There are times when web stores are overloaded with art. For example, flash animations are used, which can slow a certain customer’s browser functionality. Other instances include designers to use color schemes, which are not favourable to shoppers.
Usability and reliability are usually overlooked by professional web designers, who are usually more concerned in adding more creative elements to the website. Although, this is an advantage to most web designers, but trust me, it can be quite annoying for the customers, who just want to finish through their on-line shopping process.
However, there are some tips and tricks, which can really help in designing web stores. Here are some tips on how you can attract visitors and improve conversation rates through practical and reliable design guidelines.
1. Make The Shopping Cart Visible
As a designer, it is important for you to know your customer’s needs. Among the primary needs of a shopper is the information given by them, such as check-out information and items ordered. In order to accomplish this task, you must include a shopping cart within the page, which is accessible and importantly, easy to search for. This helps customers to jump from the shopping process to the checkout. Furthermore, it is helpful for you to provide a quick link back to the specific checkout page.
To add more functionality to the details, it’s really important for you to have pop-up windows for shopping cart details, making it more accessible and easy to use. For more improvement, choosing the right color scheme for the page, and helping the cart icon stand out from the rest. This can really help your customers to get what they want.
2. Auto-Complete Functionalities to Simplify Searches
As we all know in the e-commerce sites, the searching option is frequently used. It enables visitors to search for a particular product that matched their needs. Over 20% of users prefer search features rather than the classical paths for navigation.
The auto complete function provides close matches for your visitor’s searches. As the customer types in a particular product he or she is searching for, auto complete automatically finds a similar match to it. This is a primary function that can help customers to find what they need.
3. Your Navigation Paths Must Be Easy to Use
Too many categories can be quite confusing for a viewer. As a solution, fly-out menus are great; you can use them as an alternative. They also provide you an opportunity to having your page uncluttered, and giving the shopper an easy access to any particular category in the page.
Overdoing is really dangerous in designing the category area of your page. Shoppers are more concerned in the reliability offered by your page, and will be glad in return once you practice it.
Letting the customer know on which particular page he or she is, can help giving them a better understanding on what they can do next. For example, paths between a major category and its child category. Another major feature that you can do is adding a “continue shopping” button available each time a customer adds something to their shopping cart. In turn, this helps customers have easier access in buying more products.
There are lots of other tips out there. If you have something interesting please share.
