A Trending & Engaging Website Design is All You Need for Your Online Business Growth
Many marketplaces like Amazon and eBay have restrictive policies for sellers. To maintain a homogenous image, these venues minimise merchant branding.
Owning an online store offers different opportunities for sellers. The experience of their customers is entirely in their hands. Using their website to deliver information directly to customers and encourage sales is one of the ways merchants can connect with their customers and encourage sales. The downside of so much freedom lies in the fact that online store owners may not know where to begin when designing the shop of their dreams. To explain how to design your online store to attract buyers and drive traffic, these strategies delve into how buyers experience each element.
By implementing these strategies, online entrepreneurs can target the specific interests of customers and outperform their less perceptive competitors.
Engaging Web Design
A lousy website will doom your online presence, regardless of how great your product is or how good your customer service is. According to Kissmetrics’ study, 93% of buyers place the greatest emphasis on visual appeal when they are considering purchasing an item.
You can always hire an excellent website design and development company to build a feature-rich website for your business growth or you learn coding to build a profitable online store. It is also possible to get a pre-made template and customise it to fit your needs. Many sites on the web offer e-commerce templates that have clean designs, intuitive layouts, and adhere to the latest web design trends, like TemplateMonster, TonyTemplates, Apollotheme, and others.
It is important to use full-width images and keep text to a minimum, as this will engage visitors.
- Get a professional to design it for you or do it yourself if you know how to code.
- Visitors should be captivated by a website’s design. Use images that are full-width and minimally textual to engage customers.
Feature an Impressive “About Us” Page
If you want to convince an interested visitor that your product is the best, you should provide an “About Us” page. An organization’s mission, its functions, and its most important attribute should be clearly stated. You can provide any kind of social proof such as testimonials, accomplishments, or any other type of proof.
Do not miss out on this great chance to gain new customers. You should make sure a clear contact form is visible throughout your site.
Make sure these are included:
- An email
- Address
- Social media links
If you overcrowd your “About” page, site visitors may feel overwhelmed. In general, some online stores opt for a minimalist design to keep information clear and understandable. It is common for users to find contact information at the bottom of a website by using the “Contact Us” option.
Create an “About Us” page with the following tips:
- List your business’s address, phone number, and social media accounts on the page.
- Do not overcomplicate the “About Us” page. An engaging design will keep visitors interested.
Establish a Partnership with Other Brands
It is difficult for most buyers to give their money to an unproven company. Display which companies have worked with you to enhance your reputation. A small business can add a degree of trustworthiness to your enterprise even if they are not as big as Coca-Cola or Apple.
A larger number of partners is better.
Follow these tips to partner with other brands and influencers:
- Publish your reputation on your homepage for your partners to know.
- Your partners should all be highlighted. The more a buyer trusts you, the more they will buy from you.
Good Online Support For Business Growth is Essential
In case your customers need support after a purchase, you need to let them know you will be there for them. Converting potential buyers to loyal, returning customers can be achieved by providing troubleshooting services after the purchase and consulting before the purchase.
It is best to use a live-chat feature that works 24/7 for comprehensive, useful support. Site-wide conversions can be increased by 10% or more with this tool. The best thing you can do is still help people throughout the working hours even if you cannot provide round-the-clock support.
It is easy to locate the chat feature on the bottom left-hand corner, yet it is unobtrusive for buyers.
To ensure you offer excellent online support, here are a few tips:
- Provide support at every stage of the buying process to appeal to first-time buyers and encourage returning buyers to buy again.
- Make sure your customer support services are clearly visible on your homepage, whether they are a phone line or a chatbox.
Payment Options should be Popular
Payments are essential to the existence of any online ecommerce website business growth. Your customers can easily make purchases with the many popular payment options you provide.
As far as payment solutions go, PayPal reigns supreme, but there are other payment gateways you may want to consider.
To provide sellers with payment options, consider these tips:
- Store their payment information and allow them to create an account in your store.
- Make your store easy for customers to make a purchase with a wide variety of payment options.
