Building a a powerful ecommerce site is not as simple as installing some random shopping cart software and adding products into it's database. While that's a start, the end result and effectiveness of such business initiative is determined by careful preparation, specifically if the resource is small and we want the website operational in reasonably short terms. A value efficient, and absolutely applicable in most circumstances, option, is selecting an open-source commerce application program and a good shopping template for it - you can find quality shopping templates here.
Let's pretend we have already made the decision what kind of item(s) we are going to provide on our site. The following wise move should be selecting the most appropriate and cost-effective shopping cart software. But in practice it's even more suitable if we go a bit further and choose our style and design first, in the form of a premium shopping cart template! Why we should come to terms with that step first? Well, there are a few recognized, robust, and proven shopping cart platforms - some of the most widely used examples these days include Magento, OpenCart, Prestashop and Shopify. Please note: Shopify is in fact not open-source, but a paid web product. We mention it here because it's extremely popular and suitable for not so-experienced owners of Internet stores.
And this is the motive we really should actually start by choosing the ecommerce template - each one of the above stated shopping carts has a different variety of ready-made templates we can choose from. For example, Magento offers the largest selection of them because it's currently the most popular and robust ecommerce software and has a massive and established community. So we should take our time and browse the readily available templates - both free and premium. A good premium theme would essentially give an idea about the usefulness and options of the specific shopping cart software. And so our theme choice would help us specify which platform would be ideal for our e-store..
Whenever picking the finest style and design for our products, the following critical elements would help us assess each template, regardless of if it's obtainable for free or offered on the premium themes market:
1) Does the design overpower the goods? Every e-commerce website should put the emphasis on it's products, not on the creative abilities of the web designer. We don't want our customer's interest attracted to the vibrant background for instance. We expect them to be mostly intrigued in our products and the design should only assist, and if possible - enhance their attraction as prospective purchasers.
2) Is the website navigation handy and simple to use? We should allow our visitors to find what they need in the swiftest way possible. We don't want him or her lost among our product categories.
3) Is the template brandable? Can we easily insert our custom logo and modify it's colors to fit in our web identity?
4) Does the overall style and design suit our goods? Is the atmosphere it suggests related to the goods we are offering for sale?
5) Is the checkout process straightforward and quick enough? If it consists of too many steps and distracting interface options, the visitor could leave behind his/her main goal - to buy the item he/she wants and give up the cart with the still unpurchased products. We certainly would like to prevent that probability and do our best to guide them through the process in the quickest and most enjoyable way possible!
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