Edinburgh Design Studio

What is Ecommerce?

Simply put E-commerce is selling goods or services on the internet. To sell online there are several elements you will require.

Firstly your shop... you will need a web based catalogue and a shopping cart to publish your items or services for sale and allow your customers to place an order. This will need to include an online payment processing system to allow you to transact online with debit or credit card payments from your customers. You will of course also need to have the ability to process and fulfil your orders.

So how do I go about it?

The first step is to find an ecommerce development company, which is where we come in. As with many business decisions you should think carefully about who you appoint to develop your website, have a look at what other sites any potential developer has built. Most ecommerce developers and designers will have an online portfolio of recent work. You can view our portfolio of ecommerce and other websites here.

What makes a good ecommerce website?

One which makes plenty of sales! Start selling to your customers from the moment that they arrive on your website. Don’t overcomplicate the design of the site, make it as easy as possible for customers to navigate through your catalogue, giving them the BUY NOW option as quickly as possible.

 

Top Tips for a Good Ecommerce Website

Can your customers Find your Products - Get customers to your product pages in as few clicks as possible.

Sell, Sell, Sell ! - Publish your best offers on your homepage and in as many locations throughout your website as possible. Make your website easy to navigate.. get obsessive about function and not design. Don’t let a “precious” designer take over. Simple and clean design is best, think about how the high street giants layout both their physical stores and websites.

Build trust with your customers- Make sure your website is secure and tell your customers about your online security. Display your company contact details, telephone number and address in an easy to reach area.

Think like a customer - The biggest tip we can give you is to think like a customer, put yourself in their position and ask yourself the question.. If I was the customer, would I buy from this website.. what would make me buy – or not buy – from this site.

And last but not least... Keep Going.

So many companies have fantastic websites built and then forget about them, wondering why no sales are coming. Developing your website takes time and investment, but that’s just the start of it. Maintaining, updating and marketing your website is extremely important. If you were opening a store on the high street you wouldn’t spend thousands fitting out and stocking the store and expect customers to flood in the second you opened the front door. You would market your store and your location, display your offers in the shop window, change the store round regularly.. you get the idea! A web based shop is no different. Market your website! You should be thinking about your marketing strategy for your ecommerce website from the start.. don’t wait until your website is launched – you will have lost valuable time.

Website Marketing

Perhaps the most important thing you can do for your ecommerce website is to publicise it in as many ways as possible, this can be achieved on the internet but you must not forget traditional offline marketing strategies. Make sure your web address is on all your company correspondence, letterheads and business cards, email footers and any other offline marketing material you already produce. Develop an offline marketing programme to drive traffic to your online store!

Web Promotion – Web Marketing – Search Engine Optimisation

As soon as you start to develop a website you should be thinking about all of these, in particular pay attention to search engine optimisation as it will play a vital role in how successful your online store can be. A poorly optimised shopping cart simply won’t be found on the internet amongst your competitors. The ecommerce sites we build are optimised from the start. We can offer you a range of marketing and promotional services in addition to building your ecommerce site.

Why Choose us...

At Edinburgh Design Studio we look at your ecommerce website as a long term project, we consistently deliver excellently designed and functional carts to our clients and have long lasting relationships with our client base.

 

Customer Comments

‘A creative team of web designers who understood our aims and objectives from day one. It has been a pleasure to work with Edinburgh Design Studio on the development of our new e-commerce website and we are delighted with the outcome. Based on the success of CSI Products we have already commissioned Edinburgh Design Studio to work on further projects with us.

Their professionalism and after sales support service are second to none.’

Beth Yule – CSI Products | Chess Storage and Interiors Limited

 

We think of the whole picture and not just the build. Have a look at some of our carts in action here.. we have the experience and expertise to deliver the online presence that your business needs.

To discuss your requirements further - why not give us a call on 0844 804 5198 or 0131 208 0809 or use our online contact form to email us