The single most important objective of an eCommerce website is making the visitor buy something. And this is what web design for e-commerce applications should aim to achieve. There are many principles to be considered by website designers, all of them relating to online selling techniques.

eCommerce website design is different from any other website design. This is mainly because they must be attractive to the visitor, well organized and use the right colors that fit the website spirit. Nevertheless, a closer look at some successful eCommerce websites will allow you to see the conceptual differences that are typical in a successful eCommerce website. Of course the site should adhere to current web standards, with well written code and be accessible, however the focus of this article are those elements which help the web site sell.

The key selling principle of an eCommerce website is that of giving the user a pleasant experience during his online shopping. Website designers must also be certain that they provide enough information on who owns the website and provide standard data encryption via SSL. eCommerce websites must be easy to use, otherwise the visitor will simply leave and search for their goods or services on another website, probably that of the competitor!

Unlike the supermarket our website has no smell. In an eCommerce website, the distance from one point to the other is pretty much the same, however you can try to order your visual shelf in the way you think will best expose the visitor to key products.

A competitive eCommerce website design will lead the visitor to the right page in one or two clicks at most. Sometimes web designers will use techniques that would never be considered for non-eCommerce websites. As you all know, with increasingly popular sales letter websites the only link is to the order form. Nevertheless, these sales letters usually sell only one product and are not the most typical eCommerce websites. The web designer gets the opportunity to take full advantage of the one click. Believe it or not, those sales letter websites are actually selling.

An eCommerce web design is very much about the layout. It is crucial to catch the visitors attention and the place where they look first when accessing a web page. Research on this topic has determined that the middle left side area will attract the most attention, followed by the center of the page. By using these techniques web designers try to draw the navigation path for the visitor!