Quality in eCommerce website design is one of those soft things that is hard to define. Sometimes you know a good or bad design for an online store just by looking at it.
At the same time, it’s not impossible to qualify what makes a design good. In this case, we’re looking at what makes a design bad, as told by an eCommerce website design agency.
Clutter
It’s hard to define clutter, but it’s impossible not to notice it when you see it. You ever walk into a messy room and the clutter smacks you right in the face? It’s the same with a website.
What you don’t want is a website that looks and feels messy and stuffed with too many elements.
You want an example of a terrible one for an eCommerce business? Check out BerkshireHathaway.com and let that speak for itself.
Conflicting Colors
There’s a reason successful brands stick to basic and consistent color palettes that usually use three colors or less. Too much gets confusing, and conflicting.
You need users to be able to immediately recognize your palette. Too many colors and that becomes impossible.
In your website design, stick primarily to the use of colors that are used in your brand or logo, for consistency’s sake.
Too Much Imagery or Text; No Empty Space
Having too much imagery or too much text in a website design is not a good thing, as it competes for the user’s attention.
In some cases, less is more. You don’t want to overwhelm any visitors with too many photos or big walls of text.
At the same time, you will probably want a little bit of negative space that gives visitors a chance to breathe.
The Lack of a Sticky Header with a Shopping Cart
One of the most important elements of a modern eCommerce website design is the presence of a sticky header that follows the user as they scroll, and one which has the checkout cart icon embedded in it.
This is partly to keep the visitor from getting lost and partly for CRO, or conversion rate optimization, purposes. It makes it possible for the user to convert, no matter where they are on the page.
Duplicate Images or Poor Image Quality
Duplicate images are bad for SEO, poor image quality is bad for the user experience. In either case, they aren’t doing your eCommerce website design any good. Get rid of them and make sure you use high-quality, original images; user-generated or submitted is fine.
No Calls to Action
Customers need to be spurred to take action, and calls to action should be embedded in the copy on your website.
A CTA could be something as simple as “Add to Cart” which is, in fact, and strictly speaking, a call to action. But there are better ones that capitalize on senses of urgency and fear.
Keyword Stuffing
You don’t want your copy to sound too salesy, too disingenuous, or too littered with the same staccato keywords. Users will pick up on that and it’s likely to harm time on page and conversions. Write naturally, only use keywords where it makes sense.
Weird Navigation
Finally, a quality website design always – keyword – has solid navigation, at minimum in the form of a cohesive megamenu and a search bar. Some also have supplemental navigation through bestsellers or featured categories, or additional menus.
Working with an eCommerce Website Design Agency
Not sure how to improve the quality of your website? Get in touch with a qualified eCommerce website design agency today and make some of these changes today.
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