If you are looking for a professional online store then Magento is just what you need. Magento is an ecommerce platform that provides that ‘certain look’ to your website that makes it stand out from the crowd, and grabs the attention of every visitor. Website design is extremely important, and in some respects more important than the search engine optimization that got your visitors to your site.

The main problem of any website is keeping visitors for more than half a minute. Most visitors will leave your website within half a minute of getting there, and it’s your web designer’s job to keep them there longer than that. Beat that 30 seconds and they are liable to stay. If they stay, then you are liable to make money! So how do you make them stick on your site and not click away somewhere else?

Make it Professional

First it must look professional. You wouldn’t go shopping in a grubby cheap looking shop you came across in a shopping mall, and neither will internet users.

• You need good web design that sparkles and attracts people.
• You need interesting content that keeps them there when they arrive.
• You need your products displayed professionally and right where they can see them.
• You need a simple navigation system that won’t confuse them.

You need all that and more, in order to have a good ecommerce site with good web design and completely visitor friendly. That will enable you to make best use of every visitor and optimize your income from each one. Spyglass Studios can help you to do that. Here is what we offer you:

1. Web Hosting
If you do not yet have a website we can offer you a web hosting service to enable you to get your Magneto site online immediately, with no delays and no potential loss of customers. This is the first task for anybody wanting to run an online business, and Spyglass Studios will take that task right out of your hands.

2. Installation and Design
We will install Magento for you – many users find this tricky, especially if they are not used to ftp software and uploading applications to their web space. After the installation we will design your website for you so that all you have to do is populate it with products. We can even help you with that if you need help.

3. Set up and Completion
Spyglass Studios can set up your online store for you and get your shopping cart, payment systems and shipping options in place. In fact, we can provide you with a turnkey ecommerce site based on the Magento software and design it exactly to your requirements. We will also optimize it for the search engines so that your website will be listed on Google and other major search engines.

4. Support
No operation would be complete without support, and Spyglass Studios will be on call whenever you run into difficulty. This is very rare after our professional set-up, but we are here if you need us.

The end result to you will be a fully functional online ecommerce store, designed to attract visitors and keep them on your site. Although the Magento ecommerce platform software is free, the installation and set-up is what makes it work, and most people find it best to have this carried out professionally.

Ultimately, this website will be providing a large part of your online income, if not it all, and you will want to make the best possible use of Magento to optimize that income. You could spend a lot of money on other options, such as a regular paid website that you would still have to design and get set up with the features needed to run it such as payment and delivery systems. Magento does all this for you, and what you save on the website software cost is best spent on top class installation of all the services needed for a high quality online store.

For that reason, many people opt for a Magento website because of its sheer good looks, and spend their money on professional installation, set-up and support, so succeeding in securing a very high class product at minimal price. Spyglass Studios will do that for you, and our recommendation is based on the fact we use exactly the same system ourselves: Spyglass Studio have been very successful with Magento, and you can be too.

The whole process is very simple, and all you need do is contact us and we will take the whole process over for you. Spyglass Studios have been responsible for helping businesses get started with an online presence all over the internet, and the niche you are in, or the products you are selling, makes no difference to us.

We are here to help you, and your first step is contact us. After that you can relax and let Spyglass Studios and Magento do it all for you.

The traffic statistics of the vast majority of websites will show that that most visitors leave within 30 seconds. What that means is that most websites are failing to attract the interest of the visitor, and if yours is an ecommerce site, than that is another lost customer. Web design is the major critical element of any web site, and includes aspects of the site such as aesthetic appeal, giving visitors what they are looking for, ease of use, and so on.

Let’s look at each of these in turn:

Artistry and Aesthetics
Would you walk into a dingy dark store that looked as if no care or attention had been paid to it in years? Of course not! I’m not saying you must use bright colors, because many niches and product types don’t need bright colors, but it should have an appeal that doesn’t turn people away.

Web design should reflect the product or service being offered, and the experience of webmasters over the years has been that conservative colors and designs are better received by visitors to certain types of online store than bling. OK for a jewellery shop, but not for selling golf balls. If you want to retain a child’s interest, on the other hand, then you will do so with bright jazzy colors and a bit of movement on your website.

Having designed your home page, leave it for a day or so and then open it online and look at it. Would you stay on that site, or go ‘Uurghh’ and click away? Ask your friends to check it out and get their reactions.

Consistency
Be careful when designing your home page, because that will be the template for your entire website. Visitors do not like to see each page designed differently, and the successful sites have a continuity of web design throughout the website. The search engines also like that continuity.

Give Them What They Expect
If you advertise golf balls, don’t send them to a page offering golf shoes. Give your visitors what they expect to see and make it obvious. If you are selling Microscopes, don’t make them need one to see them! Web design involves more than just the colors and shapes you use, but also how visible your products are to your visitors.

Ease of Use
This can be a massive topic: how often have you visited a website and wondered what you are meant to do next or how to order or pay for something? It is very common, especially where functionality has been sacrificed for looks. A website can look really good and well designed while being very difficult for prospective customers to use.

Again, put yourself in the place of your visitor. Can she get to the page she wants within two clicks or does she have to travel through a maze to purchase that fabulous watch she has her eyes set on for her boyfriend. After two clicks most people tend to get fed up and click that white cross on the red square. Lost forever!
Good web design technique is to get the mechanics of the site right. Make it simple for customers to find and purchase multiple products and then work on making it look nice. A good looking site with fabulous web design, artistry and aesthetical appeal will fail if your customers find it difficult to use.

Here is what good web design is and how to achieve it:

1. Each page should be based on a template containing the same elements in the same places, and consisting of the same colors. A visitor does not want the main navigation on the left side on one page, at the top on the next and the switching to the right. Colors should be consistent throughout the site.

2. The page should look good, and the colors and design be suitable for the theme of the website. It should be designed artistically, and although that is a subjective concept, it is possible for web design to be aesthetically appealing to most people so that they will remain on the page over that vital first half minute or so.

3. The navigation should lead visitors to the main catalog pages within a maximum of two clicks. Any products not available within two clicks will not sell.

4. Any shopping cart should be able to be filled without going to checkout until the customer clicks on ‘Checkout’.

5. Think of a shopping mall store, and then replicate that on your website. Replicate the ease of travel between departments, the ease of filling your shopping cart and the ease of paying for everything at one checkout using one payment method.

All of that adds up to good web design: not just the colors and design of the page, but of the overall look, feel and functionality of the entire website. If you find that difficult to achieve, then there are ecommerce platforms available that can help to do it for you: some, such as Magento, are even free online to download. Using that you will have no excuses for losing potential customers through poor web design.