Creating a Lasting First Impression – Your eCommerce Website

If you have a physical business as well as an online presence, think about how you display your products. For that matter, even if you don’t have a physical business, think about display areas you see in, say, department stores. How are their products shown off?

-And, how can you turn the art of in-store display into an eye-catching website display?

Emotion Commotion Coaster

You’re on the hunt for a product, slinking through the Internet underbrush. Up ahead you see your elusive prey, skillfully hiding in the middle of your search page. The title promises good times to be had for all, with cheap prices and products that last. The hallelujah chorus sounds. You click on the link and get…

“Oops, we’re sorry, this page doesn’t exist.”

“This product is out of stock, but you might be interested in a totally unrelated product.”

“No image for this product. You’ll just have to guess what it looks like.”

How many times has this happened to you? How tempted were you to look further on the site? Probably not much.

What the experts know…

Design experts know people are led by emotional buying. A company logo is an excellent example. The right colors, the right design, maybe the right mascot – all of this goes into creating a positive emotion within the consumer.

Marketing experts know we’re drawn by our five senses. Now, online we can’t smell, taste or feel with our fingers. What we can do, however, is see and hear…

We can look at black velvet, lights hitting it just right so it shows off rich dark blues as well, and just know that it’s soft. We can see photographs and assess whether a photographer is good or not. We can look at a shoe and get a gist of whether it would be comfortable. We can hear a piece of music and know whether we might like to buy the artist’s CD, etc. etc. etc.

What Does Your Online Display Say About Your Product?

The way you display your products can make a big difference. Take diamonds, for example. Other gems are generally displayed on grey or white backgrounds, right? However, diamonds are usually given a deep, velvety background. Why?

Because that background says, “Out of all those other gems, this is the one to own. This is class. This is style.”

This is how you want your products to be displayed. This is the feeling you want consumers to get – that your products are the products to own.

How you show your product also shows the consumer how you feel about your product. Think about it. You go into a high-end men’s store, you’ll often find the suits and ties hanging on wooden hangers and displays. Why? Because wood is to clothes as black velvet is to diamonds. It just glows like that.

When you go to a high-end modern store, you might find brushed aluminum or glass. Why? Well, because contemporary times call for contemporary displays. If you’re looking for contemporary, glass, aluminum and chrome are shining lights.

Now, does your display have to be fancy? Not really. Although I’m currently lusting over the EEZslide products, your products don’t have to rotate, fade in, fade out or any such high-falutin’ stuff. They just have to shine.

So… look at how your products are displayed. What feeling do you get? Better yet, have a few friends look at your site… the kind you know will tell you what they really think. You might even try testing a different way of displaying a few of your products.

Whether you use wood accents or velvet, glass or chrome, your showcase should be focused on what you want the consumer to feel. Create a positive, lasting first impression with your eCommerce website; display your products proudly!