When people first make a website to sell goods online, many of them do not know how the customers are going to interact with it. In the beginning, there is just no real way to tell whether a layout or color scheme is going to work for consumers over the long haul. However, paying attention to how visitors engage the content over time will shed light on what can be done to improve.
Just like a brick-and-mortar store, eCommerce sites are often rearranged to place certain blocks of information in areas that are more attractive. These movements and modifications often lead to increased sales and boosting interest.
Here are a few essential tips when it comes to redesigning the eCommerce site to improve the likelihood of success.
Use Heatmap Integration
Heatmaps are incredibly helpful when it comes to discovering how users are interacting with the website. Using a “thermal” representation of visitor clicks and mouse movements on the site, developers can see exactly what is piquing the interest of shoppers.
Some products, such as Mouseflow, will also record visitors while they are browsing the website. This playback video will show exactly what the individual was doing on the site throughout his or her visit. It’s helpful when determining when people stop reading or if a product description isn’t getting across to the audience.
The data collected by heatmap integration will help discover the best places to put up content blocks, rearrange sidebars and help develop strategies for material under the fold. Some of these apps will also include analytical data regarding location, device type and other metrics.
Experiment with Visual Themes
Although it’s possible to succeed as an online retailer with a default template with eCommerce software, visual appeal is a bonus. In fact, almost 40 percent of people will leave a website if the layout is poor. So, yes, visual appeal is vastly important when it comes to making sales.
Many eCommerce platforms allow for quick modifications for color schemes. The hardest part is finding something that has the greatest potential for success. A site needs to be attractive as well as functional. Sure, there are a lot of things that may improve the aesthetics of an eCommerce site. However, some may impact site performance by slowing it down too much.
One of the more common trends of 2016 and 2017 is that of using a minimalist approach to eCommerce. Keeping things as plain and easy to follow as possible has proven to be very effective in many industries. It may be worth exploring to boost sales and customer interaction.
Testing On All Platforms
Another reason many developers are moving to a minimalist approach is to accommodate mobile technology. As there are more people accessing the Internet through mobile devices than desktop computers, eCommerce sites need to be capable of delivering a good experience across the board.
A good way to test mobile interaction is by shrinking the size of the web browser on a desktop computer to emulate a smaller screen. Other tools such as Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test can be helpful in discovering parts of the site that may be hindering performance.
Rigorous testing is important when it comes to eCommerce success. If the website is too slow or it looks bad on devices, consumers will simply go elsewhere. This is because the Internet is full of competing sites that are optimized for functionality.
Make Sure Business Information Is Present
A lot of people who make a website for eCommerce do so from the comfort of their own homes. These are often people who do not want to share their location information with the general populace. However, it can also impact how customers interact with the website in a great way.
More than 40 percent of consumers will abandon a website if it does not show business contact information or phone numbers. That means eCommerce operators can assume almost half of their income is lost because of a lack of information.
Here are a few things home eCommerce builders can do to offset some of those losses:
- Use a PO Box address for contact information: PO Boxes are often free to residents in certain areas. Others may have a nominal six-month fee. In either case, it’s worth the investment of a box to get those additional sales.
- Sign up for VoIP Services for a contact number: VoIP systems like Skype, Magic Jack and others help home business owners create a contact number that is isolated from a private line.
- Use professional email addresses for contacts: Gmail, Yahoo and other systems are great for sending email to family. However, they don’t look that professional from a consumer standpoint. Set up an email address from the domain.
The more comfortable consumers are when it comes to shopping, the more likely they’ll make purchases.
Integrate Social Media
Social media websites are the most common use for the Internet in today’s society. It’s important to engage a target audience as well as integrate these elements into any website. However, it goes further than just merely adding sharing buttons on the items that are sold.
Many organizations consider live feeds of profiles such as Facebook and Twitter to be present on the website. Because both of these methods are easy to integrate, even the most novice of eCommerce site owners are setting them up. For example, Twitter will actually give users the code for the live feed to copy and paste directly into the website.
In reality, video is one of the most popular and effective forms of marketing. Placing YouTube videos within product description pages has worked for many when it comes to demonstrating a product and improving sales. It may be something worth considering, especially since these simply need a copy and paste of the code from YouTube.
Evolve the Website…
After people decide to make a website for eCommerce, it needs to evolve. Between new technologies and marketing improvements, the site needs to be in constant development. Build a strategy to continue advancing the site to make it easier to use and faster. Don’t assume that the eCommerce site is “good enough for now.” In reality, there is no such thing.
