Digital Dream City

Ecommerce Design: Internet has offered a new platform for trading, today businesses make websites to reach millions of consumers across the world, and small business enterprises are competing with big multinationals to make their presence felt on the internet. Although millions of companies and individuals are running their online stores, the major problem faced by most of them is having a non user friendly website, resulting in potential customers spending minimal time on their sites and not purchasing. At ISHIR Digital we pride ourselves in making ecommerce websites extremely user friendly, making it easy for customers to view product details and complete online transactions. At the same time we implement our usability practices for the admin area, so the administrator can also manage the store with ease.

We follow certain basic usability requirements for an e commerce website design:

Simple and Organized Design: A cluttered web design creates confusion in the customers mind. Web users tend to favor other sites, which offer easy navigation. An e commerce site design must be simple and organized so that customers can easily navigate the site.

Navigational Headings There is nothing worse in an e-commerce shop than being a potential customer trying to figure out which part of the shop you are in. Breadcrumb navigation should always be used to show how deep into the shop they have gone. A good example would be: Home > Consumer goods > Washing Machine > Whirlpool … etc.

Searching a Product Adding a search function is mandatory in designing e-commerce websites. It’s similar to asking an assistant in a retail store where a particular product is. You may know that they sell trousers, but it can be difficult to locate the exact brand amongst the hundreds on offer. The search bar should be located at the top of the page, above the fold where it can be seen instantly.

Refining a Search Whenever there is a possibility of huge number or listing in search results, an option to narrow the criteria of a search is a very useful tool. Sometimes providing search criteria like price range etc. could be very useful to your customers.

Shopping Basket It is beneficial to have shopping basket or cart viewable at all times so customers feel like they have it with them whilst they are browsing your site. It also keeps customers aware of what they have selected to purchase and allows them add or remove items with ease, like in the offline world.

Customer Registration Asking customers to register before purchasing can deter them from purchasing a product. Customers do not always want to commit all their details to a website whilst they are only window shopping. The smarter way of getting registration details is during the checkout stage, where it can be disguised as simply adding shipping and billing details which the customer will accept as compulsory. This data can be saved as an account for future visits. By doing this the checkout process is sped up and the number of customers abandoning their shopping cart is reduced.

Add to Cart In order to achieve a greater rate of conversions, a bold clear button in a strong color should be added to each product page. This should stand out from the rest of the content on the page.

Clear business policies An e commerce website design must clearly demonstrate the business policies of the company. Make clear conditions with regard to purchase of products and the entire shipping process which is convenient for the customer.

Earn trust of the customers It is not easy to earn the trust of the customers. As there is no direct communication between the store owners and the customers it is very important to provide the customers with all possible contact information such as telephone number, postal address etc. Some usability guidelines for administrator who is responsible for managing the store

Easy product upload New products on sale can easily be displayed on the web page. In case of uploading thousands of products at once there should be an option for bulk upload as well.

Quick price modification There should be an option in the admin area which allows prices of goods displayed on the web page to be easily modified.

Marketing features Option for cross selling and applying discounts on range of products is also a good option for the person who is managing the store. The products on sale will be displayed on screen within seconds of the admin changing them.

Sales report It can be a nightmare for a store owner if they are unable to easily obtain a sales report. Sales reports should be available for daily, weekly and monthly sales so that the store owner can decide future strategy for increasing or decreasing products from their inventory.

The world of web offers global platform to distribute your business and aim for global reach. Gone are the days, when your brick and mortar shop would hardly cross the local geographical boundary and could aspire to take off the brand to higher loft of national recognition until or unless you spend hefty in expensive advertising and marketing through TV or print media. And the scenario is changing at the lightening speed with the advent of Internet media. Onset of this World Wide Web media has led modern business owners to touch virtual advertising strategies. And the cornerstone of an internet based marketing techniques is a website. Like customers are most prone to make their purchase order through online shops and stores, their sellers are also creating online presence with result oriented ecommerce web design solutions. To keep up your small business portal sustain cut-throat competition along the length and breadth of web world and spread your business, target to provide optimum convenience of using your site. Usability is epitomised as one of the most significant features. Usually usability of an ecommerce site indicates that a site is extraordinary strong in following aspects –* Convenient addition of products – When you have brought new range of products or product to the inventory, make sure you can add them at your online catalogue with at ease. Information about new products will be stored in the database of the site and should be easily uploaded as and when required as per requirement. * Alteration in price tag – A highly usable site will be extremely user-friendly in making alteration of price structure of products according to the requirements and changing market trends. At the same time, web pages displaying price changes should also be modified effortlessly. * Online transaction of payment – Easy online transaction of payment for purchase is one of the most important aspect of ecommerce web design. This plays as the major role in fetching success of any ecommerce web site that is capable of providing a convenient and safe transaction from customers’ account. * Cost effectiveness for the business – The ecommerce web design must be highly cost effective for the business owners allowing them to trade into their niche and interact with their global clientele base with great ease. * Quick marketing effects – When you can create a safe and easy shopping experience from your site, your site automatically generates repute of a convenient shop on the internet and in your industry. Therefore, if your site does not prove enough usable for internet users, you will fall back on producing buzzes and news of a useful and reliable website. For this, your ecommerce web design techniques must enable you to display sellable products on the window within seconds along with required information on the products if given any. The ecommerce web designing remains incomplete without an effective shopping cart facility.At the same time, when you are espousing ecommerce web design strategies by focusing on usability, you should also consider convenient browsing of windows, less time consumption, even and equal usability on every type of browsers and operating systems etc.

