in Design

How To Create An Ecommerce Website That Sells

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We have all had the same experience regarding ecommerce websites. We go online looking for a particular product. We type the keywords for the thing we desire into a search engine. We get a bunch of results, and it seems as though one company has exactly what we’re looking for. So, we click through to the website and we are instantly disheartened by the unprofessional looking landing page of the company. If you are like me, when you see a poorly designed website, you probably leave the site and try another. At least for me, my thinking is that if the company can’t go through the effort to make a professional looking website, then they probably do not put much effort into other things like customer service or timely delivery, etc.

Thinking about it now though, maybe I am judging those sites too harshly. The fact is, business owners today know that they need a web presence. Unfortunately for them, they are in the business of, well, business. They are not web designers. I have to therefore assume that many of these poorly designed sites are the product of business owners that, try as they might, just can’t get their website to look good, regardless of the amount of effort they put into it.

But the fact remains:  professional looking ecommerce website design is crucial for Internet businesses in today’s day and age. Internet World Stats reports that over 34% of the world’s population uses the internet. That is a lot of customers to impress, and I have good news on that front: you can impress them. You just need the right tools, and those tools do exist. Furthermore, you should check out another article of ours called The six SEO strategies for commerce websites.

Novice

When you set up your ecommerce website, keep in mind that there are companies that provide theme stores. Essentially, you choose a theme created by a world renowned professional and apply it to your website. Simple. A theme store can provide you with over 100 ecommerce website templates you can use. Once you apply the theme to your website, you can do things like apply your own logo and change the layout and font colors etc. Sometimes the software will also support international languages and currencies, so if you haven’t been having very much luck selling your abstract heavy-metal album in America, maybe you can get some sales in Germany. What I like about using a theme store is that you don’t have to have any understanding of coding language whatsoever to create a very professional looking site. Options are pretty much choose and click.

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Expert

Of course, when it comes to ecommerce website design there are always people that just can’t help but to start from scratch and create their own website theme. If you are one of those people, and you have some understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or other coding language, you can use a template editor to create anything you can imagine. There is some good software out there that will allow you to use multiple coding languages when you design, so you should be able to accomplish your task regardless of the language you learned. Just be warned: this option is not for the faint of heart!

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Expert for the Novice

Finally, there are some people that want the best of both worlds regarding their ecommerce website. I’m talking about those people that do not have the technological capability to create their own custom ecommerce website template but still want one. Some of those people are lucky enough to have a computer expert for a best friend, but for the rest of them, they can hire a web design expert. An expert can take your ideas for a website and turn them into a reality. Of course with this option you will need to fork over some cash, but if you’re in business you already know that nothing is free. If you have the money, this is a great way to get exactly what you want without dealing with all the headaches.

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 Designed to sell

It’s a dog eat dog world out there on the Internet, and it really is sad when a business that may otherwise have been great has to shut down because of poor ecommerce website design. You may have the coolest T-shirts in the world, your cupcakes might be the most delicious, your music may sound as if it was sent down from heaven and your electronics may be the wave of the future, but if the design of your website looks like it was made by a five-year-old, you may find that the final resting place of all your products is the warehouse in which you store them. Companies like Shopify offer a free 14 day trial of their software and it’s worth giving it a try, because in the end, when it comes to the Internet, your personality doesn’t sell the products; your ecommerce website design does.

Bogdan

Bogdan is the founder of Top Design Magazine. You can find him in Bucharest-Romania so next time you want to drink a beer there and talk about web and stuff, give him a message.