Proven Effective ECommerce Website Design Guidelines

Increase sales and convert browsers into buyers.  The right ecommerce website design will make a difference.   Eye tracking provides accurate information about how people behave on your site and what they look at and “skip over”.  The following guidelines are based on actual ecommerce eye tracking data and user studies.

1. Calls to Action should be bold and graphical.  The most important thing you want customers to do while on your ecommerce website is buy something.  Therefore, your most important call to action is your “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button.  This should be a graphical button that stands out and should definitely not just be a text link.
    
2. Your product descriptions must be descriptive and thorough. When people shop online, they are not able to touch and explore a product as they would in a brick and mortar store.  Take the extra step to offer ideas about how the product might be used and, if necessary, describe some of sensory elements that cannot be represented by looking at the product image alone.
3. Online shoppers prefer their product descriptions to be in bullets for quick scanning rather than long, wordy paragraphs.  They also prefer to have all details shown on a single page rather than having to click or use tabs for additional information about a product.  Again, this emphasizes that website visitors prefer scanning and minimal clicking.
4. Professional quality photos are an absolute must and tools for enlarging, panning and zooming are also important. Regardless of their position on the page, the first thing visitors look at when shopping is images.  Especially images of the products they might want to purchase.   Shoppers are happier if they can see product details and craftsmanship from different angles.
5. Visitors tend to stay longer on pages that are clean and less cluttered.  Pages that are too busy and cluttered do not offer the eye something to focus on.  Instead, many visitors become overwhelmed and leave.  Remember, white space is usually a good thing.
6. Pages should not be too long and require too much scrolling.  Do not overwhelm shoppers with too much information.  And what you do provide should be important and informative.  Try to answer questions your customer might ask when deciding whether to purchase a product.
7. The most important content and information that will influence purchasers should be placed in the same column as the product details.  This is usually the center column in three column layouts and the right column in two column layouts.  Visitors tend to pay more attention to content in the center column first, left column next and finally the third.
8. Finally, although not so much a visual design issue, please do not require your visitors to nearly complete an online transaction before providing them with pricing and opportunities to calculate or estimate shipping charges.