In today’s guide, we will discuss 10 eCommerce website design best practices that will help boost your sales.
These tips include optimizing your website for search engines, making your website mobile-friendly, and creating a user-friendly checkout process.
By following these best practices, you can create a successful online store that generates sales and drives revenue.
1. Layout: keep it simple
An eCommerce website’s layout is important because it can impact a customer’s buying decision.
A simple layout is the best way to keep the customer focused on the products. Here are some tips on how to keep the layout of your eCommerce website simple:
- Use a single column for your product listings. This will help the customer scan through the products easily.
- Include search and filter options so that customers can quickly find what they’re looking for.
- Use clear and concise product descriptions. Avoid using too much text on each page.
- Use high-quality images to showcase your products. Make sure that the images are clear and easy to see.
- Keep the overall design of your website clean and uncluttered. Avoid using too many colors or fonts on each page.
2. Design: use white space
Related to layout, incorporating white space is key.
By using white space, you can create a clean and modern look that is both aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.
Plus, with less clutter on the page, shoppers are more likely to focus on your products.
So how do you go about using white space in your design?
First, take a look at your overall layout. Is everything evenly spaced out? Are there any areas that feel cramped or crowded?
If so, try to spread things out a bit and give each element some breathing room.
In addition, think about how you can use whitespace to highlight important parts of your page.
For example, you might want to place your main call-to-action buttons against a white background to make them stand out.
Or, you could use whitespace to create visual interest and contrast on your product pages.
Finally, don’t forget about the power of negative space. This is the empty area around your content that can actually be used to draw attention to specific elements.
So if there’s something you really want shoppers to notice, consider framing it with some well-placed whitespace.
Example: Bonobos
Bonobos is a men’s clothing retailer that does an excellent job of incorporating white space into its design.
As you can see, the homepage has a very clean and modern look with plenty of breathing room around each element.
This makes it easy to navigate and helps shoppers focus on the products.
Plus, by using whitespace to highlight certain areas (like the main call-to-action buttons), Bonobos creates a more visually appealing page overall.
3. Product Images: high-quality photos
When it comes to product images, high quality should be a top priority for any online store.
There are a few reasons for this.
First, poor-quality images can make products look cheap and unappealing, which can discourage customers from making a purchase.
Second, if a customer does decide to purchase an item, they may be disappointed when they receive it if it doesn’t match the image they saw online.
To avoid these issues, it is important to use high-quality images when designing an online store. This means using professional photography or hiring a graphic designer to create custom images.
It is also important to use high-resolution images so that they look clear and sharp on all devices.
By taking the time to ensure your product images are of the highest quality, you’ll be more likely to attract and retain customers.
4. Calls to Action: clear and visible
Yes, CTAs are crucial to increasing conversions in your online store.
By making sure that your CTAs are prominently displayed on your website, visitors will be more likely to take the desired action.
Some tips for making sure your CTAs are clear and visible include:
- Using contrasting colors
- Placing them above the fold, and
- Using action-oriented language.
Additionally, make sure that your CTAs are mobile-friendly so that visitors can easily click on them no matter what device they are using.
By implementing these simple tips, you can be sure that your online store is designed in a way that will encourage visitors to take the desired action.
Example: Warby Parker
In the example above, you can see how Warby Parker uses clear and visible CTAs throughout its website.
The “Shop Now” button on the homepage is prominently displayed in a contrasting color which makes it easy to spot.
Plus, since it is placed near the top of the page, visitors will be able to see it even if they don’t scroll down.
Additionally, other pages on the site also use clear and visible CTAs so that shoppers always know what they should do next.
5. User Experience: easy and enjoyable
Just like CTAs, user experience is key when designing eCommerce websites.
How can you make sure your store is easy and enjoyable to use?
There are a few things you can do to make sure your store has a great user experience.
First, keep the design simple and clean. Too much clutter will make it hard for users to find what they’re looking for.
Second, make sure the navigation is easy to understand. Users should be able to find what they need with ease.
Lastly, provide helpful customer support in case users run into any problems.
Example: Everlane
Everlane is an online clothing retailer with a focus on providing a great user experience.
First, the design is clean and modern which makes it easy to navigate.
There’s also plenty of whitespaces so that users don’t feel overwhelmed by too much information at once. Additionally, the navigation is straightforward and easy to understand.
Plus, if users have any questions or need help, they can easily contact customer support.
All of these factors come together to create a store that provides an enjoyable and hassle-free shopping experience for all visitors.
