{"id":31796,"date":"2019-08-27T14:19:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T19:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crowdspring.com\/blog\/?p=31796"},"modified":"2025-12-21T06:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T12:06:12","slug":"ecommerce-web-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crowdspring.com\/blog\/ecommerce-web-design\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Important Website Design Features Your eCommerce Site Must Have To Succeed"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Online Commerce (eCommerce) is on a tear.<\/p>\n

Frost & Sullivan reports<\/a> that annual B2B eCommerce will reach $6.7 trillion<\/strong> by 2020. Meanwhile, eMarketer estimates<\/a> that global retail eCommerce will reach $25 trillion<\/strong> in 2019.<\/p>\n

With so much to gain, eCommerce businesses can’t afford to lose sales due to poor website design.<\/p>\n

For most websites, there are established best practices that can help you build a useful, functional site.<\/p>\n

But eCommerce websites are unique. They must manage inventory, process payments, and provide a convenient shopping interface.<\/p>\n

And they need to work harder to overcome the inherent uncertainties of the internet to inspire consumers to part with their hard-earned cash.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that eCommerce sites must play by a different set of rules than a typical website.<\/p>\n

Now, before we continue, let’s briefly talk about price.<\/p>\n

Some business owners worry that the cost of professional website design<\/span><\/a> can be prohibitively high.<\/p>\n

Many design companies and agencies indeed charge tens of thousands of dollars for their services. But this isn’t universally true (crowdspring’s custom website design<\/span><\/a> projects start at just $899, including all fees).<\/p>\n

So, if you run an eCommerce business and want to realize your eCommerce business’s potential fully, focus on these important 5 website design<\/a> features.<\/p>\n

1. Streamlined navigation<\/h2>\n

You’d probably leave if you walked into a cluttered store where shelves are overwhelmed with merchandise and no semblance of order.<\/p>\n

That’s not a pleasant shopping experience.<\/p>\n

An E-commerce<\/a> site with poor navigation is the equivalent of a cluttered, messy store.<\/p>\n

It’s not enough to have a great business name<\/a> and sharp-looking business logo<\/a> and call it a day. If your homepage isn’t well designed and fails to offer a clear path to help shoppers find what they’re looking for, they will leave.<\/p>\n

And while effective navigation design is an important factor for all websites, it’s particularly important for eCommerce sites that sell various products.<\/p>\n

So, let’s talk specifics…<\/p>\n

Design tiered, common-sense menus<\/h3>\n
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Image courtesy of PetSmart<\/p><\/div>\n

Don’t throw everything and the kitchen sink on your homepage. Visitors may get overwhelmed and leave rather than forge through the chaos.<\/p>\n

Instead, provide an organized, tiered structure with just a few main categories at the top (home page) level to allow visitors to discover your products easily. Consider expanding drop-down menus to reveal more options once the customer has made their initial selection.<\/p>\n

For instance – PetSmart allows users to shop by brand, pet, pet services, or sale items. These four categories provide gateways to detailed menus.<\/p>\n

Filters make finding specific items easy<\/h3>\n
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Image courtesy of Zappos<\/p><\/div>\n

If you offer a particularly wide inventory, you may want to offer additional filters to narrow people’s search to specific parameters.<\/p>\n

For instance, most major shoe eCommerce retailers allow you to filter by price, color, heel height, size, and style. Furniture and home goods sites allow you to filter by price, width, height, and color – among other factors.<\/p>\n

Filters save users time and frustration by eliminating the need to scroll through dozens, if not hundreds, of inappropriate search results.<\/p>\n

Embrace the search bar<\/h3>\n
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Image courtesy of Target<\/p><\/div>\n

The king of shopping navigation tools is, of course, the almighty search bar.<\/p>\n

Including a search bar<\/a> on your homepage allows visitors to immediately begin a targeted search for the item or service they want.<\/p>\n

There’s no tedious clicking through many layers of menus – you just enter your search criteria, and away you go. Consumers value the ability to search for exactly what they’re looking for without beating around the bush.<\/p>\n

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