Ecommerce is not a buzzword now as it was a decade ago. And that was also just in a few regions around the world. Amazon was founded in 1996, and we all know how successful it is. In 2012, worldwide ecommerce sales topped 1 trillion-dollar mark for the first time, and companies like Alibaba and Amazon are reaping the benefits of starting early and has become giants in the business.
If you are thinking about running a small business or a tech startup, you definitely need to master a lot of aspects. Marketing and strategy are at the heart of it. If you think that you are on top of your game here, you can start it, but a solid online presence is the main factor you need to consider first. And on a website, we all look for the design aspect.
At the very onset, you need to think seriously about web design and development factor to get the eyeballs to focus on your website. Let me offer you 4 factors without which you can’t have a good ecommerce portal that can attract your target audience and give you a real chance to succeed.
Table of Contents
1. Responsive Web Design
Without a shred of doubt, this is the first aspect that you need to focus on. If you think that responsive design on any website nowadays is a given, think again. Just search on Google and browse through some sites in the lower ranking and you are bound to see a few websites which are not responsive at all. The reasons can be aplenty, but the fact is that not everyone is aware of why responsive websites are the future. Read on for more information.
According to a recent survey, people on average now use smart phones 5 hours a day. So, it is only natural to make a responsive website exclusively for these people. Over the years, the ratio of people using smart phones will increase and may reach unprecedented levels. This is solely because we all want to use the Internet and so shopping or whatever activity on the go and from the device of our choice. And handheld devices are the future, no doubt.
2. Attractive and Easy to Navigate Web Design
After responsiveness, you need easy navigation. A cluttered look is the last thing you need on an ecommerce portal. An online store with different sections for particular products can be really easy to look at and use. If not, many visitors will opt out of using your website. The shopping experience of the visitors needs to be excellent. There are many aspects that you need to pay attention to as websites have just 10 seconds or less to attract their target audience.
Websites need to draw attention to their visitors at the right places and not the whole website. For example, if a store has launched a new range of exotic perfumes, it would definitely like to make visitors visit that page. The price may be kept a secret until a visitor is being introduced to all the features of perfumes so that a person would make his mind to buy the perfume. Even a high price won’t matter as attractive nature of the website would be enough to lure him.
3. Video
The home page or the landing page is the one that should be highlighted to no end. It shouldn’t look like a page that is forced onto the visitors. Video can make a page send a strong message as it can highlight a product’s features or offer a teaser ad for an upcoming product. In either way, visitors look forward to seeing a video ad of 10-30 second rather than read a long piece of article that can take about 5-10 minutes to read.
A video should also not be forced but rather be placed at a location that can make it irresistible for a visitor not to click on it. Although the video trend is rising, but when customers visit your website, they look for what they are interested in rather than learning about your company and all the products. Through a video, however, you can do both. You can advertise your flagship product that a visitor is looking forward to buying and make a small statement about your company’s other product too.
It’s all in the design as to how you want to make a statement here with a video that virtually all of the visitors would like to see, instead of reading info that can take several minutes.
4. Page Load Time
Now, this is something that most of the websites don’t think positively or even take seriously. In the Initial days of the World Wide Web, the website took almost 30 seconds to load. And we all know that nowadays a website visitor who would remain on a page after 4-5 seconds can be considered a very patient man! We all know that it is a great cause of concern for us when we are looking at a website and the same goes for your portal too.
Many websites try to stuff the home page and other subpages too with everything that they can think of. This is one mistake that you need to think about before making a website in the first place. If you think that you are not up to the task, you can always look for the support of a professional web development company in Dubai that can make your task a lot easier.
You need to figure out the reasons if your website is lagging in terms of loading time. Think of it as a neutral person and then judge your website as you would like to stay on it after a certain time has lapsed? Your answer is what you need to ponder about.
Over to you
If you think you can add something valuable to this blog or want to ask a question about any aspect mentioned here, you are more than welcome. Please use the comments section below in this regard.
