Every e-commerce website's principal goal is to sell products.
Attracting a large number of visitors, converting them into customers, and converting first-time purchasers into future customers are all part of the process. Businesses spend a tremendous amount of time, energy, and money on internet marketing and other forms of promotion to get customers to their online stores.
Online retailers are furiously battling for every consumer they can obtain, and they are all attempting to win. Given the high stakes involved, making mistakes in website design might be both costly and unpleasant.
Here are some common web design blunders that eCommerce websites should avoid.
1. Lack of design consistency
Users who are familiar with the product, know how to use the website, and have successfully completed their previous product purchases on the same platform, will be annoyed and frustrated by the differences.
This is not just about the colours you use but also about the entire website. The design, navigation, and functionality should be consistent and intuitive. Customers should be able to navigate through the website without a problem.
The website design should work from the mobile app to the desktop one, and make the user feel like they are using the same platform.
2. Putting Too Many Competing Elements
Consistency is a recurring feature in all of these recommendations. That starts with the highest-level design decisions you make when deciding on the appearance and style representing your business. When rookie designers are introduced to their toolkit's complete treasure chest of options—such as stock pictures and graphics, bespoke fonts, or fancy buttons and icons—natural it's for them to want to pick out everything that looks good and slap it all together on the same page. This, on the other hand, is a prescription for disaster. Choose a style and stick to it, looking for other companies for inspiration if necessary.
3. Adding Photos That Do Not Match Your Color Scheme
Colour has a powerful influence on consumers, more so than any other element in an eCommerce design.
One of the best ways to get a sense of the colour psychology of your market is to examine the most popular product pages in your sector to see how they are using colour. Look at your top competitors' websites and analyse their colour schemes, or even get in touch with companies you admire and ask them which colours they use and why.
This will naturally be a bit of a hit-and-miss approach at first, but it is a great way to get some ideas for using colour to your advantage.
4. Lack of Mobile Optimisation
Mobile eCommerce website design has been a major concern for many web designers and eCommerce entrepreneurs for a long time.
Mobile-optimised websites are a big deal to your customers and, therefore, to you.
Studies have shown that almost 50% of all website traffic comes from mobile search, and that percentage is steadily growing.
If you don't have a mobile-optimised site, you are missing out on a huge portion of your potential sales.
5. Using Low-Quality Product Images
Customers will not buy your items based just on word of mouth. You'll need something that will spark and hold their interest. This is where product photos might be useful.
The issue with most e-commerce business owners is that they consider product photographs to be an afterthought. As a result, the images are of poor quality.
Fortunately, there are certain things you can do to improve your e-commerce product photography:
Make use of high-resolution photos.
Maintain consistency.
Provide a 360-degree perspective of the product.
Make use of suitable lighting.
Have the proper tools.
Incorporate props.
Conclusion
How you design the look and feel of your eCommerce website will determine your success in the long run. Take your time but not too much time to ensure that your web design is effective enough to get you all the traffic and conversions you are looking for.
It is best to seek professional advice when designing a website to be guided through the process.
Suppose you're convinced about the merits of mobile-first web design. In that case, head on over to Online Designs UK! We're your one-stop-shop local web designer. We can talk about things over a coffee, or you can get an online quote immediately. Get in touch with us today at hello@onlinedesigns.uk!