10 Unique Problems of E-Commerce Website Design

The digital space is the best place to be for a business right now, especially after the pandemic, and having an e-commerce site gives every business a fair chance to grow its customer base.

Besides, e-commerce has become a major tool for sales, with a promising and bright future ahead. Therefore, e-commerce store owners try their best to create a user-friendly website.

However, achieving an e-commerce website design is not as straightforward as you might think. Running an e-commerce business has its own set of challenges and problems that may affect the revenue, lead to financial losses and a decline in reputation. Besides, these challenges are merely the tip of the iceberg.

What if your clients encounter some issues while shopping? It would certainly drive them to leave your website without really buying anything.

So, let's address some of the unique problems of e-commerce website design.

10 Problems of E-Commerce Website Design

Websites face a few hurdles every now and then, but there are some problems that are unique to e-commerce websites. It is essential to keep the e-commerce website design up-to-date and glitch-free. Ecommerce websites are growing as people are getting comfortable ordering online.

According to the latest stats, e-commerce is working out great for B2C vendors as they generated a staggering amount of 1.2 trillion dollars back in 2013.

It is quite evident that people had acquired a habit of online shopping, especially when the entire globe was under a lockdown. The LocalCircles conducted a survey, according to which almost 51% of the population will be buying online from e-commerce websites for this year's festivities. This is a massive jump from 27% in 2019.

However, maintaining a smooth, functioning e-commerce platform is not a piece of cake. It requires a great website design team to monitor the web page for any blunder regularly. This article will tell you about ten problems that you may have to face if you own an E-commerce website.

So, let's dive in!

Making the Consumer Trust Your Website

There needs to be trust wherever there is money involved.

The top priority of every online vendor, especially if it is a startup, is to opt for an e-commerce website design that can build credibility. In order to make a purchase, consumers put up a lot of personal information like address, phone number, etc.; therefore, they will only shop from a website if it looks reputable.

Following are a few things around web design for ecommerce that you need to take care of if you want your online business to flourish:

Stay Away from Spam

Blindly stuffing keywords into your web copy will make your website unappealing and spammy. Such SEO tricks won't help you build credibility; on the contrary, they can seriously hit your Google search rankings.

Making Website Accessible

Let's look at user challenges now that we are aware of the significance of web accessibility and its requirement to prevent significant loss for a site's core design. Making an inclusive website design will be easier if you are aware of the restrictions personally.

Making your website accessible to everyone will increase your consumer base and conversion rate. Furthermore, as per  AODA compliance guidelines Ontario (Canada), you need to make your website accessible for your business. It will enhance the reach of your business and take it towards progress.

A Big No to Popup Ads

A website full of pop up ads creates chaos and makes things difficult for the consumer. The pop ads fill up the screen, especially if the browser is on a mobile device, blocking the view. Online businesses should keep this in mind while deciding on their e-commerce website design. 

Get Your Website an SSL Certification

Cyber threats are of real concern. No one wants malware on their systems; therefore, it is better for you to get a security certification, so your consumers can feel safe.

Ensuring a Hassle-Free Payment System

Certain e-commerce platforms simply lag because of their payment process. You need to ensure minimum steps between order placement and checking out, or else chances are the buyer might leave before completing the order.

Making the whole process complicated is one of the most damaging mistakes that online vendors make.

You need to create a fast and straightforward billing mechanism that can get you the customers' personal information without overwhelming them with the complexity of the process. Ideally, the entire checkout process shouldn't exceed a page and should avoid asking for irrelevant information.

There should be multiple payment options, including COD, as many people are hesitant to share their credit card details and prefer paying after they have received their parcel.

Moreover, many websites make it mandatory for the shopper to create an account in order to proceed to check out.

The entire concept of online shopping is to provide ease to the customer; what is the use of an e-commerce website if the checkout process is made difficult. Customers ignore such websites and opt for alternatives that are convenient for them.

Keeping Track Of Your Stock

People managing an e-commerce website need to always be on their toes, as it is quite a responsibility.

Out of many duties, you need to update your stock. It would be best if you make sure that every offer is displayed on the web page. Not only this, but you also need to track the amount of stock you have.

Tips to keep a check on your inventory

Here are some tips you can follow to keep a check on your inventory:

Organizing is the key

Start organizing your products in different groups. Many industry giants follow this as it makes it easy to keep track of things. Most importantly, you need to make a list of your best-selling products as you should know how much you are left with and at what time you should prepare to restock those products.

Get Yourself an Inventory Management Software

You may not believe it, but some large-scale companies still do it manually with pen and paper, while some use excel, which is not ideal at all. There are some negative aspects of updating your inventory manually-

Therefore, we always recommend that online vendors update software that can manage all the numbers for them. It is simply an outdated and unprofessional way of handling your stock management. On the other hand, inventory management software is specially designed to manage your inventory record without messing the numbers up.

