Design Customization Can Be a Key to Success
Being in the e-commerce business, most of you have probably done plenty of online shopping for yourself. Which means, you have run across those websites that just look, well, kinda shady. The websites that have a rather plain or unprofessional look to them. Did you complete a purchase there? Or did you turn right around and shop somewhere else? Chances are you, along with most other online shoppers, left for a different website.
Unless you have an established brand or reputation, it's difficult to get away with a poorly designed online store. The old saying goes, "Never judge a book by its cover." But that really doesn't apply to shopping online. If a website has an unprofessional look to it, most customers won't feel comfortable shopping and will probably look elsewhere.
To help avoid a mass exodus of customers from your online store, you want to make sure to present your company as professional. Customizing and improving upon the design of your store is the best way to accomplish this.
There are a few easy things you can do to help improve your online store design. And lucky for you, Miva Merchant makes it easy to implement these design ideas.
1. Custom Navigation Bar
By default, Miva Merchant creates a top navigation bar to help guide your customers through your store. The bar can be customized to provide a look that better suits your business. You can either replace the buttons with your own images, or turn the navigation bar off completely and create your own with custom HTML placed in the Miva Merchant global header.
2. Colors
You'll want to select a color palette that pleasing to the eye. Choose a few colors that complement the image of your company. If you are using colored text on your pages, make sure there is adequate contrast for easy readability.
3. Product Images
Use images that are optimized for displaying on a website. Make sure they are not too large for your customers to download. They should also have a high enough image quality so they don't look grainy. Also, it's a good idea to keep a consistent image size for all of your products. This helps create a uniform, professional look to your product catalog.
4. Additional Design Tools
There are several third party modules available that can help open up the default Miva Merchant Look & Feel, providing you with more control over the design and layout of the pages generated. A couple popular ones are:
VC Template Bundle by Viking Coders - This special bundle of "Look and Feel" modules gives you the greatest degree of control over the design of your store while keeping the learning curve as minimal as possible. If you can edit HTML, you will have no problem using these modules. Through the combined use of simple HTML and tokens, you can design to your heart's content. Learn More »
DynamicTemplates by Copernicus - DynamicTemplates gives you full control over the design of your Miva Merchant™ 4 store, including Category and Product template pages. You can easily make "Look and Feel" changes to your store by directly editing the HTML templates that create each store page. Learn More »
These are just some tips that may help in creating an online store design that gives your business a more professional look and hopefully attract more sales. But keep in mind that these are only design ideas, and are not requirements for a successful website. Powerful brand recognition and loyal customers can also go a long way in increasing your revenues.
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