12 Critical Elements For Your Ecommerce Store’s Homepage
Whether you agree or not – the homepage of an eCommerce website is exactly like the soul of a brand. More than any other section, the homepage has the maximum potential to establish credibility and tell potential customers what this website sells and present crucial CTA buttons. That’s why building and optimizing a high-converting eCommerce homepage should be your first priority. This post will talk about the critical elements any eCommerce homepage should possess, ensuring great a great user experience (UX) and steady conversions.
50 milliseconds.
That’s right. It just takes 50 milliseconds for eCommerce visitors to form an opinion about your store.
In that short moment – they’ll decide whether to stay or leave.
Whether you agree or not – the homepage of an eCommerce website is exactly like the soul of a brand. More than any other section, the homepage has the maximum potential to establish credibility and tell potential customers what this website sells and present crucial CTA buttons.
Therefore, the homepage is the section of an eCommerce store where you need to convey all the essential information your visitors seek to determine if they want to explore your store further.
If the homepage is designed well it can trigger a dramatic increase in visitor engagement and conversions. On the contrary, visitors will probably bounce back to the Google search results page if they can’t find the essential information they’re looking for straight away.
That’s why building and optimizing a high-converting eCommerce homepage should be your first priority.
This post will talk about the critical elements any eCommerce homepage should possess, ensuring great a great user experience (UX) and steady conversions.
Tell Your Customers Who You Are
This isn’t a hack, in fact it’s a pretty obvious requirement!
First of all show the customer your brand identity so they can link the site to you as a company.
In most cases, a brand’s logo is enough as it will help people recognize your brand name and remind them of your store’s existence. After all, it’s the visual representation of a brand you would like your consumers to remember about your eCommerce business.
Show What You Sell
The first thing every customer will want to determine is whether you sell the products they are looking for. But since consumers just take the early few seconds to investigate this thing, you should try for another way than just displaying the name of the product line in a heading.
Think of specifying your targeted audience, too (if possible). If you do this right, they will instantly be sure that you offer exact products that can help them solve their problem.
USP – What Makes You Different
Today, with intense competition in every eCommerce niche, standing out and differentiating your brand from other competitors is tough. National brands, local competitors, and marketplaces are facilitating consumers with unlimited product options.
This is the USP (unique selling proposition) that can help sellers like you stand out, attract traffic, and convert visitors.
Search Functionality
Don’t make users hunt through page after page of products just to find what they’re looking for. Instead, offer a search feature on the home page so customers can quickly find what they’re looking for (and hopefully make a purchase).
Make it easier for your customers to find what they’re looking for by displaying the search form prominently on your site and follow standard search form design practices so the user is comfortable using the form
Popular Product Category & Photos
Is your brand known for a few iconic products? Or do you want to feature some of your best sellers to point customers in the right direction if they aren’t quite sure what they’re looking for?
In either case, you should feature popular product images to direct users to product pages where they can then convert.
Further, the idea of using carousel sliders to showcase your latest eCommerce offerings isn’t bland. Adding image carousels to your home page can be an advantage since there’s not much text, and you want users to simply focus on the visual elements and product photography.
Additionally, your website’s navigation should be simplistic to be easy for the end-user yet let them examine a more extensive choice of browsing than top-level categories alone.
Shipping Options
You don’t have to outline your entire shipping policy on the home page, but you should reference it.
Include a few lines (i.e. 2 to 3 lines maximum) discussing shipping fees so there are no surprises for customers. Being transparent like this is a great way to create trust as soon as users scroll through your home page. It’ll also allow customers to know whether you ship to their location, after all there’s nothing more annoying that putting items in your cart only to find out that the website doesn’t ship internationally.
Account Login
Don’t force users to click through multiple pages to log in to their accounts! Instead, make it simple by putting a link to the login page at the top of your home page, preferably next to the shopping cart icon.
Contact Information
Featuring your contact information makes potential customers feel more comfortable and confident shopping with your brand. Feature your phone number or email in plain sight on the home page to foster trust the instant users land on your site.
Discounts And Sales
Do you have a special promotion going on? Perhaps a discount for new customers? No matter what you’re offering, it’s important to feature sales in bright colors and bold text so no one misses out on what you have going on at the time.
Subscription Box
Like all pages on your website, you should include a call-to-action (CTA) on your site. This CTA should encourage users to subscribe to your blog or get on your email list. Doing so will allow you to nurture leads and provide further value to your audience.
Link To Your Blog
Your blog is an invaluable resource for your eCommerce store. But it can easily be overlooked by customers who are more focused on your products than your expertise (at least initially).
By featuring a few posts and linking to your blog, you can deliver meaningful, value-driven content to your users. This positions you as an authority in your field and gives users a place to return if they ever need (or want) additional information.
Trust Signals
If a visitor lands on your eCommerce store for the first time and believes it is too risky, they won’t complete a purchase.
And obviously after running and executing all the marketing efforts that are required for getting visitors to your store in the first place – you want conversions.
Trust is everything in online shopping. I mean – just think of this.
- People can’t see the people owning the website.
- They aren’t aware if other people are proactively shopping there.
- And last – all they can see are the photos of the products, maybe demo videos, and product descriptions. That’s it.
It’s definitely hard (if not impossible) to persuade visitors to purchase from your store without establishing a foundation for trust. Establishing and displaying your credibility is one of the top ways eCommerce websites can use to create loyal and confident buyers.
- Showcase Customer Reviews: Consumers are more likely to try your products when they see customer reviews of other happy customers on your eCommerce website. Displaying a number of individuals who upvotes your store, for instance, or any other metric that confirms your authenticity is a way to show your credibility.
- Clearly present your return and exchange policy statements.
- Add trust badges.
- Install an SSL certificate.
- Provide social media links for easy communication.
- Have you got any media coverage? Any awards? Maybe a TV interview? Share them with your customers.
When you want users to land on your website and be immediately impressed by what you have to offer, including each of the elements above is vital.
If you aren’t quite sure how to optimize your home page to appeal to your target audience, the team at Gaenzle Marketing can help. Contact them with your unique challenges, and the team will create a customized strategy designed for your success.
Key Takeaways
- Offering key features like an account login and search functionality on the home page makes it simple for users to access the information they need.
- Feature contact information, discounts, sales, and shipping options to establish trust with potential buyers.
- Showcase popular product images to guide users in the right direction if they aren’t quite sure which of your products will eliminate their pain points.
- Include a link to your blog and subscription box to deliver additional value to individuals looking for more information before making a purchase.
What are your thoughts? Have you optimized your home page with any of the items listed above? Share your strategies or how you optimize your page in the comments below!