The Ultimate Guide To Create A Website For Retail Business

These days, we all possess smartphones and the first thing that we do when we want to buy something is to look it up online. It is easy, simple, and convenient. To keep up with audiences who are tech-savvy, it's important for the retailers to have a well-designed website to build their brand, connect with customers and make sales. Thus, the expansion of business online has never been more important. You can check out 7 Reasons Why Having A Website Is A Must For Small Businesses here.

Research says that brands have 50 milliseconds to make their first impression on the audience who visit their website. Thus, the retailers need to ensure that their website offers critical information that a visitor looks for in the form of visually attractive images and catchy headings. It is important for brands to have a customized website that reflects what they stand for and what their business is all about.

In this article, we will have a look at the essential components that a retailer website needs to have, the advantages of having a retail website, the best retail websites in 2021, who can help you build retail websites, and at what cost? Scroll down to know more.

Essential Components of a Retailer website

Most businesses have evolved in terms of how they conduct their business due to unprecedented times and changing preferences of their customers. They have set up an online presence through a website to cater to customers from all around the world from the comfort of their homes.

Thus, the mode of business is slowly but surely moving from physical to the internet. Here are the elements that a retailer must have on their website to increase their reach and make online sales.

Home Page

This section is the digital storefront of a brand’s business and it is the web page that lets visitors decide whether they want to stay for longer or leave. The home page essentially includes a brief introduction of your brand or what your business stands for. The top product categories in the form of high-resolution images must be showcased to let the visitors know what they can expect out of the brand. One can also include discounts and a “shop all” widget to lead customers to their products page. The location can be provided at the top in case the visitors want to know where their physical store is located. The background colors, fonts, text size, images all play a crucial role in making the home page attractive.

Contact Information

It is extremely important for brands to add contact information to their website. It can be included in the About us page or it can be shown as a separate web page. This section helps the brands gain customer’s trust that they are reachable anytime that they want and from anywhere. It also helps them build long-term relationships with the customers. The physical address of the store, mobile number, email id can be provided on the contact information web page. One can also include a feedback option for the customers to chat in case they have any queries related to the products and services.

Product categories

This is the web page that helps a brand to organize similar kinds of products in one place. This is done to make it easier for the customers to look for what they need and also look for other products that a brand offers. The products can be categorized based on new arrivals, brands, trending items, sale discounts, and season among others. The brands can also offer filters to sort out products on the basis of color, price, and ratings. The recommended product collections list can be added to this section to attract customers. This web page must be easily navigable, and attractive as it leads to purchasing decisions. Also, it leads to better SEO rankings when the brand uses product-specific keywords in their listings.

Customer Reviews

Shoppers rely heavily on the reviews that are provided by other customers who have purchased the product in the past. It is important for brands to include customer reviews on the home page for it helps customers with their purchasing decision. It is a great addition to a website to increase the confidence and trust of the customers. The reviews must provide information about how the product has been helpful to the customers and what they like about the product and the brand. This web page must be kept simple, attractive, and provide genuine reviews. You can learn more about how customer testimonials can help you.

Links to social media

The Links to social media is a great way to build easy connection and communication with the customers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The customers who love the products of the brand follow the official page to receive constant updates about the new products along with discounts and offers. Also, it is a great way to promote your brand for absolutely free cost. You can simply repost or reshare the posts that are posted by the customers on their social media accounts. It also helps the brand to build a community of loyal customers along with prospective ones who are very much interested in the products that you offer.

Shipping and return policies

The shipping and return policies section generally includes information about shipping charges, time taken for delivery, refunds for the products exchanged, return duration, extra transaction charges among others. Most customers prefer to purchase from a brand that offers a clear return policy. The reasons for the return or exchange can help the brand understand the expectations of the customers and improve them accordingly. The dissatisfaction of the customers increases when they have purchased a product that has not met their expectations and they cannot return it. Thus, this web page must provide accurate details to help build customer’s trust and increase their satisfaction.

Advantages of Having a Retail Website

A physical store is great and is good for business but it limits the reach of your customers as you can cater only to a particular geographical area or location. However, with the help of a website, the world is at your reach. Continue to scroll down to read more on the advantages that a retailer gets with a website.

Convenience

It is really convenient for the customers to purchase the products they want from the comfort of their homes without stepping out. With a website, it is easy for the customers to browse through products how many ever times they want before purchasing them. This process is further simplified by the inclusion of filters such as gender, size, brand, color among others to narrow down their search.

Customized product listings

On a website, the retailers can create customized product listings by using high-quality resolution images with a 360-degree view. Details such as offers and discounts can be showcased on the web page through a simple pop-up. The retailers can also add a simple description of the product along with customer reviews and ratings. All this information though bulky does not overwhelm customers, instead, it looks neat and organized on the website.

Cost reduction

This is one of the topmost advantages that a retailer can get through a website over a physical store. The website helps the retailers to cut down costs involved in maintaining a store such as inventory, rent, repairs, storage among others. Also, building a customized website is affordable and requires less investment to maintain. Thus, the benefits offered by the website outweighs the cost incurred in the longer term.

Price comparison

Customers are on the constant outlook for quality products at low prices. With a website, it is extremely easy for the customers to compare the prices of the product they are looking for from several other brands before making a purchase decision. This not only helps them get a good deal and save money but also increases their satisfaction. The brands with lower prices and good ratings can make huge sales when compared to their competitors.

Free promotions and marketing

It is easy to promote a business online when the retailers have a website and that too for absolutely free cost. The website makes use of high-quality visuals, videos, to show off their products and to redirect the customers to their social media handles. They can also create customized deals and create sales for any occasion. Apart from promoting a brand, the website provides insights on customers to understand their likes and dislikes.

Who can help you to build retailers' websites?

Designing any website is tricky and needs a lot of work and knowledge about technical skills like coding. But once you have got a simple and elegant website in place, all you need to worry about is growing your business. The rationale behind this is that a website not only attracts a customer’s eye with its amazing detail and view but also converts them into potential buyers. You can take the help of Workik, a web application builder to get your desired website within a short span of time.

What are you still waiting for? Get in touch with Workik to know how you can build a customized retail website that meets your business needs.

How much does it cost to build a website?

Workik provides monthly and yearly plans to the retailers who want to build a customized website at an affordable rate. The price varies based on the needs of the business. Some of the services that we offer are unlimited websites, workflows, and bandwidth along with advanced SEO support. Apart from helping brands build a website, we also offer service packages where we will manage your website while you can focus on selling your products. You can check our pricing plan here.