A good e-commerce website is a clean, organized store where products are easy to locate and visitors are allowed to shop the way they want. What should you do to improve the effectiveness of your online store once a visitor arrives?

1. Plan your layout: Avoid a cluttered layout. Visual cluttering is a result of trying to put too much information onto a single page. You should limit your design to no more than 10-15 products per page and no more than 600 words of text.
2. Organize: Break text up into easy to read blocks or columns the way a newspaper does. Use graphics and colors to help break up the page to give a clean graphical look. Add headlines above blocks of text to allow visitors to quickly scan a page.
3. Categories: Add navigation and category listings so customers can find products in different ways. Use categories like departments in your store, and sub-categories if you stock a wide variety. Allow customers to browse by price category, newest products or most popular products.
4. Add Search: If customers have something specific in mind or know exactly what they want, allow them to search by keyword, brand, model number or a combination of these. Keep the search simple, intuitive and easy to use.
5. Purchase Options: Offer phone numbers or online chat assistance. Some visitors may be uncomfortable with completing a purchase online and want to place an order by phone or mail in an order with a check.
6. Simple Checkout: 30-60% of customers abandon their order at checkout because of usability issues. Design your process to be 1-2 pages and only request necessary information. Use clean and organized design layouts and add a confirmation page.
7. Shipping: No-one likes hidden or surprise fees, especially as they have their credit card in hand and waiting to pay. Allow customers to see shipping charges up front by entering only their zip code.

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4. eCommerce Web Design (Part 3 of 3)
5. 10 Ways to Improve Your Website Conversion Rate