Few things can make or break your dropshipping business faster than your website. Basically your website is the sexy salesman who could sell a ketchup Popsicle to a lady in white gloves.  Clarity, simplicity, and layout are all important, but people are visual creatures, and ultimately the perception of the professionalism of your company and the over-all desirability of your product is going to rest on the aesthetics of your website.  This is important whether you’re selling homemade birdhouses or dropshipping Adidas windbreakers.  Your products may bear the brands of reputable companies, but you still have to build an image of professionalism and security for your own business before anyone is going to supply a credit card number.
Tip #1: Make it Easy. Pretend you’re designing a website for a five-year old, because frankly, most five-year olds can shop online more comfortably than my 54 year-old mother.  Not everybody is a computer whiz, and even people who are don’t want to take the time to figure out your clever little button hidden inside your logo.  If a shopper can’t figure out how to find the product they want, they’re going to zip on to the next website.  Contact information, shipping prices, etc., should all be easily accessible.  Graphic signposts like bullet points and icons can be simple and visually pleasing methods to direct your customers.  To check the facility of your website, get your most techno-illiterate friend to have a go at it.

photo credit: hoyasmeg
Tip #2: Keep it Simple. Why does anyone shop at Macy’s when the same stuff is at Target for a cheaper price?  Because they don’t want to spend three hours wading through the racks.  Organization is everything, and visual overload is death.  If you’ve got a thousand different products and pop-up boxes and links all over your website, people are going to book it out of there because they feel like they’re shopping in Times Square.  No one likes to be overloaded.
Tip #3: Be Creative, But Not Too Creative. Of course you want your website to stand out from the pack.  You want it to be eye-catching and unique, but there are some tried and true website standards you shouldn’t try to buck.  Before building your own site, you should check out your competitors (both dropshipping sites and direct suppliers) and note the layout.  Shoppers are used to certain standards, such as contact info at the very top or bottom of the page, and if you get too crazy, your website will seem bizarre or confusing.
Tip #4: Color Speaks Louder than Text. Aesthetics go far beyond a clean, simple website.  From the moment your shopper gets on your site, they’re judging your company and your products from visual cues as subtle as the color of your backdrop.  You should carefully consider who your target audience is, and then determine what kind of colors, graphics, and fonts are most likely to appeal to them.  Millions of dollars have been spent on this kind of consumer research, and you can profit by a quick survey of the kinds of colors your favorite brands and wholesalers use.  As a brief overview, bright, bold colors can excite your shopper and get them in a spending mood.  But if your product is aromatherapy candles, you are probably better off with soothing pastels, which, incidentally, appeal to more to women.  If you’re dropshipping cribs and Baby Einstein products, use primary colors and cute graphics.  But don’t go over the top with themes.  Just because I’m buying an electric drill doesn’t mean I need a harsh black-and-red scheme and Metallica music blaring in the background.  As a rule, limit your palette to two or three colors that complement one another.  Blue remains the most popular commercial color, for a reason.  It denotes professionalism, freedom, intelligence, and security.  It is the most commonly listed “favorite color”, but beware, it’s also considered an appetite suppressant, and thus is not suitable for your caramel-apple boutique.  Red indicates energy, strength, and passion, and often appeals to men.  Green is associated with wealth and also relaxation.  Purple is considered sophisticated and luxurious.  Black equals authority, elegance, and drama.  Two warnings about color: first, color will date you faster than a mullet and a pair of fuzzy dice.  If you pick a trendy scheme, be prepared to update your website if your turquoise-brown combo goes out of style.  Second, if you’re dropshipping internationally, consider that color has different meanings in different countries.  White is the color of death and sorrow in many Eastern countries, not the indication of purity and serenity it is in the good old US of A.

photo credit: JoVivek
Tip #5: Invest in a Logo. Your logo is the distillation of your website.  Your website proclaims who you are and what you can provide in clear visual terms, and your logo condenses that information into one simple, memorable point.  There are many tutorial programs to teach you how to design a logo, like Alleba, or you can hire a graphic designer on the cheap from an arts school or website like Craigslist.  A logo is particularly important if you plan to expand your business in the future.  Consider the cache and force of logos like Apple and Nike’s.  The key is to make it recognizable and attractive, but above all, readable.  Don’t use some crazy gothic script that even Robert Langdon couldn’t decipher.  And unless your name is Prince, you’re probably not cool enough to have a symbol logo just yet.  So stick to text or combine your symbol with text.  And personally, I hate businesses with crazy-spelled names like All-Starzz Shoos.  I’m sure your mom told you it was cute, but it makes it difficult to find your company on a Google search, to refer it to friends, or even to remember it for future visits.  One final thing to consider with logos: beside the visual appeal of simplicity, you may use your logo on letterhead and brochures in the future, and the simpler your logo, the cheaper it will be to print.

So get your girlfriend, your possibly-gay brother, or anyone else you trust to look over your website, because your aesthetic is just as important as the fact that your camping gear is $3 cheaper than your nearest competitor.

dropshipping, website design / help