In this economy, one of the best investments anyone can make is in saving money. At Blue Fountain Media, we’re finding more and more ecommerce web design clients are focused on giving their customers a chance to lower their utilities bills (and do something good for the environment). SolarTown (last mentioned on the blog pre-launch) doesn’t just help visitors make smart choices about solar power — it also helps dozens of suppliers sell their products to consumers around the country.

SolarTown Category Page

SolarTown Product Page

The Challenge

Create a huge, functional website — that has several very different functions. SolarTown is a site for customers interested in buying solar equipment, for hobbyists interested in discussing it, for suppliers interested in selling it, and for anyone interested in learning more.

The Work

We built a fully customized CMS, which allows dozens of suppliers to interact with the system — without exposing information to the wrong parties.

The Result

A site that does the right thing, from every angle: visitors get information, customers get the products they want, and suppliers get access to a large and receptive market.

What’s Cool

It’s a great site for good old-fashioned exploring! It’s a nice resource for people dipping into the solar marketing, but it also gives thorough specs and ordering information for anyone ready to make a purchase.

But just building an ecommerce website is not enough. There are several key elements of ecommerce website design that can bring in more visitors, and turn more of them into customers.

The key is to Optimize your site’s layout based on where users are coming from. Where your visitors come from will determine what they’re thinking when they get to your site.

1. If your visitors reach your site because they saw search results or search ads for specific products, your main focus for ecommerce website design should be on showing off product specifications and listing features. Once someone is in the market for a specific product, your goal is to answer all the questions they have before they’ll buy.
2. If you’re aiming for repeat visitors, you can use information you gathered earlier to know how to target them. For example, early adopters will respond well to content highlighting the latest new features. Price-sensitive visitors can be drawn in by highlighting discounts.
3. If your visitors find you through entertaining content you’ve created, you’ll have to make a transition from entertaining them to selling to them. One of our clients has a New York clothing blog that they use to bring in visitors interested in reading about fashion trends. How does R.A.G appeal to them? By maintaining the same graphical and textual style on both the blog and the main ecommerce website. Design stability gives readers a smooth transition from news and entertainment to shopping.
4. If you’re getting visitors from a social campaign, you’ll do most of the convincing offsite. On the site, your goal can be to aim for a zero-clutter, zero-hassle experience.

Ecommerce website design isn’t easy, but keeping in mind where you’re getting your traffic will give you a good idea of how to proceed. There’s a balance between optimizing for one audience and optimizing for every audience, but it’s always possible to create several tweaked versions of the same content, either as a temporary test or as a long-term strategy. A good online marketing strategy can leverage your site design to maximize the value you get from every visitor.