How to Optimize Your Web Design for More Sales

When designing a website, making it visually-appealing for your audience is only part of the process. You also need it to drive conversions.

One report states that “In a crowded market, having a website that simply serves as a brochure is no longer competitive.”

Every business owner then needs to ask themselves, does my website merely act as a brochure for my customers? Do I only share small snippets of information simply to spread awareness rather than to make sales? In other words, does my site encourage visitors to take action?

Brochures can be good marketing tools. They build that awareness and let people know about your brand. But then what? If your website content doesn’t invite consumers to convert, then your efforts in generating that site traffic won’t mean much at all..

As the report notes, a simple “brochure” website template or design won’t make you a strong competitor against the other businesses in your industry. But a smart design with elements that boost conversions will.

Here are a few of those elements to include in your website design that will optimize for more sales:

Reviews

The value of customer reviews for an ecommerce website cannot be understated. For a customer that can’t touch or try on a product for themselves before they buy from you, having reviews from other customers gives them the assurance they need to take a chance on your brand.

Reviews shouldn’t just be placed on your product pages, though. Include them on your homepage too! This will establish your credibility as a business and make visitors curious to continue on to the rest of your site to see why people love your products so much.

Ask your customers to send you reviews after they’ve made a purchase. Pick some of the best reviews to go on the homepage itself, then place other positive reviews on your product pages. What will be even better for sales is if the homepage reviews lead the customer directly to the product in question. Make your design one that makes it easier for customer to quickly find what they want.

Policies and Perks

The more information you can give your customers right off the bat, the better. But this can be tricky when designing your website because you don’t want to overload your layout with too much text or content.

This is where you can use your header to your advantage. Because you only have so much limited space in your site header, you have to shorten your text to only the basic (and most persuasive) information needed. This will be the first thing that customers see when they visit your site. This makes your header prime real estate for telling shoppers about some of your policies and perks that may ease their anxieties about buying from you.

Here are a few items of interest to put in your website’s header:

• Sales or Discounts – Who doesn’t like to save a little? Seasonal promotions can be a great way to drive traffic and encourage conversions. But not everyone who comes to your site may know about those sales. Give them a head’s up on discounts that may become the catalyst for making a sale.
• Loyalty Rewards Program – Some customers will continue shopping on your site if they know they can get an additional discount by signing up for a rewards program. Down the road these rewards programs can bring in more even more revenue from loyal followers. But that won’t happen if you don’t inform customers about rewards available to them right away.
• Shipping Policy – One of the most important policies to include in your header is your shipping policies. If you offer free shipping, let your customers know about it! Or if customers spend a certain amount to qualify for free shipping, tell them! On average, 44% of online shopping carts are abandoned because the shipping costs were unexpectedly high. Let those shopping on your site know what to expect when they check out. More customers will want to buy from your brand if they know about your shipping and any ways they might save as soon as they enter your site.

Being situated in the header lets customers know what they want to know immediately. It’s why most web designers also suggest putting your phone number or some contact information in the header as well to make it easier for customers to call and ask questions.

Product Images

If a customer were to only have 3 seconds to figure out what it is you were selling, could then do it? What about your page best showcases your products? On the one hand, you could dedicate lengthy paragraphs of text describing every minute detail and reasons to buy the item in question. One the other hand, you could include attractive images of your products that (a) grab the customer’s attention and (b) make them want it more.

With online stores especially, shoppers want to see a clear picture of what they buy and what they can expect. Because of this, product pages should have more than one image, but so should home pages. Over 70% of consumers agree that showing products on a business’s homepage is a factor in whether or not they purchase from that brand.

The images will be the one of the first elements that customers will notice. Let them see your products in action. You may even want to let customers include their own pictures with your products as part of their reviews. Be creative with how you can use more images, and always make sure that they direct visitors toward conversions.

Clear CTA

If you want your site to make more sales, then it can’t be with a call-to-action (CTA). That will be what differentiates your high-converting site from a brochure. The above features help to encourage CTAs, but should be coupled with a direct CTA button.

This could be a “Shop our New Arrivals,” “Buy Now,” “Subscribe to our Email List,” or “Take a Quiz to Find Your Perfect _____.” Anything that gives the user a chance to act can be considered a CTA. Every CTA will help to build a relationship with your customer and in turn boost more sales.

Make your CTA stand out on your page by using bright or bold colors with clear, easy-to-read text. Include CTA buttons at the top of your homepage and further down if customers have to scroll. Or consider including your CTA in a fixed navigation bar that will stay with users no matter where they scroll.

Design Your Optimized Website

If you don’t have much HTML or coding experience, building a responsive website with all these features can be hard. Some website templates won’t let you customize your site the way you want or need in order to encourage more sales. When you need a reliable WYSIWYG editor to create a website or edit web pages, use DragDropr to help showcase what you have to offer.

DragDropr is a visual drag and drop editor that makes creating content for your site easier than ever. For ecommerce businesses, DragDropr even integrates with your shop (like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento 1&2 or Lightspeed) for simpler content creation. Design campaign landing pages, product pages and other content geared towards conversions with an easy drag and drop format. If you want to make a quick edit to a page, that’s not a problem either!

All the features you need to increase your sales could be found with DragDropr. Responsive image sliders, customizable content blocks optimized for directing customers to CTAs, reviews and discounts, one-click product page edits—it’s all here.

Design web pages the way you want with DragDropr. Without writing a single line of code you can have all the features you need to optimize your site’s design for an increase in sales.

Start your free trial today!