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When creating an online store, we often face many dilemmas that must be well understood in order to be able to make the right decisions regarding the construction of the store itself, the choice of an e-commerce platform, and functional and logical solutions. Before we get down to the design of the store itself and the stage of researching what we like, what colors we want and which stores are interesting, it is worth starting from the analytical and organizational side to consider building the store.
In this article, we will show you how to approach creating an online store, what is the correct design sequence and what to pay attention to so that you do not end up building the store again or making corrections that may have serious consequences of changing the structure and the time needed to rebuild it.
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According to PwC and analysis, it is projected that gross sales in 2026 in the Polish ecommerce market will be about 162million zlotys. Which gives an average annual growth of 12%.
In 2020, ecommerce accounted for 14% of Poland's retail share.
In addition, PwC analysis and consumer surveys show a 10% increase in online purchases by Poles and a sustained level of online shopping above 74%.
About 150,000 Polish companies have their own ecommerce solutions generating online sales. However, according to PwC, Poland is still an ecommerce niche that will grow in the next few years.
From the above you can rightly see that the market in Poland is growing rapidly and the demand for ecommerce solutions is increasing. It is worth focusing on online sales, however, the later we implement solutions, the harder it will be to break through among the growing competition.
Ensure a positive user experience in your online store
It is worth carrying out the implementation of ecommerce in the company to approach the entire process correctly focusing on technical and functional aspects to firstly stand out from the competition such as: innovative service system, interface, simple shopping path, secondly, usability and taking care of the convenience of the online store and concern for a positive user experience.
Creating a store is a process consisting of several consecutive stages.
What are the stages of creating a store:
Analytical stage:
Technical stage:
It is important here to take care of each stage because the outcome of one influences the subsequent stages.
The process of implementing an online store requires knowledge of psychology, experience, analysis of customer groups and their needs, knowledge of the requirements of the ecommerce platform, the possibility of solutions to potential problems they pose.
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The CR ratio otherwise known as the conversion rate helps analyze the profitability of the store itself. The coefficient tells you the percentage of users who complete an order or those who completed their goals. The ratio will vary depending on the industries and the type of customer itself. There are various reports available online on specific industry conversions for ecommerce stores.
By analyzing the data, e.g. through Google Analytics, we can also check on an ongoing basis after the implementation of the store what percentage of users make purchases in our store, how many abandoned shopping carts we have and how many and at what points during the ordering process we lose customers. This is valuable knowledge to streamline the shopping process and improve the conversion rate.
Typical problems of online stores are usually:
As basic conversions for online stores it is accepted to use:
making a purchase - the most important goal for which we implement optimization and construction of the store
newsletter signup - an equally important element that helps build a customer base and create remarketing lists,
sharing products on social media - a goal in itself to build the store's visibility in the media
visiting as many subpages as possible - the goal of building engagement and learning about the store's offerings
According to studies and reports, e.g. E-commerce in polsce or Gemius for E-commerce in Poland published in March 2020, online purchases are made by more than 70% of users.
So what are the factors that will allow to win such a large number of customers?
Lower product delivery costs - about 45% of users would be more likely to shop online after lowering delivery costs
Product waiting time - 35% of users find the long wait for goods from an online store too problematic.
Easy payment method - 20% of users place this factor as important as well as expect a large variety of payment options
Reviews on various sites about the store - 20% of users cite this factor as important in making a purchase
Positive impressions from previous purchases on the store - for about 35% of users, this is a factor that makes them want to return to a store they were satisfied with shopping from
Taking into account economic factors, as well as the communication of the brand and products to a specific type of recipient, it is worth thinking about the visual layer of the store and matching it to a specific audience to achieve the greatest possible interest in the offer just by the visual effect and aesthetic impression of the execution of the store. Tailoring the store in terms of communication, content language and styles will work positively on the target group making them feel that they are in the right place where they can find what they need. Creating personalized ads and relevant messages and landing page / landingpage / will help realize a better perception of the store and improve conversion.
The process of creating a store should consist at the beginning of collecting all the above information, developing dedicated messages.
See examples of the best online stores in terms of UX and graphics.
At the start of the implementation of the store we would do well to think about its structure because it will determine the main navigation, how to navigate through the categories and SEO optimization issues, including building visibility for specifically established main, side, product and long tail phrases such as: black dress with buttons.
