Design for Simplicity
Visitors should know the focus of your site within seconds of arriving at the homepage. Get rid of unnecessary text and design the layout around your main product or service. Avoid overwhelming visitors with too many choices. Use a large header image or a series of scrolling images to showcase current promotions and popular offerings.
Category navigation should be simple and intuitive and require as few clicks as possible. Place a search box in a prominent place on every page to give customers the option of going directly to the products they’re looking for. Product descriptions should provide all necessary information in just a few descriptive sentences, offering only what the customer needs to know before they make a purchase. Make sure that “add to cart” buttons are visible both on product pages and in search results.
Provide Useful Filters
When customers perform a search on your site, the results can be overwhelming if there’s not a way to narrow down the results. Create sidebar filters with options such as category, brand, price and color to help people find exactly what they want. Place “breadcrumb” links at the top of every page so that customers can easily click back to a previous category when browsing or searching.
Your goal should make it as simple as possible for visitors to find the products that they came to your site to buy. The modern consumer doesn’t want to spend time sifting through page after page of results looking for one specific item. If that’s the only option that you offer, customers will leave without making purchases.
Make It Personal
Every search gives you the opportunity to customize the shopping experience for your visitors. You can use what people are searching for to track trends and see which products are getting the most attention. This same information can be applied to individual customers in the form of tailored product recommendations. Many sites display products similar to those that customers are viewing to give them an idea of what others with comparable interests are searching for and buying.
Customers also like being able to adjust settings in their accounts to receive personalized product recommendations either while they shop or via email. This directs them right to products they find useful or entertaining and can serve to increase sales by prompting them to make purchases they might not have considered before.
Step Up Style with Flipbooks
If you want to give your product catalog a little extra flair, consider designing a flipbook and embedding it in your site. Like a paper catalog, flipbooks include images and descriptions of products that users can browse at their leisure. However, flipbooks can feature links, audio and video along with static images to provide a much more dynamic experience.
The popularity of tablets means that the majority of your customers will look at your flipbook on a device other than a computer. This means that features of your website such as cart access and checkout buttons won’t be visible and could detract from your ability to make sales. However, many flipbook creation services allow you to embed these features directly into the catalog to let customers shop for products and make purchases without having to navigate to your main site.
An online PDF to Flipbook Converter is a great way to expand your reach beyond the scope of your website. Include social sharing links both on the page where the flipbook is featured and within the flipbook itself to encourage customers to share their favorite products with friends.
Streamline Your Checkout
Another way to simplify checkout is to offer a guest option for those who don’t want to create a full account. This cuts down on the amount of clicks necessary to complete a purchase and decreases the likelihood that customers in a hurry will abandon their carts.
Need Help?
If you need more help and assistance in better optimizing your online shops, feel free to leave your comments below and we would love to share our experience with you. Do let us know how did you find these tactics and how far you think such minor changes could bring a drastic change in your business. Would love to hear from you guys. :)
