Nowadays, the biggest and most popular business that’s significantly on the rise in eCommerce. Just imagine how an eCommerce business makes the lives of people easier.

Whatever niche or industry, be it electronics, fashion, and so on, online business is making great waves in the world for some time now.

There’s nothing you can’t purchase online with just a few clicks. eCommerce websites run by various shopping cart platforms, such as Magento help build a brand that people would love to shop from over the web. Magento development is one of the most in-demand processes and services at present, with Magento powering thousands of brand sites worldwide.

Designing an eCommerce Store

Design for Security and Trust

The first thing to keep in mind is to design a site that shoppers could trust. Most shoppers are cautious when it comes to privacy and if the brand’s website could protect their personal data via a secure transaction. Shoppers turn to other brands should they feel uncertain about a site.

Some methods that communicate trustworthiness:

1. Include a business overview.

• Provide a picture of people behind the brand
• Provide general information
• Social media links
• Contact information
• FAQ or frequently asked questions page

2. Publish easy-to-find store policies.

• Policies on shipping and return
• Return process outline and the products that could be returned
• Easy access to a privacy policy, covering the personal and financial information of a shopper

3. Avoid legal or internal policy jargon by writing in plain language.

Sharing reviews. Reviews of a product help shoppers have a better understanding of a product, alleviating any concerns, and provide a great user experience.

Offer product reviews together with more information of reviewers to take it a step further. This helps make it easier for shoppers to get the full advantage of the opinions of others.

4. Adding recognized trust seals.

A trust seal will verify the security and legitimacy of a site. Some trust organizations even add an extra protection layer, via offering several insurances if it turns out that a transaction is fraudulent. Trust seals assure prospective shoppers of a transaction process that’s secure, leading to more sales and of course better UX experience.

5. Secure server.

When purchasing online, shoppers expect that their personal information would remain secure. SSL, or secure sockets layer certificates authenticate the site’s identity, encrypting information that should remain safe. It’s a critical sign indicating secure checkouts, to assure shoppers of data protection through implementing and displaying SSL certificate badges.

6. Attention to detail.

A website will appear professional and legitimate if you avoid typos, broken lines, missing images, 404 errors or pages not found, and other UX mistakes.

UI Design Considerations

The main driver for a first impression is the look and feel of a site. People determine whether or not they like a brand’s site in just a few seconds. Check out these essential UI design tips.

Visual hierarchy adoption

A content of utmost importance should be on the top of the fold. In some instances, using less white space for bringing items closer is better compared to pushing vital content below the fold.

Refrain from over-designing

Put a limit to font formats, including the face of font, colors, and sizes. When a text looks a lot like graphics, it could be mistaken as an advertisement. Make the content as clear as possible by using background colors and high-contrast text.

Follow the identity of the brand

Branding must be obvious all throughout the site. Colors should reflect the brand, setting the style to make clear the kind of products are for sale. The brand experience should be consistent across all channels, regardless if it’s in-store, on a mobile device, or online. This helps create a brand-customer relationship that’s robust.

Steer clear of pop-up windows

It’s true that popups are a distraction, although it contains valuable information. It’s more likely that shoppers would dismiss them right away. Once they disappear, even if they want to, it would be difficult to find the information again.

Sticking to known symbols

Use symbols or icons that could be identified easily. Using unfamiliar icons would only confuse shoppers. A great way of avoiding possible confusion in providing labels for icons.

Web Design Key Aspects for Easy Navigation

Product Categories that are well-defined

The top navigation level should showcase a set of categories that are offered by the website. Segregating products into categories and subcategories make perfect sense. Category labels are best as single words describing an array of products so that shoppers could scan through and understand what they represent right away.

Product Search

Put simply, if shoppers are not able to find a product, then they could not buy it. Create a search function that helps to find what customers are looking for in a seamless manner.

• Omnipresent search. Put the search box on each page in familiar locations. It should be quickly recognizable, visible, and easy to use. The standard positions would be on the top center or top right of pages, or on the main menu.
• Search auto-complete function. With an auto-complete functionality, shoppers would find it easy to find what they’re looking for, boosting sales potential by suggesting things within the place they’re searching already.
• Support for all queries. Searches must support queries of all kinds, such as names of a product, product attributes, categories, and customer service related information as well.
• Enable results in sorting and filtering. Allow shoppers to sort search results based on different criteria, such as for instance the best sellers, product rating, lowest or highest price, and newest item among others.

