Whether you’re selling fisherman’s hooks or lovely lingerie, any online store should be designed to address a singular question – should a customer purchase a product here or is it better to look elsewhere? Yep, it’s all about the customer. Even if you are offering a truly revolutionary service, clients will fail to appreciate its importance if your site’s not designed with their interests in mind. However, with so many ‘shop templates’ out there, it’s pretty impossible to determine the best theme to use when creating an online shop where customers will want to part with their pennies. With this in mind, here are 4 IDEAL tips on how to choose a theme for your online store.
IT’S ALL ABOUT SIMPLICITY
This is the most important point, so it is only logical that it should be mentioned first. In terms of website engagement, 55 per cent of all visitors will spend less than 15 seconds on a page when searching for a specific option such as a checkout link. If your pages are not designed in an easy-to-navigate manner, you could easily lose a sale before it has even taken hold. A clean and simple layout is far more beneficial than one which bombards the visitor with excessive information and requests.
TEMPLATES TO MATCH YOUR BRAND IDENTITY
A free web store should always silently echo the core qualities of your brand. This includes features such as the font, the background colours and the overall visual tone of the page. For example, a store selling organic food products could make use of a traditional typeface and “warm” tones such as oranges, reds and greens. A site advertising financial services might instead opt for bold lettering and muted hues in order to represent a clear and straightforward approach. Humans respond to visual cues just as much as they resonate with quality content, so consider what they see as much as what you say.
UTILISE MOBILE-RESPONSIVE PLATFORMS
The huge majority of consumers now choose to access the Internet via a smartphone. Mobile-responsive templates are therefore decisive if you hope to reach the widest audience possible. This essentially signifies that all pages will appear similar regardless of the type of device being used. This is also critical in terms of secure connections and streamlined point of sale pages. The good news is that major providers such as Shopify have included mobile responsiveness as a standard feature within all of their templates.
OFFER IMMEDIATE SUPPORT
There are inevitably instances when a customer will need to contact a representative. Any template should automatically offer a section linked to a help page or a “contact us” widget. Live chat, a dedicated email and a page devoted to frequently asked questions are three common examples and ideally, all should be made available with a single click.
Selecting a quality template for your online business will enhance the visual and functional appeal of the entire website. Thankfully, there are hundreds of different designs and configurations to choose from. Each can be implemented in no time at all and such a user-friendly edge is perfectly suited for those who do not have the time to manually build a portal from the ground up.