6. Navigation: easy to understand
We’ve already touched on this. The navigation should be simple and intuitive so that users can easily find what they are looking for.
To make navigation easy to understand when designing an eCommerce site, start by thinking about what your users will want to do on your site.
What are the key tasks that they’ll need to complete?
- Make sure that your navigation options are intuitive and clearly labeled so that users can find their way around your site with ease.
- Pay attention to the flow of your site and think about how users will move from one page to the next.
- Consider using breadcrumbs or other visual cues to help users keep track of their location within your site.
- Test your navigation with real users and make changes based on their feedback.
Remember that simplicity is key when it comes to navigation – don’t try to cram too much into one page or menu.
7. Search Functionality: fast and effective
This is a deal breaker.
Adding a fast and effective search functionality to your online store can be the difference between a successful website and one that struggles.
You see, Search is how customers find the products they are looking for on your site, so it is important to make sure it is fast and accurate.
That said, there are a few things you can do to ensure your site’s search functionality is up to par.
First, use keyword research to determine which terms your customers are using to search for products like yours.
Include these keywords in the titles and descriptions of your products so that they come up when people search for them.
Secondly, make sure your search results are relevant by grouping together similar products and filtering out those that don’t match the customer’s query.
Finally, provide additional resources such as product reviews and customer testimonials to help shoppers make informed decisions about what they want to buy.
8. Mobile Optimization: must have
This eCommerce website design best practice ties to working towards a better user experience.
Mobile optimization is the process of making sure that your eCommerce site design is well suited for mobile devices. This can involve anything from ensuring that your site loads quickly on mobile devices to making sure that your checkout process is easy to use on a smaller screen.
This may sound like a daunting task, but there are a few things you can do to make sure that your eCommerce site design is optimized for mobile devices.
First, you want to make sure that your site loads quickly on mobile devices. Second, you want to make sure that your checkout process is easy to use on a smaller screen.
Also, make sure that you have a responsive design so that your site looks good on all device sizes.
You can use mobile testing tools to test how your site loads on different devices and make sure that everything is working properly.
To help you out, you can also use our responsive design templates to create a mobile-friendly eCommerce site design.
9. Security: SSL certificate
As much as you want the eCommerce design to respond to a variety of screen sizes, you need to keep it secure as well. That’s where an SSL certificate comes in.
An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates the identity of a website and encrypts information sent to the server using SSL technology.
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, which is a protocol that provides communication security over the Internet. And SSL certificates are used by millions of websites to protect online transactions and confidential information.
An SSL certificate is a must-have for an online store because it encrypts sensitive information such as credit card numbers and customer data. This protects customers from identity theft and fraud.
In addition, an SSL certificate builds trust with customers and helps to ensure that they will return to your site in the future.
If you are running an online store, it is important to invest in an SSL certificate so that you can provide the highest level of security for your customers.
10. Speed: the site must be fast
How fast should a website load?
It is ideal for your website to load within three seconds or two seconds if it is an eCommerce site. The turning point for bounce rates skyrocketing is the two-to-three second mark – in fact, 40% of consumers will wait no more than three seconds before abandoning a site.
And that explains why a fast-loading website is crucial for an online store.
That said, here are a few tips to make sure your store loads quickly:
- Use a content delivery network (CDN) to deliver your content. A CDN can help to improve performance by distributing the load across multiple servers.
- Optimize your images. Large images can take a long time to load, so make sure they are as small as possible without sacrificing quality.
- Minimize HTTP requests. Every time a browser sends an HTTP request, there is some overhead associated with it. So, reducing the number of requests can help to speed up your site.
- Use caching to reduce the amount of work that needs to be done on each page load. By caching pages and resources, you can avoid having to retrieve them from the server on each visit.
- Use a modern web server that is designed for performance. Some examples include Nginx and Lighttpd.
- Make sure your code is clean and well-organized. This can help to make it more efficient and easier for the server to process.
Page load statistics from Google Analytics can give you insight into how well your store is performing. If you see a high bounce rate or low average time on a page, it could be an indication that your site is not loading quickly enough.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, following these 10 eCommerce website design best practices will help to boost your sales.
Remember to keep your site user-friendly, visually appealing, and easy to navigate. Incorporate high-quality product photos and videos, as well as customer testimonials.
Use engaging CTAs and make the checkout process simple.
Lastly, ensure your site is mobile-friendly and secure.
By following these best practices, you can create a successful eCommerce website that will drive sales and grow your business.