In recent years, online shopping has drastically increased. The Covid pandemic has encouraged people to turn to the internet instead of visiting brick-and-mortar businesses in person for their consumer needs.
Since the pandemic, 78% of respondents report doing more shopping online, and 86% of them say they will keep doing so in the post-pandemic era.
This led to many businesses developing their online presence through building websites in hopes of becoming more accessible to their customers and attracting potential ones. And this is where eCommerce website design services become essential.
What’s an Ecommerce Website?
Having an online business requires a quality website. More particularly, it requires a specific web design that makes selling your product or services online easier. This type of web design is called eCommerce website design and is crucial for operating online stores. It allows customers to browse and buy products or services online.
What an eCommerce website does for you is actively draw in potential buyers, convert leads into sales, and overall help your business grow. And this doesn’t only apply to retailers. B2B leaders are following suit and integrating eCommerce website design to seal the deals with other businesses.
As your eCommerce website needs to be both visually appealing and operationally responsive, investing in eCommerce website design services is highly recommendable.
In the following paragraphs, we’ll talk about the benefits that come with investing in eCommerce website design services. You will also learn how to choose the right eCommerce web design company to help you set up your online store.
Making a Good First Impression
Just as any brick-and-mortar business needs an aesthetically pleasing storefront to draw a customer in, a business website works in a similar way. Your customers are more likely to stay on your website and ultimately purchase your products or services if they find your website design visually appealing and responsive.
Keep in mind that first impressions are formed very quickly—a website that isn’t functional and visually appealing can turn away a potential customer in a split second. This is due to customers linking the quality of your design to the quality of your products and services. They may doubt it if your website fails to provide them with a quality user experience.
Attracting and Retaining Your Customers
The goal of having a business website is to attract customers and keep them in the long run. You also want them to provide them with a high-quality shopping experience, which means you must ensure your website is trustworthy, functional, and above all—easy to navigate on all devices.
Another selling point is providing your customers with the information they need to make an informed decision about the purchase. This builds trust, loyalty, and strong customer relationships. When potential customers visit your website for the first time, they will be looking to collect information on what products are available at your store. Your job is to simplify that process for them.
An outstanding eCommerce website design can help you attract and retain customers by allowing them to browse and purchase your products hassle-free. This can result in increased customer conversion, boosted sales, and revenue growth.
Surpassing Your Competitors
According to Common Thread, the growth rate of eCommerce sales will surpass that of physical stores by almost 900% between 2019 and 2024. Keep in mind that many retailers had invested in sophisticated AI and IoT technologies to support their online offerings even before the pandemic.
This means you need to act now to stay relevant and take up space in the marketplace. Only companies with cutting-edge technology will be able to create eCommerce websites powerful enough to guarantee engagement, conversions, and return visitors.
Aiming for Website Responsiveness
One of the key factors in achieving high conversion rates is having a responsive business website. This means that your website should adjust to any device, whether a desktop, tablet, or mobile phone.
Nowadays, more and more people choose to shop via their mobile phones as they find it more convenient. This is why making your website smartphone-friendly will lead to increased conversion rates.
Another way to support your customers through every stage of their shopping journey is to include pre-purchase tools that add value to their user experience. These can be calculators, product selectors, simulators for augmented and virtual reality, etc. These tools can also be used later on as touchpoints for follow-up and aftercare following a purchase.
Saving Money
With an online store, you don’t need to display all of your products in a physical space. In fact, many businesses send their products exclusively online.
By investing in an online store, you can save money you would otherwise invest in electricity, renting or buying a property, and other expenses. Even if you choose to have a physical store in addition to an online store, it can be much smaller because you may not need to stock as much inventory.
Also, ensure you invest your money wisely in an experienced and reputable eCommerce web design agency, such as Magento eCommerce Development Company, so that you can maximize your return on investment and don’t have to deal with unnecessary problems later on.
Increasing Your Exposure and Reach
It is only natural that online businesses can reach a wider audience than brick-and-mortar businesses, as they have the whole world to interact with. Making your products and services available online will allow you to reach a great number of customers who wouldn’t have known about your business otherwise.
As more and more people opt for online purchases to save time and avoid the oftentimes tiring shopping experience, the chances they will come across your website are high.
Keep in mind that your eCommerce website can be translated into different languages. This will allow customers from different countries to consume your content and even become your customers.
Learning about Your Audience
Through your eCommerce platform, you’ll be able to access useful data to understand your audience more fully. The use of analytical tools can reveal patterns and trends, as well as common problems. This will allow you to prioritize user journeys and improve user experience.
