Ecommerce is just one of the options for selling the bulk men's sunglasses and women's sunglasses you purchase from Olympic Eyewear. Done right, ecommerce represents a fantastic way to operate a retail business without the expensive overhead of a brick-and-mortar store. But that does not make ecommerce an easy sell. You still need to create something that will interest your customers.
Just about anyone can put up a website without any coding knowledge or experience. Thanks to content management systems (CMSs) and out-of-the-box ecommerce platforms, all you need to get a website up and running is a free day and a willingness to put in the work. But again, just getting a website up will not do the trick.
Olympic Eyewear obviously thrives in the ecommerce space. We thought it would be nice to pass along some of what we have learned through experience and our web development and SEO partners by way of a few helpful tips for designing an ecommerce site for sunglasses. So here they are:
1. Make the Site Easy on the Eyes
One of the most important rules in ecommerce is to make your site easy on the eyes. Avoid loud and brash color schemes that are hard to look at. Use plain, easy-to-read fonts in black text. Ensure that your visitors do not have to strain their eyes to shop on your site or you might ultimately chase them away.
On a similar note, the photographs and other graphics you'll be publishing should be aesthetically pleasing in every respect. They should also be properly sized and compressed to promote fast page load times. Work with a professional if you don't know how to properly use images.
2. Streamline Site Navigation
If being easy on the eyes is the first rule, streamlined navigation is the second. Visitors should be able to find what they are looking for in just a few clicks. They should not have to be clicking around for 20-30 minutes to find a decent pair of sunglasses. They will not need to if you make judicious use of your menus, drop downs, and product categories.
3. Allow for Different Kinds of Searches
One of the ways to streamline navigation is to allow different kinds of searches. Let your customers browse by brand, shape, style, and color. Let them browse inventory by price and shipping options. The more options you offer on the main page, the less navigation involved in getting where a visitor wants to go.
4. Pay Attention to SEO
As you are designing your site, pay attention to common SEO principles. Educate yourself on those principles if you aren't already up to speed. At the top of the list is the practice of doing keyword research. Your site should be laden with keywords likely to perform well in organic searches. You will not know what those keywords are if you don't do the research.
We concentrate on keywords like 'wholesale sunglasses', 'bulk sunglasses', and the like. Our research has determined that they are the best keywords for reaching our target audience.
5. Be Sure to Blog
One of the biggest mistakes ecommerce operators make is not filling out their websites with informational and blog content. Blogs are especially helpful because they offer the opportunity to reach out to customers on a more personal level. A good blog also does wonders for SEO performance.
We could offer other tips on designing an ecommerce site for sunglasses, but we are out of space. Perhaps another post will be forthcoming in the future. For now, you have enough to get started as you build your new ecommerce site.