Graphic design is an evolving field. But should only designers be aware of this field? Nope.
Apart from designers and artists, business proprietors and operators also pay attention to design and help them. Some take the time even to take introductory courses to communicate better with designers for their business.
If you’re wondering whether to integrate graphic design into your business, this article can help you make that decision. We will learn about how graphic designs can help eCommerce businesses, along with a brief overview of what graphics is.
In detail, we will learn:
- What are Graphic Design and its importance
- How graphics build trustworthiness
- Solidifying branding through graphics
- Increasing efficiency in mail, web content, and landing pages with graphics
- And more!
Table of Contents
What is Graphic Design?
In a nutshell, graphic design is an art form created for a specific purpose or several purposes. This art form usually contains text and other typographic elements alongside color.
There are no complex rules or selected industries applicable for graphic design. As a result, businesses, organizations, or even local stores can leverage graphic design to gain traction. Moreover it is worth mentioning that quite a number of enterprises realize the significance of quality graphic design but in the meantime they do not have enough internal resources for completing this task. They often apply external authority resources to hire graphic designer that will complete all their tasks in a quality manner.
Graphic design is also a form of visual communication. It’s used to convey a message, a feeling, or both. This is essentially the purpose for most people who use professional graphic design.
They either want to spread information or sell/promote their product or service.
Aesthetics is undoubtedly another purpose of graphic design. Sometimes it is used merely for visual beauty. For example, the graphics used in Apple’s website background isn’t to directly sell a product but to make it visually pleasing.
Whereas the graphics used in an iPhone’s digital prints are certainly targeted more towards sales than aesthetics.
Why Is Graphic Design Important?
Visuals have a stark influence on people. 90% of the information is visual and is processed 60,000 thousand times faster than text in the human mind! This research itself shows how graphics are naturally more influential to humans.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a fond memory? It is not words or noises. But something visual. Do you remember a movie solely by the dialogue? The visuals indeed come first.
- Why is this scientific fact important?
The layout, design, and color of your website are what makes the first impression in a visitor’s mind. The graphics used in your product photography and written content are what create a store’s likeability.
In professional industries like eCommerce, graphic designs can make or break your business.
These impressions essentially determine whether a visitor will browse or leave. And if you can’t make the visitor browse, selling is long gone!
Take a look at this example of a medical eCommerce site. Its background on the homepage, which is the very first thing visitors see, is already a graphic, but you might notice that the image isn’t entirely clear, nor is the visual very appealing. In this case, it’s not quite an effective graphic.
It’s important to note that graphic design should also be taken in a professional sense, not just something that you should just add on for the sake of it. When you’re planning to use this effective technique, you should do it properly, so it might be best to employ a graphic designer to create the graphics that you need that can hit that mark.
How Graphic Designs Can Skyrocket Your Ecommerce Sales
Fortunately, we have prepared a list that won’t only make your visitor browse but also boost your consumer base! These are the top ways in which graphic designs can drive eCommerce sales.
1) Graphic design in website builds trustworthiness
Many businesses tend to rely on professional graphic design for marketing, promotion, or product photos. However, only professional businesses know how important graphic design is for their website.
75% of a website’s credibility comes from design. Meaning, if you want to build trust amongst existing and new customers, focus on website design!
People are more and more aware of scams running around the internet. This has forged online shoppers to build a conscious, wary mindset when shopping from someplace new.
- If your website cannot visually feel trustworthy and professional, no amount of website reviews, interlinking, or paid advertisements will help. A visually credible and appealing website naturally builds trust in the consumers’ instincts.
2) Graphic design in stores without websites also builds trustworthiness
Not all eCommerce businesses have websites. Let’s say you sell merchandise or services online but are based on another eCommerce or social media platform. You could be a store on Etsy or Facebook. In that case, you don’t have the freedom to design the website.
However, most of these eCommerce platforms do provide the freedom to design your store. Starting from cover photos, store photos, icons, product hero images – everything should be designed professionally. It is important to follow the guidelines of each eCommerce platform such as the product image dimensions for Shopify are different than that of Amazon or Etsy.
This will help you stand out and, once again, build trust.
- Even eCommerce stores like Amazon, which have their website, pay close attention to the graphic design in their Facebook and Instagram pages.
3) Professional graphics solidify eCommerce branding
Ecommerce graphics design isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s also an integral part of branding. All businesses, including eCommerce stores, should pay attention to branding to grow.
Branding includes logo design and integrating your logo across all of your visual content. If you haven’t already, you should hire a graphic designer and create a professional logo. That’s the first step of visual branding.
Furthermore, branding in graphic design includes using specific color palettes. This helps you ensure consistency and establishes your persona amongst so many in the market. The colors should have relevance to your logo too. They could be complementary, contrasting, or both.
What they shouldn’t be is inconsistent. Your graphics must be consistent throughout the entirety of your business. This is what visual branding is all about.
You can create different graphics for different seasons, e.g., a summer sale. We’ll discuss more about that in the final point.
