The window to catch a viewer’s eye on your site is to give them the motivation to stay for an initial couple of moments. That is on the grounds that viewers choose whether to go back or to stay on a website within milliseconds. The homepage of your store is your opportunity to make them stay on your site to let them study your business and the products you bring to the table. All things considered, your company’s homepage represents up to 50 percent of the site’s overall online visits. Shockingly, most viewers stay under about 59 seconds. It means that you basically have not even a minute to persuade them that your site merits their time. Your website must be clingy enough for them to not go back.
Digital marketers are struggling to nail the homepage content. Quality homepage content is the key to retaining viewers and enhancing conversion rates. Here’s the list of the homepage checklist that includes:
- Logo: The logo of your store is the identity of your business. Your logo must be strong enough to be identified by customers without even reading the name. For instance, the logo of Apple is a half bitten apple. With a single glance on the logo, people identify the company.
- Menu: The menu of your online store plays a major role in deciding the duration of the viewers on your website. Once the viewer is satisfied with the design of your store, he/she might want to explore your store and the menu tab is the door for the same.
- Banner image: The banner image of your website is the first visual impression given to your viewers. It must be clear, crisp, and loud to represent your business.
- Homepage headline: The homepage headline is the first content introduction read by your website viewers. The readers must get to know the first view of your company through the headline.
- Call-to-actions: Even though your viewers get to know what your store is about, they would next want to know what are they supposed to do to reach the destination. You need to provide a few CTAs to direct your customers on various landing pages that can lead them ahead.
- Introduction: The introduction of your online store is the gist of your store in brief. You need to introduce your store in a way that the readers glue to your store and choose to purchase from your store.
- Blogs: It is a way to give detailed information regarding the industry of your store, current market trends, your business, company, and the products you have in the house. The blogs must be knowledge-based that impart relevant information to the readers and most importantly, it must be in sync with your online business industry.
- Portfolio: Including a portfolio in your online store is essential as it gives the complete information about your company and helps you in establishing the authority of your business in the market. Your website viewers can build connections and trust with the transparency you maintain in your store.
- Content blocks: Content blocks help you bifurcate the content in different sections for easy navigation for your viewers. You can edit the content as per the shifting requirements and provide the best experience to your potential customers.
- Features and benefits: It is essential to let your website viewers know the reason to purchase products from your store. Adding features can help them know what you provide to them and decide whether it is what they are looking for and the benefits shall let them know the perks of becoming your loyal customers.
- Social proofs: Social proofs such as testimonials are a way to build trust among the new viewers. It helps the viewers get to know real-life experiences of becoming your customers and make an informed decision accordingly.
- Subscription invitations: Including invitations for subscriptions is a warm way to let your readers know that you have more to give them. Moreover, the choice is in their hands whether to gain more knowledge and stay updated or to opt-out from the same.
- Offers: It is the most impressive way to impel customers to purchase products online rather than from the conventional brick and mortar store. Based on different occasions and festivals, you can provide offers that lure more customers to your store.
- Resources: It is a way to keep your website viewers completely informed about your company, the industry, your online store, and the products. Using the resources you provide, they can easily operate through your store without any hassles.
- Keywords: People search for similar words such as best furniture online, best mobile phones, and so on. You need to make sure to use strong keywords in your store in order to grab the attention of the maximum people.
- Search bar: A website is a huge platform that will have many features in a single store. If an individual is in a hurry, he might want to directly search for a specific product or feature. You need to provide the search tab in your store for the convenience of your website viewers.
These are the most essential factors to be included in your homepage. However, based on your company, industry, location, and type of customers, you can customize the content of your homepage.
So, what does your homepage say?
The homepage of your website is the first place where viewers land. From the moment they land on your homepage, they get a fair idea about your company, products, and the website’s purpose by which they decide to stay or leave. If they find that your website is capable of fulfilling what they need, they decide to move further. There is no pre-determined way for a homepage to show whether they will meet the customer requirements. Instead, you should customize the customer experience on the basis of your industry and your customers. It can enhance both the customers’ as well as your experience.
Why should your industry and your customer influence your homepage?
As discussed above, there is no particular way to prompt customers to purchase products from your store. The shopping requirements of customers vary from industry to industry. For instance, customer shopping in a food store will have different requirements as compared to the one shopping in the apparel store. The levels of urgency, choices and budgets may change with the industry. The same individual can have a different choice with the changing industry. These changes must be considered by you as a store owner right from the first impression through your homepage. If an individual is looking to order food, he would not entertain delayed responses and delivery which in case of the cloth industry could be acceptable. Similarly, online shoppers who are looking for a luxurious product would not prefer a store that looks dull and cheap. In a nutshell, your store must represent who you are and what your business is.
What should you do?
Ecommerce industries are vast and developing continuously. Some of the prominent industry sectors in ecommerce include furniture, food, gardening, electronics, fashion, and décor among many others. Below are a few factors that you can consider to apply to your online store:
If you own an online furniture store
Furniture stores are increasingly becoming popular recently. People prefer online shopping over offline due to conveniences such as a wide array of options, customization, ease of payment, and hassle-free handling and delivery. After doing a brief market study, you have to make sure that you provide your customers with the best so that they do not sway away to your competitors.
Things to do:
- Use high-quality product images
- Design your store professionally
- Provide your viewers with easy and quick navigation
- Be available for any queries
If you own an online fashion store
Fashion stores are a never-ending online ecommerce market. People are looking for more options for updated fashion choices. You need to provide your website visitors with the best choice and give them a reason to choose you over the rest of the market.
Things to do:
- Inform your customers about what they will get in your store
- Categorize your products for the best understanding
- Include social proofs to instill trust towards your store
These were two industries to give you a gist of how can you customize your store based on different customer requirements. If you are a store owner with a different industry, you can choose your customization based on the location and your target customers. Remember, irrespective of the industry, you need to provide the best experience to your customers. You must include authentic content and images in your online store. A professionally designed website promises to bring more customer conversions as compared to a poorly-designed website. Personalizing your website based on your industry can help you bring the right viewers to your store and boost your online sales effectively. A well-designed homepage must define your shopper’s needs. Our final tip for you is to use a defined theme in your store to deliver the best experience to your customers.
