Comprehensive guide to write an RFP for Website Design in 2023

Are you thinking about revamping your out-of-date website, but don’t know where to begin?

Hiring a web design firm to create a new website or remodel an existing one might appear to be a daunting task even if you read hundreds of articles on how to hire the right web development company. Even though producing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for website design may seem daunting and tedious, it serves a variety of useful objectives. It can help you sort out your concepts and ideas for your new website and push you to address some topics that are usually better answered before you begin the redesigning job. A well-executed RFP process can assist you in comparing several qualified web design firms and precisely defining your goals.

Before jumping into writing an RFP for web design, take some time to think about why your business needs a website and what value will it be adding to your business, so you can convey that message. Additionally, an RFP sets a clear framework on the specific information required from each vendor, to help you compare apples to apples and make an informed decision.

There’s no reason to gawk at a blank page, even if you’ve never drafted an RFP for website development or are having problems getting started. We’ve broken down the components of developing a good RFP for website design in 2022, and we’ve even supplied a free Website Design RFP template that can help you get started.

Why should you write an RFP for Website Design?

You may be questioning why an RFP is even required? Why not simply Google design firms and call them up directly?
Well, you can adopt that strategy, but it will take a bit of time and may jeopardize the entire project. Your website is your business card to the rest of the world. When it comes to choosing a business to work on it, you should not take any chances. Doing your homework can guarantee that you pick a reliable and trustworthy web design company and receive high-quality work.
Also, I would highly recommend creating an RFP for website development, for the following reasons:

It simplifies and optimizes a challenging project.
It provides an overall picture of what it will take to bring your concept to reality.
It provides several approaches to addressing the problem.
It aids in discovering new vendors who may be helpful for future projects.
It provides an even playing field with points scoring system, removing the possibility of prejudice.
It guarantees that the web design company adheres to project specifications and timelines.
It helps in obtaining the most cost-effective option.
It provides key insights into vendors’ capabilities, skills and experience
Last but not least, it provides a clear direction of roles and responsibilities, thus providing a productive working environment for all parties.
But that’s not it, there are more advantages of creating an RFP for website design!

Creating an RFP for website design will assist your company in clarifying your project’s aims and objectives and defining a budget. Agencies can respond immediately to the RFP, saving you time from looking for and contacting several organizations or development firms one-on-one.
Ultimately, an RFP for website redesign or redevelopment helps everyone align to clear objectives, deliverables and any project constraints, while ensuring that it’s a perfect match for both sides.

When should you write a Website RFP?

Well, the obvious answer is that when you realize that you need a website for your business. But you should start a bit early, in order to allow enough time for vendors to review the details, ask any questions, then prepare a proposal and submit it.

When should you not write a website RFP?

There could be multiple valid reasons for not writing an RFP, such as:

Budget constraints that would limit interest from well-established web design companies
No staff members that can provide timely responses to any RFP questions or provide website content
Legacy systems that will be challenging to integrate with website
Limited timeframe (less than 1 month)

Are you are wondering whether to skip RFP process just because you have a preferred or referred vendor? Even if you have been referred to someone by a close friend, it is always worth putting in effort and doing the due diligence of going through RFP process to ensure that they are a good fit.

Elements to include when writing an effective RFP for Website Design

Now you know what an RFP for website design is, but do you know how to create an effective one?
Developing a high-quality marketing website for your business is comparable to developing a brand identity. It is a complex undertaking that needs detailed information about your organization, objectives, target audience, and expectations.
You should prepare a well-structured RFP for website design that contains all of the elements to discover the finest web design company, who can exceed your expectations. Let’s discuss all of the key elements to include when writing an effective RFP for website design:

1. A brief summary or introduction of the project

We all know that intros, when done correctly sets the stage for the document. So introduce yourself and the aim of the RFP. State not simply what you want the professional provider to perform, but also why; what is your organization’s main “factor of concern”? If it’s a website revamp, what’s wrong with the current one and why isn’t it serving your business needs?
Instead of presenting a remedy, attempt to articulate the problem as clearly as possible. There may be a variety of alternatives available that better satisfy your goals than what you have in mind, and website experts can recommend ideas you haven’t considered yet. By focusing more on the task at hand, the responder is encouraged to think beyond the box. Also, keep it brief and give a bird’s eye view as all the details will be eventually discussed.

2. Company’s background

Describe your organization, its mission, and your role within it. There’s a good chance they haven’t heard about you and won’t be able to tell by browsing your current website (which may be why you need a new website). The company’s background assists the agency in providing a solution that suits the brand and its target audience.

There are 4 key items to consider here:

Company background: Is your firm old and well-established, or are you a new and exciting start-up?
Business sector / industry: You may also include your top competitors, so that the web design agencies can obtain some ideas and figure out how to differentiate your website from the crowd and make it stand out.
Market segmentation: All critical parts of website design, such as functionality, user experience, graphics and even content are determined by the demands of your intended audience. As a result, be clear here and inform your prospective web design firm of the market segment, including demographics you want to target.
RFP Manager: Finally, tell them a little bit about yourself. What is your name? Are you a decision-maker, ideologist, shareholder, or simply a middleman dealing with this problem on behalf of the corporation?

These four points will give the potential website design firms a clear idea about your company and its essential components.

3. Goals and objectives

You can’t expect to get the desired results without first explaining your goals and core objectives.
The goals and core objectives are all about identifying problems, defining expectations, and determining targets. To ace this part, consider the following two major points:

a. To begin, what issues do you and your visitors face? Be truthful and identify all of the problems that the existing website is experiencing.
Also, identify aspects that you dislike or that your users do not find helpful. Be explicit about the kind of complaints that your website receives regularly. If you are planning to start a new website, you may skip this stage.

b. Second, what are your goals for your new website? Describe what you intend to achieve or the desired outcome. What are the three most crucial aspects that, if done correctly, will ensure the redesign is a success? Do you have any quantifiable measures in mind that might be beneficial, such as more revenue, more email subscribers, or better-qualified leads? Consider what you want web users to do, not simply what you want them to see. Make a list of all the objectives you intend to achieve like:
• Boost traffic
• Generate leads
• Promote products & services
• Increase your brand’s trustworthiness.
• Educate people on a certain topic or industry
• Provide information about your products & services
• Entice the audience
• Raise funds for a worthy cause
• Increase public awareness
• Promote the brand

Do not be scared to include all of them.
However, do not shower them all on the web design firm. When you’ve finished making a list of everything you want to accomplish with the new website, it’s time to prioritize. Choose one or two primary objectives and direct the vendor’s attention to them. Other objectives should be listed as secondary objectives. Specify these objectives as having a precise budget and deadline.

4. Website Sitemap

Think about it: why would anyone ever want to change their existing website? Maybe to attract more visitors or launch new products.
Well, one of the most common reasons businesses revamp their websites is because the content is disorganized or difficult to discover as it is hidden behind too many clicks. As much as the aesthetic design influences visitors’ perceptions of your firm, the sitemap reveals how effectively you’ve planned your primary site parts and navigation structure. Include a plan in this section for how you want to restructure it if you already have one.
The sitemap will assist you in determining which new material you will need to develop and what will be moved from the previous site. Some of it may be outdated or not interesting. So, you’ll need to write a fresh copy, especially if you’re launching a new item, service, or campaign.
A sitemap, which is essentially a table of contents, is critical for your search engine ranking. It informs search engines like Google about which web pages and files are crucial. Web crawlers collect this information and use it to help your firm rank better in search results. As a result, it should not be taken for granted.

5. Work scope and deliverables

This is where you should go into greater depth regarding the project. To the best of your ability, define all of the services you know you’ll be recruiting a web team for. For instance, in the case of a web redesign project, you may be paying for:
• Project management/administration
• Content strategy
• Copywriting
• Illustration
• Information design
• Visual/graphic design
• Search engine optimization
• Front-end coding (HTML/CSS, animations)
• Back-end development (CMS, 3rd party APIs, custom software/features)
• Custom software or app creation
• Mobile device optimization
• Accessibility audit
• Testing & quality control assurance
• Paid search placement/advertising
• Software training
• And more
While core objectives are about aims, deliverables are about structure and functioning. It is the most critical section of an RFP for website design. As a result, take your time and carefully consider each item.

6. Technical requirements

Now this is going to be the crazy or the technical part of your RFP for website design.
This is a vast topic, but your purpose here is to outline any constraints or requirements you are aware of ahead of time. Because a website is really a technical software product, these are the aspects that may influence the timeline and deliverables. Here are some examples of technical requirements:
• Content management system
• Security tools
• SEO tools
• Social media integration
• CRM integration
• eCommerce module
• Search bar
• Advanced filter for products
• Registration system
• Login form
• Community
• Module for displaying data from external sources
• Subscription form
• Payment
• Store locator
• Interactive map
• API, etc.
You must offer the agency with your business technical needs in addition to an informational framework. It is this section of the RFP where you must mention all of your website’s features and functionalities to keep a clear understanding of what you want from your website.

7. Project Timelines

We all know that we have a tendency to procrastinate endlessly, unless we are given a deadline.
You can’t manage a business unless you create goals and meet them by a specific date and time. Creating a web design is no different. The delivery schedule is critical. As a result, it should be mentioned and highlighted in the RFP for website development. Here are the key dates to outline:

RFP Release Date: The date when RFP is sent out.

Response Deadline: The date by which proposals need to be submitted.

Vendor Selection: The date by which decision is to be made and all vendors to be notified.

Project Kick-off: The date by which the vendor should have the team members ready to start working on the project.

First and foremost, define the website project launch target date, when you intend your website to go online.
Second, inform partners when they may expect to hear back on their submissions.
Third, inform any significant milestones such as the debut of a new product, an advertising campaign, an annual convention, and so on.
Finally, avoid setting unreasonable timelines. The thing is that each task, particularly the more intricate ones, take time to finish. Be prepared to wait if you really want your website design to be flawless at every level. Of course, you can request that your project be completed as soon as possible; but keep in mind that every rushed project is prone to errors and costs twice as much as a standard one. As a result, set realistic deadlines based on the scope of work and effort.

