Web-designing plays a key role in making an Ecommerce site not only attractive to customers but turn their respective searches into successful sales too. Customers often find an item they are looking for through search engine results, but they click on it and then close the page in seconds.  simply because the design of the website appears complicated to them and fills them with apprehensions related to making a purchase on the website.

This article focuses on all the important factors one should consider while preparing a roadmap for an Ecommerce site that aims at offering online shoppers a convenient, safe and pleasant shopping environment.

1. Be flexible about sign-up forms for your website

• Sign-up forms should not ask for superfluous information of customers as the feeling of wasting a lot of time uncalled for can drag your customers away to your competitors who are just a click away. So, its advised to have a short and simple sign-up form that asks for as less information as an email address and a password. There is no need to ask for personal details of customers, like address, phone number, kind of work they do etc.

• Your Ecommerce site also must offer the option of making a purchase without needing to register. However, customers can be asked later in the process if they would like to sign-up to make their future purchases on the website easier.   

• For call-to-action buttons, you must give a deep thought to size, wording, color, font and positioning, as they make a significant contribution in increasing conversion rates and improving usability of the site.

2. Search bar must be clearly visible and different parameters should be used for filters

• The main page of the site must have a nice, visible search bar. A customer may come to your site to check the availability of an item, and if the search bar is not in sight, chances are very high that he/she will prefer visiting other websites to make their purchase.

• Search functionality should be up to the mark as being directed from one page to another could make a customer feel getting nowhere and end up leaving him/her frustrated. Always remember that category refinement expedites the search process to help customers find what exactly they are looking for.

• As products are available from different brands in varied colors, sizes etc, it becomes essential to have a system of filter that provides a pleasing shopping experience to even most choosy customers.

3. Shopping cart

• Easy-to-navigate shopping cart makes the checkout process simple and quick. Its very important to keep in mind while designing a shopping cart that it is capable of updating without leaving a page, offers options to edit and provides preview of shipping charges.

• You can make shopping cart even more attractive by adding little photographs of the items that have already been added to the cart.

• Wherever the cart is placed on your website, it should be clearly visible and must remain visible even if a customer scrolls down the page.

4. No long checkouts and variety of payment options

• Always remember that the more the time a customer gets to make a purchase, the more the chances are that the customer changes his/her mind and cancels the idea of buying the item. So, a customer must not be given more than three pages to make a purchase.

• Payment options should not appear confusing to customers. In modern times, you can improve sales on your website by offering customers a variety of payment options, like acceptance of payments through all major credit cards, checks, money order, cash on delivery etc.

• Always ensure to maintain trust of customers in regards to no sharing of their bank information with anyone uncalled for.

5. Make your website unique and add SEO quotient to it

• An Ecommerce website should be different than others. Distinct features help give a good impression of your website and add the touch of being original. The first thing customers are highly likely to remember is web store original feature.

• To make the most of search engine activities, an Ecommerce site needs to be SEO friendly. SEO is very well associated with design as right HTML coding with correct use of heading tags helps increase sales from search engine results.

6. Make you website a clean retail store and add bread crumbs  

• Bread crumbs make navigation through site an easy task for a customer who happened to be on your site through the search engine results.

• Its no hidden theory that every customer likes to shop where everything appears clean. So, each page on the site must appear clutter-free.  Never make your website untidy by adding unnecessary elements to category and subcategory pages.

7. Show final cost on product page or shopping cart page

• Nothing is more irksome for a customer than finding extra shipping charges on the last stage after doing all the hard work. Delivery cost calculation should automatically happen on the product page itself depending upon the customer location.

• Free delivery could also be offered for certain items above a particular price range.

8. Provide as much product information as possible and allow your customers to track packages

• Providing as much information possible through FAQs, policies sheets or product reviews solve majority of Ecommerce problems. Besides, it improves transparency and do not create any confusion for customers.

• Clear photographs of products provide customers a good look at them to be rest assured that they are placing the order for the right product. Customers are left with no other choice then to return a product that they mistakenly ordered because of not-so-clear image on an Ecommerce website. This not only results in unnecessary costs of processing returns for the Ecommerce company, but also discourages a customer to shop again on the website.

• An Ecommerce website must have a button to enable customers to track their packages, so that they can stay updated about the status of their orders.

• Providing contact us link on all the pages keeps customers rest assured that any query related to their purchase after they made them would be well taken care of.