Rebuilding a Website for eCommerce? Read This First!

Why Rebuild a Website for eCommerce?

There is no single reason why eCommerce website owners go the rebuilding or redesigning way. For example, you might want to give your website a complete overhaul because your competitors now offer much better websites than yours. Alternatively, you may think about a rebuild because your existing website’s upgrades take a lot of time and involve spending a considerable amount of money.

Here are some of the other common reasons businesses look for eCommerce website redesign services.

1. High Bounce Rates

Websites can have high bounce rates because of different reasons. For instance, a website that is slow to load might result in high bounce rates. Low-quality content may also have the same effect.

When it comes to eCommerce, the average bounce rate varies from 20% to 40%. If the bounce rate of your website is up to 70%, you may think of it as subpar. If it’s over 70%, your website definitely needs immediate attention, and a rebuild might be the way to go. Even if your website’s bounce rate is within acceptable limits, a redesign can help maintain its low bounce rate over a longer course of time.

2. Poor User Experience

If your existing eCommerce store feels and looks outdated, there is a very good chance that it provides a poor user experience (UX). Consider these numbers collated by Baymard Institute.

• Just 1% of consumers feel that eCommerce platforms are successful in meeting their expectations on each visit.
• More than 90% of consumers don’t complain about poor experiences, and they leave without providing feedback.
• 88% of consumers feel there is a decreased possibility of their returning to a website after a single bad experience.

Incidentally, the same data also highlights that a well-planned frictionless UX design holds the potential to increase conversion rates by up to 400%. So, if your online store falters on this front, a website redesign and rebuild might be in order.

3. Not Mobile-Friendly

Data collated by WhatstheBigData indicates that more than 60% of the world’s internet traffic originates from mobile devices. As a result, if your eCommerce website is not mobile-friendly, you may expect a significant chunk of your target audience to look elsewhere.

Mobile commerce statistics compiled by MobiLoud highlight that mobile commerce accounts for 38% of the overall digital spending in the U.S. In addition:

• Over 180 million consumers in the country have used their mobile devices to make at least one purchase.
• During Cyber Week, over half of all online sales originate from mobile devices.
• 15% of adults in the U.S. get online only via their mobile phones.
• 57% of consumers will not recommend businesses that have badly designed mobile websites.
• Mobile apps have significantly lower cart abandonment rates when compared to desktop and mobile websites.

Fortunately, you may cater to people who use mobile devices to make online purchases fairly easily by making your eCommerce website mobile-friendly or responsive.

4. Not Optimized for Search Engines

A well-carried-out eCommerce website revamp brings with it the potential to improve search engine rankings. However, if your existing web pages rank well for various keywords, a redesign might affect your website’s rankings negatively, especially if not handled in the right manner.

For instance, setting up 301 and 302 redirects is crucial when redesigning a website as this step passes on information about URL changes to search engines, and it also ensures that visitors have a seamless user experience. If your Google ranking dropped dramatically after a responsive website redesign, not paying attention to this aspect could be a possible reason.

When done right, search engine optimization (SEO) can work rather well in boosting a website’s ranking on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

5. Low Conversion Rates

If your website’s conversion rates are below par or have dropped dramatically, you must get to the core of the problem. While great web design does not result in direct conversions, you can be sure that poor web design has a negative effect on conversion rates. This is because consumers would relate how your website looks and functions to your overall business.

If you have an outdated website that provides a poor user experience, you may expect below-par conversion rates. The reverse holds true as well, because the better the experience your website delivers, the more the likelihood of people making purchases.

6. Inappropriate Branding

You might want to change your eCommerce website’s branding based on changes that you’ve implemented in the physical world. Besides, customers pay due attention to branding that’s cohesive.

Consider this – you have updated the branding of your company, which reflects in its signage, stationery, and social media. However, your website still retains the old branding. From the point of view of a customer, this can not only be confusing but also an indication of your business not being professional enough to update its website accordingly.

Whatever the reason behind an eCommerce website redesign, store owners are usually convinced that getting revamped websites will solve their problems in one go. At this point, you need to keep in mind that the reason you have an eCommerce website is to sell easily and make it easy for consumers to buy.

If your website redesign and rebuild go right, you might see an increase in traffic, leads, sales, and profits as well as improved operations. However, it is worth noting that a website rebuild can be a pain in the neck and might result in unforeseen risks and costs, especially if you don’t use professional eCommerce website redesign services.

Questions to Ask Before Rebuilding a Website

Several eCommerce store owners who’ve used website rebuilding services have horror stories to tell. For instance, you might get a redesigned website that stalls and sales drop to zero for a few days, before the development team eventually fixes the problem.

