As the digital face of your business, there is a lot that needs to be considered when building an ecommerce website.
To be successful, ecommerce websites need to be places that make their customers want to shop, repeat visits and share with others. This outcome requires a consideration of how to make the online shopping experience as seamless as possible so that the wants and needs of customers are truly catered for.
At Imaginaire, ecommerce websites are one of our key specialisms.
While we can offer you tailored advice to help your business succeed through a free consultation, here are some of our top things that all ecommerce websites should have as a general guide.
A Website Which Caters To The Niche & Target Audience
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, something that all websites must have is an idea of the target audience. While you might think ‘everyone’ is your target audience, in reality, there will be a set demographic that aligns with your brand positioning and products.
This demographic needs to be clearly communicated with your web design and development team so that the right outcome can be achieved.
Where you decide to build and host your ecommerce website will also impact the overall functionality and design capabilities. While Shopify and WooCommerce are two popular ecommerce platforms, other website builders also exist.
Before settling on a platform, research the features carefully to ensure your ecommerce brand will be represented in the right way.
Ease Of Movement To Checkout
The more steps you put in between product listings and the checkout page, the more hurdles there are to get in the way of sales. That’s why every ecommerce website should look to streamline the sales process, by providing enticing product descriptions and clear, CTA (call-to-action) button functionality. If there are too many steps or even glitches along the way, users will likely leave the website. Instead, the whole journey should be super short and slick.
Responsiveness
When building an ecommerce website, you should expect traffic from desktop, mobile and tablet devices. If the website is responsive, it will automatically adapt to different screen sizes and browsers, ensuring the ability to shop is not lessened due to the device type. It’s really important to check each device type as the website is being built so that the finished website looks great for everyone.
SEO-Friendliness
Beyond how an ecommerce website looks or even its functionality, it must contain things which make it relevant in the eyes of search engines. To be SEO-friendly, a website needs to consider on-page, off-page and technical aspects.
While there’s lots to cover here, some key points include the domain name, headers, body copy, product descriptions, product tags, footer, page name and blog.
Overall, ecommerce websites should contain keywords that align with the products and most importantly relevant search engine queries.
Security Features
Customers enter sensitive data when shopping online, meaning ecommerce websites need to be trustworthy.
Some of the top ways to secure an ecommerce website include using HTTPS, getting SSL certification and using multi-factor authentication (MFA).
As well as keeping the website regularly updated, there should also be someone who monitors the security of the website closely to identify any suspicious behaviour.
Testing, Deployment & Regular Maintenance
When an ecommerce website has been designed and built, the final stage is the deployment where the website will go live and customers will be able to start shopping. This is a key opportunity to check how the website operates including across all devices, and whether any refinements are needed to improve the user experience.
Even if the website is perfect, it will still need updates over time both behind the scenes (i.e. security plugins) as well as the content. This is to ensure the website remains fully operational, secure and a place where customers want to shop.
Imaginaire – Ecommerce Web Design UK
Planning to build a new ecommerce website, or looking to reimagine your existing website?
With Imaginaire, your ecommerce website is in expert hands. We help businesses across the UK develop successful ecommerce offerings across various industries.
Let us know how we can help your brand succeed by filling out our contact form. If you’d like to speak to one of our web design experts, please give us a call on 0115 697 1158.
