Do you know what the secret is to a successful and profitable ecommerce website?
Perhaps you think the secret is to have a great catalog of products. Maybe you feel that it’s having a good advertising campaign. Or perhaps you believe the key to success in ecommerce is simply to provide great customer service.
While all of these factors are important, it’s arguable that the single biggest factor in your success or failure is your ecommerce web design.
Professional website design is critical to business success for many reasons. After all, as an ecommerce store, all your customers’ interactions with your business will take place on your site. Having professional web design will ensure that those interactions are as positive as possible.
You may have seen or heard about website builders that claim to make setting up an online store easy. However, none of them can come close to the level of quality and customization that professional web design offers.
Maybe you’re on the fence about whether ecommerce web design is truly that valuable. If so, then you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading to discover more about the benefits of professional ecommerce web design.
Make a Great First Impression Every Time
Everyone knows that first impressions are incredibly important when starting a relationship with someone. The same applies to your customers’ first interaction with your business. To establish a positive, long-lasting relationship with your target audience, you’ll want to be sure your site design makes a great first impression.
Making a great first impression involves both the visual aesthetic of your site and its functionality. First of all, it’s very important that everything on your ecommerce site works the way it’s supposed to. Elements that seem out of place, information that’s difficult to find, and broken links are just a few common problems that can ruin the customer experience.
Besides being functional, a website needs to look good, too. Beautiful, consistent site design inspires confidence in shoppers, making them more likely to complete a purchase. People also enjoy interacting with attractive websites more than with ones that are merely functional.
To get your relationship with your customers off to a great start and keep them coming back, professional site design is essential.
Get Discovered in Web Searches More Often
If you’ve been in business for very long, you know how important search engine optimization is. Having a website with good SEO is necessary for getting discovered in Google search results as often as possible. Countless internet users begin their search for products and services with their favorite search engine, so you need to make sure your store is easily discoverable.
If you use generic website templates or page builders, improving your SEO is a shaky and imprecise process. There are simply too many elements beneath the surface that you can’t control. With professional web development, every aspect of your site can be fine-tuned.
An important part of search engine optimization is getting other websites to link to you. However, with an unprofessional or unpolished website, it can be hard to get links from authoritative sites. Perfecting your site design can improve your chances of getting trusted websites to link back to you.
When it comes to SEO, these are just a few of the many reasons to hire a professional web developer.
Build Trust in Your Customer Support Team
If you take your business seriously, then you probably care a lot about providing a great experience to your customers. Making sure everyone gets the support and attention they deserve is integral to long-term success. And one of the most important parts of the customer experience is your customer support team.
Whether you outsource your customer service to independent call centers or handle all inquiries yourself, you want customers to feel confident in the support you offer. Good website design sends a positive message to visitors about how you treat your customers. If everything on your site is set up correctly and relevant information is easy to find, that will help build trust in your support team.
On the other hand, if your site loads slowly, lacks important information, or doesn’t perform as expected, it will have the opposite effect. It may discourage people from buying from your store altogether. To make sure this doesn’t happen, get the best design services possible for your ecommerce site.
Keep Up With All of Your Competitors
So far we’ve established a few of the biggest reasons for professional web design. We’ve seen why it’s so important to give your visitors the best experience possible. Without excellent design and functionality, you can disappoint or even alienate potential shoppers.
But maybe you feel that this is all a bit overblown. You might feel that your customers won’t mind wading through irrelevant content or subpar design if it means getting the products they need.
While you may be correct, this leads us to what may be the biggest argument for professional design. It’s one of the surest ways to stay ahead of the competition.
Keep in mind that you aren’t the only business owner targeting your audience. Even if you were, someone else could come along tomorrow and offer a better experience. To make sure your store stays profitable, you have to do everything you can to satisfy your customers.
Things change quickly on the internet. Don’t take for granted that you’ll always have buyers. Build customer loyalty by going above and beyond with your web design.
Make Your Brand Appear More Trustworthy
We’ve already discussed the importance of trust to your business’s success. It’s important that your potential customers feel confident in buying from you. Your web design should give them the impression that you’re there to support them.
