One of the biggest complaints from customers is confusing ecommerce websites. With so many rival websites it’s therefore important that your web design is as slick and customer-friendly as possible.

Here we bring you some top tips for ecommerce web design. If you are looking for great ideas and beautiful ecommerce design then check out the portfolio of WebCreationUK.

Six great tips for ecommerce and e-retail websites

Good navigation: Buying a product should not be a challenge or a bid to get your customers to solve a puzzle. Make the buying process straightforward. From reading about the product, to  popping it in their basket, to getting to the checkout, all processes should be simple and signposted.

Search option: A “search for product” option is a great idea. Sometimes a customer wants to quickly find out if you stock one product and to save them scrolling through long lists of products or accessing various categories they could find exactly the product they want within seconds of searching.

Call to action: Make each part of the purchasing process simple. Add call to action buttons such as “buy now”, “add to shopping basket”, “go to checkout” throughout your ecommerce website.

Less clicks is more: Shorter buying processes will gain you customer friends. If the purchase process is long-winded then they will be tempted to head to another site. It’s important to let customers have a chance to check their purchase list but apart form this the procedure from choosing the product to buying it should be simple and straightforward.

Clear prices and labeling: Customers want to know what a product is and how much it costs. Delivery costs are also important. So make sure all these points are covered, simply and clearly.

Customer service: A customer service that is easily accessible, such as an email response or live chat, will give customers greater confidence and trust in your on-line company.

This could be an interesting piece of research if you are aiming to attract the most potential customers to your ecommerce site. Especially if you use discount vouchers and social media marketing platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

A report, by price comparison website InvisibleHand, has found that traffic to internet shopping sites is 75% higher at 4pm on a Wednesday than at the quietest times. There is a 52% rise in the number of people shopping on-line on a typical workday afternoon compared with mornings. Meanwhile, on-line shopping traffic is 11% higher at 2pm than at midday.

Sunday night is the second most popular time for on-line shopping after Wednesday, with a 27% increase over Saturday night.

Could it be that office workers are turning to on-line shopping when they are most bored? And that Sunday night TV is not good enough to hold the attention of the average person as they switch on their computers instead?
Whatever the conclusion of this report, it does give a few clues for ecommerce businesses.

WebCreationUK currently offer an e-shop summer special. If you are looking to set up your own ecommerce store, speak to us for more information on your web design needs.

A recent survey revealed that 10% of website designers believes that SEO is not their business. But SEO is vital if your want your e-retail or e-commerce site to be noticed by the search engine spiders. That’s why it’s essential that you chose a web designer that knows the fine art of SEO.

At leading website design company WebCreationUK, SEO is an integral part of the website design service. The award-winning design company employs a team of search engine experts who ensure that all new and relaunched websites are created to have the potential to rank highly on the major search engines, such as Google and Yahoo.

But why are SEO-charged websites important?

Search engines employ automated web spiders to crawl through websites. These web spiders collect important information about the website. The information they glean helps them assess the relevance of a website for particular keywords.

The spiders then place the information in a database. So, when a user searches a keyword on, for example Google or Yahoo or Bing, the search engine dips into this database and lists pages according to relevance. Pages that are more relevant rank at the top.

So an SEO-friendly web design is clearly an asset for any business that wants to rank highly on search lists – and gain a greater potential for custom to their site.

Make sure you employ a web designer that is also hot on SEO.

A new survey reveals that UK consumers are now spending 45% of their time watching television or using mobiles and other communication gadgets.
The report by government regulator Ofcom also found that:

• We send four times as many texts per day than in 2004.
• We spend nearly a quarter of our time on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.
• We spend 3 hours and 45 minutes watching TV each day.

So it seems that media and communications are now very much central to the lives of all Brits. On average we use them for nearly half our waking hours.

Younger people have shown the biggest changes in media use but the divide between the use of technology by youngerand older people is narrowing as a greater number of older people go on-line.

Further facts found in the survey include:

•    Smartphone ownership is up by 81 percent from 7.2 million users in May 2009 to 12.8 million in May this year.
•    In the first quarter of 2010 nearly a quarter of adults accessed content or sent emails on their mobile phones, up from 20% in the first quarter of 2009. Among those aged 15 to 24 the rise was 45%.
•    Surfing the internet on mobile phones is the fastest growing mobile media activity. One million more new users did so in the first quarter of 2010, which sees the total users now at 13.5 million, compared to 9 million in the same quarter last year.

For businesses, one of the clearest messages is to ensure that your website is simple to browse on a mobile handset. If you want to find out more about how to do this then check out leading web design firm WebCreationUK.

Many businesses are now wising up to the benefits of social media marketing. And one of the best platforms for social media is Facebook.

Facebook has more than 500 million members and is still growing. This means that there is a huge potential audience and target market out there worldwide on Facebook.

Here are some interesting facts about Facebook:

▪    More than 85% of women in America have a social network profile, and 95% of these women are on Facebook.

▪    Facebook has been translated into more than 100 languages – and now a third of the world population.

▪    More than 50% of all internet users who shop online are also on Facebook.

▪    In its latest quarterly report, Facebook reported a 25% increase in membership in a total of 47 countries.

When you look at the numbers and facts alone, it ‘s seems clear that if there’s only one social media platform that you decide to embrace for your first social media campaign then Facebook is a good bet.

WebCreationUK can assist you in any of your web design or social media needs, speak to us for more information on our social media packages.

Latest figures reveal that on-line retail spending in the UK was £5 billion in July, which is the highest of any month this year. The IMRG Capegemini e-Retail Sales Index shows that 
Brits spent an average of £81 per person on-line.

July also marks the biggest jump of any month in two years. The Index has grown by 18% compared to last July. The growth rate was 14% compared to the month before.

Chris Webster, of Capegemini is reported as saying: “Although on-line retail sales survived the recession more convincingly than high street sales, the last two years or so have no doubt been shaky at times.

“It is really encouraging to see growth levels returning to those seen pre-2007 and before consumer confidence was knocked by the financial crisis and recession.”

The most impressive result in July was in the travel sector, which was boosted by shoppers making last-minute bookings to escape the British summer.

The performance of retailers with a high street presence as well as an on-line store also continue to out-perform online-only retailers. Multichannel retailers saw growth of 18% compared to last month, while online-only retailers showed growth of 8%.

Another industry expert said:
”The evidence mounts that high street retailers will need to invest more in their online business and put it at the heart of their retail strategy. Online retailers, on the other hand, will need to continue to innovate as they strive to close the growth gap.”

Looking to set up your own ecommerce store? Speak to WebCreationUK about our e-shop summer special package and more information on website desgin.