In this article, I examine the most important part of the web store, the homepage. What contents should be uploaded to the limited area of the homepage in your web store in order to get the best results?
The homepage is a special part of your web store because the most people will probably meet you and see your offers here. Many visitors will arrive who you do not know at all; similarly you will not know what their interests are. A large number of these visitors do not have any intention to buy. So what kind of content should you upload to the homepage?
Homepage with Conversion
Generally, we can say it is worthwhile filling the homepage with conversion helping content which interest most of the visitors and make them click further. The problem could be that it is not obvious what interests most of the visitors and that your offer is too big to show only but a small part of it.
One feature that can determine the content of your homepage is the variety of your supply. If you offer a relatively small range of products, the decision is really simple: it is sensible to present most of your supply on the homepage. It is practical to place the best and hottest offers on the homepage. Nevertheless, there are web stores offering a wide range of products sometimes from electronic items to clothing products. In this situation, it is not effective to show car-hifi system reductions hifi scotland to the potential customers if they want a pretty skirt (of course, this is an exaggerated example). This is frequently solved by showing the main category groups on most of the homepage, well designed and illustrated with pictures. The aim is to make it easy for the visitors to see the content that interests them. – this is actually the navigation helping unit but at the same time it also helps conversion.
Since this is actually a category menu, often there is no category menu on the left side so the homepage has only two columns while the interior pages have three columns. Naturally, it is still practical to fill up the remaining space with conversion helping offers from as many categories as possible. This also stimulates the impulse purchase.
Affect the Content
Furthermore, the competition in our field can also affect the content of our homepage. If your web store is only one among many web stores offering the same products then you have to convince the customers of the advantages of your web store. It is practical to emphasise everything advertised which is an advantage over the others, e.g. if we deliver free and the others do not, or we deliver in 24 hours. Moreover, it is also beneficial to place our offers that would probably attract the most visitors on our homepage. These are the products on sale – this always works; or you can list the new products – especially if these mean an advantage over your competitors; but you can also present the most purchased products as well.
I would like to mention two big but still very frequent mistakes mainly made by web stores: the intro page and the ‘welcome text’.
The intro page is an entering page having only minimal content because its only purpose is being spectacular. It is often based on flash and plays an animation. This usually requires an additional conversion from the customer and at the same time, it does not include any extra information for the visitor. A large percentage of visitors (and customers) will probably leave your site without meeting your substantive supply. Thus, it is completely unnecessary and bad for your web store. There is no real argument in its favour.
The welcome text is usually placed next to the most emphasized part of the homepage greeting the visitors and wishing good shopping, etc. This is less harmful than the intro page since it does not require any additional work from the visitors but it occupies a valuable place from the substantive conversion helping contents. Since it does not include any important information for the customers, you should avoid using it.
