Best Practices in Creating a Responsive Ecommerce Website
November 25, 2013 by 2 Comments
|
Responsive design may come as a jargon for some who’re just starting their online business. It may even appear a little intimidating at first blush. But don’t worry, we’re here to help. We’ll walk you through some of the basics to building your first responsive ecommerce website.
We’d also answer some questions fundamental to your quest for the best practices to create a compelling and functional web shop.
Here are the most common and often asked by those considering whether responsive web commerce is right: whats and whys of responsive design, the pros and cons, and the best practices when designing a responsive ecommerce site.
What is Responsive Ecommerce Website?
Obviously you’ve already heard about responsive design, which is now an all-too-common term used in website design and development. But for the benefit of the really beginner types, we’d like to illustrate what lead us to this exciting terrain in web development.
In a layman’s term, responsive design is a web development approach, which minds that your mobile sites render well in other devices next to desktop. It may also be a solution to the challenge of having to develop a website on a per mobile or tablet device basis.
Simply put, having a responsive design can help ensure that your audience will not complain about not viewing your site’s content or products when they use their smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.
Mobile web now renders perfectly on any screen resolution regardless of the device used to view your content. It is also through responsive design that readers get to enjoy reading your content or making a purchase on your site. The layout and navigation are also correct and easy.
Which leads us to the necessity of making ecommerce sites responsive. Ecommerce is the most important marketing platforms online that you’ll every get. This is what makes money for your business.
Apparently, what’s basic to the success of an ecommerce site is reaching its intended market while getting the targeted traffic to the web commerce platform of your brand. And when your market is shifting to mobile, you can’t just let an opportunity slip by you.
Thus, responsive ecommerce website is a helpful strategy, both for reaching your market and raking sales revenues out of you products and services.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Responsive Web Commerce
There are claims that there’s just no perfect approach when it comes to designing and developing your next ecommerce shop. This comes as a plausible assertion, however, it still pays to learn about the advantages and disadvantages of using responsive website design.
The Pros of Responsive Web Design
A couple of benefits come with responsive design for ecommerce. Here are a couple of examples:
- Responsive website design helps simplify site maintenance and other related web commerce tasks. With one set of URL and a single set of HTML code, there’s just one code base to maintain, a single CMS to manage and access site content.
- You’re also likely to get SEO benefits with responsive design since backlinks point to a single domain. As well as improved benchmarks for conversions, sales and profits get much-needed boost.
- Online marketing efforts get boosts from the single mobile-friendly pages. In fact, this reduce bounce rates and results in customers staying longer to your pages.
- Responsive websites are easily scalable for connected devices like TV, game consoles and web browsers. Not only the challenge of developing sites on a per device basis is removed from your process, you also get cost and time savings.
- Any radical reimagining of your website for different platforms is enough to confuse your visitors. Hence when visitors of your site no longer have to learn how to move around your website when using other devices, user experience has been improved. Another hat tip to responsive ecommerce site.
The Cons of Responsive
When it comes to the serious disadvantages of responsive design, you or your user may encounter the following dilemmas:
- Page load speed is one serious drawback. Site performance is affected by having the content loaded from the universal HTML file, even if some content is hidden from mobile users. As well as affecting user experience, conversion rates, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and not the least, search engine rankings are affected.
- Due to the complexity of responsive design, the project comes with a hefty price tag. Developers justify why this is so especially for ecommerce, citing that there are complex deliverables delivered other than merely design mockups in Photoshop.
- Process change is another constraint. Working in silos has been found to be ineffective and there’s an urgency to address the need for teams to work together.
- Ecommerce sites that use advertising in their platforms will find it challenging to use responsive website strategies. If you have the budget, you can simply go ahead.
Best Practices in Designing Responsive Ecommerce Website
There’s just a couple of information, lessons and concepts anyone wishing to convert their ecommerce site must learn and get acquainted with.
How much do you know about media queries, flexible images, and fluid grids? You might also consider brushing your basic skill sets about relative units or about how to use percentages versus pixels in image sizing.
A mastery, not simply an understanding of CSS, must also be in order as you will be creating different stylesheets for different handheld devices from smartphone to tablets.
Not the least, there are the best practices that you must keep in mind. If you can work with the right ecommerce development company, they will help you bring out the best of your brand online.
Since the best practices in developing responsive ecommerce website cannot all be contained by this blog, here are the barebones and the few technical basics to remember:
1. Make a simple layout by avoiding inline styles. Simplicity also means removing what’s not useful and redundant.
2. Understand that there are six different resolutions that most most screen sizes have. Corresponding that are the six break points that you must get yourself familiar with – the 768 x 1024 pixels, less than 480 pixels, less than 768 pixels, more than 768 pixels, less than 320 pixels, and more than 1024 pixels.
3. Use one-column layout for everything.
Conclusion
Online, the competition and challenges will continue to get fiercer and fiercer. Advancements in technologies is not showing any sign of abating as well. As a result, ecommerce business will have to go through different sorts of battle to win customers, generate profits and remain sustainable.
Employing the best practices in web design will always come handy to respond to the challenges and perils of online business. After considering the pros and cons and why it’s sensible to pursue your responsive ecommerce website, you should be able to face the world with confidence.
Hence finding the right development company is vital. 7th Media Design Studio is a Manila-based website design and development agency with solid reputation in building powerful ecommerce sites for some local and international brands.
2 Comments
Lane
Posted January 7, 2014 9:49 AMI like the valuable information you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your blog and check again here frequently. I'm quite sure I will learn many new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next!
Why Your Website Should Be Mobile Friendly 7th-media
Posted March 11, 2014 12:54 AM[…] no wonder you or your small business may already be planning to join the mobile market space by adopting responsive design. We’re entering an era when designing only for desktop and laptop screens no longer hold. You […]