eCommerce websites have their own different characteristics that is designed to lead the visitor to one simple task which is make an online purchase. A web designer needs to consider a variety of online selling principles while designing an eCommerce website. In this article we will look at some of the design aspects that you should have in an eCommerce website.

Many of you should already be asking why eCommerce website design is different from any other website design. All websites needs to be attractive , very well organized and use the right colors that fits the website spirit and so on. Your instincts are good. However a close look at some successful eCommerce websites will reveal the conceptual differences that are typical in a successful eCommerce website.

An eCommerce website has to follow certain simple rules:

Give your user an extremely pleasant experience during their online shopping.
Make sure that you provide sufficient information on who is the website owner and why he should be trusted.
The ecommerce website must be very easy to use. If it is not your visitor will go to your competitor website.

All these rules are not new to the internet world. We all know those basic rules from our day to day life experience when we go to a  mall, shopping center and every other market place like ebay that is waiting for us to open swap our credit cards. The big challenge for a web designer is how to translate these basic rules while developing a website. Those conventional marketing techniques are the only ones to succeed in an online business today. Well I am sure you must have noticed items displayed on special waiting at the front of the store so that you notice them and walk inside the store. These specials save you lot of money and provide owners an opportunity to grow their clientele. To avail this special they want us to have a look at other items in the store as well.
How do you draw an imaginarily path in a web page? A way designed to lead your visitor to do what you want him to do…make online purchase. Unlike the supermarket our website has no smell to attract customer to a certain area while walking by. In a website the distance that has to be covered  from one point to the other is the same, so the exit is always right there. In a website you can try to order the “shelf” in the way you think will best expose the visitor to many of your products, but there is always a chance that he will find a short cut to another page that can also be the way off your site.

As can be see, although putting your products on the web is much easier then renting space and opening a supermarket. However, selling your products on the web can be difficult.

A good eCommerce website design will take your visitor to the right place in one simple click or two at the most. Sometime web designers will use tricks that would never be considered for non- eCommerce websites. Everyone on the internet must have  seen at least one or two sales letter website. On these single page web sites the only link is to  their form to place orders. Sales letters are not like  eCommerce website because they usually sell only one product on one website. That type of websites allows the web designer the ability to exaggerate the one click principle and take advantage of it. All the facts and figures about the product on sale  have been presented to the website visitor  is a simple smart way and after every few lines there is a link to the order form. The visitor will start to read until he is convinced to make a purchase from that website. If he is not yet convinced he will have the option to continue to read more facts and testimonials about the products. Believe it or not, those sales letter websites are actually selling.

“What about online shops?” Online shops usually  deal with more then one product. Of course, selling in huge quantity will definitely increases the complexity of the website. Sophisticated eCommerce websites use a variety of personalization technologies in an effort to determine the best selection of products to offer to the visitor. Personalization technologies are a major part of advanced eCommerce websites. However this topic is beyond the scope of this article. The cleverness of an eCommerce website’s personalization technology has a major influence on its design. The first to use such technology was Amazon.com who decided to push their client’s books to a visitor based on that visitor’s past orders combined with the statistics they had collected on all visitors used to predict what someone looking at a specific book might also be interested in reading. Today the goal is to try to predict what to offer the user on his first visit as well.

An eCommerce web design is not just about the backend but is also about the layout. The design of the ecommerce website store plays important aspect is where the user’s eyes look first when accessing a web page. Lots of research has been done on this topic. Most research done on this topic showed that the middle left side area will attract the most attention of the website visitor  followed by the center of the page. By using these techniques web designers  to draw the virtual path for the visitor’s eye, almost like as done in supermarkets using smell of food items. An experienced eCommerce web designer will know how to create designs to meets those demands.

If you are ready to open an eCommerce website or you are already are running  one, make sure you understand the web design ideas and concepts for online selling. Consider consulting with an experienced website designer most preferably a person who has lot of experience with eCommerce websites.

Good luck with your sales.