Building an online store is not a simple task. It requires deep knowledge of your consumers’ habits, behavior and psychology.

An easy way to understand the complexity of an eshop is to think about the interaction between sellers and customers in a physical store. Each seller offers personalized information to their customers, according to their queries and needs.

Otherwise, where customer needs are not taken seriously, the sale is difficult to complete.

That is why it is important to focus on the behavior of your consumers, which is usually analyzed in the following:

1. Your customer is looking for information about something that interests her,
2. Depending on the convenience of time available to him, he will continue or stop the search,
3. Should it stop, as soon as the opportunity presents itself, it will resume its search at the point where it left it before,
4. Its satisfaction comes only after the achievement of its purpose, i.e. the completion of its search, which can be a purchase from your online store, a reservation, a request, the study of relevant content, or even a visit to a physical store.

Attention: With the new NSRA program you can get an online eshop completely free with a 100% subsidy.

Now that you know the typical behavior of your interested customers, how do you interact with them at each of the above stages?

First, you want to be present at the right point, speak the language they understand, and offer them the knowledge to help them get closer to their final decision.

In other words you are there for them to dispel their fears, increase their optimism and help them make the best purchase for them, even if it doesn’t suit you!

So let’s see the design principles of an online store in detail:

7 design principles for your online store

1. Οι πελάτες σου ταξιδεύουν αρκετά μέχρι να φτάσουν τον στόχο τους

Σε αρκετές έρευνες διαπιστώνεται ότι κάθε χρόνο οι καταναλωτές αναζητούν όλο και περισσότερες διαφορετικές πηγές πληροφόρησης πριν καταλήξουν στην τελική απόφασή τους.

Επομένως, οι πελάτες σας διανύουν ένα ταξίδι απόφασης, μέσα από το οποίο συλλέγουν την επιθυμητή πληροφορία. Το ηλεκτρονικό σας κατάστημα χρειάζεται να προσφέρει σταθμούς στους οποίους οι ταξιδιώτες σας μπορούν να σταματήσουν και να επιμορφωθούν.

Σκεφτείτε ότι ταξίδι που περιγράφουμε παραπάνω πολλές φορές συνεισφέρει περισσότερο στο ανταγωνιστικό πλεονέκτημα σας, σε σχέση με το προϊόν ή την υπηρεσία που προσφέρετε.

Επομένως, θέλετε να αλληλοεπιδράσετε όσο το δυνατόν περισσότερο με τους πελάτες σας και να τους προσφέρετε την εξατομικευμένη πληροφορία που έχουν ανάγκη.

2 . The customer has control at every step until the completion of their purpose

Κάθε ταξίδι είναι διαφορετικό για κάθε καταναλωτή. Σε κάθε βήμα, εμφανίζεται νέο περιεχόμενο το οποίο τους φέρνει πιο κοντά σε αυτό που επιθυμούν.

Για να μπορέσετε να σχεδιάσετε μία ολοκληρωμένη εμπειρία αγοράς, θα πρέπει να παρέχετε τις κατάλληλες επιλογές στους πελάτες σας. Για αυτό και η σχεδίαση ενός eshop θα πρέπει να βασίζεται στην ερώτηση:

Ποια ενέργεια θέλω να κάνει ο επισκέπτης μου σε αυτή την σελίδα;

Αυτό που χρειάζεται να προσέξουμε όμως είναι ότι οι καταναλωτές πλέον έχουν τη δύναμη στα χέρια τους και θέλουν να έχουν τον έλεγχο του ταξιδιού τους. Αν αισθανθούν ότι τον χάνουν, απλά θα φύγουν από το eshop και θα απευθυνθούν σε κάποιον άλλο.

Για αυτό και εξετάζουμε τα εξής:

1. Δίνουμε στον επισκέπτη του eshop μας πληροφορία που δεν αναζήτησε;
2. Όταν επιλέγει να ακολουθήσει ένα σύνδεσμο ή να ενεργήσει κατά πως του προτείνουμε, βρήκε αυτό που αναζητούσε;
3. Αναγκάζουμε τους επισκέπτες να κάνουν βήματα που δεν επιθυμούν;
4. Όταν επιλέγει μία λειτουργία αλλάζει το περιεχόμενο χωρίς να το επιθυμεί;

3 . Proper user experience design

The design of the user experience of an eshop is divided into two main categories, the cost of the interaction and the creation of value.

By interaction cost we mean the physical and mental effort required of consumers to proceed with their journey.

Physical effort refers to actions such as clicking, scrolling, typing, and waiting for a page to load.

Mental effort refers to the confusion caused when they do not achieve their goal, the avoidance of content that does not interest them, or the memorization of information.

The online stores you design should cause as little physical and mental fatigue as possible to your visitors.