- The core of how your business visually appears should stay consistent. Visual consistency throughout your branding strategy will make people automatically visit your store even if they don’t plan to buy anything.
4) Graphics in written content enhance readability and store status
People have very little time nowadays to read large chunks of text. However, visual motivation can serve a user subconsciously to go on and keep reading.
- Successful eCommerce businesses incorporate designs in Blogs, FAQs, About us, and everything else that a user needs to read. When consumers find imagery and graphics relevant to the written content, it is an enjoyable reading experience.
Plus, it helps them to consume information quickly and can retain it to memory better. This automatically generates a feeling of appreciation for the consumer as you made the extra effort to help them clear their confusion.
5) Colors based on a specific target makes the design more effective
There are some choices that you can’t solely leave up to a designer. Color schemes are a critical factor you must take responsibility for, along with professional advice from designers and experts. 85% of consumers have reported color as the most important factor while making a purchase decision.
- Thus, when you’re selecting colors for your website, brand, sales post, emails, and any other graphic – use it wisely! What’s your goal? To incite excitement? If the product is worth being excited about, then use orange or yellow. Or is your goal to create awareness? Then you can use sky blue.
The issue with using various colors is that it can lead to inconsistency. Hence, use colors based on specific campaigns. For a brand promotional campaign, use a specific color scheme. For a product line marketing campaign, use another color scheme.
Always ensure that branding is intact throughout all these campaigns. These targets are essentially long-term decisions that you must plan much earlier before launching them.
Hence, these decisions aren’t just based on graphics but your goal for your eCommerce store. When you understand and utilize these specific targets based around colors in graphic design, your eCommerce sales have the potential to blow through the roof!
6) Designs based on bestsellers bring originality
Newer eCommerce businesses that have trending products can utilize it to define their brand. This is a technique that has been done in the past. However, the technique which we are describing includes taking that old method to the next level.
Your best-sellers could determine how your website, store, or even logo looks! Product photographs of your best-selling products could be merged into all your graphics. The product’s essential features, colors, or shapes could serve as a direct reference.
Do ensure that your product photographs are professional and polished, to begin with. Popular brands hire a photo editing company to do all of their product photography work before moving on to graphics.
If you don’t want to make it too obvious, you can use these products as an inspiration instead of direct involvement. For a boxy product, use bright colors and sharp text. For a curvy one, you can use a pleasant color and accompanying typography.
- This way, consumers start to associate your brand with your products. This is an excellent strategy for eCommerce businesses with original products but needs ideas to develop original graphics.
7) Well designed landing pages are eCommerce gold mines
It’s no secret that landing pages are a must-have for promotional business campaigns. These pages serve as a separate entity that can drive mass conversions for particular products or services.
- Design is everything while creating landing pages. When a landing page unexpectedly pops up on the consumer’s web page or a mobile device, the person will naturally feel uncomfortable. The job of the graphic designer is to turn that uncomfortably into interest. And when that is done correctly, watch your sales grow!
Of course, other factors like the landing page copy and website placement also affect the consumer’s reaction. But design is at the core. A well-designed landing page will most certainly make people click on it.
58% of landing pages include clickable graphics, which is a crucial factor to keep in mind.
8) Graphics in Emails drive click-through rates
With people being more and more attuned towards social media, Email marketing has become difficult. In the past, eCommerce stores heavily depended on email marketing, and it’s still quite valuable. But how do modern eCommerce businesses make use of it?
- Graphics – that’s how. Gone are the days of text in email. Now, an entire landing page can be embedded into the mail. With that being said, landing pages shouldn’t be monotonously reused. Email graphics have a completely different approach. They are usually focused on being simple while maintaining branding and ensuring clickability.
Consumers will feel skeptical before clicking links, especially from newer eCommerce mails. Graphics turn these links into buttons and other objects, which make it “feel” clickable and, once again, trustworthy. This heavily boosts your CTR (Click-through rates) and can lead to potentially higher sales.
9) Where to Hire Graphic Designers From
Many companies nowadays hire designers from various freelancing platforms. Some companies (generally those operating on a large scale) also outsource their designing work to an external team or designing company. If you don’t want to outsource it to a company like these companies, you can hire designers from online platforms like Dribbble, 99designs, Fiverr, Lensa etc.
All you have to do is just post a job listing on any of these websites and you’ll soon get a list of potential candidates for the required job role. Also, do make sure to specify all the important details and requirements of the job role. You can take a look at this job posting on Lensa to get an idea of how and what all to write in a job post. Once all of this is completed and you’ve got the list of applicants, you can then conduct the screening and interview process and finalize the new graphic designer for your company.
Final Verdict
We hope you have learned how attractive eCommerce graphic design can be so helpful. Professional-looking designs throughout your website, store, products, and campaigns will automatically turn your business around. If you haven’t already, you could hire a graphic design company to get all of this work done smoothly.
We hope you leverage this content and make the best of your eCommerce store. Happy selling!
