A recent study from EyeQuant, a design analytics company, shows that websites with clean web designs result in lower bounce rates. People spend more time on your website when you use an uncluttered design style, and when users spend more time on your website, they’re more likely to make a purchase.
Clean web design doesn’t mean we spritz the website down with Windex (although that does help when fingerprints get on the monitor). By clean web design, we mean a design approach focused on stripping away non-essential elements, putting the content first. Clean design favors generous whitespace and margins, simple navigation, well-organized elements, sparse text and large images. Take a look at this website we designed for LivePure for an example of clean web design.
Why does clean web design make people want to stay on your site? Imagine it this way — an eCommerce site is a retail space that lives on the Internet instead of physical space. When you’re shopping in a brick-and-mortar location, what makes for a better shopping experience: a cluttered, noisy, disorganized store, or a simple, airy, well-lit space where everything can be easily spotted? You want to be able to walk in and easily find what you’re looking for, without a bunch of distractions buzzing around.
I know what you’re thinking — “But, my website has to be visually exciting to attract customers!” Well, do you know the saying, “it’s not the cook, it’s the ingredients?” Think of a salad that uses a handful of simple, but really fresh, flavorful ingredients versus a salad drowned in overly rich dressing. The visual richness of your site’s design can come from a excellent product photograph or a gorgeous lifestyle image. When you have a great looking product to spotlight, you don’t need a lot of overly fussy design elements. A simple web design lets your customer appreciate the aesthetics of your product, and that will lead to more sales.
So if you’re looking for a way to boost sales on your eCommerce site, take a close look at your website’s design. Is it uncluttered, legible, and easy to navigate? Or are unnecessary and distracting design elements causing people to click away? A refresh of your website design could lead to more profits for your business.
