More Shopify Design Strategies

Having a great  Shopify Design website is critical in getting your visitors to convert into customers.

In Part 1 of this Shopify design series, we brought you tips for creating a better-designed Shopify store that doesn’t confuse a customer’s eye. Visitors are far less likely to convert into customers if they can’t find the information they want or if they’re received so much information all at once, they don’t know where to click.

In this post, we’ve got some more pointers for you to ensure your site is easy to navigate.

• Clear Shipping Information

A huge source of customer frustration comes from locating stores’ shipping policies. When a customer is ready to add an item to their cart, they don’t want to have to search your site for information on shipping rates and delivery dates. Customers are more likely to abandon their carts if they can’t find this information.

A Note About Return Policies:

While it’s important to include your shipping information on your store’s product pages, you don’t want to display your return policy there. Putting this information directly in front of customers may plant doubt in their minds about the purchase (“Maybe I will want to return this…”), so it’s better to keep that on a separate page. It should be easy to find, but not directly in front of them.

Be careful about your site’s implicit messaging – the tone of your language and associations created by the placement of information throughout your site. This has as great a role as your explicit messaging (the product copy and imagery) in affecting the customer’s complete impression of your brand.

Shipping details, in particular, are important for the customer to access easily, even if you offer free shipping.

The customer should know exactly what to expect. You want to avoid any ‘sticker shock’ at the checkout. A higher price point than they were expecting that puts them off completing the purchase.

Make sure your shipping policies are easily available at purchase points throughout your website. Especially your product pages and cart page. You can display the information on-page or simply create a clickable link your “shipping” page.

If you’re tech-savvy, another nice way to prominently display this is with a “shipping information” lightbox. This is an image or text content that appears as a popup and dims the background page.

When you display this information, ensure that your policies are complete and clearly explained. You want to address any questions that could stop a customer checking out.

Include specific shipping information on each product page, as seen one of our client sites – Melbourne Snowboard Centre:

Alternately, if you have a variable shipping rate, include a calculator on the cart page:

2. A Great Shopify Design Must Include a Clear “added to cart” notification

Customers can easily get confused when they click a button but can’t tell if a particular action has occurred.

When a customer clicks to purchase an item from the product page, they should get an alert that the item has been added to their shopping cart. Having your cart symbol change from “0” to “1” is not enough – it won’t catch your customer’s eye.

If a customer has to click over to their cart to see if their item has actually been added, they’re distracted from looking at other products in your store. This can change the customer’s mindset entirely – disrupting a potential buying spree and costing you easy sales.

Driftwood Interiors, another client of ours, makes this very easy for customers to see that their cart has updated:

Bonus Tip:

3. Avoid Mouseover-Only Functions

You’ll probably need a developer if you want to alter this function on your site. There are some important tips to keep in mind before you do so.

You’ve seen the “mouseover” (or “hover”) effect before when you get a pop-up or description box by moving your pointer over a certain image, hyperlink, or text box. This tool is being used more and more on e-commerce sites, especially for the “add to cart” button to show prices.

However, it’s quite problematic to display critical information by mouseover only, with no way to be clicked on. 50% of traffic these days comes from phones or tablets, which don’t allow a user to “mouseover” at all. Many shoppers on these handheld devices don’t realize they need to tap a product image to get the details.

What not to do: the prices for this website’s clothing items aren’t visible until you hover over the product image.

In any e-commerce store, clarity should always come first. Clearly displaying all the steps customers should take will give each visitor a greater sense of control over their shopping experience. They will also trust in your brand. Design your site right, and you’ll consistently turn browsers into buyers.

At Blackbelt  Commerce, we would love to hear from you! What are the best Shopify design tips you’ve used in your store? Leave us comments below and we’ll reply shortly.  Please read other great Blog articles such as Find Total Number of Products in a Shopify Store Also please check out our Services

Thank you for checking out our Shopify Insider Blog @ Blackbelt Commerce. Be sure to check out our portfolio and other great services.

Please check out these other great resources that will help you get with your store: How To Choose A Shopify Developer,  How To Improve Customer Experience Using Shopify Plus, the iportance on e-commerse and the modern world, 6 ways to boost your shopify store, and Shopify and Store Customer Service.

As always, please send me a note I will be sure to answer @ [email protected]