How Web Design Impacts Sales for e-Commerce Sites

I’d like you to take a moment and think back to when you first commissioned your business’s website. Maybe your company has been around long enough that the initial search for a designer is but a distant memory; maybe you’re still a new enough player that you just sorted out the whole ‘online presence’ thing a few months back. Either way, it’s likely you still remember at least one thing about what you wanted out of your website when you made it a priority for your business: it had to look professional, well-done and easy to navigate. It had to look good.

The desire for good design, whether it’s for a personal or professional website, originates from the belief that image is everything; that a clean, well-built website will reflect positively on its owner. And it’s true, of course; we’re more likely to stick around and browse a site that’s had some serious effort put into its graphics, layout and navigation. But business owners can get so caught up in their attempts to make their brands look good that they forget about the other half of the reason they’ve invested in online real estate: an additional sales avenue – sometimes the most powerful one your business will have.

So much effort and energy can go into making all of the image-based aspects of a website – the headers, the footers, the menus, the link buttons – look great that there is little to no thought left over for the pages that are a part of your shopping cart checkout process. This can be problematic, as it is one of the most important parts of an e-Commerce website to pay attention to; if there are any flaws in the design, like a hard-to-find “Add to Cart” or “Checkout” button, a complex layout of products, or even low-quality images and video, all that effort you put into the design of the rest of your website will have gone to waste. You can invest all the time and money you have into making your brand look good, but if it all adds up to a negative shopping experience, you won’t see the sales you want to see – and at the end of the day, that’s the whole point of an e-Commerce site.

This is why it’s important to pay just as close attention, if not more, to the design of all the pages in your shopping cart process. You need to make sure that they not only look as professional as the rest of your site, but that everything is easy to see and find, that all the photos and videos are high quality, and that there’s no confusion along the way. Otherwise, no matter how much you put into the aesthetics of your site, you’ll be looking at a distinct lack of sales. Remember: image is important, but it’s certainly not everything in the world of online marketing; that honourable title goes to a positive user experience.

What do you think? Did you consider the design of the pages in your shopping cart process to be as important as the rest of your website when you had it built? Your thoughts are always welcome, so let us know!