World Wide Web has offered a new platform of business. In the past, hardly a number of business concerns could trade globally. But, with the introduction of web there has been a drastic revolution in the market trends. Today, business companies make websites to reach to the millions across the world. In fact, small business enterprises are equally competing with big multinational companies to make their presence felt in the web world.

Increased competition across the cyber market has sped up the growth of new technological development. The obvious outcome was attempt to devise new ways to make the website more user friendly. E commerce web design became the ideal choice of the business concerns for its flexibility and user friendliness.

Usability

One of the most important feature of an e commerce web design is that it is very much user friendly. Moreover, an e commerce website is highly feasible solution for the web owners. Certain basic usability of e commerce website design are stated below:

* Easy product upload – New products of sale can be easily put up on the web page. These new goodies stored in the database of the website is uploaded in no time according to requirement.

* Quick price modification – The prices of goods displayed on the web page can be easily modified. According to the market standards, the prices of commodities are become lower or higher.

* Easy transaction of goods payment – Payment of commodities is done through the Internet. Customer payment is directly deposited in the owners account.

* World market – Websites make an indefinable presence in the global market. Successful e commerce websites create a favorable image of the business company in the eyes of the global consumers.

* Cost effective – An e commerce website is highly cost effective for the web owner. Web owners can trade with their global customers with great ease. These web owners are not harried of setting up business location, manpower etc.

* Fast marketing – Web user can easily shop in the Internet. The products of sale are displayed on screen within seconds. The web users order their requirements through the shopping cart facility.

* Highly convenient – It is the most convenient kind of shopping. The web user can market products according to choice sitting in a remote room from various websites across the world.

* Less time consuming – Internet marketing is very less time consuming. Web users can easily shop within less time.

Ways to make an e commerce web design usable

Business cannot grow if it fails to satisfy the needs and desires of the prospective consumers. An e commerce website must offer easy accessibility to its customers. Some guidelines to design a usable e commerce website design.

“Bill of Rights”: The company must have ready information about the fact that it is working in conformity with the laws of the trade. It is extremely essential to provide the prospective consumers with details that the website has been designed only to meet their needs.

Easy navigation: It becomes essential that an e commerce web design must offer the prospective users the liberty to easily navigate through the web pages. An e commerce websites contains numerous products of sale. The web designers must design according to the needs of the customers. The web users must be able to browse the products of sale through name, price and data with ease.

3. Clear business policies: An e commerce website design of a website must clearly demonstrate the business policies of the company. Make clear conditions with regard to purchase of products, the entire shipping process which is convenient for the user.

Earn trust of the consumers: It really very difficult to earn the trust of the customers. There is no direct communication between the web owners and the users. It important to provide the users with all possible information such as telephone number, postal address.

5. Simple checkout process: Web designers must design the check out process in a simple way. The user must not face any difficulty in the last phase of the transaction process. Generally the users turn to other sites and the obvious result is that there is the web site meets a fatal end.

6. Simple and organized design: A cluttered web design creates confusion in the visitors mind. Web users tend to turn to other sites, which offer easy access. An e commerce web design must be simple and organized so that the web users can easily access the site.

E commerce web design has been witnessing huge technological changes. With increased competition, web designs are constructed to provide the consumers with state- of – the – art facilities to be more at ease. A usable e commerce website design is more attractive to the consumers and the most successful one.

Web design is much more than just creating a design that is fresh and appealing. Any web site that is to become successful as a sales and marketing tool needs to be intuitive and easy to use for first-time and repeat visitors.

At Empress we design websites to appeal to your target market with a look and feel that is appropriate for your business, and web pages that load quickly. Aesthetically, we ensure a consistent graphic style that will strengthen your brand and promote you as a market leader. We offer web design, web development, ecommerce web design, CMS web design services in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane in Australia.

We structure site content to make finding and viewing information intuitive, easy and comprehensive. With well designed fully customised menu styles, and page structures, we ensure that the user is only ever three clicks away from information. So once they’re on your site their visit time is never cut short prematurely by slow loading pages or frustrating menu and page structures.

Maintaining awareness of new trends in both web design and search engine marketing is crucial for us at Empress. We not only stay abreast of general trends and web happenings, but our thorough project research process ensures that our team are always conscious of how your website works for your individual business needs and your specific market. We adopt a fresh approach to all our projects; a necessity for the ever evolving online market, but at all times we pay close attention to your individual needs, ensuring that you are happy with our direction and the end outcome. visit www.empresscreative.com.au for more information.