The salesperson is being phased out. Today’s customers are shopping, buying and tracking their purchases all without the help of a person. More than ever, it is critical that your website do the selling for you. And well. If it doesn’t, the customer has many other alternatives to choose from available at their fingertips.
Buying is always an emotional process. We designers are tasked with understanding that emotion and applying our expertise to deliver ecommerce experiences that are comfortable, easy-to-use and effective. Here are some simple rules we follow for eCommerce clients.
The site must be about the product or service
The product or service being sold must be front and center on the website, from the home page on. It’s a good practice to minimize the header and amount of content/graphics in the top of the site to allow the customer to find the product quicker. Best sellers, feature products/service and promotions should be set off from the regular catalog of products.
Remember, we humans are visual beings. Give the customers visuals. Depending on your offering a lifestyle shot may work better than an isolated product from multiple angles.
Be minimalistic and clutter-free
In order for a customer to buy something, they must first be able to find it. Customers can be visually overwhelmed very easily by a disorganized website. Use small paragraphs of text in a legible font, with appropriate line height. Organize multiple images into concise slideshows. Don’t overdo it with promos. Stick to a few and test them.
Present the site in a digestible manner for the customer but offer additional detail. Using lightboxes can be beneficial to showcase larger images and greater product detail, but beware of how they can affect a mobile experience.
Use color appropriately
One of the strongest and most persuasive tools a seller has is color. According to a KISSmetrics infographic (http://blog.kissmetrics.com/color-psychology/), 85% of shoppers say color directly affected their purchase. Choosing the right color is important to set the tone for the site and direct the user through the purchase funnel.
Not only choosing the right color but the right density is crucial. Yellow can be playful and energetic but too much reads “caution.” Green is easy on the eye and comfortable but can also symbolize money and expense. Used sparingly, red can draw attention to call to actions.
And let’s not forget about white, as in white space.
Don’t forget about the people behind the eCommerce
Even though customers are comfortable making purchases without the help of a person, when they have a question or problem, they want to communicate with a person. Support options must be clear and immediate to the user. Leverage instant contact choices like phone numbers and live chat. Keep your customers in the loop with thank you pages and email confirmations/notifications.
Don’t just rely on your contact form to be the only source of customer support on the site.
Use your analytics
Analytics are so important to the success of an eCommerce site. Set up tests, see what happens and RESPOND. When you have a window into the behavior of your actual users, it is a gold mine of data that can tell what visual and content adjustments can be made to improve the conversion rate on the website.
An eCommerce website is a living, fluid being and will not tolerate being made up just to be put on a shelf.