There is no doubt that e-commerce websites have their own set of rules.  The fact there is one defined goal for the website, to make a sale, adds a stronger focus to the website.

If you are considering launching an e-commerce website or about to redesign your website, keep these e-commerce web design tips handy.

1.  Keep It Simple
You have a simple goal and that’s to sell.  Make sure your navigation is easy to use and make multiple paths to your “add to cart” pages.  Simple and redundant navigation is the best thing any website can do.  We try to create as many, easy to use funnels to get to product info and purchase.  These navigation items should be your main navigation bar, internal links in content, bread crumb navigation, a product search and site map at minimum. Yes, all of those are basics to a good site.

2. Seeing Is Believing
Most e-commerce purchases are visual.  If you are selling any product that a user needs to have visual trust in, do what you can to have the best photos or graphics of that product.  Many sites loose customers because of poor photos of their product for sale. Some of the things you can do to stand out and ear trust are have photos with enlarge options, alternate shots of different angles and zoomed in photos of product detail elements.  Don’t let your photos kill the sale, let them win it.

3. Answer The Details
Organizing  and displaying the details of your product are a must.  Having “answers” on your product detail pages that clarify measurements, specifications, materials, uses, options and more will get you more sales.  When users can’t find that one last detail to make a purchase, they’ll jump to find another site that answers their need.

These 3 e-commerce web design tips are just the start to a succesful website selling online.  If you can be the best resource by having an easy to use website, with better product photos and endless details … you’ll find yourself with the sales you desire.

The holidays, no matter what the economy is doing still represents a time of gift giving. While the money spent may be less, the act of buying gifts on e-commerce websites and giving them will still take place.

If your business is getting ready to send out your holiday targeted email marketing campaign, consider these 3 tips for a successful email campaign. They are basic, but often overlooked.

1. Keep It Simple. If you feature specific products, make sure you do a small amount. Blasting out and email with 20 products will cause them all to loose focus with your recipient. Make sure your product feature links right to the page to buy it, not just your home page!

2. Give Ideas. Most people struggle to figure out the perfect gifts for the people on their list. If you can point out how an item is perfect for a mom who likes to travel, or a friend who is into sports, you have made their shopping easier. The power of suggestion!

3. Outline The Deadlines. Make sure that your email states when visitors/shoppers can order and still receive their items on time. Seems simple, but it’s often over looked.

Make sure these 3 easy tips are covered for your email marketing campaign this holiday season and you’ll find success converting recipients into buyers. The feedback from some of our clients on their holiday email campaigns this past week has been very favorable.

Those looking for all natural lamb meat and cuts can find great lamb packages on RanchlineAllNatural.com . Ranchline All Natural wanted an e-commerce website that not only offered the premium lamb meat from the Felix River area of New Mexico, but they wanted to offer their website visitors great lamb recipes, grilling tips and wine pairings.

You can see the web design is clean and easy to navigate around.  Many e-commerce web designs can make shopping and checking out a difficult task, so usability is always important when Five builds an e-commerce website.  The lamb product pages offer large and professional photos and specific details on the lamb cuts included in the packages.

This e-commerce website is built on our SMC content management tool that allows Ranchline to easily manage their product line, pricing, shipping options. As a reseller for Authorize.Net, we integrated their merchant account into the SMC’s checkout to automate the process for Ranchline All Natural.  The SMC also allowed us to create the site with SEO friendly URL’s and SEO friendly product pages.

Naturally, it turned out to be a fantastic web design project for us. Check it out!

If you’re like me you learn far more by getting your hands on a real life example. It’s one thing to read how Twitter can help you or that e-commerce success could be yours; it’s another to get the details of a true experience. Here are two posts I came across recently that through sharing their own experience or interviewing bring great insight into success online.

+ A “Non Big Brand” Twitter Case Study from Sugarrae
Get an outline of how a website providing Blackberry news and info started up with Twitter, gained initial traction, then flatlined and then reach a whole new level. This post has a great outline of what led to their recent burst and success using Twitter to strengthen their community and interaction with their website. Pay attention to the 9 great items on why their “Second coming” increased the success.

+ A Small Business Marketing Success Story: K9cuisine.com from Matt McGee
Matt wrote this article for Search Engine Land and put together a great interview with a niche e-commerce website that serves the premium pet food market. Company and website owner Anthony Holloway outlines their start, their success and the choices they made to get where they are.

Of interest to me was the information on how they leverage customer reviews of the products to increase the content and offering on the site. K9cuisine.com has created a simple but fantastic method to follow up with customers and get their 2 cents after the purchase. Every small business e-commerce website can learn one thing or more from this post.

Colorado monogrammed gifts retailer, little dreamers, has big ideas for their new e-commerce website that went LIVE last week. Business owners Nicole and Paula sought a better web design to brand their unique monogrammed baby gifts and more and they needed it powered by an easy to use content management system and e-commerce solution. Five’s custom web design coupled with the SMC was just the right solution.

Some of the project details for this e-commerce website were:

• Custom web design
• SMC for content & e-commerce management
• Enhanced product detail page visuals, details & options
• Layered item option selections for monogram options
• Payment gateway integration with PayPal Pro
• Search engine optimization & SEO friendly URLs
• Email marketing integration & web analytics
• Project, usability & e-commerce consulting

The complexity of the monogram options definitely gave us a challenge (great work Josh and Travis) that led to a longer production schedule then expected, but the final outcome more than makes up for it. Many times during the process and content entry phases, little dreamer’s commented on the ease of use the SMC offers and their excitement over launching the new design. We’re excited to see how our work impacts their business too.

See the new little dreamers website for yourself, maybe even get a unique monogrammed gift for someone you know and if you are looking for a fabulous e-commerce web design, give Five a shout!