To do this, you need to analyze the technical issues and decide on the structure of the store:
At this point it is worth writing out on a piece of paper or in a suitable program such as: draw.io the planned structure of the store, its main categories that we know we will need. By writing out the main assortment of the store, products and assigning them to the appropriate categories, we will be able to determine whether our store will have a flat or complex structure (taxonomy).
In the case of a flat taxonomy, the store will have main categories without separation into further product groups, in the case of a complex taxonomy there will be a category tree that expands as a result of user choices.
Each option requires a different menu structure design and architecture build. Once a path is taken, it will eliminate future problems with rebuilding the structure, which can have big consequences when it comes to SEO visibility and the time and budget needed to make changes.
If we already have a properly arranged structure of categories and have planned the main and product menus, it is worth focusing on narrowing the search list and offering the user as many ways as possible to select the products he is looking for by using simple filters located in the sidebar of the store, but giving unlimited opportunities to filter products.
Product attributes
Thanks to them, we will gather products with the same characteristics within a given main category or subcategory. The user will be able to search only for products that meet his expectations, e.g.: they are red, made of a certain material, a certain price, or size. Engagement and the process of searching for products is significantly improved if we get a list of those in which we are only interested
Tags
Product tagging helps to easily find similar products, for example, being on a product card we can quickly find and go to a list of products similar to the one currently viewed. In this case, the user will get a list of products matching the tag he has selected and with which these products have been tagged. The result is, for example, all men's short sleeve striped shirts.
Nothing throws off a customer's purchase incentive more than the lack of professional good quality photos on a website and online store. For stores, a common problem is the lack of clear photos in several versions, taken in the proper perspective. It is also good practice to include a video showing the product in use.
When designing the store and the product card, it is worth paying special attention to leave a large space for the main photo of the product because customers buy by sight and like to feel the product. It is worth not depriving them of the opportunity to get to know the product, zoom in and implement the possibility of x2 or x3 zoom because it is this getting to know the product closer that builds a relationship and positive experience.
Attention should also be paid to the presentation of images and dedicated responsive versions of stores as usually the scaling of images is not done well enough or the product card in the mobile version is unreadable with too small images that cannot be enlarged.
In the shopping process, finally completing the transaction may be too challenging for the user if the complexity of the forms and the number of steps is too high. It is worth bearing in mind that a short shopping process will improve the conversion rate of the online store itself.
During the creation of the store, our agency implements up to four shopping steps :
Store integration with online payments is a must have for any online store.
Excessive waiting times for loading an online store and individual sub-pages like product list, tab, loading an image or the process of adding to a shopping cart will distance us from successfully getting a customer to place an order. It is worth taking care of the basic technical values of an online store like Page Speed and performance.
In the case of stores, a robot that offers standard answers to customers' questions is perfect.
To build trust in the brand and its products, it is worth implementing product feedback solutions also in the form of schema tags, which will show the number of positive reviews in the Google search listing.
A common problem for online stores is the lack of active phone numbers. Contact opportunities should be made available to the customer in every possible way. Active phone numbers are also a frequently monitored activity during Google Ads campaigns.
A very important aspect is the security of transactions and the store. An online store without an implemented SSL certificate will not generate profits.
A simple operation to build remarketing lists is to implement through Google Tag Manager a properly configured collection of leads (people who visited our store but did not make a purchase). Having such lists, we can run a campaign to remind the user about our store and the products viewed
Too much information in the buying process
Often, store owners add additional information in a step of the buying process that distracts the user from the main task he or she is supposed to perform in this shopping phase.
No dedicated responsive version of the store
A common problem is also the lack of a customized store design for mobile devices. The scaling of the product card and images and ultimately the look of the card is the result of the programmer and the ecommerce platform rather than a conscious effort to help the user going through the shopping process when making a purchase on a phone.
CTA buttons too small
Common problems also include CTA buttons, icons placed too close to each other that are hard to click on, burger menus containing items placed too close to each other which gives the impression of a lack of readability of the navigation layer.
Overly elaborate order forms
They can effectively discourage even an avid customer from buying. It is worth simplifying the number of form fields and using only the ones we need.
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