Promote on Social Media: Use SMM Wisely
It is easier to connect with lots of potential customers and prospective partners when you advertise on social media. From a simple Snapchat lens to a simple Facebook feed post, social media advertising can be anything.
Use Google Analytics to learn which channels are most popular with your target audience. Those who are getting lost in the relatively new world of social media might want to start by advertising on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat.
You can use social media to advertise effectively. Here are some tips:
- Social media marketing offers so much creative freedom that you should incorporate your key buyers’ personalities into the ads.
- Analyse social media analytics to see how your advertisements are doing and devise strategies for improving future campaigns.
The Power of an SEO-driven Blog
You can generate more store traffic by running a blog. Search engine results are likely to be high for posts that contain appropriate SEO keywords and are useful to consumers. People visiting your product pages and making purchases are likely only to visit your site if your blog posts rank well and encourage people to visit.
Blogging allows audiences to connect with you on a deeper level. You can learn about buyer needs and wants from the content that you create. If you provide valuable advice on specific product usage or an industry-related topic in your blog posts, they will help build buyer trust.
To start your website blog, follow these tips:
- Measure how many searches there are each month and how difficult the keywords are. There will be more challenges in ranking for keywords with high monthly search volumes and high difficulty ratings.
- Your blog post’s page views can be tracked using Google Analytics. Whenever you plan new content, keep in mind posts that have received high views in the past.
Product reviews encourage buyer trust
Ratings and reviews of your products enhance your reputation tremendously. Buyers rely on feedback from other buyers to evaluate merchants since they cannot meet sellers in person. Customers will save time by seeing other customers’ opinions quickly by viewing the ratings on product pages.
It is easier to trust product reviews when they are plentiful. Asking customers to write a review after a purchase is one way to encourage more comments. Your satisfied customers are unlikely to leave a review since everything is already great. You will likely find that they will be glad to tell others about their positive experience after a gentle push.
You can use product reviews in a number of ways:
- At the top of each product page, display the average rating and the number of reviews, and display the review content at the bottom to increase the visibility of feedback.
- Give buyers a discount if they leave feedback after they make a purchase to encourage them to leave reviews.
Ensure Your Site Is SEO Friendly
A store’s online traffic is necessary for purchases to occur. Your product descriptions and titles can be optimised for search engines by including SEO keywords. It is crucial to increase visibility in order to increase conversions and site visits.
You can make your site SEO-friendly by following these simple steps:
- Choose keywords that are high in search volumes and low in keyword difficulty so that you can rank for them using SEO tools. You can always take help of an industry expert to do SEO optimization for your website.
- To find out which results you will be competing against, type in SEO keywords you are considering including on your product pages. Think about changing your search term to something that is not so competitive if the results are major sites.
Stores Must Be Mobile-Friendly
Online shoppers rely increasingly on their phones for shopping, so merchants need to make sure their website designs are mobile-friendly so that buyers can shop regardless of what device they are using. The site’s responsiveness can be verified by checking operating system requirements, such as these iOS guidelines. Additionally, merchants can make their website mobile-friendly by using web design templates that are already configured to be mobile-responsive.
Here are some ways to make your website mobile-friendly:
- The ability to scroll vertically is essential for your website. The horizontal scrolling on your site will make it difficult for your customers to browse.
- Your store’s mobile responsiveness can be tested by switching to a handheld device and browsing.
Monitor and Iterate Analytics
A company’s progress during the growth process needs to be monitored, even by the most successful e-commerce businesses. It is best to track the behavior and sales of your customers by using tools such as Google Analytics. In addition, sellers can see the number of sales, page visits, and abandoned carts related to their store with this program.
Keep track of your selling metrics with Analytics so that you can develop long-term insights into how to improve customer engagement and increase sales.
The following tips will help you track and iterate on seller activity with Google Analytics:
- During store setup, make sure to enable “enhanced e-commerce tracking” so you can gain valuable insight into seller activity.
- Create Google Analytics segments to identify key buyer groups based on data. Segment setup instructions can be found here.
