20 ecommerce web design tips for 2024 that you should know

In my career as a developer and software project manager I encountered many websites that did something right and did something wrong. Today, I'm going to share 20 e-commerce web design tips that are important to know in 2024. Let's dive in.

1- Speed it up

If it's not fast, the user will close your website and go to another. That's really all there is to it. Nowadays, user experience is more valuable than ever because the information streams are not exclusive to a few webmasters who know how to use the web. The speed is what most of the agencies promise in their web development services.

The product you provide may be unique, but there are already three or more websites with a content title similar to yours. If you want the user to know that you are unique, you need to have a fast load time so they will not close your content before it's loaded.

2- Mobile-first design is a must

 You need to look good on mobile. Many users use mobile devices to shop from e-commerce websites. If you don't look good on them or your e-commerce website is not optimized for them, you will lose them.

3- Make checkout easy

Have you ever encountered an online shop that needs too much information on the checkout process? Information that is useless, and even they don't have any tools to validate it? Far too many CMS or custom e-commerce websites have that. As a rule of thumb, do not gather anything from users unless you are absolutely sure you need it. Do not make the checkout process painful.

4- Enhance accessibility

Make your website easy to use for your customer base. First, you should analyze your customer persona and any problem they might have you should consider when creating the elements of your website. Ensure that if your customers have any disability, your website is ready for them as much as possible.

5- Make searching easy on your e-commerce website

Use very clear and studied categories—categories that users actually know and click on. Make your search bar easy to use and accurate. We encounter many e-commerce websites whose search module does not even return products that are actually on sale.

6- be consistent in your web design

Ever encountered a website that you can't trust? And you just don't know why? Inconsistent design does that.  This is one of the reasons. Imagine you go to an online shop, and one product category is using one. Another page is using a different theme or fonts or whatever. Maybe it had different designers, or the developer didn't put as much time into it as the previous form or table.

But not being consistent destroys your branding and gives your client an untrustworthy vibe. So find a good design and stick to it across all your pages and forms. You can revise it from time to time, but it should be consistent.

7- Integrate social media into your website

If you have a social media page (and you should have one if you are selling a product!), make sure your customers know about it. Also, make sure your social media users know that you have a website.

8- Be Modern

Like the sixth tip we read, being modern is another way to build trust. It doesn't matter how good or useful your product is. As long as you are not a well-known brand like Coca-Cola or something, nobody is going to trust you if your website looks like something ripped apart from the early 2000s.

9- Be secure

Well, it's not a very useful tip at first glance. Every website owner wants to have the most secure website. But are you putting time into it? Is your development team up to date? Make sure you get security updates for your plugins if you are using CMS, and make sure to choose the best web development agency. You can check warning signs to look for when choosing a web designer company to know what to consider in terms of red flags.

 

10- Gather your customer data

What? Gather data? Isn't that how you end up in front of a judge?

Well, not really. What I mean is to analyze their behavior legally. Have a plan for it. Ask them about any difficulties they had while using your platform. Check what pages they've seen or spent more time on from your reporting dashboards in Google or other third parties. Know your most popular product and why. Your web developer should know how to do that.

You can use BI or business intelligence services to do that, too.

11- Create content for your products

Whatever product you are selling, content just makes it better. If your product needs tutorials, make content for that. If your product can be used in different situations, explain those situations. Do not abandon your website's content creation module. Make it pretty, fast, and valuable.

12- Use the correct color

You should consult a designer to choose the right color. The psychology behind colors matters. Color enhances the sale, user experience, and is just the right thing to do. Please don't sell hot peppers on a blue-themed website. That's all I'm saying.

13- Use online chat modules and support systems

Make it easy for customers to contact you and ask their questions. Do not make them wait, and do everything you can to eliminate customers' doubt about your product. Having a robust chatbot or customer support system will give you that.

14- Use SSR in your development

An important tip is to use SSR (server-side rendering) in the pages that you want Google to see. Most web designers make the mistake of using modern frameworks for the user interface and not paying attention to the website's visibility. Google is your friend; make your pages visible to it by using SSR.

15- Have a bug report system

I always tell my team. The technical team should know a bug accrued before the user knows. You should have a bug report and logging system integrated in your website. The system should notify developers and sometimes the manager of any error that happens on the server.

Some bugs are visual and can't be detected by a normal logging system. So you should have a section that gathers any problematic encounters users have with your website. You should also encourage your customer base to report those from time to time. You can do it with a coupon system or something.

16- Optimize your pages for SEO

If Google does not prioritize us, we will have a very hard time getting new customers. You should check your web pages for bugs related to SEO. You should also integrate a robust marketing tool into your content creation module.

17- Offer different payment methods

Do not rely on a single third-party payment tool so your users won't abandon payment if the method malfunctions. What happens if your payment method library is under heavy traffic or simply won't work for a couple of minutes? You may lose a good sale or a soon-to-be loyal customer that way.

18- Implement Gamification

Have a scoring system based on purchases or bug reports. Make it fun to buy from you! You will at least have customers spending more time on your platform, and that alone increases the chance of more sales. If you need any more ideas, you can use the contact us forms.

19- Build a Recommendation system

You know what your customers bought before, and you know what products are bought together. Use this information to build a recommendation system for new and old customers.

20- Do not use popups, please

Just don't. I've got nothing more to say. Thank you.

Have a good day.