8. Project Budget

The budget governs the scope of work in every project and so it does in website design and development.
The website design agency will build a suitable proposal based on your requirements, goals, functionality needs, timeline, and, of course, budgetary plan. As a result, in your RFP for website redesign and design, you must specify how much you are willing and able to pay.
Keep the following points in mind when settling on a budget:
First, determine your top priority. Whether you want the cheapest solution, the most cost-effective option, or you want to turn your idea into reality by any means and money is not a problem.
Second, select which services are optional, desirable, or obligatory in the future. Website maintenance and PPC efforts, for instance, might be mentioned as additional services that might be required later. Include these costs in your annual recurring budget.
Third, select what you want in exchange for your money. After all, developing a website is an investment; thus, ROI targets must be established.
Finally, inform the vendor of your payment plan or fiscal year constraints. These key areas contribute to the big picture, providing vendors with a sound foundation for pricing their bids.

9. Selection Criteria

Selection criteria is important to shortlist from a wide range of proposals. You’ll receive a slew of different offers, each with its own set of strengths, reputations, and talents. Some will compete on price, some will compete on quality, while others will focus on features. Determine what you want in a vendor: the most affordable option? The quickest delivery? Best quality? Is a distributed team acceptable, or do you need every member to be close to your headquarters? Is it OK to hire subcontractors or solely full-time in-house employees?
You must strike a balance between the team’s skills and the constraints of your budget, but in the end, you want the most outstanding work that you can afford. So weigh them according to what is most essential to you and then add them to your RFP for website development.

10. Submission Instructions

It is a good idea to explicitly mention all key details that every vendor should include in their proposal. It can be a combination of basic company information as well as key project details. Some of the basic details to request are:

Contact info: Name, email, phone, website
# of years in operation
At least 3 client references
Examples of 3 relevant projects and any relevant links
Team members that will work on the website project, their roles & responsibilities, their experience and skill set
General timeline from start to completion
Project management approach
Pricing details (breakdown of different services OR deliverables)

11. Contact Information

Finally, include contact information so that the agencies know where to submit their proposals and who to contact with questions. Typically, the authors are the ones who will lead the project. If not, or if additional team members are engaged, identify them in your RFP. Have you or they already worked on a similar online project? Also, do you have final decision-making authority, or will the proposals be put to a review panel? Clarify the selection process for better understanding.

Final Thoughts

It is indeed complex and even intimidating. But, ideally, the guidelines above, together with our free website RFP template, will make the process of improving your business’s front door a bit easier.
When done correctly, an RFP fully unlocks its benefits. You have the option of choosing from several skilled web design firms, each putting their best foot forward depending on your unique business objectives and requirements.
Remember to think extensively about your project before preparing a website RFP. Inquire about the opinions and ideas of others in your team. The more precise you are, the simpler it will be to track your progress and achieve your objectives. Having a clear objective will also assist you in understanding how each bidder’s proposal will work to tackle your specific challenge. If you stick to these guidelines, you’ll be well on your way to crafting a fantastic RFP for website design.

RFP for Website Design Template

Now, for the best part. We’ve created a useful template that you can use to craft your own RFP. Download it, customize it with your name, dates, goals, requirements, features, hopes and dreams. And then BOOM! Proposals will start pouring in from every direction. Just fill out the form below and we will send a copy to your email address:

Good luck! And be sure to send a copy our way to our email: info@telkoware.com

November 6, 2021March 20, 2025

Most comprehensive guide to the best eCommerce website design

Nowadays, if you’re selling anything—whether that’s shoes, food, furniture, or something in between—you need to jump on the eCommerce website train.

In 2020, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to $4.28 trillion US dollars and e-retail revenues are projected to grow to $5.4 trillion US dollars in 2022.

In 2020, e-retail sales accounted for 18 percent of all retail sales worldwide. This figure is expected to reach 21.8 percent in 2024.

An eCommerce site offers you the chance to build your brand, connect with more customers, and sell more products—but only if you’ve got the right website design. When people shop online, often their only experience with your brand is your website. The modern consumer expects a seamless customer journey — an effortless path that leads them from landing on the website to the completion of their purchase. Anything that hinders the ideal shopping experience has the potential to drive customers to your competitors.

Today’s eCommerce website conversion rates (visitor to a customer) are lower than most people realize. In fact, the industry average is currently just under the 5% mark. Given this reality, you should seize every opportunity to optimize your digital strategy, engage shoppers, and ensure their ability to complete purchases quickly and easily.

Website design and layout is critical in the success of an eCommerce website. For the best eCommerce website design, there are many factors to consider, including the website design and layout, product quality, product images and description, website content, brand recognition, shipping rates, return and exchange policy, security, trustworthiness and customer service.

Your eCommerce website design should attract potential customers, provide great user experience and present your shop in the best light. So, not only does your site have to look amazing, but it also needs to drive your website visitors to take action, that is … buy your products. But how, exactly, do you do that? How do you design the kind of eCommerce website that will have products flying off your virtual shelves?

Here is a complete guide with 21 eCommerce web design tips to help you take your eCommerce store to the next level:

1. Security and Trustworthiness

One of the most important factors for every customer is security and privacy; especially when they are providing their credit card information, along with personal details.

There are many ways to communicate trustworthiness.

Provide the following information:

Photographs of people behind the business
Contact information
Links to social media
Shipping policy
Return & Exchange policy
Privacy policy
Product reviews
Trust seals

Having your physical address (of main office, warehouse, or store) and phone number for contacts mentioned on the website automatically adds to your credibility. Consider adding a WhatsApp number, Facebook Messenger chat or other live chat options for the millennials, who prefer typing over talking.

Another important aspect of security is Secure server: Every website, irrespective of being eCommerce or not, should be hosted on a secure server and all data must be encrypted with SSL (secure sockets layer). eCommerce platforms like Shopify provide SSL by default, but if you are building a custom eCommerce website on Woocommerce or other programming language, then you would have to purchase and install an SSL certificate.

Also, add Trust seals to show your customers how secure the website is. These are badges that can be displayed in the footer, so that they appear on every page.

Also, proof read all content not once or twice, but multiple times. If the website has typos, missing images, broken links or page not found (404 error), then it will not look very professional and customers would think twice, before doing any transaction on it.

2. Customer reviews and testimonials

Another important way to build trust is social proof. Shoppers trust opinion of other shoppers, who have purchased and used the product. When you’re designing your ecommerce site, look for ways to show your potential customers the positive feedback you’ve gotten from your existing customers. Add a ratings section where people can rate your products (and then get as many 5 star reviews as you can). Add a testimonials section where you feature customer photos with a quote or two about what a great experience they had working with you. Ask customers to review your products—and what they like about them—and then add them to your blog.

The more your website visitors see that other people have had a positive experience shopping on your eCommerce website, the more trustworthy your site will appear, and the more likely they will proceed with the purchase.

Have the option for visitors to submit reviews on the product page, so you can publish it for that specific product.

After a customer has received the product, send them a follow-up email asking them about their experience and to review the item. Just make sure you give them enough time to use it before you ask for their feedback.

I understand that this can be scary for some of you. Not everyone will be happy with your products, and the idea of negative comments being publicly displayed can be frightening to some brands. But that’s OK. Don’t let a few bad reviews discourage you. Look on the bright side of it. This will show shoppers the reviews and testimonials on your site are legitimate and trustworthy. A couple of negative remarks can make your positive reviews appear that much more powerful. Also, it will be valuable feedback from your customers to improve your product and/or service.

3. Brand Identity

Brand is your unique business identity that people recognize and remember. That’s why your brand should be reflected throughout the website. The color scheme, font, and layout reflects your business identity and tells visitor the type of products and services you offer. Also, brand should be consistent throughout all channels; whether it is website, social media, physical store, or anywhere else.

4. Seamless Navigation

Visitors on your eCommerce website should be easily be able to browse through different pages, find what they are looking for with least no. of clicks, add products to their shopping cart and checkout.

If they have to jump through many hoops to find the right product, then they will get frustrated and leave. Even if they purchase it once, they would be reluctant to come back for another purchase.

5. Product Categories

To organize your products and make it easier for customers to browse through it and find relevant item quickly, divide your products into categories and sub-categories. The category names should be common words that can easily describe what kind of products are in that category.

The easier you make your categories and pages to navigate, the easier it will be for your customers to find what they are looking for and make a purchase.

6. Product Search

Product Search is a powerful tool that helps customers find the relevant product quickly without browsing through different web pages and product categories. It is such a useful and handy tool to find the right product among thousands of products that it should be present on the top of every page. Standard position to implement the product search bar is on the top right or top center of the pages, or on the main menu.

The box should be visible, quickly recognizable, and easy to use. That means it should support all kinds of queries, such as product names, categories, and product attributes, like color or size.

What is gaining in popularity these days is the auto-complete functionality in search box. Auto-complete functionality makes it easier for shoppers to find what they are looking for and increases sales potential by suggesting products, while they are typing.

7. Product Filters

Product filter is another very useful tool to narrow down the search to find the right product among hundreds or thousands of products. For e.g., if I am looking for a grey tile of 0.5mm thickness, with Matte finish and in 2×2 size, I can apply filter on color, thickness, finish, and size to find the right one quickly.

8. Product Sorting

Once the products are searched or filtered, you can allow shoppers to sort search results based on various criteria (best sellers, highest or lowest price, product rating, newest item, featured, etc.

9. eCommerce Product Page Design

Design a product page that creates an experience like they are physically present in the store and checking out the product, by including lots of images, detailed descriptions and any other useful and related information about the product. Let me explain further on what that means.

With eCommerce shopping, buyers can’t touch, feel, or try out the product. Instead, everything depends on what they see online. This is why providing good quality product images and videos that clearly exhibit all aspects of the product is critical.

High-resolution images, video reviews, and comprehensive product details make a significant impact on the conversion of a window shopper to an actual buyer.

The downside of online shopping is that customers can’t see or feel the product or, try it on, so the only information they can use to make a decision is product descriptions. Adding individual measurements and fabric care details to clothes, explain different purpose for electrical/electronic instruments, and energy consumption for appliances will all help convince customers to buy your product.

