Incorporating an online store into your Calgary business’s website design is a quick and easy way to earn revenue while doing practically nothing. Consumers appreciate the ease and convenience of online shopping…it’s great to avoid the crowds of the malls and the traffic of Calgary’s congested streets. If you have long-term clients that know and trust your product they will more than likely to be happy to take advantage of ordering online. The cost of delivery generally amounts to far less than the cost of sending an employee halfway across the city to pick up a few boxes. Their hourly wage is more than likely over the amount it would take to have your order arrive on your doorstep, pain-free.
Of course, the goal of an optimized, inbound web design is to also generate new leads. Along with your dedicated clients there will also be people visiting your store who do not necessarily know very much about you or the products you offer. You must be careful to accommodate the needs of these sorts of site visitors, too. Online shoppers are a savvy sort, and are looking to have their needs met as quickly as possible.
Don’t Lose Them At Checkout!
According to Habits of Online Shoppers That You Should Know by smallbiztrends.com, “the majority of purchases by both genders (87 percent in the case of men and 82 percent of women) are made from desktops.” That means that not only do you have to compete with others in the same field as you for online business, you also have to be more important than the other pages your potential client has open on their computer’s search engine. You have to beat the demands of the outside world (are they surfing during work hours? Are they trying to get their purchase done on the sly?) and be faster and more ready than everyone else. This means making your online store as clean and clutter-free as possible.
Tips for the design of your online store:
- Keep the images small enough to load fast, but large enough to be seen.
- Try to keep the visitor within one click of your product information page. They should not have to navigate any further away than that to find out the information they are looking for.
- Be transparent about pricing. If people can’t tell how much something costs it is highly unlikely they will move on to buy it.
- Make sure your design is responsive enough for users of all devices to be able to make a purchase.
- Visuals should be bright, strong and attractive. An ugly virtual store is just as bad as an ugly real one. Also offer multiple views of a product if warranted.
- If a product is more complex than most and requires some explanation for operation, provide a video to demonstrate its use.
Habits of Online Consumers
By far the most common place to lose your online sale is at the checkout stage. Habits and E-Commerce Checkouts by Douglas Idugboe states that, “Checkout abandonment is said to average 67.4 percent, indicating that the majority of online brands are making some serious errors.” Because online spending will only be going up for the near future, make sure that within your web design your checkout processes are clear, comprehensive and safe. People will often leave your site if the sales procedure seems unclear and complicated, and will DEFINITELY leave if they feel that their personal information isn’t being valued and protected.
Avoid having exceptionally long registration forms, especially if this information is mainly extraneous to you and your business. As well, the number of steps your customer should have to undertake shouldn’t be more than five. A progress bar that helps consumers track their progress through the checkout is also helpful ,as it allows them to get an idea of how much time they have left to spend on their purchase. And, of course, always provide a “back” button so people can easily go back a page or two and fix their mistakes or amend their order.
Web Design By Calgary’s Emphasize
As with all things Internet, adaptability is key. All of the websites Emphasize Design creates are responsive, easy to navigate and designed to both look and operate better than your competition’s. Our goal is to help small businesses succeed online.
