size guides, fabrication
  
  

Online shoppers only have a limited number of things they can consider before making a purchase from you, seeing as they can’t touch, feel or try on your products.  YOu need to ensure all of the relevant information is available to them including detailed product descriptions, high quality imagery including close ups of the fabric and size guides.   Without all of the information your customers won’t have any objections answered or worse, they will purchase and be disappointed with what they receive and ask for a refund. 

• FOMO apps - just purchased
  
  

We’ve all heard of FOMO right, in fear of missing out definitely applies to online shopping too.  Scarcity creates urgency as does seeing what others are buying.  Take a look at the host of Shopify apps available that help create scarcity by showing stock is limited or what other people have just bought.

• Quality imagery and videos
  
  

High quality product photos and videos are crucial to increasing your conversion rates.  Customers appreciate and expect videos now too, so be sure to add this to your shoot list at your next photoshoot.   

Remember for fashion items at a minimum you need a front, back and sides and a close up of the garment.  Ideally you can also show the garments on a range of different sized models too in order to answer those ‘will this look good on me’ questions.

• Up to date links for contact and social media etc.
  
  

How can customers get in contact with you if they have a question? You want to be sure customers can easily find a ‘contact us’ link, email or phone number so that can reach out to you.

Also make sure any links to your social media accounts are working and that when they click through your accounts are active and up to date.  There’s nothing worse than landing on a business IG account to discover they haven’t posted for a month or longer… this won’t install confidence or trust with your customer and might give the impression that you have closed your business!

• Mobile friendly
  
  

Around 80% of your website visitors will be browsing your website design via their mobile phone so it’s critical that you ensure your website design is fully optimised for different sized screens and devices.  Aren’t sure? Pull out your phone, laptop or tablet, and check for yourself that your site is still not only fully functional but easy to use and makes for a good shopping experience.  Remember to also test the full check out experience incase there are any issues that might be stopping people from finishing their purchases. 

• Lots of payment options
  
  

What payment options do you have on your website? Credit card plus Paypal? Many people are too lazy (myself included) to finish a purchase if i’m on my phone in the lounge room and there’s no paypal option which would force me to walk upstairs, get out my purse and credit card and come back downstairs to finish the transaction.  Instead I would close the site and think I will do it later when I’m upstairs on in front of the computer next  - I rarely do though!  Make it easy for your customer to give you their money!

• Opt in box
  
  

Most ecommerce business owners understand that we are in a numbers game and that most visitors wont purchase on the visit, but rather will come back a few times before they are ready to buy.

This means we need to encourage and remind visitors to come back again and one of the best ways to do this is via email marketing.  Be sure to have an option for your visitors to give you their email address so you can then send them marketing emails inviting them back.   

Ideally you would incentivize visitors in some way to hand over their emails with the promise of a small discount, gift or downloadable freebie.  This will increase the rate of subscribers you get and therefore increase your chances of conversions with each email you send out.