8 March 2016

Web Design

Measuring the Quality of Ecommerce Web Design

It is believed by some that you must have a beautifully designed and visually stimulating page in order to keep up with the competition. However, it is argued by many that the measurement of an ecommerce website’s success is not in beauty but rather in the amount of conversions it makes through a well-functioning UI.

Many businesses that have found significant success in the ecommerce world have become so through prioritising content over a beautifully designed site that over-functions and then building the site’s design around well-structured, quality content. With giant brands such as Apple and Google acting as trend-setters in design, simplicity has somewhat become the new standard of modern web design.

Good practices in web design when used to analyse ecommerce websites have become more about simple, albeit attractively simple looking websites where user experience has been carefully considered and the website has been designed around its functioning strengths.

Shopping Cart

Customers need a solid shopping cart system with a seamless experience. The shopping cart needs to be visible and accessible to the user with products needing to be easily and comfortably added, modified and removed.

The important features of the website, such as browsing and purchasing items, need to be prioritised over certain minor details and so web design function and user experience are taken into account here. Product listings on the website must also be easily browsed and located. This strategy, paired with faster loading speeds, ensures that there is a minimised loss in sales due to slow page loading times and problems during checkout and payment.

Image quality & Responsive Design

Image quality is another big factor in drawing in and maintaining customers on your online store. With many services likely offering the same or at least similar products, you need to make sure your products look great online in order to beat the competition. This calls for high-quality and high resolution images to make your product listings and website look the best it can be.

In addition to this, the boom in customers now visiting and shopping at online stores via mobile devices calls for the requirement of images optimised for viewing across a range of devices to ensure your products can be easily accessed via a fully responsive web design.

FDC Studio are Leicester-based experts in web design. Our vast knowledge and experience in the industry make us the perfect agency to create your online store with your unique business needs and brand image in mind.

Security

Over the years, Internet security has also become a huge factor in the ways customers choose an online store. Ecommerce websites need to ensure that the security on their online store is of the highest standard to keep up with competitors and to attract customers in using your services.

Hire the web design experts, such as FDC, that have the technical knowledge required to create your online store with the most secure business practices in mind.

Customer Reviews

Driving customers to your website can be hard without any concrete evidence that your products and services are better than your competitors. One way to allow potential customers to view how well customers have previously received your service is to set up a customer review system (such as Google My Business and Google Reviews).

This will allow potential customers or users of your service to see what other customers have experienced whilst interacting with your online store and any good reviews will most likely draw in customers!

Web Hosting

Online stores are required by many customers to function well throughout all times of the day with a minimal error margin. The web hosting for your online store needs to have a good overall performance and 100% uptime with a good customer support structure.

The best way to do this is to choose a web hosting service that has a reputation for delivering reliable hosting for other reputable ecommerce websites. Your web hosting factors into how many of your customers stay on your website, with a good hosting service minimising the risk of losing your customers to your competitors!

These are just a few factors which must be taken into account when building your online store. You need to ensure that your design is simple to follow, your content is of the highest quality with responsiveness across all viewing device platforms and that you have a securely structured store which can deliver a reliable, stress-free service to your customers.

FDC Studio also offer digital marketing services which can further drive traffic to your site and generate sales for your business through SEO and PPC.

View some examples of our work here.

Visit the FDC Studio website or call 01164 244 244 for more information.