They don't require to be installed as they are cloud-based and allow multiple users login facility so you can have access to them from anywhere you want.

Use Barcode Scanning

A decent-sized online store can get hundreds of orders every day; this means that human error may occur and cause setbacks to the entire work process. However, having access to a barcode scanner can improve your accuracy and improve the efficiency of your service by many folds.

Businesses having a wide variety of products in their warehouses find it quite difficult to keep track of their inventory. Products can get lost and misplaced, resulting in delayed shipments. A barcode scanner can help you overcome all such unpleasant scenarios.

Ensuring Smooth Shipping Experience

One of the goals of an online business is to provide a convenient shipping service to its clients.

Unfortunately, this is the part where the online vendors have the least control over themselves; online businesses rely on third-party courier services for delivering their goods.

However, you can still make things charming by saying those two magical words: free shipping. Online buyers are naturally attracted towards free shipment and will prefer an online service with free shipment over the one that doesn't.

A Simple UI/UX Design Layout

As discussed earlier, providing ease to the customer is the primary job of an e-commerce website. Your website design should help the consumer to navigate to where he wants to be.

Unnecessary design elements and a complex menu can make a customer go away to another website. A good e-commerce website design is always responsive, simple, and optimized, so consumers stay loyal to the business.

Design Thinking

There is no place for design without logic in the digital world. If web designers want their work to be acknowledged, it should be backed by reasoning and strategy.

The design should be appealing and functional simultaneously; a good design is the one that works! This is a popular methodology known as design thinking, and it helps website designers make the web layout more creative and alive.

Optimization

80% of the total web traffic comes from mobile phones; therefore, an e-commerce website must be mobile-friendly.

Since a major chunk of traffic will come from a mobile device, you need to make sure your website is responsive on the portable screen. Moreover, a developer also needs to ensure that the text and the product are clearly visible when viewed from a mobile screen.

Ease of Navigation

An online store should be all about feasibility, reliability, and simplicity. And the only way to achieve such a website is to master the user experience design. The key goal of a web developer is to make the navigation of the website as simple as possible.

The layout of the website should be easy so that the visitors can easily find the section they are looking for; otherwise, they might get frustrated and leave for another option. In this digital era, a website owner should facilitate the customers to the fullest because the competitor is just a click away.

Content-Focused Design Approach

A content-driven website design is a thing of the future, and industry specialists have regarded it as the secret ingredient to attract massive traffic. Therefore, it has become super popular among UX designers.

Opposite to the traditional way, where a website is designed first, and then the content is placed, this method focuses on content to come up with suitable designs. This new design methodology has the potential to grasp consumers' attention more efficiently.

Making Sure that the Products look Visually Appealing

A product that looks better sells better. Product photography should be on point. Otherwise, don't expect any wonder to happen.

Trust us; if the packaging is boring, no one will want to look at what is inside. High-resolution photography can help you build a credible website; it is all about the presentation at the end of the day.

Utilization of Image Alt Text

Mostly, it is used to describe the image on the page while it is loading; moreover, it can also help the visually impaired describe a product with the help of screen-reading tools.

There is more to the magic; image ALT text optimizes your product's image to help it appear on the google image results. If done correctly, you can generate a ton of leads through image searches.

SEO Optimization to Generate Traffic

The fundamental goal of every website is to attract traffic, and for that purpose, SEO techniques are utilized by web developers. But unlike other websites, SEO for e-commerce websites is a bit different because of many similar pages and limited words that can be used.

Moreover, a clean website structure can significantly improve Google rankings; therefore, always try to keep the layout as simple as possible.

Ensure that Onsite Search Engine is Smoothly Running

Adding more features to a website can help the usability of the platform; only if the added functions are relevant. Like it is useless to add a map to your website if you don't have an actual office. But at times, adding simple features can significantly enhance the value of your website.

Adding a simple on-site research tab can make your customers' life easy. At times, consumers get lost and are unable to find the product they need. In such cases, they can easily look up for that product directly.

Say No to Dishonest Advertising

A vendor should be careful of what he advertises on his website. There are cases where websites don't advertise clearly and end up confusing the customers. Let's say you are offering a discount coupon that doesn't work; such blunders kill credibility in no time.

Wrapping Up

We are still evolving, and in the near future, we might see digital taking over the conventional mediums. It is best to stay updated and move forward with the world. Embracing change will keep you in the market; otherwise, your business will go obsolete.

There is no way a business can survive without a fully operational e-commerce website. And no matter how easy it sounds, creating the best ecommerce website design for a thriving e-commerce platform is a very critical phase where a slight mistake can cause your entire effort to go in vain.

We recommend that you go through all the problems discussed above to help you during your e-commerce website design process. Trust us; a well-functioning e-commerce website may cost you a little fortune, but it will pay off well in the longer run.

Still, if you need any help with e-commerce or any other website designing, feel free to Contact Us!

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