Choosing the best theme for your ecommerce website
In this article we look at six important considerations when choosing a theme for your ecommerce website
There are a few things to consider when starting up your ecommerce website. You already have ideas about the look and feel of your website and what colours, fonts and the logo you may use.
Type of business
The type of business and the range of products you list will have some influence on the main features of your website.
Websites for cloths typically feature a lot of pictures of the products listed, large product pictures and picture galleries to show case the items from different angles.
Above the fold
On the home page of your website you put all your most valuable content must be ‘above the fold’. The ‘fold’ is the area above the bottom of the screen before a customer has to scroll down. This applies to all devices: desktops, laptops, tablet and mobiles.
This first part of the screen should be used wisely. All you most valuable content such as new releases, new products or popular ones and or promotions should be clearly displayed to have the most impact.
Slideshows
Carousels and slideshows have been very popular and are used today by ecommerce stores and professional businesses.
Slideshows have evolved to include pictures, text and helpful call to actions and help direct customers to where they will want to go in the website. These can be replaced in order to promote different parts of a website.
Slideshows have evolved to include pictures, text and helpful call to actions which help direct customers to where they will want to go in a website. Slides can be replaced in order to promote different parts of a website.
Rule of 3
The rule of 3 refers to
1) Customers spend roughly three seconds looking for what they want on a website. This can be via the main navigation menu, linked image to your product page. Remember that any page of your website can be an entry point for a customer.
2) What a customer is looking for must be no more than three clicks away.
If we use the Madaame.co.uk website as an good example,
Home > Handmade Sunglasses from the main menu or
Home > Madaame Fashion Collection > Handmade Sunglasses
Anything more than three is especially frustrating for customers if many category pages have less than a handful of products in each.
Product filters can help customers home in on what they are looking for when faced with a large variety of products. Brand names are one example and will allow a customer to filter out all products except those in the chosen brand.
The rule of 7
The rule of 7 applies to have no more than seven product categories on your website home page. Equally, the names of the categories and the subcategories within them should have simple and descriptive names.
Use a small logo
The website logo that features in the header section of your website must remain small in order to decrease negative space and help use the content above the fold wisely.
The aim of a small logo is to allow customers to be drawn to the main content and click through. Additionally, your branding can be displayed throughout the customer's journey through your store.
Many ecommerce websites such as those using WordPress and Woocommerce can help by suggesting optimal dimensions for your logo and different sizes for different devices.
You can use your logo in branded pictures on your website, emails sent from your store when an order is placed, on social media.