Customising your eShop Well-designed websites have higher sales conversion rates

30 seconds to make a great first impression...

Have you ever visited an eShop, only to leave after a few moments? Perhaps you were bombarded by special effects, confused as to what the site was actually offering or simply couldn't locate the 'add to cart' button! Studies have shown that it takes us less than 1 minute to make a value judgement of a website. Optimal design & usability are at the heart of a successful eShop. This email will give you tips & tricks to improve the look & feel of your own eShop - to help you convert as many browsers to purchasers as possible.

What makes a well-designed website?

Consistency Keep all elements in your site consistent - on every page, in every text box. Use the same colours, font, text (size & alignment), layout (position of headers & footers, toolbars) & special effects.

A clear message What is your company's message? All content (images, headlines & descriptive text) must reinforce your message to make it clear to your customers what you are selling & why they should buy it from you.

One colour scheme

A colour scheme will enhance memorability for your customers, & help customers associate your eShop with your company brand. Apply commonly used colours to signify meaning to your customers (e.g. links to other webpages are usually blue).

Easy navigation

Increase your sales, by simplifying the process of finding & purchasing products. Use a familiar navigation style on every page (e.g. your 'add to cart' button should be clearly placed in the same location every time, & navigation bars should be on the top or left-hand corner of the screen).

Contextual images

Help the user imagine themselves using your product. Show as many product photos as you can on your product pages. Note: products are best photographed against a white background. Whatever you do, don’t bombard & confuse your customer with irrelevant images!

Legible text Use 'websafe' fonts, to ensure your customer can read your text whatever the operating system they are using. Don't let background colour distract your customer from the text. Write numbers in digits (e.g. 'three colours' should be written '3 colours'). Read our blog article Designing an Online Shop – Tips and Tricks for additional info. Remember: The most creative websites do not necessarily sell the most products!

Customising your eShop Register.it shops are optimised to make it as simple as possible for you to create a professional & engaging eShop front – even if you have little or no experience in design! Take a look at our introductory video tutorial: It contains tips for customising your eShop, using the set-up wizard

Customize Shop Design

You have used the Setup assistant to specify your shop's basic design and to enter important data for identifying your shop. Ultimately, nothing more is required to impart an appealing design to your shop. There are, of course, many more ways of customising your shop in accordance with your personal needs. We have therefore provided you with appropriate design elements.

Below is an overview of the standard elements on a shop's home page (see Image 17) with additional information about them and how you can access them in the administration (see table):

Image 17: Default design elements of a shop's home page

No. Name Access path in the administration

1 Shop's logo Settings -> General settings -> Status -> Presentation or Setup

assistant

2 Shop's name Settings -> General settings -> Status -> Presentation or Setup

assistant

3 Slogan Settings -> General settings -> Status -> Presentation or Setup

assistant

4 Link to home page Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element -> Link

to home page

5 Link to masthead Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element -> Link

to masthead

6 Link to the contact form Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element -> Link

to the contact form

7 Link to Terms and Conditions Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element -> Link

to Terms and Conditions

8 Link to customer information Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element -> Link

to customer information

9 Link to information on

privacy policy

Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element -> Link

to information on privacy policy

10 Flags for language selection Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element ->

Country selection via flags

11 Categories as box Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element -> Tree

view of pages as box

12 Shopping basket Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element ->

Shopping basket summary as box

13 Full-text product search Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element ->

Product search with link Advanced search

14 Home page text Content/Categories -> General

15 Sign-in Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element ->

Sign-in

16 Promotional products Content/Categories -> Create a Promotional products category ->

Assign products

17 Products on the home page Content/Categories -> Products

18 Currency selection Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element ->

Currency selection via list

19

Informational text

(user-defined navigation

element)

Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element ->

HTML

20 Messages on home page Content/Categories -> Create Content page elements -> Settings

(Define visibility) / Texts (Insert text)

21

Copyright

(user-defined navigation

element)

Design -> Advanced design <Style> -> Insert page element ->

HTML

Consult the "Navigation" chapter in the user guide for details on the positioning of links and functions via navigation elements. In addition, there is a detailed explanation on how to customise layouts and designs in the user guide’s "Design" chapter.

Note: All design changes become visible when the page cache is either deactivated or updated. To define cache settings click on the main menu item Settings, and then on General settings. Simply click on Page cache in the upper menu bar in order to delete the cache and actualise the page content during your design work. (see Image 18)

Image 18: Define cache settings and actualise page content