E-retail is a fast growing business, as you’ll know if you’ve been reading this blog over the last year or so. But some experts point the finger at more luxury end fashion retailers as one of the slowest to embrace the on-line trend.

However, there is one top brand that has been has been successful in ecommerce. It was as far back as 2002 that Gucci started to make a big on-line presence and in the last 18 months Gucci.com has had a major overhaul.

The iconic site boasts 2.5 million unique visitors. While a good-looking site, it is also functional and allows customers to browse Gucci fashions and check out of their shopping cart as though in the actual stores.

Perhaps this is the lesson that other e-retailers should learn. It can be all too easy to create a website that is rather more basic in looks and feel that the established high street brand.

The goal of retailers online should be to match the high-end experience of a retail store, so that it does not degrade the quality of a brand.

And don’t forget to also offer customers good service by way of email or live chat customer service, as well as Facebook and Twitter networking. Facebook Gucci has almost a million fans! Not bad for a single fashion brand, eh?

Check out the great ecommerce deals at WebCreationUK. While the prices might be low, you can be assured that the look and quality of the website design is high.

One of the biggest complaints from customers is confusing ecommerce websites. With so many rival websites it’s therefore important that your web design is as slick and customer-friendly as possible.

Here we bring you some top tips for ecommerce web design. If you are looking for great ideas and beautiful ecommerce design then check out the portfolio of WebCreationUK.

Six great tips for ecommerce and e-retail websites

Good navigation: Buying a product should not be a challenge or a bid to get your customers to solve a puzzle. Make the buying process straightforward. From reading about the product, to  popping it in their basket, to getting to the checkout, all processes should be simple and signposted.

Search option: A “search for product” option is a great idea. Sometimes a customer wants to quickly find out if you stock one product and to save them scrolling through long lists of products or accessing various categories they could find exactly the product they want within seconds of searching.

Call to action: Make each part of the purchasing process simple. Add call to action buttons such as “buy now”, “add to shopping basket”, “go to checkout” throughout your ecommerce website.

Less clicks is more: Shorter buying processes will gain you customer friends. If the purchase process is long-winded then they will be tempted to head to another site. It’s important to let customers have a chance to check their purchase list but apart form this the procedure from choosing the product to buying it should be simple and straightforward.

Clear prices and labeling: Customers want to know what a product is and how much it costs. Delivery costs are also important. So make sure all these points are covered, simply and clearly.

Customer service: A customer service that is easily accessible, such as an email response or live chat, will give customers greater confidence and trust in your on-line company.

Latest figures reveal that on-line retail spending in the UK was £5 billion in July, which is the highest of any month this year. The IMRG Capegemini e-Retail Sales Index shows that 
Brits spent an average of £81 per person on-line.

July also marks the biggest jump of any month in two years. The Index has grown by 18% compared to last July. The growth rate was 14% compared to the month before.

Chris Webster, of Capegemini is reported as saying: “Although on-line retail sales survived the recession more convincingly than high street sales, the last two years or so have no doubt been shaky at times.

“It is really encouraging to see growth levels returning to those seen pre-2007 and before consumer confidence was knocked by the financial crisis and recession.”

The most impressive result in July was in the travel sector, which was boosted by shoppers making last-minute bookings to escape the British summer.

The performance of retailers with a high street presence as well as an on-line store also continue to out-perform online-only retailers. Multichannel retailers saw growth of 18% compared to last month, while online-only retailers showed growth of 8%.

Another industry expert said:
”The evidence mounts that high street retailers will need to invest more in their online business and put it at the heart of their retail strategy. Online retailers, on the other hand, will need to continue to innovate as they strive to close the growth gap.”

Looking to set up your own ecommerce store? Speak to WebCreationUK about our e-shop summer special package and more information on website desgin.

If you’ve been reading this blog you’ll know that a blog on your own business website is great for boosting SEO. This is because of the theory that fresh, updated content on your website will be more likely to catch the attention of the search engine spiders. But it is important that your blogs remain relevant to your website business.

Here we bring you some tips on using SEO more effectively in your ecommerce or e-retail blog:

•    Find out the most relevant keywords for your business by utilising the useful and free Google Keyword Tool. Then you can aim to include some of these keywords into your blog titles headlines, links and throughout the content. Do not over do this though as the search spiders do not like over-stuffed blogs.

•    Make sure you have an XML sitemap on your website so that the search engines know to crawl the pages with fresh content.

•    Make sure you post blogs at least a couple of times a week, or every other day if possible. Regular, updated blogs are more likely to gain higher rankings on search engines.

To have an integrated or properly branded blog on your website speak to a website design specialist such as WebCreationUK. Blogs can be written by professional writers, which will save you the trouble of keeping yours updated. Again a web designer should be able to point you I the right direction of a good blogger.

The economic downturn may still be hitting some high street stores hard the story is very different in the world of e-commerce and e-retail. Reports reveal that over the last decade, e-commerce sales have grown on average almost 20% per year, far faster than offline retail. Even last year when high street sales dipped 2%, e-commerce saw sales grow 1.4%.

As the on-line retail competition continues to hot up, businesses have been engaging better SEO techniques and social media marketing. As a result, the ones that are good in both these fields have been seeing greater sales as a result.

We’re keen to hear about your on-line sales strategies. You don’t need to give away all your secrets but we would like to know whether your ecommerce businesses have been seeing profits over the last year, and how much of this you believe is down to SEO and social media marketing.

As well as great web design, WebCreationUK can offer Seach Engine Optimization. For more infomation on SEO take a look at our Advanced SEO package.

Have you thought about Christmas? Oh no, you’re thinking. Not Christmas already! But the smarter e-retail and ecommerce businesses will already be thinking about their Christmas selling campaigns and offers.

The biggest “selling season” for online traders is just around the corner and if you leave your preparations too late you’ll miss out on lucrative pre-Christmas sales.

Research shows that many shoppers turn their thoughts to Christmas presents and food many months before Christmas

Here are some tips to help you get your on-line store ready for the holidays:

•    Check your website load speed. According to recent research, 47% of online shoppers expect a page load time of less than 2 seconds. If your pages are slow to load then you could easily lose a potential customer.

•    Check your website is search engine optimised. If you haven’t done this for a while then ask an expert web design company, like WebCreationUK, to carry out an SEO audit.

•    Build Christmas-themed landing pages. Use Christmas-themed graphics and images to get shoppers in the festive mood! Ask a web designer for help.

•    Start planning your marketing campaigns, promotions and strategies now. Don’t wait until the last minute and end up with a hastily thrown together campaign.

•    Plan and write your festive promotion newsletters. Or have a professional write your newsletter for better effect