10. Related and Recommended Products

When a visitor is on your website looking at different products and putting them in shopping cart, that is a great opportunity for cross-selling. Display products that are similar to what shopper is currently looking at, or something that will go well with it, like an accessory. This can be displayed on a product detail page or in the shopping cart and will help guide shoppers to the products that meet their needs, potentially encouraging them to continue shopping and adding more products their shopping cart before checkout.

11. Shopping Cart Design

The shopping cart is an essential step of the checkout process, as it allows shoppers to review their selected products, make the final decision, add/subtract the quantity of the selected products, and proceed to checkout. The primary goal of the shopping cart is to lead shoppers to checkout.

12. eCommerce Checkout

A stylish and trendy eCommerce website design does not determine a successful eCommerce website. What really matters is the no. of sales. Not everyone who comes to your website and fills an online shopping cart is going to end up completing their transaction. Shoppers who make it to checkout are nearly at the finish line. Make their last few steps easy and straightforward, and they’ll be much more likely to see it through.

Here are a few ways to build a well-designed checkout page, which will contribute to a successful conversion:

Offer various payment options. Different shoppers have different preferences when it comes to making payments. Cater to as many payment options as possible to expand the customer base and to make it easy for shoppers to complete their order.

Offering all possible payment options might be too complex when you are just starting an eCommerce business, but offering limited payment options will cost you sales of those shoppers who want to use another payment option. Although unexpected shipping costs (55%) and a lengthy checkout process (26%) are key reasons for buyers abandoning their shopping carts, according to the 2019 Payment Methods Report, 6% of them would abandon the online sales due to not having enough payment options.

Shopify provides integration with more than 50 payment providers. According to Hostgator, the most popular payment methods are PayPal, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, American Express, Stripe, Square, Visa, Mastercard, and 2Checkout. New type of currency, known as Cryptocurrency is gaining popularity very quickly. You can also offer manual payment methods like bank transfer or cheque, but that would require additional administration overhead to keep track of these payments and process the order only once the payment has been received, adding unnecessary fulfillment delays.

Keep it simple. Minimize the number of fields and steps to complete the purchase. Using shipping address as billing address by default is a good way to minimize the number of fields. Ideally, there should be a single page checkout where shoppers can view their cart summary and enter delivery and payment information.

Make registration optional during checkout. Forcing shoppers to create an account prior to their first purchase will drive the shoppers away. Give them an option to register during the checkout or after the purchase is complete, but have the guest checkout option available at all times. Encourage them to create a profile by highlighting the benefits of registration. Benefits include faster checkout thanks to personal information like saved shipping address or payment information and access to exclusive offers that are only available to registered members.

Use clear error indications. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to figure out why can’t I proceed with the purchase? Make error notifications come up in real time, instead of showing it once the form has been submitted. Place clear and concise error messages directly above, or next to the item that requires correction, so shoppers will notice and understand them. Also, make sure that error message is in plain, simple language without any technical jargon. This is not the time or place to show off your technical knowledge. Make errors easy to fix, without forcing customers to restart the purchase or payment process.

Keep people on track. When using a multi-page checkout, include a progress bar that shows how many more steps are left to complete the purchase. This will eliminate any ambiguity, and assure shoppers they are on the right track. When the purchase is complete, display an order confirmation and order status with shipment tracking.

Offer customer service. Include a live chat or contact number throughout the checkout process, so when shoppers have questions, they can quickly get answers rather than having to leave the site and go elsewhere.

13. Shipping rates

As mentioned earlier, unexpected shipping costs is the no. 1 reason for cart abandonment; 55% of customers abandoning their shopping carts. It could be because they didn’t know the rates or expected a lower sum, or extra charges.

Online shopping is a matter of convenience and if you don’t have free delivery, there should be detailed information about shipment options and rates in the menu with a link on every product page. Some businesses include the shipping cost in the price and offer free shipping on all products with a minimum purchase. You can also run a limited time offer of FREE SHIPPING to increase sales.

14. Mobile functionality

More than 60% of total online traffic is through a mobile device. More than 50% of online transactions are carried out through a mobile device; either through a mobile app or mobile-responsive eCommerce website. Walmart Canada managed to increase their website conversions by 20% after releasing a more responsive website design. They also reported a staggering 98% increase in mobile orders.

15. Speed

If you’re like me, you notice when you’re visiting a speedy website. Everything feels different. Pages take no more than a second or two to load, and information is delivered to you sooner. The site just feels better when you navigate it. Apparently, it does more than just deliver a warm tingly feeling; it also increases sales for businesses. Amazon noticed that just a delay of 100ms cost them 1% in sales. They also did a study, which showed that they would lose $1.6 Billion in sales per year, if their website slowed down by just 1 second.

So if you buy a budget web hosting plan, it’ll cost you in the long run. Even worse than a slow loading time is website crashes, glitches, or error reports. That’s why you’re better off spending the money on a premium web hosting plan now as opposed to dealing with these headaches later. Trust me, it’s worth the investment.

16. Post-launch activities

The hard work doesn’t stop once you have an eCommerce website that you’re happy with. Both before and after launch, your ecommerce web developers should constantly monitor and update the site to keep things running smoothly. Some of the tasks to keep in mind are:

Perform a regular audit and analysis of your competitors. Review the website, social media, customer experience and user journey, pricing, and market positions regularly to stay up to date with the market.
Perform a regular audit of your own site. For example, don’t forget the importance of SEO audits and functionality reviews. For example, just a one-second delay in page load time can decrease your conversion rate by up to 7%. Make sure that everything is working smoothly and that any problems with functionality are corrected as soon as possible.
Perform a regular audit to monitor checkout flow and identify the most common places on the site where users stop shopping, bounce from the site, or abandon their carts. There are a lot of tools and programs that can help you track these vital behaviors. You can use these insights to make website updates in order to improve the conversion rate.

17. Think like your customer

If you want your ecommerce website design to connect with your audience, you need to think like your audience. Ultimately, there are just a few things your potential customers want in an ecommerce experience—a site that’s easy to navigate, well-designed, and makes the process of shopping easy, straightforward, and hassle-free.

And if you want your ecommerce shop to succeed, you have to give them those things.

During the design process, put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. What kind of layout is going to be easiest for them to navigate? How can you organize your products in a way that makes sense for the end user? How can you simplify the checkout process?

When you think like your customer, you can anticipate what they want from your ecommerce store—and then design your site in order to meet those needs.

18. Search engine optimization (SEO)

Not everyone who wants what you’re selling will navigate straight to your website. In fact, research shows that 46% of consumers start the buying process through a search engine, such as Google.

Also, when people are shopping online, they look for options and compare prices before choosing a company to engage with. If you want your eCommerce business to be successful, then your website should attract traffic from different search engines such as Google.

There are different aspects of SEO, such as offline SEO, online SEO, linkbuilding, etc that all work together to improve your search engine ranking. The effects of SEO are long-lasting and this makes it a great investment for your business. It delivers targeted, measurable and cost-effective results on a long-term basis, as long as you keep your focus on SEO. Just like you, your competitors are also optimizing their website to be on top of ranking. If your ecommerce site isn’t one of the top results, they’ll buy from one of your competitors instead. That’s why it’s so important for you to focus your efforts on search engine optimization.

19. Custom promo codes

Promo code is a sales tactic to offer promotional offers for a limited time period, on either all products or selected products. These promotional discounts can be of specific dollar value, percentage OFF, Free Shipping, Buy-One-Get-One-Free. Also, promo codes can be for single-use or for multiple-use. Single-use promo codes are not shareable and expire once used. You can promote a multi-use promo code on the announcement bar on top of the website, mention it in your email campaigns, or any Digital Marketing campaigns including Social Media to target as many customers as possible.

20. Shopping cart abandonment emails

Once a user sets up their profile, you can track their shopping activities on your store, including the items they placed in their shopping cart, but didn’t complete the transaction. That means they were interested in the product, but didn’t go through all the way. Sending an email reminding about the items in cart can be just enough to close the sale. You can also add a promotional discount offer or some other incentive to sweeten the deal. Bottom line is that don’t let go of that customer.

21. Email subscription list

Building an ecommerce email list and sending them discount offers / promos, new product offers, useful tips is one of your best options to keep them engaged and have them come back again and again for repeat purchase. The objective is to stay on top of their mind, so that they don’t forget about you.

A great way to add subscribers is to collect email addresses during the checkout process. If they are just visiting your store and not going through the checkout, you can have a pop-up offering a discount or some sweet offer in exchange for their email address.

There you have it; the most comprehensive guide to build the best eCommerce website. Even if you are able to implement some of the strategies explained here, you will see significant improvement in the overall traffic and sales of your store.

Developing an eCommerce website is not a one-time activity. It is a journey in which you keep improving your store by implementing new ideas and features, testing different ideas and measuring results to see what works and what doesn’t and gradually taking your store to the new heights. Once you look back on your journey, you will feel proud on your achievements.

If you need help on this journey, you can always reach out to our team for a free consultation, via email at info@telkoware.com or via phone at (437)223-1771.

Wish you all the best! Good Luck.

August 5, 2020December 16, 2022

11 Reasons Why Shopify Web Designers Love to build e-Commerce websites on Shopify

Shopify is a popular platform for designing e-Commerce websites. It allows you to organize your products, accept payments, track orders and manage inventory with ease. It is perfect for low-budget e-commerce stores as it provides these useful services at a reasonable price.

The Shopify website design options are available in its theme store. With this, you can customize the look and style of your e-commerce store. You can choose one from the numerous available themes crafted by renowned website designers. Some of them are free, while others are paid. You can also convert website to mobile app software to increase the visibility of your e-commerce store.

But that’s not all. Here are 11 more reasons why web designers love Shopify to develop e-Commerce stores:

1. Shopify theme store

The Shopify theme store has a variety of unique templates to choose from. This allows you to add a personal touch to your store as the theme can be customized to match your business requirements. The theme store features 70+ amazing e-commerce templates to choose from. These have been carefully crafted to adhere to the appropriate aesthetic of an e-commerce store.

You can find templates for different types of products in diverse industries. For example, jewelry, arts, electronics, fashion and clothing, and photography, are just a few examples. This facilitates unique designs for all its users. Additionally, eight of these templates are available free of cost in the Shopify Theme Store. Each of these themes have multiple color presets to choose from.

