If you invented and patented a great new product, then you are likely looking forward to selling it to begin reaping the rewards of your hard work and dedication spent developing the product. Like many new inventors, you likely want to begin selling your product online on an e-commerce website. This is a great decision because when selling a product online, you don't have to meet up with retailers and convince them to carry your product or worry about the overhead costs of having your own brick and mortar costs. However, while selling your product on "the web" is much more affordable and less stressful than other sales options, it is important to make sure your e-commerce site is designed properly to attract online shoppers and convert those visitors to official new customers.
Read on to learn three tips for designing and building an e-commerce website that virtually sells your product for you.
1. Design your Website with Good SEO in Mind
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the key to ensuring that people searching the web for the type of product you offer actually see your website address on the front page of their search results and that your site is not displayed on the 100th page of the search results. How often have you searched the Internet for a product and only clicked on the links displayed on the front page, or maybe second page, of the search results? Likely often, and most online shoppers do the same.
When you use search-engine friendly keywords in your meta descriptions, title tags, and even image tags, your site will show up when people search for those terms, and the first step of selling your product to visitors is getting them to your website.
There are many other SEO techniques professionals can help you put into action later if to boost your site to the first pages of search results later, but by having your website produced with SEO in mind from the start, you can look forward to it appearing in the first few pages of search engine results from the start now instead of later, when you could have sold many more products in the meantime.
2. Build a Mobile-Friendly Website or Risk Losing out on Many Potential Sales
While you will want to design and build your website on a computer, it is very important to make sure it also works well on mobile phones and tablets. People are using their mobile phones more than ever, and surprisingly, Google reports that even when people are at home or work where a desktop or laptop computer may already be handy, 77 percent of mobile searches actually take place in homes and offices. This is likely due to the fact that people want to relax in their free time and not sit in front of a computer upright, and many people even perform most of their Internet shopping right on their phones.
If you are seeking the help of a professional web-design service when building your site, then it is important to ask for a responsive website. This is the term used to describe a website that displays properly on all devices that are used to access it, and having a responsive web design created now will allow you to look forward to new customers who find your site on their mobile phones and, after your website loads properly and quickly on the devices, purchase your product.
3. Consider the Pros and Cons of a Splash Page Before Adding One to Your Site
If you are unfamiliar with what a website splash page is, then think of this as the first page that loads as soon as a new Internet visitor clicks on your website. The advantage of a splash page that is designed well is that, on this page, you can "teach" customers about what your product is if it is something truly unique and revolutionary. If this information is vital to understanding your product, then it may be a good idea to have your site display a splash page when a visitor clicks on your website link in search-engine results.
However, when many online visitors are first greeted to a new website by an unnecessary or improperly designed splash page, they often click away and leave the site quickly. The worst design flaws in splash pages are considered those that take a long time to load or are difficult for a user to navigate.
When deciding whether to add a splash page to your website, think about whether your your new customers will need to be educated about what your product does and how it works. If they likely will, then adding one would likely benefit your site and increase your sales as long as it loads quickly, is not difficult to navigate away from, and is attractive.
If you are ready to sell that new product you invented, then selling it online is a great idea to avoid the hassle and overhead costs of other selling options. However, remember that the right e-commerce website design can truly make or break your business, so keep these three tips in mind when designing it.
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