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Designing Your Web Store - The Building Blocks of an ECommerce Site

By: Chris Malta
CEO, WorldwideBrands.com

4 Things Your Web Site Should Accomplish
In building a successful E-Biz, every bit as important as choosing the right products is creating an appealing and user-friendly web site. Your web site acts as your online store, and just like a physical store, it needs to be set up in a way that makes customers want to stay and buy. Here are some tips for creating a web site that's conducive to selling your products:

• Your web design should be attractive and inviting to entice visitors to stick around and shop. It's a proven fact that the more time a user spends on your site, the more likely they are to purchase something. And customers tend to associate the effort and care you invest into your site with the quality of products and customer care they can expect to receive from you.

• Your web site navigation should be simple and instinctive — make it easy for customers to buy from you. You don't want your visitors wandering around, wondering where they need to click to buy something. In fact, the fewer clicks it takes users to get from the homepage or landing page to the page where they actually purchase your product, the better.

• Your web site should have a personal face to help put buyers' minds at ease. Adding your picture, your name, and a number where you can be reached, can reassure reluctant shoppers that there's a real person behind your site, and help overcome their resistance to buying from a small, unknown E-Biz.

• Your web site should offer something new and original, so it stands out from the crowd and ranks well with the search engines. It's okay to get ideas from successful competitors, but don't simply mimic someone else's site — you won't beat your competition by copying them. Put your creative foot forward and differentiate your site.