Develop Your Outreach List
The goal of your business grow this to reach out to more audiences than just your customers – you must also reach out to your social media networks. In order to connect with as many customers as possible, merchants can generate buzz about their products and extend their reach by networking with the right groups.
Prospective sellers are encouraged to contact:
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Journalists:
These are published writers whose subject matter is your industry and can provide content about your products.
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Industry bloggers:
They are bloggers who write about your industry, highlight your products, and talk about the things that matter to you.
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Social media influencers:
They are individuals who are active on social media and comment frequently about your industry.
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Similar entrepreneurs:
They are business owners in your field who know about your offerings and engage in your industry.
If you are able to reach out to these groups, you can spread the word about your product quickly. Therefore, sharing why you are valuable to companies should be a priority.
To build your outreach list, here are a few tips:
- Find influencers in your industry to reach out to via tools like Buzzsumo and Voila Norbert.
- Organise the individuals you intend to contact into specific categories based on their likelihood to respond or the number of followers they have.
Tools for Ready-to-Go Storefronts
Without any coding knowledge, those without a storefront should use a program, such as Shopify or BigCommerce. Store templates are built into these programs, so sellers can easily customise their websites without being a programmer.
Here’s how to take advantage of ready-to-go storefront tools:
- Choose a template that matches the personalities and brand image of your key buyers. There is typically a recommendation on how to use Shopify and BigCommerce based on the types of businesses that it is designed for.
- A graphic designer may also be required when paying for a Shopify theme. The cost of a designer is generally higher than that of a template, but the difference should be considered when determining the template’s value.
Be on the Lookout for the Competition: 4 Tips for Website Business growth
Customers search for the best pricing and overall shopping experience when shopping online. Identify comparable shops to your own business so you can compare your products with them to keep consumers interested in your store.
What is the return policy at these stores? Are they offering free shipping or only paid shipping?
By determining what makes competitors more competitive, sellers can determine what they need to change in order to keep returning customers and attract new ones.
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Use High-Resolution Photos
Our vision is very important to us. Image processing takes less than a tenth of a second, and visual information is understood 60,000 times faster than written information. The natural tendency for buyers to be drawn to visuals makes product images powerful, immediate impressions. To quickly attract buyers without losing their attention, it is imperative to use high quality, clear photos that emphasise the products’ details.
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Incentive offers
Marketplace rules do not limit what online store owners can include on product pages or in communication with customers. By offering incentives to buyers, merchants with stores can make the most of their control. Offering different types of incentives to make purchases can be an effective way to engage buyers on the homepage of your store or through an email announcement of an ongoing promotion.
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Make the most of Email Marketing
Building relationships with your customers is easy with email marketing. Segments of buyers can be sent targeted messages that address their particular needs. In addition to encouraging sales and increasing revenue, email marketing appeals to buyer interests.
Your first step should be to gather buyers’ emails and ensure that they have given you permission to contact them. When buyers are checking out or browsing, you can ask them if they would like to receive emails from you.
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Money-Back Guarantees and Refund Policies
The return policy of an online store can present a risk. The customer is forced to hope that the item matches what is described since the item cannot be seen. The majority of customers cannot return an online product even if it doesn’t meet their standards because they may not know how to use it.
By offering generous returns and money-back guarantees, sellers can build buyer trust and encourage sales. By letting customers return products if they have a change of mind or if the product does not match the description, you reassure other consumers that you have their trust.
To Summarise
Online stores are controlled entirely by merchants. To shape the way buyers, interact with a product, sellers do not have to follow marketplace policies.
Online store owners who have this level of freedom can boost conversions and business growth by carefully crafting every aspect of their store. With the help of our guide, merchants will become more aware of users’ perceptions of each element of their store, and they will know how to create an appealing and functional shop. Sellers can increase their sales by aligning online stores with buyers’ needs and motivations.
You can find more web design and development insights at CrackleCode. For more useful resources you can contact us or browse our blog and keep an eye on our Medium page (coming soon).