While we already mentioned the importance of building trust in your support department, design is also important to building trust in your brand. This is important because your brand can be seen everywhere that your business is. From your marketing materials to your social media accounts, your brand is front-and-center.
If you’ve constructed a positive brand image that inspires trust, people will respond positively when they encounter your business. But if your brand is poorly defined, or if your site doesn’t present your brand in a flattering way, it will hurt your business.
When you run an ecommerce business, your website does more talking for your brand than you do. It isn’t like having a brick-and-mortar store, where employees and physical pamphlets can introduce customers to your brand. Your site is almost solely responsible for giving people the right impression.
Professional site design, as well as an intentional brand strategy, can help you get the right message across.
Keep Things Visually Consistent Across Your Site
Consistency is key to any great customer experience. If every page on your website looks like it belongs, with every design element in its proper place, visitors will feel more at ease. It’s also important for your website design to be congruent with other places your brand appears, such as social media or brochures.
When a website lacks visual consistency, it makes visitors feel uncomfortable. It forces them to question whether the owner put any thought and effort into their business. As a result, it makes them less likely to trust the site with their payment information should they want to buy something.
Another reason why design consistency is so important is that it prevents confusion. If your website and your Facebook page look nothing alike, people may think they’re separate businesses. As you can probably imagine, that kind of confusion isn’t good for making sales.
This is why professional graphic design and expert web development is an essential part of a successful business.
Make the Best Possible Impression on Mobile
When it comes to website development, mobile web design is practically in a category of its own. People interact with websites differently on their mobile devices from the way they interact with them on desktops. It’s important for your web developer to take this into account and work accordingly.
To properly meet your customers’ needs on mobile, your website must be responsive. A responsive site changes its appearance automatically based on the size and shape of the screen it’s being viewed on. When users visit a website on their phone, it should automatically transform to provide an easy browsing experience.
Many pre-made website templates and page builders claim to offer responsive functionality, but this is often misleading. Just because a website automatically alters certain elements to better fit a smaller screen doesn’t mean it’s optimized for mobile. To get the best results from mobile shoppers, it’s important to have a developer fine-tune your site’s mobile experience.
Give Your Products the Attention They Deserve
So far we’ve discussed the importance of professional design as it relates to your brand and your customers. But what about the products that you sell? As it turns out, the right web designer can help frame your catalog in a favorable light.
It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that’s definitely the case when it comes to online sales. For ecommerce, high-quality product photography is sometimes more important than copywriting. People typically want to see an item clearly from all angles before they’ll feel comfortable buying it.
The best product images are only as good as the website they’re embedded in, however. If your site features too-small or low-resolution photos, they won’t give customers the right impression. And having subpar design around your product photos won’t do your sales numbers any favors, either.
A good web designer will make sure your product photos are displayed in the best possible way.
Dramatically Increase Your Conversion Rate
Finally, we come to the whole purpose of running an online store: making sales. The more website visitors you can convert into paying customers, the more profitable your ecommerce store will be.
If people aren’t buying, it doesn’t matter how great your products of customer support may be. You can only stay in business if you make enough sales to break even. So it’s worth going to any lengths necessary to make sure your conversion rate is optimal.
There’s no single strategy or technique that’s responsible for maximizing your conversion rate. Instead, everything we’ve mentioned already in this article plays an important role in turning visitors into customers. From aesthetically pleasing design to clear product photos, each element listed here is essential to making as many sales as possible.
Get Ecommerce Web Design From Iconic Web HQ Today
As you can see, professional ecommerce web design isn’t just about having a beautiful website. When you work with a professional developer, each ecommerce web page will be optimized to convert visitors into faithful customers.
However, finding a web development agency to build your site isn’t always easy. How can you be sure the designer you choose is up to the task?
With Iconic Web HQ, you don’t have to worry. Our industry-leading design services can transform your struggling ecommerce store into a beautiful website that’s ready to convert. Contact us today to find out how.