Designers such as Pixel Union and Clean Themes have created templates in the Shopify theme store. These famous designers are known for their splendid work, and the theme store offers their templates at a reasonable price. After finalizing the basic layout, Shopify allows a free demo and encourages creative use of the templates and themes available in the store.

2. Ability to customize

The Shopify theme store allows customization of the settings of each available template. This can be done with ease and does not require coding or technical knowledge of HTML or CSS. However, some form of website design knowledge is necessary to create an aesthetically pleasing website. Above all, this modification is free of cost. In this manner, the e-commerce website design can be furnished specifically as per the requirements.

The services available include changing fonts, using customized colors, uploading your logo, and many other options. The theme store also facilitates customization of the layout of your homepage, including slideshows, or even adding banners. Shopify also allows you to create different sections of your products and categorize them however you like. You can include slideshows and hyperlink buttons to encourage more sales. This is one of the attractive features for website designers.

Not only does Shopify provide templates for diverse industries, but its website design also provides suggestions adhering to different criteria. For example, the templates are sorted in different categories labeled trending, large inventories, small inventories, minimalist styles, and many others. Since more and more users are accessing internet through their mobile phone, Shopify allows a mobile preview while designing your website. It allows the Shopify web designer to see how the website will look on different screen sizes.

3. No technical knowledge required

Building your website on Shopify platform does not require any specific technical knowledge or programming background. While other e-commerce platforms demand basic coding skills, this platform is developed using a language called Liquid. This template language is used to construct webpages by website designers and is the foundation on which the themes are built.

Liquid has the capacity to combine dynamic content and static content. The template language allows the re-use of static elements that are responsible for the layout of the webpage. Along with this, Liquid can dynamically populate the store data on the webpage simultaneously.

Not only is Liquid designer-friendly, it is also well documented, which gives you all the support you need along the way. A basic understanding of HTML and CSS is sufficient to freely design the website best suited for your e-commerce store. Shopify allows you to sync the changes made in the design to your live store, and this makes it easy to test the new design.

4. Partner program for web designers

Shopify has a comprehensive partner program, which allows multiple opportunities for Shopify web designers to earn income. He/she can develop a theme and put it on shopify theme store, which results in revenue every time that theme is downloaded and installed. Also, he/she can develop a plugin or an app, which can also result in revenue every time it is downloaded. It also maintains a database of experienced Shopify web developers, which a store owner can browse and choose from for his/her website design needs.

On top of that, Shopify Partners receive 20% revenue for referrals. This means that they receive additional revenue for referring Shopify to online stores.

5. Worldwide access

Shopify web designers are free to create webpages in any language that the e-Commerce store owner requires. The designer has the flexibility to choosing any Shopify template and translate the content into 50+ languages. The most popular ones include Dutch, Italian, Swedish, French, Greek, Danish, and Japanese. So there aren’t any geographical or language constraints.

The Shopify web design platform also supports currencies of numerous countries. Local currencies can be used for individual e-commerce stores depending on the region of the establishment. The platform supports tax rates in local currencies as well. Thus, it’s is an ideal platform for multinational clients.

As a result of this feature, web designers are given the option to explore working with clients from different countries. In this way, Shopify facilitates a larger client base for independent Shopify web designers.

6. Minimal server issues

Being a hosted solution, Shopify puts a designer’s mind at ease regarding backups, installations, security updates, and any other such problems. With the server availability rate of almost 100%, website never goes down due to outages, or scheduled or unscheduled maintenance windows. That means the virtual store is serving customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

7. Full autonomy

It give store owners the autonomy to modify the content on their website.
Since the clients themselves can alter the navigation, webpages, and product collections, it takes the burden off Shopify web designers. Therefore, it is the ideal platform for web design companies in UK and across the globe.

8. Minimal limitations

When it comes to Shopify platform, there aren’t any technical limitations for Shopify web designers. They have unlimited control over the designs for e-commerce websites. The necessity of using CSS and HTML is eliminated with the use of Liquid. Due to this, the designer can craft the look and feel of the website as they please. They can adequately enumerate the expectations of their clients with the help of this platform.

9. Numerous built-in features

Whether you are looking to design blog pages or product pages, or setup inventory management, or setup payment gateway, Shopify has built-in capabilities to allow easy setup and configuration without having to install any external plugins or programs. The built-in features offered by Shopify save time and money as it offers everything you need to get your web store up and running. The unique designs and extensive custom functionalities available on the platform rarely require any additional investment from the store owner.

10. Shopify Theme Kit

The theme kit offered by Shopify is another useful tool that can benefit Shopify web designers. The theme kit allows you to upload themes on multiple environments and enables fast upload and downloads. It also enables you to automatically upload local changes to Shopify and is available on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

11. Efficient branding and marketing

While designing a website using Shopify, images and font styles from the platform can be incorporated into the website. These free resources can improve the branding of your company without any additional cost. Also, Social media plugins can also be used to integrate your social media accounts with the website.

Also, Shopify has built-in SEO capabilities that allows you to optimize your website and improve its search engine ranking with minimal effort. For this reason, the platform not only makes your website visually appealing but also offers the appropriate tools and features to promote and expand your e-commerce business.

Final words

The Shopify theme store and other features offered by the platform are incredible. Whether you are a new or an experienced Shopify web designer, this is a quick and easy platform to develop an e-commerce website.

The excellent features and perks uncover the mystery of why the Shopify web designers love this platform so much. If you are looking to setup an e-Commerce business or setup an online version of your brick and mortar retail store for increased sales, then Shopify would be 1st choice. If you feel that you don’t have the time and energy to learn this platform and rather focus on your core business, then our team of Shopify web designers can do it for you. Just give us a call at (437)223-1771 or email us at info@telkoware.com

Author Bio
Alice Scott is a passionate writer and blogger who specializes in topics related to digital branding, blogging, and online business. She loves having Churros with her cat, Chubby, and morning walks.

July 9, 2020February 17, 2025

How to Use Your Website as a Customer Magnet and Improve Conversion

A lot of time, effort and resources go into creating a professional, business website. You pay for designing and developing the website, spend hours in selecting the right design template for it, and end up investing in some expensive Pay-Per click campaign (Google ads) to promote it. But if you are struggling to convert those website visitors to customers, then keep reading to find out what could be wrong and how to fix it.

The thing is, website design should be more focused on your target market; people who fit your ideal customer profile and are more likely to convert. Creating such a website requires a lot of thinking and planning. Below, we share with you 5 guaranteed ways to guide your design process and help your website become a powerful sales funnel with lots of potential consumers.

1. Pay Attention To the Visuals

More than anything, it’s the visuals that inspire people to visit you and remain on your website for long. High-resolution images, original photography, a fantastic professional logo, attractive display of colors (whether neutral or otherwise), and strict adherence to the site’s color scheme show your potential customer that you know what you are doing.
Let’s break it down into three important aspects:
• Original photos
• Consistent color scheme
• Visual hierarchy
We are going to understand these three by using a live website example: Tejchauhan.com.
Tej Chauhan is an emotive industrial design artist who designs futuristic and intuitive products for a wide range of industries.

His site is a study in using original photography to its maximum impact. The products are impressive already but are presented with such simple and beautiful prominence that it enhances their appeal. Using original photography is a must if you want to appear authentic to your audiences.
Stock photos make you look lazy at best and shady at worst. Taking original photos isn’t expensive or difficult. Just use a good camera (your iPhone will work) and take real photos of your products. Original pictures add integrity and authenticity to the business.
Also, choose a color scheme and stick to it. Tej uses blue, grey, white and a spot of red/orange. This visual symmetry makes the site look professional and allows the products to shine. It tells a potential customer that people taking care of this business are organized and structured.
The site uses colors as well as fonts to create the hierarchy. Solid tints of color are given center-stage while pastels are used in the background. Simple fonts in varying sizes tell us which part of the information is most important and should be looked at first.
To bring the highest-potential consumers to your site, attract them with solid web design: simple, to-the-point, and containing original pictures that they can trust.

2. Responsive Design

Web designs that change their dimensions and the way they display information with altering screen sizes are called responsive designs. For example, if you are viewing this on a mobile phone, the text size, photo resolution, and alignment, etc. will adjust themselves to fit your mobile screen.
Even when you are on a desktop and try to resize your window, a responsive website should alter its dimensions and visual presentation to fit the changing size.

As you aim to bring more niche and high-potential customers to your website, keep in mind the fluid way they access the Internet: through their smartphone, tablet, desktop, laptop, etc. When you design a website that responds to the user’s way of accessing it, it adds phenomenally to the user experience. Google consistently ranks responsive sites higher in SERPs and demotes sites that aren’t. As a result, with responsive design, your site’s SEO directly improves.

The two most defining features of responsive web design:
• Flexible grids that automatically rearrange themselves to fit the screen size they are being viewed on.
• Flexible visuals with resizing containers that allow the heavy files to exceed specific dimensions.

Responsive web design allows your site to not hurt its visual appeal no matter the size of its container screen.
And while you are at it, you might also consider delving into mobile first optimizations of your website. Some aspects that you may consider, include, designing for small screens so that they are easy to navigate; information is clearly visible on mobile as well as imagery and layouts are uncomplicated. The aim of the mobile first design is to ensure that mobile users can quickly access your business information on the go and make quick decisions. If it’s not viewable and clickable, then it will most likely result in lost customers. This is why it’s worth investing your time in this.

3. Loading Speed

Nobody has time to wait for a site that takes more than 3 seconds to load; no way. People aren’t even waiting for Amazon to load only a second slower, so you and I don’t even have a chance. People equate a site’s load speed to its credibility and professionalism.
It’s very similar to why visuals are so important to people. It’s about impression as well as ease of use. The site that loads fast gives people what they are looking for instantly. If the images on your site are rich and heavy and will take a bit of time to load, make your text load faster so people have something to do besides getting frustrated.

