Online shopping, most commonly known as eCommerce, is an area of digital design that has seen incredible growth over the last decade. A combination of recent societal pressures and naturally evolving consumer behaviour has resulted in many businesses taking the plunge and moving their businesses online. eCommerce design allows shops, manufacturers, restaurants and even football clubs to sell their products and services online, freeing up staff and simplifying operations in the process. But to fully benefit from an online shop, it is essential to plan, design and maintain a shop, just as you would with a physical location.
If you’re a bricks-and-mortar retailer looking to set up your own online store, then you must know what to expect from an eCommerce website design. This article will look at the history of eCommerce website design, common types of online shop and things to consider before you get started.
The first examples of eCommerce website design date back to the late 1990s, when a handful of businesses like Amazon and eBay saw the opportunity to sell across borders and without a physical location. These companies were innovative in their approach, investing in technology to simplify the buying experience and remove barriers to purchase such as travel, waiting in a queue or having to transport heavy goods.
In principle, this idea was not new — similar systems had been successfully used by catalogue merchants and TV channels for decades. However, by placing information online, it became much easier for brands to edit pricing, update products and collect valuable user data. From here, eCommerce design became increasingly popular with consumers — the only real barrier to entry was the availability of appropriate technology and varying standards of website design.
Over time, online shops established best-practice standards — all of which were informed by years of user behaviour. Security standards also improved, removing many of the concerns shared by older consumers. The widespread adoption of smartphones and tablets also helped, with leading companies moving to responsive web design to cater for multiple screen sizes.
The transition towards a ‘digital economy’ has accelerated dramatically over the last couple of years. It is now estimated that there are more digital buyers across the globe than those purchasing exclusively offline. In 2022, various sources predict that a staggering 86% of all retail transactions will be made online.
With more and more people now turning to their smartphones to find the products they want, it is clear to see that eCommerce will online continue to grow.
At LBD Studio, we regularly help our clients to transition from physical sales and services to a mixture of both. We have several ‘online only’ clients that no longer have a physical location, however, we know that this isn’t right for everyone.
Our blended approach to eCommerce design looks to build equity in both physical and digital environments. The key to this is an understanding of your audience — it is easy to assume that these will be the same. In our experience, while these groups may fall into the same demographic, online shoppers often have different motivations.
Recent examples of eCommerce website design include The Feather Company website and the Halley Stevensons product service.
There are a whole host of things that should be considered before setting up an online shop. eCommerce website design is, by its very nature, labour intensive. To make the process efficient and to keep costs down, we have created a list of questions that we ask clients before we start the eCommerce journey. These questions include:
Just like a normal ‘bricks-and-mortar’ shop, any type of eCommerce website design will need someone to run it. This will vary depending on the business size and how many products are processed, but we always recommend that an appropriate person is assigned responsibility before the process starts. The purpose of this is two-fold; firstly they may benefit from being involved in the design process, and secondly so that they understand the mechanics used to control and manage an online shop.
‘Fulfilment’ is a complicated area of eCommerce design. It looks at how orders are processed, packaged and ultimately sent out to the end customer. Order processing can vary from bespoke orders to selecting an item off the shelf. This may require additional investment or training to make sure orders are efficiently managed.
Product packaging can also prove to be a stumbling block for many businesses. We often design bespoke packaging for our clients’ online businesses; this helps to keep the process smooth while preparing orders for distribution. It is also common for a second layer of packaging to be used, particularly when using a third-party distribution network or courier service. We try to keep this as sensible as possible and advise on the most sustainable processes and materials to maintain a low carbon footprint.
Online retail payment systems vary in size and scope. The exact type of solution will always depend on the type of payment required, what countries should be included, whether credit should be considered and the data will be handled. Common examples of payment gateways include PayPal, Stripe and SagePay. At LBD Studio, we prefer to use Stripe as this offers a wide range of best-in-class solutions while handling all sensitive data.
https://stripe.com/docs/security/stripe
It is also important to know what tax and VAT implications are involved — especially when selling overseas. We can work with your accountant to devise a plan of action, ensuring nothing gets missed. Our reporting system gives a full breakdown of product charges, taxes and VAT — this can then be shared with customers through receipts and invoices.
Another operational element that is often overlooked is how returns, refunds, recalls and exchanges are handled. This will often fall under the responsibility of the shop manager, however, when bespoke product is involved it can also be worthwhile sharing responsibility on decision-making.
It is illegal to sell certain products in the UK. It is also against the law to sell age-restricted items to children under the age of 18. These laws change from country to country, so it is important to gain a clear understanding of what can and cannot be sold online. We recommend speaking with a product lawyer to ensure you are acting responsibly — we will never engage in a project or with a client that looks to deliberately circumvent these laws.
Website content is an area of digital design that can make or break an eCommerce website. Product descriptions, namely the text (and sometimes video) content used to describe a product, will always be needed to help consumers understand what they are buying. This can be as simple as a few paragraphs, however, the most successful websites go into much more detail, describing everything from product USPs to dimensions and how-to-use guides. If your online shop is selling products sourced from other suppliers, these suppliers will sometimes let you use their product descriptions for free.
Product photography is another essential element in eCommerce website design. A set of high-quality product images will help customers understand what they are buying and can show details that other sites may neglect. For example, when selling a luxury product, it is important to show the overall item as well as some of the finer details. This will help to build a sense of quality.
We regularly help clients with product content, including brand copywriting and product photography. For more information on these services, please get in touch directly.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is widely regarded as an essential component of any successful website and this includes eCommerce design. Properly structuring a site to run quickly, with no unnecessary code or oversized images and using Google best practice guides will always result in a better customer experience. It will also result in a better rank from Google as they look to reward sites that embrace ‘clean coding’ while punishing developers that reject it. It is also important to feed the SEO machine with the right kind of data — this is often behind the scenes information that won’t be displayed on the website itself.
For more information on Search Engine Optimisation and how we can help your website rank on Google (and other search engines), please get in touch and we will be happy to help.
We always recommend that brands — both online and offline — keep their service offer up to date. When it comes to eCommerce design, we prefer to work quarterly, encouraging clients to update content every three months to ensure their latest products and services are appropriately displayed. This may also be timed to work around a marketing calendar, using product launches and events to dictate when content is updated.
Other topics that we discuss with clients include things like website security, maintenance and phased design iteration. This keeps everything up to date and in line with best-practice standards. We recommend that eCommerce websites have a yearly structural update plan, where the major site infrastructure is reviewed and edited to ensure the latest technology and content continue to work well together.
If your business would benefit from a fresh approach to digital design, please get in touch and we will be happy to advise on the best route forward. We recommend that a strong brand identity is defined to ensure all online materials are unique, consistent and effective.
We partner with ambitious businesses to breathe new life into their brands, products and services. If you have a vision for your business, we’d love to hear from you.
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