Photo by Fajar Fitryana Ramadhan on Flickr

Retailers have to work hard when designing their websites. Like it or not, it’s difficult to find customers and create sales. So, you’re going to struggle more than most if your site isn’t up to scratch. You need to appear trustworthy and professional if you want to achieve maximum conversions. With that in mind, there are some excellent tips and tricks mentioned on this page. While we won’t have time to cover everything today, this information should help to point you in the right direction. You can research the advice on this page in depth, and then put your newfound knowledge to good use. Failure to do that could mean you never achieve your sales goals. The process isn’t as complicated as it might sound, but you still need to focus if you want to get it right.

Ensure you provide secure payment pages

Most internet users are smart these days when it comes to protecting their personal details. They’re right to take that view because there are many hackers and criminals on the web. Most of them would love to find payment information and use it for a crime. So, you need to make sure pages where people enter their bank details are secure. Most consumers look for a small padlock in the address bar on their screens. If they don’t see one, they are unlikely to go ahead with the purchase. If you use a professional web designer, you just have to make sure they add security to your pages. Discuss the matter with them and try to come to the best solution. At the end of the day, they do the job for a living. So, they should have all the knowledge required to make that happen.

Photo Credit: WorldSkills UK on Flickr

 

Try to keep your site as simple as possible

Overcomplicating your web pages is not a wise move if you want to sell a lot of products. Just take a moment to look at some of the most popular retail websites around today. Most of them are about as basic as they come. Amazon is a good example if you want to browse the domain now. You will notice that product categories are always listed on the left-hand side. You should also see the pages aren’t overcrowded with information. When all’s said and done, your customers just want to see some images of the product. They then want to read a description that includes dimensions and weight. After that, all you need to worry about is providing them with a link to make the purchase. Don’t add lots of unnecessary information because you will just confuse things.

Publish your address and contact telephone numbers

Most website owners list an email address for people to get in touch with their companies. However, that can make your operation seem like a faceless corporation. For the best results, you should also publish your physical address and telephone numbers. When you do that, people will start to see your firm as legitimate. They know you wouldn’t put your name and details online if you were a fly by night business. So, you will appear more trustworthy, and that should encourage more sales. If you want to go a step further, you could even include a “meet the team” page. On that section of your website, you could publish photographs of your staff members with a short bio. With a bit of luck, that would advance your efforts and improve the impression people form when they discover your domain.

 

Offer live chat for customer service issues

Live chat solutions are essential when building your website. You probably use them already to communicate with your team or IT support personnel. Well, adding it to your site is a wise move because you can converse with your customers in the same manner. It enables them to get in touch with you whenever they have an issue. The difference is that they won’t have to wait for you to reply to an email. They can connect in seconds to a member of your team who will deal with their message. Hopefully, that should encourage them to stay on your domain instead of looking elsewhere. Internet users are pretty lazy these days. If they have to wait too long for something, they will often move onto a different site. Unless you sell unique products, that means you could begin to lose out to competitors.

Use the same branding elements across the entire site

Branding is everything when it comes to success in online retail. You need to make sure you have an attractive and memorable logo before you do anything else. Once you have that graphic, you should ensure it displays at the top of all your web pages. You also need to think about color and font schemes that represent your operation. Again, ensure you use the same ones across all your pages. That will help to add an element of consistency to your domain. It will also mean customer recognize it, regardless of which link they might have clicked. So, if they go straight to a product page, they will notice it belongs to you within seconds. If they trust your brand, that will increase the chances of them making the purchase.

 

Photo by Robbert Noordzij on Flickr

You should now have a basic idea of what you need to do to succeed. So, now is the time to get in touch with your web designers and let them know about your vision. Explain that you want to follow in the footsteps of some of the world’s most successful online retailers. Relay all the information from this page, and then ask them for further suggestions. If you have the right professionals working for your company, they should offer more ideas and concepts you could consider. Always listen to their advice and research it before making any new agreements.


So, all that’s left for us to say now is good luck! If you keep reading articles of this nature and moving forward, we’re certain you’ll achieve your goals in the end.