Having an eCommerce website can help you find out when, how, and what product or service your potential customer needs. Based on that, you can create an individual customer profile based on their online behavior. This will allow for creating a specific marketing strategy with a clear image of your target audience in mind.
You can achieve this via online surveys, user research, chatbots, etc., as parts of your eCommerce website. Retailers can also analyze product information to manage inventory levels and product availability better.
Exploring Marketing Opportunities
Your eCommerce website is the most effective marketing tool you will ever own. Apart from it, there are plenty of other marketing techniques you can use. However, the most useful ones are:
- Content Marketing—You can improve the quality of your content and thus increase engagement by optimizing your product or service page, publishing relevant blog posts and product-related YouTube videos, as well as ensuring the FAQ section on your eCommerce website contains all the important keywords.
- Social Media Marketing—You can use social media to increase engagement by creating relevant content for different platforms (e.g., Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, etc.), talking to customers, responding to reviews, and encouraging user-generated content. Additionally, you can use social media ads to reach more people and further optimize your content strategy.
- E-mail Marketing—You can increase engagement through email marketing by creating targeted campaigns, segmenting your list, creating a relevant CTA for each email, and personalizing emails for specific customers. You can also use email to keep customers updated on your products and services and measure success by tracking open and click-through rates.
Scaling Your Business
As your company grows, you will likely start to expand your product line and target audience and develop your company to meet customer needs and consumer demand.
Throughout this process, it is important to have an efficient and easy-to-use eCommerce website design so that your customers can find what they are looking for easily and make their purchasing decisions as quickly and conveniently as possible. An eCommerce site allows you to scale your business appropriately, add more lines and payment options, and even expand where you ship to without worrying about moving to larger premises, as you might with a brick-and-mortar store.
Staying Available 24/7
The advantage of an online store is that it can be open to business even when you are sleeping. An eCommerce website design company can provide you with a website available to your customers at all hours, seven days a week.
Due to automation options, your website can work on promoting your products and services online and generate sales even if you are currently closed for business. There are chatbots and virtual assistants who can service your customers, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business.
This is something a brick-and-mortar business is not able to provide their customers with, thus losing on potential conversions.
Increasing Your Brand Awareness and Credibility
Once your eCommerce website is up and running, you’ll be gradually establishing yourself online as a trustworthy source of information within your industry. If you continually put up content your users find valuable and allow for simple purchases of your products and services, you will stand out and increase your brand awareness.
In addition to valuable content, you can raise your brand awareness by regularly engaging with your audience on social media, creating unique visuals, and giving discounts or free products through giveaways.
How to Choose the Right Ecommerce Web Design Agency for Your Business
There are a few things you should take into account when choosing an eCommerce web design company to collaborate with.
Here is a list of checkpoints a web design company should tick along the way:
Proven Track Record
One of the things to look for when considering hiring an eCommerce web design agency is their work portfolio. You should be able to access or ask for their case studies or look at examples of their previous work on their website.
Make sure to scan the types of clients and the industries they have worked for in the past. See if they have worked with a business similar to yours and achieved good results. If they have, this is an indicator they’ll be able to help your business grow too.
You can also check their online reviews and find out if other businesses recommend their services and why. You can find reviews on Clutch, or you can look at analyses and rankings of eCommerce web design agencies on Design Rush, UpCity, etc.
Wide Range of Services
When browsing an eCommerce web design agency’s website, make sure they offer more than just website development and design services. user experience (UX) design, optimization and analytics, content marketing and SEO, and digital branding. These are all important in helping businesses create and maintain a successful online presence.
Also, make sure the company you’re looking to hire has expertise in creating and managing eCommerce platforms, such as Magento, Shopify, and WooCommerce. Lastly, to ensure you are getting the best quality services, it’s important to read reviews and ask for references from other clients.
Understanding Your Customer Journey
A quality eCommerce website design agency will customize your website to suit your customers’ needs. This means that they will study what your customer’s journey looks like from the moment they land on your website to them purchasing your products or services. They will then design your website to effectively help you make more sales.
Conclusion
In today’s business world, being able to sell products online is essential. So make sure that your eCommerce website:
- is reliable and simple to use
- provides a large selection of products at affordable prices
- offers a smooth transition from order to fulfillment
A keen focus on the eCommerce experience can help you achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction and more recommendations through word-of-mouth. That is why the most effective step towards going digital with your business is reaching out to an experienced and knowledgeable eCommerce website design agency as soon as possible.
