Ecommerce Web Design Blog

When creating a web design for yourself or briefing your web design professional on the site you would like to have, it is very tempting to request to include swishy coloured boxes, an old logo that your brother designed in WordArt 3 years ago that you've used on all your promotional material since and your favourite pictures, colours and images. Unless you are an exact match for the types of customers you are targeting, you may need to think twice about this strategy. You may love it but your customers may not.

Creating an inviting web experience is absolutely critical in showcasing your business or selling online. An easy-to-use, secure and fully functional shopping cart will only get you part of the way. To get your customers over the line and buying from you, you also need to create the most professional and appealing buying environment you can. 

This means you need to put yourself in your customers shoes every time you create a design. It's very similar to designing a storefront that is inviting and makes your customers walk through the door. Always ask yourself:

• What do my customers expect to see?
• What would my customers consider inviting?
• Does my design look as professional as possible?
• Are my product and header images clear and crisp?
  
• Just like in interior design you need to think about the colours used. Ask does my colour palette work well together?
  
• Is my web design too cluttered?
  
• Is my web design too bland?
• Would your most fussy and frustrating customer find your site appealing and buy from you?
  

If you are unsure, let your web designers guide you. After all, it's their job to understand your customers and make your site look as appealing as possible. But they can only work with what you give them and within your instructions.

You're ready to open your online store. While you get your suppliers and prices set and take product photos you decide to take the step of registering your domain name so that is all ready to go before you buy your shopping cart software. But the domain name you want is taken. What do you do?

Here are some ways you can generate other domain names that you could use for your business.

• Use your product name in your domain name. If your business is called Elvis Ltd and you sell lighting, the domain name elvis.com.au might be taken but elvislights.com.au might not.
• Create a brand name and register that. If in the above example, elvis.com.au and elvislights.com.au were both taken you could create a brand name of your own called something like 'Lotsa-Light' and register a domain like lotsalight.com.au
• Try hyphens or change the order of the words.
• Add localisation information. Add your country or state to the domain names to help find something unique.

Whatever you register, make sure that when you come to running your store you promote your domain name heavily - in your brochures, in your physical store if you have one, in business cards, trade fairs and at every opportunity you get. This plus building links having an search-engine-friendly shopping cart website on your domain name will help you make your online shop a success.