Designing the Shopping Cart

Shoppers do reviews of products they have chosen, make the final decision, and proceed to checkout via the shopping cart, thus it is of utmost importance. The cart’s main objective is to lead shoppers to the checkout process. Consider the tips below that would encourage shoppers to make a purchase.

Provide ample feedback

Make certain that when a product is added to the cart, it is clearly and immediately confirmed. Inadequate feedback could only make shoppers confused, such as showing confirmation text that’s unnoticeable. It would be great to use animations since movement draws the human eye.

Use a clear CTA or call-to-action

The checkout button should be the primary CTA or call to action on the shopping cart page. Use many clickable areas, bright colors, and simple language for a visible checkout button that’s easy to use and straightforward.

Mini carts

Mini carts enable shoppers to add products to their carts without leaving the page they’re currently on. The mini cart widget lets them discover, navigate, and add more products. These widgets should link to the full shopping cart page at all times.

Easily editable cart

The ability to remove, saving for change details, or later, such as color, size, quantity must be easily accessible.

The showcase of Product details

Showcasing details, including names, sizes, images, prices, and colors in the cart help shoppers remember a product and make comparisons as well. Whenever necessary, allow shoppers to review more details through linking products in the cart and back to their full pages.

Steer clear of surprises in taxes and costs of shipping

The main reason for cart abandonment is the unexpected amount of shipping and costs that could catch shoppers by surprise, making them abandon their carts. Put upfront the precise costs calculation, as well as the expected date of delivery.

Designing the Checkout

Remember that no matter how stylish and trendy your design may be, it won’t be the determining factor for its success, nor does it offer a terrific user experience as well. The success of an eCommerce business is measured only by the number of purchases completed. Check out the following ways of creating a checkout page that’s well-designed that would lead to successful conversion.

• Keeping it simple. Minimize the number of steps and fields for purchase completion. A great way of minimizing the number of fields, ideally designing a single page checkout wherein shoppers could see their cart and enter payment and delivery information is the use of the shipping address as the billing address by default.
• Offering different payment options. Shoppers have various preferences in terms of making payments. Cater to as many payment options as possible for expanding the customer base, and also for easy order completion.
• Clear error indications usage. Not being able to buy and the reason why is very frustrating indeed. Rather than showing errors after submitting a form, the error notifications should come up in real-time. In the item that should be corrected, but clear and concise error messages directly or next to it. This makes shoppers notice and understands them well.
• Registration should be optional. Pressuring shoppers to make an account before their first purchase would only drive them away. Only provide an option to register after purchase completion, and make certain to highlight the benefits that could be derived by registering. Benefits could include a faster checkout process.
• Providing support. Include a contact number of live chat all throughout the checkout process. Each time shoppers have questions, they could readily get answers, rather than leaving the site and going somewhere else.
• Keeping people on track. A progress bar that showcases the number of steps left for completing a purchase should be included when using a multi-page checkout. Any ambiguity could be eliminated with this, and ensure shoppers that they’re on the right track. Display a confirmation order and shipment tracking the status when a purchase is completed.

In any eCommerce business these days, keep in mind that no matter how good the deals may be if the website of a brand appears outdated, people would always assume it to be of low quality. When planning to build your own eCommerce website, consider looking at it from the perspective of a customer. A successful brand could afford to remain current and implement the latest trends in web design.

If the site looks old, visitors would assume that it’s because you are not doing enough business, and would not hesitate to look for another site.

The Bottom Line

In the highly competitive business scenario today, online shoppers expect experiences that are frictionless, whatever it takes. Designing a website is not just about creating it. It’s also about making a wonderful online shopping experience, which could convert passive web visitors into active purchasers. The tips and guide above in eCommerce web design could hopefully help you make critical design decisions for building a terrific user experience.

The UX moreover should be user-friendly, attractive, professional, and should keep shoppers coming back for more. The comparatively low market shares and fast growth means that there still is a big opportunity for new players to outpace the traditional leaders in the industry. In terms of the trends in website design, bear in mind that it takes more than trying to keep up with the evolving trends.

All of the things discussed above are not a checklist of things that you should include on your website. It’s rather a catalog to help you weigh different options.