The importance of website ownership to businesses, both large and small, goes without saying—but it carries the most weight for a small business.
The Internet gives even the smallest of businesses the opportunity to connect with millions of potential customers, no matter where they are physically located. More importantly, a well-designed website allows you to leave a lasting impression on your target audience.
Remember, first impressions can last a lifetime.
Aside from allowing small businesses to promote/sell their products and services, a website helps a business to set themselves apart from their competitors. In the digital age that is continuously expanding, consumers turn to the Internet to learn anything and everything that they can about a company.
A well-executed website can allow a small business to share information, build credibility, and be more than just another face in the crowded marketplace.
Start With a Domain Name:
Before you begin building your website, you first need to establish your presence on the World Wide Web. Begin with your domain extension. Ask yourself which category, such as .org, .com, or .net, best serves your business. Second, select a name that is memorable and descriptive, and most importantly is not already taken or under trademark by another company.
Begin Visual Design:
As mentioned above, first impressions are everything. People judge the design of your e-commerce website the minute they land on it. Studies have shown that it takes 50 milliseconds for users to decide if they will stay on a website or not.
Whether it’s the presentation of food at a fancy restaurant or the latest electronic gadget, it is a natural instinct for someone to prefer a product simply based on its design. The same principle applies to websites, especially in the e-commerce field. Attractive, clean, and easy-to-navigate website designs have always played a crucial role in a successful online sales and marketing strategy. A well-executed design and appealing color palette can increase the perceived value of your products. 5 Website Design Tips:
Keep your homepage minimalistic
Design with visual hierarchy in mind
Create website content that is easy to read
Ensure user friendly navigation
Make sure your website is mobile responsive
LEARN MORE | Designing a beautiful webpage: All You Need to Know
For some inspiration on your project as you build out your brand, check out some of the examples below:
Health and Beauty
The homepage of this website has a captivating background image yet makes its main marketing message remain in plain sight. At the same time, it has a clean and simple navigation without unnecessary clutter to confuse the user.
This website also uses the approach of a captivating image as a centerpiece while also having a clean navigation bar. The only menu options given are ones directly tailored toward the customer. It drives users to the products and services they want, focusing on the customer rather than the business.
As with the others, Rad Soap Co. utilizes a main, color photograph as their centerpiece and a navigation bar at the top. This business takes it one step further with a dialog box focusing on what “sets them apart” from the others in the marketplace and a call to action for users to begin shopping.
Clothing:
This website takes the photograph concept one step further, making it the background for the entire website. Once the user lands on the page, the navigation bar at the top expands downward for an easier, user experience.
This website puts more emphasis on the company name and less on the navigation bar, while highlighting the mission of the company and what makes them unique.
The allbirds website has a visually appealing design and captivating color pallet and puts the focus on their marketing message. One of the first places the user’s eye navigates to on first glance are the words: “Soft, Cozy, Classic.: Immediately below their message are navigation buttons for the user to begin shopping.
HELM Boots incorporates their product picture below the navigation bar along with an immediate call to action for the user to begin the shopping experience.
Accessories:
This website does a fantastic job of mastering the basics. With little in the way of design elements there is a focus on the utility and purpose of this site’s function. With ease of navigation comes ease of purchase. As much as you may need to educate your audience, you also want to make sure that you’re keeping a focus on the purpose of the site - get a purchase. Design your site around it’s main call to action.
With big, bold, “hero pictures” Quay does a great job of putting a focus on engaging content. This helps customers understand where the brand fits in fashion culture and envision themselves wearing the products.
Studio Neat does a great job of understanding their customer and brand to deliver precise and effective content and messaging. With so many diverse product offerings, they could essentially be considered a design company. Keeping with their theme of simplicity and extending that to their black, white, and grey color palette - this shows a great example of understanding the brand and customer.
You will notice a trend with fashion and fashion accessory brands creating big and beautiful content. The difference between other fashion designer content and the Wolf Circus site is that instead of inserting the accessory as a catalyst for a “lifestyle” photo, they have no background distractions in their imagery.
Earth tones and dynamic content - sometimes without seeing the product you can already get a grasp on who the customer might be. When design is done this well the product feels like something the visitor expected to see all along.
Cosmetics:
KKW Beauty like most brands on this list shows a great understanding of who the brand is and how to effectively communicate to their customer. KKW is a brand based on the celebrity of an individual - as so the design follows that branding.
Keeping in the theme of design complementing brand, Kylie Cosmetics put the celebrity front and center. Important takeaways here are the ease of transaction. As important as it is to find the celebrity customers enjoy interacting with, we find many of the products on the home page. Anything we can do to lessen the amount of clicks/pages between landing on the site and completing the purchase is generally always beneficial in retail.
This is a great example of the differences there can be between one brand to another, essentially selling the same product as KKW and Kylie Cosmetics, but the imagery is more closely rooted in a caricature of the luxury lifestyle. Loud, bright colors help differentiate this website and the company from others that offer similar products.
NCLA Beauty is a company made on beautiful colors and it shows. Colorful imagery and product placement tells a visitor that celebrity is not what they are buying here, its colorful product.
Building Your Own Website And Business
At Gummi World we won’t ever be able to build a website for you. We won’t even pretend to be able to do that for you. What we do have a great passion for is understanding the needs and passions of our entrepreneurial partnerships.
We are dedicated to solving the pain points in this industry with our recipe development, production, and fulfillment process--yet we are just as passionate about seeing our partners grow and continue to be successful. Talk to a Partner Satisfaction Expert and learn more about how Gummi World is revolutionizing the industry and helping entrepreneurs realize brands of their own. Call today at 830-358-9769.