Shopping Cart Tutorials

Layout an Online Store- You might be thinking how hard is it to layout an online store. If you don’t layout an online store the proper way then you aren’t going to have a successful eCommerce website. Read our tutorial on how to layout an online store.

There are several factors you have to consider when you start to layout an online store. Those factors are performance, ease of use by customers, product marketing, and site pages. Website Shopping Cart has written this tutorial on how to layout an online store so that you can layout out your eCommerce website in the best fashion.

Performance

When it comes to performance, we are talking about website performance. Everybody has experienced a website that has been slow and performed bad. You definitely don’t want this on your eCommerce website. Think about it, if a site is running too slow and taking too long to load, you are going to lose customers. Trust us, Website Shopping Cart has done just that on a few occasions when shopping online. You want your website to perform the best you can when you are laying out an online store. Some ways to achieve this is by using only the best web hosting which feature unlimited web hosting features. Especially unlimited bandwidth. Also, you want to avoid using any unnecessary graphics and videos. Graphics and videos take a lot of bandwidth and can greatly effect your website performance.

Easy to navigate

This is another common reason why online stores lose customers. The website is a pain in the butt when it comes to navigation. When you layout an online store, you should do it so that a five year old could get around your website. This doesn’t mean that you have a basic website, just clearly mark your pages and links. A great addition to any eCommerce website is a site map and search function. Both of these will allow your customers to easily find the products that are looking for. Make your header tabs clear and easy to understand. This will assist your customers greatly.

Product marketing

Of course one of the main reasons an online store exists is to market your products. This in it’s self can be a science especially when you merge this with the layout of an online store. While it is important to market your products, you don’t want to overkill it. In most cases a small picture with a good description will do. If you are running a sale or promo, place that in an area that the customers can easily see. Don’t place it everywhere on your website because it is going to look tacky and unprofessional.

Site pages

Other than the specific site pages for your products, you should always have an about us, privacy policy, and return policy page on your eCommerce website. People like to know who they are buying the product from so talk about your business in the about us page. Even including contact information is a great idea. With all the identity theft going on these days, people are concerned about their privacy. Let your readers know what you are doing to protect their identity; internet merchant accounts, SSL certificates, don’t sell their personal information, and any other important information. One of the biggest concerns for people when they buy products online is the return policy. Make it clear and you won’t have any issues down the road. One thing to consider that Website Shopping Cart highly recommends is being very pro customer when it comes to your return policy. All of these additional site pages will put your customers at ease!

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