Page load speed also affects your search rankings. Google routinely penalizes sites that are slow to load. And by slow we mean they take 3 seconds to load. Can you believe that? Probably not. In these ultra-fast times, fast internet has psychologically trained us to expect results faster and anything a bit slower just looks bad and unreliable to us.
While people are not forgiving for slow-loading desktop websites, the majority expects the mobile site to be a tad slower than its desktop version. And that’s also because of habits. We are used to mobile sites that are slower to load – but it’s changing. With Google’s mobile-first indexing policy, sites need to perform better than or as well as their desktop counterparts. So, you don’t have a lot of leeway.
Make your loading speed better and keep your visitors engaged. This also holds true for buying behavior. If your website is not allowing customers to purchase the item they want at that moment, then they will most probably move on to your competitor. Keep that in mind the next time you are at your desk tweaking your website for improvements.

4. Get Rid Of Click baits And Popups

How many popups have you clicked on lately? Or any of the clickbait sites that you visit regularly and have become a patron of?
The reason is people don’t usually engage with popups click-baits; the former is annoying and the latter is just misleading. They distract you, throw a hurdle in your user journey, and do not offer anything of value. Some people argue that popups work and bring in valuable leads. Counter argument: yes, incessant telemarketing works too but does it make it less annoying? A lot of people simply do not engage with popups and close them off as a reflex.
It’s true for click baits too. Phrasing your content headings in ways that entice users is fine but then the content should be ‘more’ of what the heading was and not just a big, fat lie. Seriously, rid your website of all popups and click baits. And even if you really have to, then make it more user-friendly. A clickbait that only pops up when user show their intention of interacting with the website or they are looking for the required information designed in the popup; or even popups that help divulge important information about the product or deal. The key to successfully include such popups without annoying the customer is by allowing them to make the choice to click them off easily.

5. Trust Badges For Ecommerce Sites

Trust badges, testimonials, and reviews add the trust factor in your website. It tells people that your business is legitimate and that others have engaged with it and found the experience satisfactory. Hopefully even more than satisfactory.

Ecommerce sites especially gain trust and credibility with display of trust badges from credit card companies and other digital payment service providers. Customers view these buttons as assurances of a safe, secure and convenient checkout process. Trust badges also include security icons and other details that let users know their payment will be securely handled and processed.

Conclusion:

Your website design is your first impression on a potential customer. To attract the most ideal customer to your website, invest in learning all you can about that ideal customer’s ideal user journey on a site. You can do that by research, analysis, and by engaging with a focus group of your ideal customers.
If your startup cannot invest in such costs at this stage of the business, our website designers can lend a helping hand. Feel free to reach out to us at info@telkoware.com OR (437)223-1771.

December 6, 2019April 15, 2025

Why WordPress Website Maintenance is important and how to do it step by step?

Have you bought a car recently? Once purchased, it has to be maintained to ensure that it has a long life and serves its purpose. If it is not taken for regular service and oil change, its performance will continue to deteriorate over a period of time, till it stops running.

Just like your car, website is also a very important business investment and needs to be maintained and protected, if you want it to run smoothly for a long period of time. Now you might be thinking that I haven’t touched my website in a long time and it seems to be working fine. Well, websites don’t present immediate issues. However, just like your health can fall apart if you go too long without a regular checkup, so can the health of your website. Just like your body gets attacked by virus, bacteria, and other diseases, your website also gets attacked by Hackers, who look for vulnerabilities in unmaintained websites and attempt to take advantage of it. You can help prevent it by following a regular website maintenance schedule. That way, your website will always be safe and secure, and in the event that your website does get hacked (even with all the security measures in place), you can restore the website with backup and have it up and running in no time. If you are wondering what that regular website maintenance schedule should look like, then don’t worry.

I have listed below routine website maintenance activities, with the frequency (weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly) of when each activity needs to be performed:

Weekly Website Maintenance Tasks:

1. Check that all of your pages are loading without errors and have correct layout and design. An automatic plugin, theme, or wordpress update could have distorted any web pages, due to incompatibility issues.

2. Take a complete backup of your website and store it either on your local computer or in cloud storage.

Has it ever happened that you are working on an important document or assignment and then something goes wrong with your computer and you lose your entire work? If this has happened to you, you understand the value of taking backups. If you’re not careful though, the same thing could happen to your website. If a hacker is able to access your website, he/she can wipe out your website. As part of regular website maintenance, if you have taken a backup, you can easily restore it in a matter of minutes. Common WordPress plugin for taking backup is Updraft Plus.

Every website should be backed up at least weekly, in case something happens and the site needs to be restored. There are two website elements that need backup:

Code (Javascript, PHP code, HTML, CSS, themes, plugins, other files).
Content (Text, images, videos, audios, PDFs, docs, etc.).

If you host your website with us, it is automatically backed up every week.

3. Make updates to the website software. Just like you update the operating system and Microsoft Office on your laptop/computer, website software also needs to be kept up-to-date for security and performance reasons. For a wordpress website, this means updating the wordpress version, plugins, and theme. But as a safety precaution, take a backup first. That way, if there’s a hiccup, you can roll back to the previous working version.

4. Check that all of your forms are running properly. Just imagine finding out that your contact form stopped working after a website update and you lost business opportunities due to this flaw. If your website has any contact form plugins you want visitors to fill out, you want to be confident these all work properly as well. If any of your forms aren’t working right, you could be missing out on valuable leads, so make sure you catch the problem sooner rather than later.

5. Remove any spam comments from posts. Or you can configure blog, so that all comments are held in a queue for admin’s approval, before posted on website. If your website doesn’t have a blog, then you don’t have to worry about this task.

6. Check your pages to see if there are any broken links. When a visitor who could be a potential customer clicks on a link that leads to a 404 page, it’s embarrassing. When that dead link is on your website, it makes your business look unprofessional and leads people away from the page you want them to be on, which is why you need to perform preventative maintenance. Are you wondering why would you have broken links on your website in the first place? Well, you’ll end up with broken links on your website from time to time as other websites you link to move or shut down or change domains. Since you can’t avoid that, please make sure they don’t stay on your website long by either removing them or replacing them with updated links.

Finding broken links is not that difficult, since you don’t have to click on each and every link to see if it is still working. There are a lot of free tools available that automatically check websites for broken links, such as Google Search Console. Because these tools make the process so simple, you should easily be able to find and fix any broken links quickly.

7. Write one or more blog posts to keep your community engaged, which is one of the most effective ways to encourage SEO traffic.

Monthly Website Maintenance Tasks:

1. Check the load speed of your website and ensure that nothing is bogging it down. You don’t have to use a timer to measure your website’s speed. You can easily measure the speed of mobile-version and desktop-version through PageSpeed Insights tool, built by Google developers.

2. Review your security scans and make sure nothing is out of place. We hear about high-profile security breaches on the news, but there is a much higher no. of low-profile ones that we don’t hear about. Securing your website from hackers has to be a major priority for anyone that runs a website – and it’s even more important for eCommerce businesses who deal with customer’s private data.

One of the most important website maintenance practices to maintain security is checking that your wordpress platform, plug-ins, themes, and scripts are up to date. Usually when developers release updates for these, it’s to improve the security or patch up a vulnerability they’ve found.

Also make sure that your hosting provider updates the software and install upgrades, security patches, bug fixes or any other updates that may compromise the operating system or web server on which your website is hosted. Ideally, patches should be installed as soon as they are released. Failure to install a security patch may make your website vulnerable to an attack. Don’t procrastinate making those updates, or you could be putting your website and visitors needlessly at risk.

3. Analyze website statistics from the previous month to see if there is a significant variation in traffic. If you notice any abnormalities, it is quite possible that something is wrong with your website, due to which web traffic has suffered. Make sure to check the stats provided in Google Analytics monthly as a preventive website maintenance activity.

Google Analytics provides a lot of useful information about how people are finding and using your website, when are they using it and what device are being used to access it. Make sure that your website is accomplishing what you want it to and figure out what about it is working well and what still needs improvements by logging in to check your analytics at least once a month. Some businesses will benefit from checking it more often than that. New businesses, or businesses with new website can expect traffic to be slow to start, but it’s important to keep an eye on your website’s growth and success as you go. Google Analytics is the best place to do that and a crucial resource for finding ways to improve things like SEO and site engagement.

Quarterly Website Maintenance Tasks:

1. Review your website design and layout. Is there any room for improvement? Are you happy with the overall navigation and sitemap? Are visitors able to find the information quickly, or do they have to go through many hoops to find what they are looking for? Pay special attention to overall user experience, load time, missing or outdated content, inconsistent styles or formatting, typos or grammatical errors, features and business logic, and compliance with certain accessibility standards.

2. Check graphics and images. Are there any images that seem outdated or don’t reflect your business values or brand?

3. Review SEO and meta titles and descriptions to ensure they are as effective as possible. If you feel that there needs to be more focus on some new trendy keywords, then the meta data has to be updated accordingly.

4. Test pop-ups. Whether you are using pop-ups to collect email addresses, share any e-books or other content, or incentivizing a customer from abandoning shopping cart, it serves an important purpose and needs to work flawlessly at all times.

5. Test the mobile-responsiveness of your website. Whether the website is a 4-inch mobile screen or an 8-inch tablet screen, it should automatically adjust for every size, to look attractive and readable. Instead of buying a device of every screen size and testing your website on it, you can test it via mobiletest

6. Review Digital Marketing campaigns to see if anything needs to be changed or updated. Whether it is a social media post or google ads, all call-to-actions need to point to the right web page.

7. Restore a previous version of the website to check the health of your backup files. Making an assumption that the backup files will work once restored can prove to be a costly mistake, when your website is down or infected and your only source of website is your backup file. As it might have a missing file, or an error in one of the files.

Yearly Website Maintenance Tasks:

1. Update any reference to the current year. Please review all web content and if there is any reference to the current year, then update the year with the current year.

2. Review all content for relevancy. The content on your website should keep your readers coming back. No one wants to read the same content week after week or wants to look at outdated information about an event that happened long time ago. If you’re not updating your website, you are essentially telling your potential customers that you are not paying attention to your business or you may even be giving them an impression that you may be going out of business or have already gone out of business.

3. Renew your website domain name and hosting account every year. It would be catastrophic that you lose your website domain name and have to find a new one, which may not match your business name. Ideally, your web hosting provider should send a reminder to renew the hosting account and domain should get renewed automatically with it.

