What E-Commerce Web Design Traps Can You Fall Into?
An e-commerce web site is as different from an ordinary “brochure” web site as a sailboat is from a powerboat.
If any web site is to be successful, whether it is an e-commerce site or not, it needs to be designed with its specific purpose in mind. Make a real hash of an e-commerce web site, and your sales could literally dry up over night.
Unfortunately, your designer may not tell you this. And it isn’t because they want to wreck your business, but because they probably don’t have enough practice to know any better.
The Perils of a Global Market For Web Designers
The Internet has opened up business possibilities for web developers around the world. Thanks to a global marketplace, a web developer in a small village in an underdeveloped country has as much access to businesses wanting to have a web site designed as a web designer living in a big city like Manchester does.
But does that village-based web designer have the same degree of exposure to the technicalities of e-commerce web design as a UK based designer working in Cumbria Web Design?
The answer to that question is typically “No”. It just obvious that the more exposure a web site designer has to all the big business environment, the more competent at e-commerce web design they will become.
A Cumbria, UK based, web designer will definitely handle more e-commerce web design projects in a week than a third-world designer encounters in a year.
But What About the Cost?
Many e-commerce business owners make the mistake of choosing a designer based upon cost. But that could be false economics. Consider this scenario:
Suppose you get two bids for e-commerce web design. One from a web designer in Cumbria and one from some little village far away.
The Cumbria web designer bids, let’s say, $500. The villager bids $50.
They both have a fairly impressive portfolio; the choice you have to make is easy, isn’t it? Go with the $50 bid and keep the $450 in your bank account.
But here’s what you don’t realize. There are subtle differences between standard web design and e-commerce web design. It is likely the lower cost web designer doesn’t understand those nuances, and that will cost you money.
There is a psychological power at work when people are making a buying decision. And every single graphical element on your page, along with font types and sizes, colours and usability features like menu placement and the number of clicks between the product description and the shopping cart, all work together to accomplish just one purpose: Making the sale.
So if you end up choosing the $50 villager, instead of the $500 Manchester web designer, you could end up losing sales due to low conversion rates.
Ok, so the villager’s website provides a 1% click-through rate, resulting in 10 sales per 1000 visitors, and the Cumbria web designer achieves 10% because they understand the subtleties of e-commerce sites; who was able to offer the more profitable deal?
I am sure you know the answer to that question.
When looking for a business that knows the answer as well then you will find a web design cumbria buisness at Mirefoot Web Design. They have the necessary subtilty to raise your conversion rates.