How to Organize Store Pages on Ecommerce Sites
Optimizing and organizing store pages on Squarespace websites is essential for any business looking to improve the customer experience and boost online sales.
When building an online store for your client, there’s a lot to consider. With so much content to display, a well-organized store page is a key factor in showcasing products, increasing customer engagement, and driving conversions. You can use Squarespace to turn your client’s online store into a dynamic, visually appealing, and easy-to-navigate shopping experience.
Discover how to effectively organize store pages to maximize your client’s chances of success.
Understanding your client’s needs and goals
Just like with any Squarespace website, you need to have a strong foundation to build an ecommerce store. Gain a clear understanding of exactly what your client wants during the consultation call.
Take time to understand as much as you can about your client and their brand, discussing their target audience, needs and goals for their site, and main products—whether they’re digital, physical, service-based, and so on. These starting points can help you and your client go into deeper detail, giving you insight into what they want and need.
Document a list of clear goals for the store pages. These goals may include clicks, conversions, or sales. Take the time to verify you and your client are on the same page about what they want the website to achieve.
Planning the store page layout
Whether your client has one or 1,000 products to list on their ecommerce website, all pages need a clear, logical, and aesthetically-pleasing layout.
Store pages can be notoriously “busy” with lots of different features to include (e.g., product imagery, discount tags, descriptions, and prices), so you need to create a layout that won’t overwhelm visitors. Less is often more when it comes to the main store and shopping pages, while details are fine on the product details page.
Before you begin building, draw up a wireframe for the pages. The wireframe doesn’t need to be technical and you don’t need to use fancy systems. There are many free sketching programs on the market, or you can go with the ever-reliable pen and paper. You can also build a rough mockup directly into Squarespace on a not-linked page, so long as you create a clear vision for the main page.
When creating your design and layout, think carefully about where a visitor’s eye will be drawn and how straightforward it will be for them to complete the desired action. Bear this in mind during the mockup stage, and keep it front and center when you head into the official build. This will keep you on track and reduce the need for redesigns. Read more on designing sites with best practices in user experience (UX) and information architecture (IA).
Creating clear and intuitive navigation
When you build store pages, think about how a visitor will find them, navigate around the page, and successfully move on to the next part of the website. Plan every step of the journey so that potential customers don’t get confused and click away. The lower you can keep the bounce rate, the better the conversion rate will be.
A user-friendly navigation for the store menu is essential. Organize products into categories to help visitors find what they want. If you find your client has a lot of pages and products, a drop-down menu can help to make navigation less overwhelming.
To further organize products, use categories and tags. For example, if you're building an online clothing store, you might organize products into categories like tops, jeans, and coats, while using tags to filter by color, material, and size.
Pro tip: Consider how you navigate an online store—do you prefer to browse by size, product type, price, color, or other attributes? Adding filters with tags allows shoppers to search in a way that suits them. For products with multiple versions, set up product variants on the product details page. This creates a clean drop-down menu where visitors can select their preferred option, automatically updating the displayed image and price.
Using Squarespace’s built-in ecommerce tools
Squarespace is an excellent choice for building an ecommerce website, and there are tons of built-in ecommerce tools you can use to effectively organize shop pages.
Here are some top features:
Discounts
Discounts can be applied for any length of time. You have granular control over variables such as how many times one customer can use the discount, how many times the discount can be used overall, and how long the discount is active. Discounts are great for creating urgency with potential buyers and increasing revenue.
Wide product assortment
With product suites like Digital Products, you can monetize your client’s blogs, video content, and more. Create a store collection and check out all the ways you can monetize your offers.
Abandoned cart recovery
Abandoned checkout recovery helps you target potential customers who have created accounts and added items to their cart without checking out. By sending one or two automated emails, you can increase your client’s sales.
Fulfillment profiles
Provide customers with choices for how they want to receive their item. With fulfillment profiles, offering this flexibility is just another way you can make your customer’s journey as frictionless as possible.
Targeted marketing
With Squarespace Email Campaigns, segment customers (and non-customers) into different marketing groups. From there, your client can send targeted blasts or automations. This can lead to higher open rates, higher click through rates, and ultimately, higher sales. The more specific the marketing, the better it is for your client’s bottom line.
“I use Squarespace Email Campaigns on four of my personal websites.”
Add-ons and related products
With add-ons, you can prompt customers to select other items that complement the item they added to their cart. When a customer is already interested in purchasing one product, they’ll be more inclined to add another item once they see its value.
The same goes for displaying related products. Think of this like an add-on but before the customer has officially added anything to their cart. The related items will be shown on the product page itself, giving the visitor a chance to check them out and add them too. Then, with each item they add to their cart, they can be presented with an add-on option. It’s a great combination for increasing the lifetime value of your client’s customers.
Product reviews and testimonials
Reviews shape online purchase behavior. Your client can request reviews from customers and proudly display them on product pages, which boosts social proof and, as a result, conversions.
The more reviews, the better. Encourage your client to solicit reviews by sending follow-up emails to customers after purchases, politely asking for their feedback on the items they bought. Additionally, your client can offer incentives like discounts on future purchases or entry into a giveaway to encourage customers to share their experiences.
Optimizing product listings
Optimize product listings for the most impact. The following are pro insights for creating quality product listings that drive people to make a purchase.
Write clear product titles that are accurate, engaging, and short
Don’t get carried away with complicated names that may confuse shoppers. An ecommerce store doesn’t operate like a third-party marketplace, so there’s no need to cram the title with as many words as possible. Ideally, go for titles that are concise, efficient, and skimmable.
Use product descriptions to sell the product
Include all of the information a customer needs to make a purchasing decision and list key features, benefits, and if relevant, materials or ingredients. The higher the quality of product descriptions, the lower the likelihood of returns.
Remember the keywords
Include target keywords in your client’s product descriptions and titles to boost the site’s search engine optimization (SEO). While descriptions offer a lot more space to play around with, you’ll want to avoid adding phrases where they’re not needed.
Enhancing the user experience with design elements
It’s not just the backend organization that can help to create a great user experience for your online store customers, the page’s design has an impact too.
When it comes to styling store pages, the central focus should always be the product. High-quality product imagery is essential. If your client invests in a single area, it should be here.
White space also plays a huge role, helping to keep the focus on the products and limiting any distractions that prevent customers from completing their orders. Consider building a visual hierarchy on the page that draws the visitor’s eye from place to place. Guide them to where you want them to go, while giving them the illusion of choice.
Never overlook the power of a clear call to action. An “add to cart” or “buy now” button should be easy to spot. It should be noticeable on the page but not overly disruptive. Consider using a specific color or shape for improved engagement. For instance, you may try rounding buttons as visitors often perceive softer edges more positively than sharp ones.
Building effective store pages
Designing impactful store pages on Squarespace requires a thoughtful balance of functionality and aesthetics. By focusing on intuitive navigation, high-quality product images, compelling product descriptions, and clear calls-to-action, you can create seamless shopping experiences that drive conversions for your clients. With the right approach, their Squarespace store can become a powerful tool for attracting and retaining customers, helping their ecommerce business thrive.
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