E-commerce websites - emphasis on DESIGN

Portray your brand well online!

For years, ecommerce websites have been thrown together, they're used as a simple platform to advertise a companies product(s). In my experience, not many ecommerce sites look like much time was spent on the design of the site. Probably from a templated design half the time.

I think the days of this are gone. Internet users are becoming influenced greatly by the way a site looks. Intrigue is extremely important in web design and even more so now with ecommerce.

Top quality photography is vital to show off a product to its fullest. If you're selling a product, you need the viewer to be able to find the items they want with minimal ease. Make the payment system difficult and they're going to turn off!

There are an awful lot of web developers who can put together a fantastically functioning website which doesn't engage the viewer.

In my opinion, each design should be completely bespoke and portray the companies brand in a professional and not in a 'over-the-top' fashion.

Take a look at your ecommerce site from an end users point of view, 'does it entice you to learn more and find products', 'is information easy to find', 'does the way the site is laid out give you confidence that the site will actually work?'. Answering these questions (and many more) can go some way towards answering why your site doesn't get many hits and sales. After all, that's what it is there for!