4. Consider whether a website design update is due. Website design trends as well as technology changes at a rapid pace and we need to keep up. Otherwise, our website will look outdated and visitors will simply move on to your competitors.

5. Test all Call-to-Actions (CTAs), such as click to call, check-out process, contact us form, etc and remove any errors immediately. This website maintenance activity will ensure that your website continues to bring new leads.

6. Review all of your top performing blog articles and see if they can be updated with new content. Updating the content will not only keep the content fresh and relevant, but will also improve Google search rankings and will help your overall SEO efforts. Let me explain how exactly it helps.

Google prefers websites that are fast, error free, well maintained and most important of all, have fresh content. So, every time you update the website, you are giving the search engines new content, which needs to be ranked in Google search results. That’s why you must ensure your website is regularly updated with material related to the topics, with which you want people to find your business.

7. Test browser compatibility. As time passes and updates are made, website layouts or technology may become incompatible with new browsers. Regularly review and test your website in various versions of the most popular browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari.

8. Update dates and copyright notices. Review and update any copyright dates or any date-specific text or references throughout your website. Your homepage especially should not contain any stale or outdated information (e.g., a year-old press release).

9. Review and update legal disclaimers (annually). Review and update your privacy policy, site terms and conditions of use, terms of sale and any disclaimers to ensure they are compliant with policies and laws.

CONCLUSION

Just like car or home maintenance, maintaining a website is crucial and can save you time, money, and unnecessary trouble in the long run.

Get all these website maintenance steps on your calendar and stick with them. Your website will thank you!

If you don’t have the time or energy to perform these website maintenance activities, we can take care of it for you, whether it is built on wordpress or any other platform. Feel free to visit our website maintenance services page for pricing and other details. You can also reach out to us at info@telkoware.com OR (437)223-1771 to discuss further.

June 27, 2019March 20, 2025

26 critical eCommerce Website strategies that can make or break your online business

Developing a customer-friendly, professional eCommerce website can be complex and time consuming, but if it has all the right elements, it will ultimately pay off in dividends. You don’t need a salesperson to run this online store, which is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, booking orders for customers automatically without any human intervention. But the biggest challenge is how to persuade online visitors to spend more than 30 seconds (average time a person spends on an eCommerce website), browse through available products, make a selection and complete the checkout process to place an order. Here are 26 critical strategies to provide the best-possible online customer experience and boost online sales:

1. Product Demo Videos

Video is a great way to show buyers what they’re really getting. When we think of demo videos, electronic gadgets come to mind, but it can be for anything, including clothes to show how they will look like while in motion. The video will help persuade the online visitor in buying the product.

2. Boost your Ecommerce Sales with Promotions and Special Offers

There are different ways of offering promotions / discounts / offers to not only attract visitors to your website, but to convince them to make the purchase. Here are a few options:

Percentage-based discounts – Full retail price is shown, but struck off with the sale price.
Buy One, Get One free – Who doesn’t love free stuff
Quantity-based discounts – If a certain quantity is bought, you get a percentage off the total price or get an item free. This can be attractive to consumers as well as distributors looking to buy in bulk.
Reward points – With every purchase, customer earns reward points, which can be redeemed towards a future purchase.

3. Free shipping

Your eCommerce site is up, a customer loves what you sell, and just before they hit “confirm purchase” they abandon the sale. Why? It’s no secret that everyone loves free shipping. Shipping charges during the checkout process contribute significantly to cart abandonment. Apart from eliminating an expense many of your visitors may be expecting, free shipping can simplify the entire sales process. Research shows that 93% of online shoppers say free shipping would encourage them to buy. Your company doesn’t necessarily have to eat the shipping costs, you can simply “hide” your shipping charges by embedding them directly into the price of the product.

4. The WOW Factor

We have all heard of that “wow factor” that gives customers a unique experience they won’t experience anywhere else. You want your customers to feel that way each time they visit your site, through the design and layout, stunning images, and outstanding content. You want them to spend more than the average 15 seconds a person spends on a website because you offer something unique and amazing.

When designing your e-commerce website, always look for ways to make it a more pleasant experience for your customer. Think of their expectations when purchasing items from your website, and then work to move beyond those expectations to create an unforgettable experience. For example, once an item is placed, you can provide tracking information similar to how Amazon, or you might want to send status update emails on where the ordered product currently is.

5. Build Credibility

People are much more likely to buy from a website with proven credibility than the one that feels fake and looks unprofessional.

You need to prove you exist by giving a place and face to your organisation. You can do this by listing your address and phone number.

Another great way to show there is an organization behind your brand, is to show them the people behind the scenes. You can put images of your employees; headshots with brief bios or group photos of different teams.

You can also earn your customer’s trust online by showing them recent press releases, news stories and third party endorsements of your brand. Whether it is announcing a new partnership or landing a big deal—tell your customers about it on your website! These events lend you credibility and can help increase your online conversions.

6. Online Reviews and testimonials

Online reviews and customer testimonials are the best way to gain credibility as a reputable business online. In fact, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Because they provide otherwise wary shoppers with a sense of trust, and trust is what ultimately gets people to buy. Reviews from real-life customers help to lower the barrier to buying. A properly positioned positive review can mean the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart.

7. The checkout process is too complicated, or too short

When a customer gets lost in too many steps during the checkout process, there is a high likelihood of abandoning the shopping cart completely. Inversely, that customer might run away if you ask too soon for the payment details. These are important things you must take that into consideration when designing your website.

8. Not Addressing Security Concerns

Take every precaution you can to protect your sales data to keep your customer’s accounts secure, and then tell them about it in your privacy policy. Make this policy readily available to them on your site; when it’s buried in your site, they will think it’s not important to you. Also, incorporate a design element that lets them know their information is safe with you.

Make sure your site has SSL, so that all data to and from your website is encrypted. That way, even if someone steals it, it will be useless for him/her.

9. Update your website

You should always keep your website current. Even if your product line rarely changes, you should update your site with new pictures, news items, videos and landing page videos, blog posts, or other interesting pieces of online content to give your customers a reason to visit your website on a regular basis. It also helps with SEO, as Google looks positively towards websites that are updated regularly.

10. Add an Exit Intent Pop-Up

Capture website visitors that otherwise would have left your website. Of course, you need to give them a reason to subscribe or to provide an email address, so offer a free guide, discount, or another treat that goes in line with your brand. If you’re not already actively building your list, this should be the first thing you add to your ecommerce marketing strategy.

11. Capture Abandoned Carts with an Exit Intent Pop-Up

If someone takes the time to put an item in their shopping cart, they’ve shown a great deal of interest in buying what you’re selling. They’re so close to converting, so make an effort to get them to complete their purchase.

For one reason or another, tons of shoppers leave their carts abandoned without completing their purchase. Which is why shopping cart abandonment recovery is one of the most powerful ecommerce marketing tactics around.

To capture some of your potential customers before they abandon their cart, add a specific exit intent popup on your cart page. For example: If a visitor adds something to their cart then goes to the cart page and then decides to leave the page, a pop-up will appear offering them a discount if they purchase within the next 4 hours or day. You can set a percentage discount and time frame that fits your eCommerce store and this offer would only show up on the cart page.

12. Send Shopping Cart Abandonment Emails

You can use smart remarketing tactics from CRMs like HubSpot to send highly customized emails to shoppers that have abandoned carts. This is where your eCommerce email marketing skills come into play.

13. Get People Back to Your Website with Remarketing

Facebook and Google do an amazing job of giving you the opportunity to track the actions of your sites’ visitors in order to optimize the way you market to them. A simple string of code can provide you with a huge amount of information on your potential customers

For example, Facebook allows you to create remarketing campaigns that show specific ads to visitors who have viewed particular product pages or left items in their cart.

If the shopper still hasn’t purchased them after a few days, you can boost the efficacy of these ads by offering them a coupon code in an effort to entice them back to your site.

14. Create Highly Valuable Blog Posts

Blogging allows you to drive traffic, build a community, and engage with your customers on a whole new level. Creating content that is helpful, entertaining, and engaging will allow you to answer the questions your potential customers are asking and introduce them to your brand in a low-pressure environment.

Create guides that show off how your products are used in real-world applications. Make sure to keep it visually interesting and focus on creating highly valuable content. Quality over quantity is the name of the game.

Blogging creates eCommerce marketing opportunities on a massive scale and learning how to do it well should be a priority for an eCommerce store.

Consider this: 79% of companies that have a blog report a positive ROI for inbound marketing.

15. Share User-Generated Content

When your customers post pictures to Instagram or upload videos to Facebook or YouTube, ask permission and repost them. Share them on your social media, blog, and through content marketing.

The more people that see the honest, positive feedback of an excited customer, the better.

Sales are all about trust and eCommerce stores can have a harder time earning that trust without a brick-and-mortar location. This is especially true of smaller stores that most people don’t know. Use user-generated content to help people feel confident in their decision to buy from you.

16. Create Power Posts – Onsite SEO

One of the best ways to drive tons of traffic to your online store is through SEO and most effective strategy to boost your onsite SEO is to create power posts. Power posts are massive articles of approximately 2,000 words or more, which is full of useful information on a particular topic of interest.

What differentiates a power post is that it is a standalone resource that makes it easy for your reader to understand the subject without having to do any other research anywhere else.

One of the other defining attributes is that it’s better than anything else available on the subject. Longer, more informative, and SEO-optimized. It’s also really nice if it’s professionally designed and has great photo or video content to make it more visually appealing.

17. Send Wish-list Reminders

Do you have some customers, who have added products to their wish-list, but never had the courage to follow through with the purchase?

They put those items there for a reason, and you may just have to be the one who reminds them what they’re missing out on. Send them an email with a link to their list. You may even want to include a limited time discount coupon to get them excited and create a sense of urgency.

18. Nurture Visitors into Subscribers and Subscribers into Customers

Not everyone who visits your store will be ready to buy, but make sure you collect their email addresses. Once you have visitor’s email addresses, you’ll want to nurture those leads with a series of automated emails with valuable product knowledge, promotions and offers.

Send them informative and insightful content that they can engage with, and you’ll be able to learn their buying preferences based on their interaction with each email. HubSpot, a popular CRM has the ability to connect with your online store to send them emails based on pages they have visited or products they showed interest in but didn’t buy.

