Experts have a ton of branding advice for online store development. Though a comprehensive tutorial is often necessary, a two-step guide that sums up these recommendations is sometimes what you need.
So here are two commandments that could help you with website development — from website palette selections to choosing online data backup providers.
1. Make the right first impression
Your website visitor will be gone in 10 seconds. Unless your website is able to communicate your value proposition quickly and clearly. How do you do this?
What are the first things a visitor encounters upon landing on your site? It’s your site’s loading speed, design and visuals, copy, and navigation features. These elements combined should communicate to your visitors that they’ve come to the right place; the e-store where they can find the product they’re looking for and buy safely with ease.
Thus, it shouldn’t take your website more than four seconds to load because with every second of delay, you lose a customer. And your design should be enticing and trustworthy, with an intuitive navigation, suggesting your store is the right one to buy from.
Your online store’s copy should also be clear and informative. It should reflect your brand personality, too. These are things that customers look for in an e-commerce site.
When visitors leave a website, it usually boils down to three things: disinterest, distrust, and difficulty navigating. So to make a good first impression, your website needs to address all three.
2. Make that first impression last
You made them stay, now what? It’s time to make them buy by keeping tspanhem engaged.
Results of a study made on retail websites reveal that specific website features play a significant influence in converting visitors to buyers. Features that promote a “flow” or “psychological state of immersion” lead to conversion.
So a pleasant shopping experience is a fluid experience with minimal hurdles through each stage of online shopping, which includes:
- Catalog stage
- Shopping cart
- Checkout
For the catalog or product browsing stage, visitors need helpful copy and stunning but honest images. Special offers and subject tabs can lower conversion rates according to the same study.
The shopping cart should provide the product price and shipping and handling costs to reduce any sense of uncertainty in the customer. It should also provide sufficient payment options.
Extra hurdles, like being asked for an email address during checkout, make buyers back out.
Overall, you want your customers to have a seamless journey from product consideration to checkout by removing what distracts them or slows them down.
Don’t be just a store, be a brand
We often associate branding with a name, logo, tagline, and design style. These are all crucial brand design assets. However, it’s the buying experience you provide the customers that can turn you from just another business into a brand.
Most customers will buy from a brand they love even if a lower-priced item is available in another store, which they do not trust. For this reason, building your brand by making a powerful first impression and taking care of that reputation should always be your priority.