If you’re looking to avoid heartache down the road, there are a few important questions you should ask before starting the process of rebuilding a website.

1. How Much Does It Cost to Redesign a Website?

The affordability factor does not limit to the actual cost of an eCommerce website redesign and rebuild project, although that can be significant too. For example, if you run an extensive eCommerce store, its overhaul might set you back by $50,000 to $100,000, or even more.

One of the main risks you face with an eCommerce rebuild is the fact that the process can wipe out your sales. So, can your business handle a few days without selling? If eCommerce is just a part of a larger business, it can tolerate the drop while the redesigning is underway. However, if your business is entirely web-based, chances are that it might not be able to handle a complete shutdown for a few days.

If you still need to go through with the rebuild, you need a concrete website redesign project plan. You should have a strategy on how you will reverse the sales after the downtime. The process may involve multiple tests and checks, or it could be fairly simple and take little time. In any case, it helps to be prepared.

2. What if the Rebuild Requires More Time and Money Than Expected?

Several eCommerce website revamps take longer than planned and this brings with it extra costs. This is because there’s a possibility of overlooking important aspects during the process and they might come back to bite your business. Think about if you can really afford the process in case it lasts twice as planned and costs double the original estimate. Remember that your website might remain inaccessible for a prolonged period and you may have to dig deeper into your pockets.

Instead of one big rebuild that may take several months, you could think of smaller processes that roll into one. This might help prevent the extended downtime that could result in losses. What this also means is that limited changes will end up costing less. Besides, you’ll be in a better position to track the process, and you can step things up or put them on hold depending on your budget.

3. What Will the Rebuild Fix?

It is important to know what problems you will be fixing with the planned eCommerce website redesign. Bear in mind that a website rebuild can be a risky and expensive proposition, so you need to be sure that it will benefit your business a great deal. This means that the rebuild should fix problems that other simpler and less expensive processes cannot solve.

Remember that the problems that warrant a redesign are not minor things such as homepage rearrangements. There should be significant changes like switching to a one-page checkout, redesigning the showcasing and listing of products, and adding backend testing frameworks to all store components. These are major changes that could bring significant benefits to your online store.

When you look at the bigger picture, it’s better to focus on one significant change than the entire project. This way, you’ll prevent wasting time and money that go into addressing unimportant elements.

When the focus is on one problem, the decisions you make will be clearer, and this ensures quick and effective handling. The most important thing is to make sure that the rebuild actually handles the main problems your eCommerce website has been facing without giving rise to new challenges.

Selecting an eCommerce Design Revamp Company

While there is no dearth of digital agencies that offer eCommerce website redesign services, selecting one requires paying attention to different aspects.

Discusses Your Needs

The top web design companies realize that each eCommerce website redesign project comes with its unique requirements and challenges. As a result, the first step is to discuss your specific needs, objectives, and goals. If you receive a website redesign proposal or quote from an agency before it understands your business and what you’re after, you might want to move to the next option.

Understands and Focuses on Your Target Audience

Target audiences play a key role in web design. This is because a website that finds favor with one demographic might not work equally well with another. Consider this – you like an animated children’s eCommerce website and wish to use its design aesthetics to overhaul a website that sells medical instruments. While you might end up with a website you like, there’s a good chance that it will not have the desired effect on your target audience.

The web design agency you select should understand your target audience and rely on its knowledge to create your website’s layout. Developing buyer personas is often part of the parcel, because this step aids not just in redesigning or rebuilding a website but in the creation of content as well.

Audits Your Existing eCommerce Website

It’s important for a web design agency to understand the main reason you want an eCommerce website revamp. This could be overall rebranding, an outdated layout, or the need to provide new functionalities.

When an eCommerce design revamp company jumps right into the redesigning stage, there’s a good chance it will fail to address the problems at hand. As a result, you need to partner with an agency that takes time to analyze how your existing eCommerce website looks and functions before it moves on to provide suitable solutions.

Conclusion

To make a long story short, rebuilding a website for eCommerce might work well, but you may expect some chaos along the way. You might likely spend more than you budgeted and the process might take longer. Besides, the impact might not have the fireworks or be as big as you imagined. So, it’s good to keep your expectations in check.

Choosing the right digital agency to work on your eCommerce website redesign project is important and you should ideally compare a few options before narrowing down on one. The agency you select should have the technical expertise to work on custom web designs, it should have knowledge about your industry, and it should also be one that previous clients rate well.