These days, we just do everything online – and that includes shopping as well. That’s why e-commerce has become important for the customers and more importantly for sellers. Thus, if you are selling anything online be it sneakers, mobiles, clothing, or something in between – you should be ready to attract customers to make purchases from your store.
The homePage is the most important part of your e-commerce and its design plays a huge role in converting customers. It is generally the landing page of any e-commerce store and most users start their e-commerce journey from the homepage of your e-commerce journey. Thus, it is essential to make an attractive homepage with the proper set of elements.
Visual hierarchy plays a major role in the successful design of the e-commerce homepage. A strong visual hierarchy allows you to deliver your brand message quickly to the customers. The CTA (Call to Action) offers a clear next step to navigate users beyond the homepage and towards the product listing, product details, and other important pages. In this article, we will discuss the 12 important guidelines for the best HomePage Design in your e-commerce store.
First Focus On Objective
Focus on the objective of your business. Consider the priority of the elements on the homepage as per the objective. Here are some important things to consider:
- On which homepage sections do you want users to click?
- What information should be ready by the users?
- What pricing plan do you want them to choose?
When you will understand the priorities, you would be able to properly set the visual hierarchy. In the hierarchy, the main objective is to stand out the important stuff and less important elements should take a lower place.
Yes, there are some elements or sections which are of more importance than other elements such as forms, CTA, value proposition, etc. You need to get more users’ attention on these important elements.
Important links should be more prominent
- Check if there are more than 5 items on your website menu, are they equally important?
- Where do you want the user to click?
- What is the probability of the users clicking on CTA?
These questions should get resolved for setting the visual hierarchy. Now let’s go through the guidelines
12 Important Guidelines For HomePage Design Of Your eCommerce Store
1. Avoid Unnecessary Design Elements Which Increase The Page Load
As per a study by Google, it takes only 1/50th to 1/20th of a second for users to judge your website as beautiful or not. Also, a visually complex website is being considered less beautiful in comparison to its simple counterpart.
Moreover, the “prototypical” sites whose design is associated with the category of the site and have simple visual design are considered the most beautiful sites. In short, the simpler the design, the better. You should apply the same findings in your e-commerce homepage design as well.
The main reason why users consider fewer complex sites more beautiful is that a low complexity website doesn’t put any strain on users’ brains or eyes to decode, store, and process the information. If there are huge variations of color and light on the page our eyes have to put more effort to send information to the brain. Thus, it is important, that every element should have consistency in its color scheme as well.
2. The Visual Hierarchy Must Follow The Information Hierarchy
The size and location of the content should be as per its relative importance. In regards to size, the bigger elements on your homepage will always get the most attention, while in regards to location, elements placed on the top position will get more attention. This is a common logic in the visual hierarchy and you should follow the same while designing your homepage.
Also, in the homepage, the top part which is the first visible part when the user will land on your homepage is the most valuable. All the utmost important elements such as logo, CTA, value proposition, navigation, menus, etc. should be placed here. The less important elements should be placed down the page in a relatively smaller size which the user can see after scrolling the page.
3. The Transactional Menu Should Have A Higher Place Than A Content Menu
For a second, think of yourself as a customer. Now which section is more important for you, the FAQs (content menu) or the product list of the site (transactional menu)? The answer is obvious, the latter one. Since transactional menus are accessed by the users more frequently in comparison to content menus, they should get a higher place in the visual hierarchy. Follow these tips to determine the proper place of a transactional menu:
- The transactional menu is generally located on the front and center of the homepage, but can also be found as a vertical menu down the left side of the page.
- The size of the transactional menu should be larger than the content menu
- For more attention, place the transactional menu in a colored banner contrasting the background or you can design a border around the menu
4. The Value Proposition Should Be Placed “Above The Fold” On The Homepage
“Above the fold” is that part of the homepage which users can see without scrolling. The term comes from the newspapers which are folded in half. So newspapers put all the important headlines and most important news above this fold.
