Shopping Cart Design is a multi-million dollar industry because design is a critical factor that can be the deciding factor in determining whether a customer browses the site for more information, or leaves. Whether you're a small business or a big business, customers frequently do not care. They will buy from the business that looks the most professional and gives them the most confidence, as well as a great price for the goods and services.
It's important to understand from the outset how you will get your site looking professional enough to entice buyers to buy from you. It's a crucial part of the marketing mix and is often overlooked. Customers quickly snap up sites that they can get something designed themselves quickly – this is fine if you have your own designer or such a unique product or recognized brand that what your site looks like will not make much difference, but for the majority of business and particularly small business this is not the case and all other factors equal, the looks of your site can sway a buyer towards you or somewhere else.
Shopping cart providers will typically structure the design of their offering in one of the following ways:
1) You'll be given a do-it-yourself editor that's much like a word processor. You'll need to design your own site using those tools, or hire a professional designer to do it for you. Sometimes they'll give you templates, but you or your designer will still need to edit them to make your site unique in the market.
2) You'll have the design created for you by a professional. This may involve taking some professionally designed templates and having them personalized for your business or a custom design developed from scratch.
Once you understand what type of design you are going to put on your store you can get to work. But unless you have an extensive experience in web design, it's not recommended to do your own design – even if your software gives you the tools to do so. You'll end up being a lookalike in the market and will have to work a lot harder on the other aspects of your marketing mix to get customers to buy from you. To make it easy for yourself you'll need a professional designer to create a design or modify a template for you, or if the web design and shopping cart provider has this service, get them to do it. Gone are the days when DIY designs could cut it in the market, the ecommerce market is already very competitive and this is set to increase even more quickly in future years.
A poorly designed shop will cost you sales, so do not let this important part of getting your site started to be overlooked.