When it comes to creating value, we mean creating and displaying content to help your eshop visitors get closer to making a decision.

In order to achieve this, we need to understand in depth the concerns of our customers, how we will turn them into information, the points where we should display each piece of information.

A very important role at this point is the correct selection of a suitable partner, who will undertake the design of your eshop.

Some ideas for how we create value are the use of presentations and how-to videos, purchase and use guides, and special customer-directed content.

Therefore, to give the online store the value you want, you focus your attention on reducing interaction costs, and understanding the needs of your consumers so that problems are solved and they enjoy their journey.

From this need it follows that understanding your customers is not only necessary for you. Your online store designer needs to have an equally good understanding of your customer’s needs, so there should be good communication between you.

4 . It’s fast and works flawlessly on all screens

This is one of the most important principles of building a website. Consumers have limited time and quickly pass over those who don’t respect it.

Within seconds visitors to your online store will know if interacting with it will be a waste of time, so every page should load in less than two seconds.

When it comes to the functionality of your website, it must be designed for all screens and sizes. Just consider that most searches are now done on mobiles or tablets, so it is essential that your store looks good on them too.

Especially in the case of online stores where we want to highlight our products and services, it is important to use each screen in a different way to highlight their value.

Keep in mind that search engines prefer websites that are optimized for mobile devices, so they penalize those who do not invest in the adaptability of their online store.

Therefore, when building an e-shop try to have desktop, tablet and mobile screen drafts. Focus your attention on your future users and take advantage of the peculiarities and opportunities of each medium.

5 . You extract information and use it to make decisions

The online store can offer you useful information, which answers a series of questions such as:

1. The points that turn your visitors into customers
2. The points that bring your visitors back
3. The problems your customers are trying to solve
4. The reasons why your visitors leave the eshop without making a purchase.

You can obtain this information in several ways:

1. Through the Google Analytics or Facebook Pixel tools
2. Through your communication with visitors and customers of the online store (email, phone, etc.)
3. Through social media posts related to your activity
4. By understanding your customers’ concerns and how they buy from you, you can analyze them and make decisions that create further value for your online store visitors.

You can answer their problems and get them closer to making their decision, which is the point!

6. You understand the concept of your customers’ micro-moments

The concept of “micro-moments” elevates the understanding of our customers, putting demographic characteristics second. Consider the following case:

Maria is married, 40 years old, has two children, works part-time and lives in the suburbs of the city. Her husband, Nikos, works in the city center as an administrator of a company and has a good income. They have acquired a modest house with a loan, while their children are 2 and 4 years old, which leaves no time for Maria to shop for herself.

Understandably, the above analysis gives much more information to the designer of your online store than we are used to.

Although perhaps a bit far-fetched, we now know where we need to be to contact Maria, how to contact her, the language we will speak, the information she will need and the convenience she is looking for.

If we offer the above, then we have the opportunity to acquire one more customer of our online store. Conversely, if we were to stick to demographics, it is very likely that we would be missing out on interested customers who have the same need.

Therefore, we design the interaction with our visitors in a way that aims to satisfy their goals rather than their demographic characteristics.

7. It has images, texts and reviews that speak to the heart of your customers

In the physical store, contact with the product is the best way to answer your visitors’ questions. However, in the environment of an eshop, where physical contact is not possible, its presentation acquires greater value.

Therefore, you need photos, explanatory videos and texts, which give prestige and attention to your products.

So it is good to use promotional material that has been made specifically for your products or services. Ideally produced by you so that it expresses your character.

In case you cannot produce them yourself, instead of sourcing ready-made material, it is better to get some partner to offer them to you.

Finally, customer reviews and ratings give you a sense of vitality, inform and build trust with your prospects. At the same time, they offer you a good decision-making tool, as you see the wishes and problems of your customers.

Your eshop can convert visitors into customers

We start from a deep understanding of our customers’ behavior and needs. The best way to achieve this is to think in micro-moments.

We design eshops that are fast, mobile-optimized and interact nicely with your visitors.

Offer information to your visitors that brings them closer to achieving their goal, and make your products stand out from the competition with beautiful images, presentation videos and texts.

In this way you increase the likelihood that ordinary visitors will turn into your customers and as a result you will see your income increase.

Possibly, it sounds very complicated. However the data is there, we provide you with the main data, so it’s up to you to get an eshop that brings you more revenue.

If you still don’t have the technical knowledge to build it yourself and turn to online store design companies, you need to be very careful in choosing your partner to give it the attention it needs.

ArtisWeb undertakes the design and construction of eshops that achieve exactly this goal, increasing your sales. Now that you have a good idea of what you want from us, we will be happy to build your online store.

Good luck!