19. Quality product images

The value of good imagery is undeniable for all web design projects, but probably even more so in eCommerce.

Eventually, a good product image is what makes the sale, or at least participates in the sale heavily. Use not only product images (on white backgrounds), but also “in-use” images – images where a person can be seen using the product. This works great for showcasing the lifestyle associated with the product, which is often a powerful selling mechanism. Especially for things like clothing, furniture, or appliances. Wherever possible, go for large images. The data seems to be clear on this one, large images bring more sales. And most importantly of all, make sure that the images are mobile optimized and that they work with no glitches.

20. Keep the website speed in mind

It is obvious that the more feature-rich the design is, the more time it’ll take to load, but even the slightest delays can mean serious losses for an eCommerce business.

Just to give you an extreme example, if Amazon increased their page load time by just +100ms, they would lose 1 percent of their sales, which means Billions of dollars. For a more hands-on example, research has shown that 40 percent of all visitors will bounce if a web page takes more than 3 seconds to load.

What this means in plain English for a web designer is that if the web store built isn’t optimized enough, and it takes more than just a couple of seconds to load, then the whole effort that went into building the website is wasted. Therefore, always test your eCommerce design on the exact server environment it’s meant to run on, and make sure that everything loads in less than 3 seconds. If it doesn’t, then go back to the drawing board and optimize it further.

21. Design the checkout experience as well

The checkout experience, from adding a product to the shopping cart to the final confirmation page is the most critical element of an eCommerce website, when it comes to sales. Therefore, all steps in it should be carefully thought through.

Most eCommerce platforms have all of that already built in, so we can feel tempted to leave things as they are. However, those are not always the most optimized checkouts, simply because they need to function with a large number of site designs, different page templates and layouts. Some compromises had to be made. That’s why you’re better off handling the checkout design by yourself, and making sure that it’s optimized for your specific products and type of customers. A valuable tip is to use progress bars (or some other indicators) to show the visitor that they’re on the right track to complete their purchase and how much longer will it take. Another useful tip is to display a summary in a sidebar throughout the checkout process.

22. Use large, bold typography

These days, having custom typography on a website has become much easier to achieve than just a couple of years ago. This has opened a lot of possibilities for modern eCommerce designs. After all, if you want to make a sales message or a headline visible, why not just use huge and bold typography for that?

23. Related Products

Having some sort of “related products” listing is a store owner’s best way to generate more sales without spending more funds on marketing. A related products block is usually placed beneath the main product description.

24. Mobile-responsive eCommerce Website

Having a mobile-responsive website is a must these days, considering that more than 65% of web traffic is generated from mobile devices. So it is important that website automatically adjusts itself depending on the size of the screen, so that all pages are presentable and readable.

25. Website Layout

There’s too much going on — A website that contains too many images, text, or colors makes it difficult for visitors to sift through all the information and find what they’re looking for. Chances are, they’ll leave the website and move to one with a better layout and design.
There’s too much to do — Most visitors prefer simplicity, so they’re less likely to stay on a website that involves too much clicking and scrolling to find the relevant information.

26. Visible Hotlines and Live Chats That Allow for Better Communication

Even if all product information, including the image, price, and description is already available on the website, some customers might still have other inquiries about your business or product. So it is important to always keep communication lines open between you and your customer. Otherwise, the visitor might move on to the next e-commerce site in search of answers to their queries.

Make the interaction easier by adding visible hotlines and live chat features on your website that are available 24/7. That kind of customer service will be appreciated by the visitors and will help convert them to paying customers.

All customers want is an easy, online shopping experience with a variety of available products at a reasonable price. If the eCommerce website doesn’t seem professional, secure, and convenient with least no. of clicks, you will observe high bounce rate or high cart-abandonment rate. With 26 eCommerce website tips and tricks explained above, you will observe a high conversion rate, which translates to high online sales.

If you are not sure that your eCommerce website is setup for success, we are happy to do a free audit and share a detailed report with our findings. Simply reach out to us at (437)223-1771 or info@telkoware.com

January 18, 2019September 15, 2021

8 reasons why your business needs an eCommerce website Today !!!

Professional eCommerce website design

If you think that your business has products or services that cannot be sold online, think again. All kinds of products, from a pin to a car, and all kinds of services, from hair dressing to car detailing is being sold online and doing extremely well.

Covid has accelerate the pace of online shopping adoption for consumers of every age worldwide. As per StatsCan, from February to May 2020, total retail sales fell 17.9%. However, retail e-commerce sales nearly doubled (+99.3%), with some retailers relying more on this method of sale. Retail e-commerce sales reached a record $3.9 billion in May, a 2.3% increase over April and 99.3% increase over February ($2.0 billion). Year over year, e-commerce sales more than doubled—with a 110.8% increase compared with May 2019.

If you already have a website, then just add eCommerce element to it. If you don’t have a website, get one with built-in eCommerce functionality.

Here are 8 key benefits of having a professional eCommerce website for your business:

1. Your eCommerce store is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which means your website is bringing in sales, while you sleep.

2. Requires less human effort, as you don’t need a salesperson to attend to incoming customers. Through a simple search feature, customers can find the right product from thousands of products. There are also filters available to shortlist the products to a specific color, brand, price range, dimensions, or other attributes of the products. Then customers can review product images and videos, read the description, and purchase it by paying through a credit card, debit card, or paypal account. That way, an online store far less overhead costs, as compared to brick-and-mortar store, making it a very cost-effective way to expand business.

3. Your product pages will feed into Google, thus creating more ways for potential customers to find you through Google search.

4. You can collect valuable information about your online visitors, thus providing key insights into your buyer persona. You can then customize the store to their shopping preferences, thus increasing your online sales. It can be tricky to collect and manage data on customers, who come to your real-life store, but in an online world, they will leave a trail of page visits, clicks, cookies, and past orders behind them. You can analyze the data and tweak the user flows through your website to find out what makes them buy more or less.

5. eCommerce allows online visitors time to carefully think about their shopping. It also gives you an opportunity to provide more information about your products or services. You can write detailed description, how-to guides, how-to videos, product care tips, and add customer reviews, so that your customers feel satisfied and makes an informed choice.

6. With an eCommerce business, your operations and sales is not restricted by small office premises or warehouse. Different companies generate sales worth millions of dollars from a small warehouse.

7. With a brick and mortar business, you are restricted in serving clients in that area or city. But with an online store, you can serve clients across the country, or even across the world. With no limitations on the foot print, you can multiply your sales and grow your business at an exponential rate.

8. With different Digital Marketing techniques like social media, you are reaching clients who can’t get to your store physically. With an online store, it doesn’t matter if they can’t reach your store physically. All they have to do is place the order online and it will arrive at their door step within days.

A professional eCommerce website should be a natural extension of your business. It will not only enhance your corporate brand, but also build trust and credibility with current and future potential customers.

If you are considering a professional eCommerce website for your business, reach out to us for a free consultation at info@telkoware.com or +1(437)223-1771 at anytime.

If you already have an eCommerce website, we are happy to do a free audit of your website and provide a detailed report of improvement recommendations to help you boost sales by converting more website visitors to paying customers. Simply send us an email at info@telkoware.com or call us at (437)223-1771

October 31, 2018March 20, 2024

7 Simple Steps on How to design a business website

Are you an entrepreneur, small-business owner, or medium to large-sized business owner? Regardless of the type or size of business, a website will allow you to not only create brand awareness, but also promote and sell your products and services. Irrespective of your marketing methods, enabling potential customers to either find you through a Google search or learn more about you after reading your marketing material is key to finding new customers.

The excuse of websites being too complicated or too expensive to create is no longer valid. Thanks to the advancements in software technology and CMS platforms, creating a website for your business is easier than you think.

You can do it yourself if you are so inclined or need to keep costs down, you can get a friend to help, or you can hire a Web developer to do it for you at a modest cost. Irrespective of the path you choose, it is important to understand the steps to create your business website.

Follow these 7 simple steps to have your business website up and running:

1. Decide the Objective of your website

What do you want the website to do for your business? Will it be a static website that will provide information about your products or services to web visitors? Or would you like to provide useful information about your industry by writing articles and posting them on your blog? Or would you like to sell your products online? Or would you like to book appointments online through your website?

Think carefully about the overall purpose of the website and then move to the next step, as it will guide you on how to design and build your website. Of course, you can always update your website later on and make it a multi-purpose website.

2. Choose your website’s Domain Name

Domain name is what your potential customers will use to find your website, i.e. www.mybusiness.com. Check and see if your business name is available by going to https://ca.godaddy.com/ and searching for it.

If the .COM or .CA version of your business name is available, then that’s perfect, since most people use .COM / .CA and it is easier to remember than .NET or .INFO. If it is not available, then look for an alternative that resonates with your type of business.

Here are some suggestions to find an awesome domain:

Match your business name as closely as possible
Avoid using hyphens or acronyms.
Should be available on all major social media sites
It should be brandable
It should be easy to remember
It should be catchy
It should be unique
Try to get top-level domain extensions (.com, .net, .org)
Keep it short
Be careful of copyright infringement

3. Get a Hosting account

Once you’ve chosen a domain, the next step is to decide where to host your website. A host is the service that actually stores your website on an online server and displays it to visitors. You can get a hosting account from GoDaddy, BlueHost, Hostgator, or Telkoware.

You can start off with a less expensive and less powerful shared hosting services and can step up to faster and more powerful dedicated hosting later on, if required.

Please make sure that the hosting account includes web hosting and email addresses. To make your business look more professional and established, you’ll need a custom business email address, instead of using a generic gmail or yahoo email address.

4. Install a Web Content Management System

Once you have a hosting account, a Content Management System (CMS) needs to be installed with 1-click through the control panel provided by your hosting provider. Most popular CMS platform is WordPress. I would also recommend WordPress due to the following reasons:

Free
User-friendly
Powerful
Flexible
Huge developer network
Mobile-responsive

WordPress is a user-friendly website builder. It has pre-built templates that you can choose based on your business type and the functionality you are interested in. It comes pre-built with blog. You can also get many plugins for WordPress that add different functionalities. That includes e-commerce, social media, picture galleries, memberships, appointment scheduling, podcasts, videos, newsletters, and much more.

