Nowadays people are purchasing products and services over the Internet, making shopping around the world that much easier. You may not realize this, but your web design and how it is organized can mean the difference in both obtaining and maintaining your customer base. The more organized and visually appealing your website is, the higher your customer conversion rates will be.
Design
Keep it simple. Enough said. For your first website you probably tried to cram in as much information as you could in the top of the home page. Because that is the part that everyone sees. But that is incorrect. You want your web design to be both simple and visually appealing. Otherwise, customers will get confused, overwhelmed and click the back button as soon as they see all the visual clutter. .
Use high resolution graphics to force your customers’ eyes to follow the page the way you want them to. If possible, keep as much information, including your call to action for the customer above the fold. Many people do not scroll down on a screen more than a few clicks or a couple of seconds.
Organization
Avoid having a lot of copy on the home page. Keep this for other pages which you will have links to on your home page. Let customers decide if they want to know profiles on all your employees or if they would like to contact you. Use these along with other links, including “Shopping,” your blog and “News.” As with the design, you want to keep the organization simple and easy for customers to navigate around your website.
Conversions
Conversions are your website’s success story. A conversion is when a “browser” becomes a “buyer.” The higher the number of conversions you achieve, tells you that yourwebsite is attracting and keeping customers. A well organized and attractively designed website is what will keep browsers around long enough to turn into a customer. Make your shopping page easy to navigate and your check out button clearly labeled at the top of the page.
Loyalty
There are many different ways to keep customers loyal. Send emails to customers who have made a recent purchase from you. Thank them and offer them a special discount, gift or anything your company can offer when they come back and make another purchase. Have customers input their emails so you can develop a data base of all customers to contact and keep in touch with. You can also organize your website to include a place for returning customers to go.
Fix It
If you find that you are not getting as many conversions as you would have liked, fix it. Sit down and go page by page through your website and take notes. Determine what needs to be changed and what can be kept. Tweak things here and there until you find what works for your customers.
Consider going mobile to keep customers around. Create a smart phone app or design a mobile friendly website. Both of these will give your customers access to your website no matter where they go.
If you develop a website that is organized and the design is well thought out, you have a higher chance of browsers becoming customers. They will not only become customers, they will become loyal customers.
Design and Organization = Conversion and Loyalty
