Custom web design can do more than leave you with a beautiful, user-friendly ecommerce site. It can help you trounce your competition where it matters most.
For many ecommerce entrepreneurs, investing in custom web design can eat into your capital. If the initial investments you made were small to begin with, this can mean tightening belts until the store is in the black. But it can also give you a startling edge and the ability to beat your competition early on. The ecommerce business is tough and edging out a competitor, especially an established rival can be difficult.
Custom web design means more than creating a custom page with a unique look. Professional web developers can help you distinguish your brand from the competitions in many different ways.
They can help you create a distinctive look and feel.
Investing in custom web design allows you to venture past templates. Many ecommerce stores use the same features because these are the functionalities that users expect. The shopping cart, the product catalogue, dozens of high-definition pictures. The difference lies in the presentation. Investing in custom web design can help you replicate your brand's in-store feel or create a new look and feel that matches your brand identity.
Good looking websites capture more people. This factor is called "stickiness." Your websites has less than a tenth of a second before a visitor decides if it is worth looking into. Everything should be stellar: content, images and speed in order to gain interest. Like a window display at the store, the first glimpse of your website should entice and make your visitor want more. This first glance should also be instantly recognizable. Because there is nothing worse than your visitor believing they are visiting your competitor's website, because the look and feel is much the same.
Custom web design helps you manufacture a better user experience.
Relying on templates and standard hosting can feel like the easy way out, but when it comes to leaving your competition in the dust, this is not the best answer. Generic websites are boring and often do not offer the user experience many visitors and customers want. Generic can mean boring and generic can mean clunky.
By creating a custom web design and working closely with the professional web design team you hire to do it, you can create a user experience that works for your brand. From your photo gallery to your shopping cart, you control every single moment of what users experience on your website. This means that you can create a user experience that is uniquely different from what your competition has to offer.
In terms of creating the unique user experience, you cannot go wrong when you customize and tailor your website for your market. It can mean the difference between good conversions and great conversions.
Custom design often means better load times.
Image-heavy ecommerce websites are a different sort of monster. They can take eons to load, even if your visitors have access to cable or broadband Internet. For your competition, this is the perfect way to grab your business. After all, it is the online equivalent of the lazy salesperson or the rude cashier.
Custom web design takes the guesswork out of navigation and load times, because your ecommerce site will be put through rigorous testing to ensure that it loads perfectly and correctly every single time, regardless of what browser your visitors use.
One of the first and most important decisions ecommerce entrepreneurs need to make is whether or not to go with custom web design. It is a decision mostly influenced by capital and how much time an entrepreneur has. But before you make the decision, weigh the pros and cons carefully.
The sheer number of ecommerce websites out there mean you will encounter some form of competition, even if you sell to a niche market. Distinguish yourself from the pack by investing in a customized website tailored for your brand and your target market. Make sure you stand out.
