Things to Keep In Mind When You Are Redesigning an Ecommerce Website
Websites these days have a shelf life of not more than 4-5 years, approximately and that happens precisely because of the ever-changing trends in the digital marketing industry, that have taken over the entire marketplace by storm. Website design companies and creative companies have to redefine their techniques and aesthetic sensibilities all the time and deliver top-notch web design services to a variety of customers looking for an all-rounder agency to guide them with the entire redesign process.
Ecommerce websites are the current necessity of the world and having an effective and seamless website is key to getting the desired ROI. This is why we decided to come up with a guide of sorts full of important points that should be kept in mind while redesigning an eCommerce website.
Keep in mind these points while redesigning your eCommerce website:
It is extremely important to improve your current eCommerce website’s performance by giving it an essential makeover. But what a lot of people don’t understand is that a redesign doesn’t just mean a change in the look and feel of the website. You have to upgrade the website in such a way that you get a definite increase in sales and your website gets a chance to redeem the value it deserves. Standing out in the industry is not simple anymore and only an experienced web design company will guide you through this process and help you see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Keep these pointers in mind while you get your website redesigned and we vouch for the fact that your website will reach the pinnacle of success and your brand will carve a niche in the market.
Define the newly established goal and the reason behind the redesign project.
The goals of a business keep changing as and when they reach a certain stage of popularity and success. It is extremely important to recognize and define where you are currently at in the business and accordingly set your goals as this will surely help you to understand your redesign requirements better. You also have to understand the reason behind the redesign. It can’t just be a vague answer. You have to do thorough research as to what has led to this point – is the design lackluster, are the navigation and wireframe slow and outdated or is the website not getting you good sales and ROI? Asking these questions to yourself will determine the crucial changes in the website.
Decide what you should and shouldn’t incorporate into your redesigned website.
Once you have established what is wrong with your current website, not committing the same mistakes in the new website is key. Many companies unknowingly commit the same follies and end up with an expensive redesign that is as fruitless as the old one. So sit with your team and understand the problem points of the current website and eliminate those first. For eg: if long videos haven’t worked for you in the past, eliminate them immediately and replace them with something that is more lucrative and easy on the eye.
Migrating all the essential data related to the business
Data migration is an extremely critical step of any redesign project and eCommerce websites are no stranger to this phenomenon. You need a good migration tool that helps you migrate all of your data to the new website seamlessly. Be it the product details, the client details, website content or all the other miscellaneous stuff that your website has, a seamless transfer of the data from one platform to another will make sure that nothing important gets lost or left behind.
New content that shines through and is super crisp
It is extremely important to be in sync with the current trends and adopt minimalism these days to make your website better. Content-heavy websites don’t have a lot of scope as the attention span of your audience has reduced to mere seconds. If you don’t grab their attention in 3 seconds or less, chances are, he/she has already bounced on to some other website. So focus on having content that helps you shine and is super crisp and enlightening to the customer.
Enhance your product imagery
Appropriate product images need to be taken seriously as they are going to attract your customers online. These images have to take the centre stage and high-resolution images are key. Keep them big and make sure they are high quality/have good production value too. Your product images can’t look shabby and have to match the aesthetics and theme of the website. This is one of the biggest reasons eCommerce websites work and get business so more focus should be given to this point in particular.
More buttons and easy payment options
Optimizing your online ordering process is extremely important as that could make or break your business plans. Keep the navigation easy and give them easy solutions to buy a product. Your eCommerce site should be all about those clickity buttons that will lead them to their desired product.
For eg: if someone wants to change the color of the nail polish, have button options for the variations in the product and that way, the customer gets to see different variations simultaneously without leaving the page or going to another. Adding too many pages to their list is a hassle so make as many many buttons as you can to make their process easy.
You also need to have multiple payment options as users get disappointed and leave the page if the payment options are restricted to one or two ways only. Give them as many choices as you can, be it, credit card, debit card, online wallets, COD etc and keep it glitch-free so they feel relaxed at the end of the payment procedure.
An extraordinary but simple design to support your eCommerce website
The biggest reason to redesign your website should be because your UI and UX have become extremely outdated and you need a new and improved architecture that would make things fast and easy for the customers and a dazzling UI to entice them and keep them on the website. These two reasons will also take care of the bounce rates and help you increase sales effectively.
Make it mobile-friendly and responsive
Everybody these days operates through their smartphones. The biggest hassle of not having a mobile-friendly and responsive eCommerce website is that if your customer is having issues in the online shopping process on the phone and has to move to a desktop to complete the procedure, chances are, they will not make that shift and move on to some other brand. You HAVE to have a mobile-first or mobile-friendly web design for your eCommerce site so you don’t lose potential customers. So make sure your web design company understands this need and keeps it at the top of the to-do list.
Improve the safety and security of the website
The security and safety of the website and its users are paramount. If your website is not secure then you put your customer’s information at risk and their accounts could also get hacked potentially. So invest well here and make sure you deal with all the bugs and save yourself from getting flagged by Google as it is one of the biggest ways your customer reaches you.
Improved search and filter functionality
Always take extra care in providing advanced search options to your customers. It could be an image search of a dress they want or they could be searching for a unique ingredient on your website. Many times, effectively adding filters will get them where they want to be and guide them in finding their product easily.
Effective Live-chat support for problems with the entire transaction
An efficient and helpful live-chat support will solve all their purchase or product-related problems and when a customer is satisfied by this very step, chances are, you have a regular customer on your list. It could be live-chat/bot support or it could be on-call support but customer care is important.
Geography matters and that should reflect in the design
These days, optimizing your website as per the geolocation is important as chances are the location you are targeting, will get you the maximum clients. So make sure that your content, website design and SEO are in sync with the location. A lot of times, Asian English is different from American English and European English and the content on the website will reflect that and if your target audience is wrong, they could get disappointed or not understand what you are trying to convey through your content. So make sure to take care of the geolocation and design/content is in sync with your goals.
Author Bio:
Brijesh Jakharia co-founded SPINX Digital in 2005 and takes great pride in crafting web and mobile marketing solutions for mid-market businesses to enterprises. Marketing is his passion, and the thrill to build a brand from the ground up has helped him craft successful brand stories for world-class clients. While not at work, he loves to spend his time on research and reading digital content stories.
