Online stores represent nearly half of existing commercial businesses in this world. Today, the internet is the way to reach an endless number of customers, so it’s pretty easy to understand why all business owners in the commercial field tend to focus more on their online store than on their local-based shop. So you don’t run a local shop? Stay tuned, as what we are about to tell you applies to any other business as well. Local real estate, insurance broker or designer. Many companies with a local representation forget their online presence. This strategic miss can be costly!
So, If you run a commercial activity, local business or home office and you don’t have an online website, then it’s time for you to re-think your professional role in the online commercial field: make your online store or website by creating an effective landing page for your brand and once you get it live your sales opportunities will increase day after day.
Why It’s Time To Build Your Online Presence!
Online stores, or even just a landing page, are powerful sales opportunities, due to the larger pool of potential online customers – think back to the last time you bought something online, you were probably buying from an overseas seller or doing some online research before your purchase!
And you were possibly buying through an e-commerce platform, for example, eBay or Amazon, or did your reading on a particular website. Did you think about what brought you to choose that particular platform? Without a doubt, you aren’t aware that the web design of that site attracted your attention and suggested to you that it was a safe and good environment where to buy items from or to trust their opinion.
That’s basically what happens when someone visits an online e-commerce platform – the overall design of the site works as a lure on the visitors’ eyes. In fact, when an e-commerce website has a good design, it doesn’t demand too much attention, which means that the customer’s attention is led to other things (item to buy, payment form, others).
This Is What Makes a Website Great!
So, if you want to know how you can improve, or build, your own website, just consider the importance of web design along with the following features – and again, this applies to all types of businesses, not only e-commerce:
• Simple Navigation: Make sure to organize all the items in your website in a clean and simple way. Customers are regular people who don’t like complicated stuff, they would feel disoriented and lost in the middle of too many items, popup windows or unnecessary elements. So, before to launch your new online store, review the website design and cutoff all useless elements. Simplification is the key!
• Understand Your Customers: Visitors to websites, and customers, in general, do often behave instinctively. In other words, they tend to follow their own feelings when they see something new. Your goal should be to understand what your customer really wants when they come to your site in order to create a positive feeling from the first second. Fail to do so and your new visitor will leave before you count to 10. There are many different aspects that fall into this topic, everything from search intent to visual impressions. You might think understanding your customer in terms of how to build your website, is a weird goal but there is a lot to it. Understanding if your visitor is looking for a sense of thrills, of emotions and excitement, or will want a calm background and few visual impressions, is vital for choosing the right graphic designs.
• Listen to Experts: Web design experts warn about some of the most common mistakes in ecommerce/website design. Information overload is actually one of the most common mistakes that cause the customers to want to go away from a site soon after landing. People don’t want to waste time to read and view information over information… IF they are there because they want to buy something specific. Right now. No need to show off too many things! Too much is never too good! Except for the exceptions below.
• Adjust When Needed: People sometimes need information and want to read a really good product review before their purchase, or make sure the website or business they are about to sign up with is in fact trustworthy. In some industries those reviews are very important especially when safety is involved. Imagine choosing a financial institute for your mortgage or being a punter quickly placing a bet online, just to find out they were not professionals or not even licensed, and you lost all of your money. There are many more examples, the most important one being health and medical but the point here is to understand what your customers need.
• Know Your Competitors: In today’s commercial field, you won’t miss the presence of uncountable competitors. It’s actually an emergent field where everyone who has a local-based shop wants to play their role. Get ready to deal with competitors at any time. Now, be aware that’s a good thing for you: you can “take advantage” of your competitors and see what makes them be strong. Study their website, analyze their commercial strategy and then come up with precious lessons that can boost your business and take you to the next level!
• Get Professional Help: Senior designers can produce better web design projects, which is a top fundamental thing to consider when you hire an expert professional for your online store website. In fact, younger designers tend to focus on one specific feature, while experienced designers have a larger view and can work on multiple features at a time.
And Don’t Forget Personality & Business Brand
If you want to go deeper in the web design techniques, consider that personality and uniqueness are two main elements that work to make your website really attractive. People love unique brands that don’t fear to set up their personality!