Similarly, while designing the homepage of your store, you should decide the priority of the content. The important information should be served first and then the other information. The value proposition is a central component of any homepage. It shows the purpose of the site and why this company is unique.
5. Give Attention To The Navigation Menu By Making It Clearly Visible
The navigational menu is a very critical element of the homepage. Many users who know what they want like e.g. they want to purchase T-shirts will directly go to the clothing tab and then in sub-categories will go to the T-shirts section. Many web designers were experimenting with whether to use a hidden navigational menu or partially visible menus. It was found that the hidden navigational menu can hinder UX and content discoverability.
Unless you want the visitors to take any specific action (landing pages), the navigational menu should be a noticeable section on the homepage.
6. If You Have Space Then Display Pictures Or Thumbnails Of The Product Categories
Our eyes are more adaptable to understand the images than reading text. It is more than 100 times easy for an eye to understand an image than text. Also, images on web pages get 94% more views than text. In an e-commerce store, images are the most important building blocks. It is also the only element on which users look 100%.
Images are more innate and quicker than text. Displaying thumbnails just next to product categories will improve the flow of search and provide a better user experience.
7. Use White Space To Separate Content Blocks
Content should be separated in a manner that users can identify what is important and what’s not. On the e-commerce homepage, you shouldn’t overwhelm users with too much content on the page. There are multiple ways of separating the content and make it look “neat”:
White space is often regarded as negative space. It is an unmarked part of the site like margins, gutters, etc. If you want to make something look clear and separate, make sure there is enough white space surrounding it, eliminating the threat of distraction and miscommunication.
Lines, borders, and grids between can also separate content blocks without looking obtrusive.
8. Don’t Place Promotions Just Above Product Lists
Just like the above guidelines, this guideline also focuses on eliminating any confusion while distinguishing between page elements. If you display the site promotion just above the product list there are chances that users will consider the promotion as a part of the list.
For e.g., if you placed a promotion “Select Tees 20% off” above the product list of all T-shirts, then users will believe the entire range of t-shirts on the list is on sale. Basically, it depends on how the elements are designed. You can display a promotion just above the product list if there are easily distinguishable.
9. CTA Should Be Visually Prominent
The CTA occupies a higher place in the homepage hierarchy and should be color-contrasted, surrounded by lots of white space. It is one of the most important elements on the homepage. To design a CTA on which most users click, design it in such a way that it can’t be missed. For making an easily noticeable CTA, here are some tips:
- The CTA should be placed above the fold and make it bigger in size.
- Colour contrast the CTA against the background and surround it with white space
Avoid competing graphics that occupies a lot of space, distracting fonts and colors, moving images, other CTA with high contract colors.
10. CTAs Are Better Than Links
Here we are referring to the hyperlinks. The CTA buttons always get more attention than the links. In fact, the motive of the button is to be clicked. Since CTA is a wanted action on your homepage, making it as a button would be a good approach. Especially, if there are no other visible buttons on the page.
11. If There Is A Secondary CTA, It Should Be Less Noticeable
The aim of the CTA is to get attention on the most desired action of the page. If there are multiple CTAs on the homepage, users will be distracted from that important action. It becomes their duty to identify the differences between the CTA.
You have to make the important action should be most noticeable. You shouldn’t avoid a secondary CTA but placed it at second priority in the visual hierarchy.
12. Use Visual Cues To Highlight The CTA
The visual cues are helpful to draw attention to the CTA. As per research, a hand-drawn arrow gives the most attention to the CTA. Another way is to draw a line pointing towards the CTA. The other visual cues are:
- A person looking at the CTA
- Any graphic pointing towards the CTA (like a variety of shapes)
- Border or boxes around the CTA
Wrapping Up
In this article, we have gone through the twelve important guidelines for properly designing a homepage. At Emizentech, the best ecommerce development company, we are having expertise in designing and building an ecommerce store from scratch and implementing various features and functionalities. Our build stores are highly intuitive, attractive, secure, and fast. Let us know your requirements.
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