Your Website Layout Is Important

The look and feel of your website is a very important aspect in terms of increasing sales. You want to make sure that customers can easily find what they are looking for, and purchase those products quickly with fewer clicks or looking around. Here are some basic tips when designing your website.

• Clear And Pronounced Calls-To-Action. Create clear buttons or steps for the customer to follow to purchase your products. The more clicks it takes to purchase a product, the more likely you are to lose the customer's interest and their business. You should be able to purchase products on your home page, or within one click of the home page. "Add To Cart" buttons and "Checkout" buttons should be high on your pages and should be a bright or contrasting color so that they stand out. It is also helpful to make the calls-to-action slightly larger.
• Keep Navigation Simple. If you have complex navigation, too much navigation, or any type of navigation that is confusing or that could distract the customer from finding the link that they are looking for, then you are likely to lose their business. Links that are not as popular, or links that customers do not need to use often you should put in the footer, or at least below the fold on the page.
• Display Safe Shopping And Security Logos. Customers should feel comfortable when they are purchasing products from your website. You will want to include different security logos on your website indicating that your website is secure; this will put your customers' minds at ease. You can get these logos by using the ShopSite security logo, contacting your SSL provider to get their logo, as well as contacting your credit card processor to get their logo. At the very minimum, these logos should be placed on the cart pages where the customer is entering their personal information, but it is useful to have them throughout your website.
• Include All Store Information. Providing "About Us," "Contact Us," "Privacy Policy," and "Return Policy" pages and information will allow customers to get all their questions about you and your company answered before they purchase from your website.
• Clearly Indicate Checkout Process. In addition to letting the customer see their final shipping, tax and order costs before continuing through the checkout process, you will want to have a checkout process indicator to let customers know how far along in the checkout process they are. If you have three steps, (1) Shopping Cart, (2) Shipping & Billing, (3) Receipt, you will want to list all three steps on the first page of the checkout, so that customers know how long it takes to checkout. Once the customer moves to the Shipping & Billing screen, the progress bar should indicate that they are at step 2 of 3.