5. Write your website content

Now it’s time to decide what your website is going to say. Figuring out what to say on your website can be challenging, and one of the main reasons business owners put off creating one.

It needs to be compelling to visitors and convey the right kind of information at the right level, so visitors actually read it instead of moving on to the next website. When you write content, think about it from a marketing and sales perspective.

Think about the objective you decided on 1^st step and see what kind of content will support that objective. It doesn’t need to be filled with a lot of text and content. Just make sure that there is a clear Call-To-Action (CTA) on every page, which could be “contact us” form, or phone no. or email address. Here are the basic pages you should have on your website:

Homepage: On the homepage, you should include the name of your business, where you’re located, and a simplified pitch – a few lines about what makes you unique and/or why customers should choose your business, over your competitors. It should also have icons/images of products/services, linked to their respective web pages and call-to-action and contact info at the bottom.
Products / Services: A page with details about the products / services you offer. You have the option to provide all details on this page, or only have brief information here, with links to web pages dedicated for each product / service.
About Us: Provide some history and background information about your business, as well as about yourself (business owner). Also, mention your business mission, vision, and core values. Images of yourself and employees on this page will be very helpful in improving the credibility of your business.
Contact Us: Your basic contact information like physical address, email, phone number, along with hours of operation should be mentioned here with a Google map of your location embedded on it. Also, links to your social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn should appear on this page.

In addition to text, you also need images. Since you should have chosen a template with visual elements or background images that match your particular business, other images and graphics are generally used to supplement the text content or sometimes even replace it.

6. Get a Logo

The colors, font, and style of your logo will affect the design of your website. This is because you want a consistent theme between your logo and web pages.

If you already have a logo that you are using in the offline world, then perfect. Find the digital file, or create a high resolution scan to use on your website. If you do not already have a logo, or want to upgrade from your existing design, there are three key ways to create one:

Design it yourself on Microsoft Paint or Adobe Photoshop.
Get a professional graphic designer to design it for you.
User fiverr.com / 99designs.com to get a logo designed for a low price.

7. Design your website

Now that you have all the pieces for your small business website ready, it’s time to put them all together into a nice looking website. There are thousands of pre-built templates in WordPress to choose from. Pick the one that meets your website objectives and has the functionalities you are looking to build in your website. Some templates are fairly generic while others are either themed to a particular type of product or service (with background graphics and other visual elements that reflect the product or service) or have built-in features that you may find attractive. For eg., if you are a yoga instructor, you would look for a template geared towards fitness and health, and also allows you to display your yoga sessions schedule with an ability for visitor to register.

On average, it takes a visitor less than 3 seconds to decide whether to stay or leave once they hit your website, so it is imperative that you make a good first impression. Here are a few tips to ensure your website is keeping people engaged:

Have clear navigation – You want people who visit your site to instantly know what your business is about and where to go to learn about your products or services, find pricing, and contact a representative. If your site is not clear, people will get frustrated and exit out. So plan your sitemap carefully, thinking about your top pages and sub-pages, with a clear menu bar on the top for easy navigation.
Use Call-To-Action (CTA) buttons – Implementing buttons with clear actions will lead your visitor in taking the desired action, thus converting a prospect into a paying customer.
Make sure your site is loading quickly – People are impatient, and if your site takes even a fraction of a second too long to load, people will give up and look elsewhere. Make sure your web host provider has fast load times.
Keep it minimal – Don’t overdo it with the design and definitely don’t feel like you need to cover every square inch with information or a design. Use large, concise headline to grab the attention and use plenty of white space, so it does not look over-crowded. Look at your website from a customer’s perspective and design it accordingly.

It is critical to invest some time on your small business website to ensure that it has all basic elements of a great website. It does not have to be perfect from Day 1. As your business grows, you can update your website and add more features and content to it.

If you simply don’t have time to create a website, or if you want a unique design, hire the services of an expert. Feel free to check out our website design process and portfolio, and contact us at info@telkoware.com or (416)278-0734 to discuss your requirements.

September 24, 2018March 20, 2025

15 Web Design trends of 2020 that will affect your business

Web design trends 2020

In the past few years, internet has changed drastically, based on customer’s needs as well as technology advancements. Some changes have stayed for a longer period of time, while others have disappeared with the passage of time. Based on a quick glance to a website, you can easily tell if this website has been designed in the 90s, or very recently. Let’s discuss 15 major web design trends of 2020 that have impacted the web:

Mobile-friendly websites

Initially, you could only access the internet from a desktop computer, but mobile devices like smart phones and tablets took over the web, as they got faster, smarter and more affordable. That’s why web pages had to be designed to fit different screen sizes, which is referred to as mobile-responsive. Nowadays, anyone can easily access the internet on their mobile devices the same way they can on a desktop computer, due to which more than 60% of web traffic is generated from mobile devices.

Interacting without a mouse

As explained above, many internet surfers use mobile devices with touch functionality to browse internet, without relying on a mouse. So web pages have had to be designed to make interaction simple and effective for those users, thus ensuring that various web pages or specific functions don’t act weird, just because someone is not using a mouse.

Poor internet connection

Just because we have access to fast internet connection doesn’t mean everyone else does. There is still someone somewhere who is relying on very slow 3G connection to access different websites. It’s important for websites to be designed with the needs of such users in mind, like keeping pages light with graphics, images, using caching mechanism, etc.

Processor speed is not increasing dramatically

For a number of years, computers were getting faster very quickly, in fact speed was doubling every 18 months (as per Moore’s law). This dramatic increase was evident in desktop computers, but is not the same with mobile devices. Users are focusing on different priorities other than just processor speed. People nowadays prefer phones that have a longer battery life and are cost effective. Manufacturers no longer focus on increasing processor speed because it may undermine these factors.

Different forms of interaction

Modern devices are designed to offer users options as to how they can interact. With a touch device, you need to tap in order to trigger a button. With a mouse, you’ll have to click and a keyboard requires you to press the enter key. Each device is designed with features that allow users to do many other things.

Website designers have to be very careful when thinking about devices used to interact with them. For instance, when a design element reveals content after hovering a mouse, what would it do when the user has a touch screen device? Something to think about and plan around.

More focus on content

Today’s web pages are created in such a way that they place special emphasis on the content of the page itself, instead of directing the visitor to other web pages via links. So designers are making sure content is interesting, readable, and useful.

Google rank affects your website’s visibility

Google is giving more importance to the website speed by using it as one of the parameters for its algorithm to rank pages. So your website’s speed will impact your Google page rankings. As you already know, Google’s rank is critical to driving traffic to your website. So if your page loads slower for users, it will also become harder for potential customers to find you.

Changing privacy laws will demand your compliance

With recent Facebook fiasco, there is more focus on privacy of users and protection of personally identifiable information (PII) – especially as the new internet era invites the potential for private information to be auctioned off by ISPs.

Google Safe Browsing (GSB) is the police force of Google. While safe browsing efforts have always worked to monitor the collection and usage of PII through privacy policy disclosure and consent requirements on traditional websites, those efforts are rapidly expanding into the app market.

Since February 1st of this year, a GSB update is in effect that requires all apps and app-leading websites to present a privacy policy to users that explicitly outlines:

What information is collected
How it is stored
How that data may be used

More social media platforms have been born

In 2006, the leading social media platform was MySpace. Today, there are other social media platforms that a lot of people prefer most, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc.

Facebook is one of the most popular social sites in use today. 2011 and 2012 were the years of Facebook, during which time its users hit the one billion mark. It was in 2012 that the platform acquired Instagram, whose popularity spread in no time at all.

Businesses are using social media to engage with their users, potential customers, as well as drive more traffic to their website by integrating it with their website and blog pages.

Competition of Web browsers

At the start of internet, the only available browsers were Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. These were the only options to choose from. Nowadays, many better browsers have emerged and internet users have a wide range of options to choose from, including Chrome by Google, followed closely by Opera Mini, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox among others. Designers need to ensure that any website designed needs to be presentable and visually appealing in all major browsers.

‘At a glance’ content

In the beginning, a lot of content was key in providing internet users with the information they needed from the various sites they visited. This has changed so much from the past years, to at a glance content. With shorter attention span and multi-tasking, everyone wants to go over the content on a website as quickly as possible. For e.g., people prefer Infographic instead of long sentences. What they need is a website that is engaging but at the same time one that is very easy to navigate, gives the right level of information in a summarized manner.

Immersive interaction experience

Customer experience has now become an important factor in web development. Designers think more about how their end users will feel about their website than how their websites look. One of things that make many internet users flock to a website is the experience they get there. There are quite a good number of techniques that come with immersive experience, some of which include animations, transitions, interactive narratives, micro interactions among others.

Photos took hold of the internet

Photos play an important role in web development these days. It was just the other day that full-bleed photos started gaining popularity. More visual elements are required for one to create a successful website these days. Most of the internet users are attracted to images more than plain content. If you want to attract and engage users on the internet, you have to use quality images together with quality content.

Emergence of Mobile Apps

In 2010, majority of people had started using their mobile phones to access the internet. This is where the interest for apps came in, since most of these phones could feature apps. Today, apps are the easiest way to access products or services online. Many companies rely on apps to market and sell more of their products and services, and people are downloading these apps every day. Some companies focus more on mobile app users, instead of their website visitors.

Long scrolling websites

A few years ago, all critical content was displayed above the fold. The most important content on a website was placed at the top sections of the webpage. Since it was easily accessible, there was no need for internet users to scroll in order to find it. This trend gradually shifted to long-scrolling websites, where internet users are required to scroll down actively in order to find content. This kind of design needs to be planned carefully so that it is easy to use and website visitors are able to find relevant information quickly before they give up and jump to another website which suits their needs.

This by no means is an exhaustive list of web design trends 2020 and will soon become out-of-date with the rapid pace of changes coming almost every day. As technology evolves, we can expect more drastic changes to the web based on users’ demands and needs. This is why we need to stay up to date with the current internet trends and make necessary adjustments that impact the way business is conducted throughout the digital world.

If you are aware of any web design trends that are not mentioned here, please share it in the comments below. Thanks.