Knowing When to Upgrade to Shopify Plus is Important to Continue Business Growth: How to Know You’re Ready

August 25, 2022

Author: Sean Richards

If you’re familiar with Shopify, you’re probably considering upgrading to Shopify Plus. When it comes to ecommerce platforms, it doesn’t get much better than Shopify. But at some point, you may need more support for your business than the standard plans offer.

Shopify Plus is a comprehensive and scalable plan to support a growing ecommerce store. There are numerous features that come along with it, including a customizable checkout, advanced analytics, and virtually limitless educational resources.

All of that comes at a high price, however. Shopify Plus plans start at $2,000 per month, so it’s important to evaluate whether your business is ready for the upgrade.

What Is Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus is the highest tier of the Shopify plans and the home of some of the most prominent brands in the world, including Allbirds, Eyewear by David Beckham, and Gymshark.

These major brands use Shopify Plus because of its exceptional and exclusive features that are purpose-built to help a store scale quickly. Store owners have the flexibility to customize and tailor their entire ecommerce storefront to support omnichannel, international, and B2B shopping.

When Should You Upgrade?

If you’re ready to scale and you think you’ve outgrown what Shopify has to offer, it may be time for Shopify Plus. There’s a lot to consider, however:

Shopify Plus Price

Price matters with every business decision. The price you pay for something needs to have a return on investment for it to be worthwhile. Shopify Plus starts at $2,000 per month, which is a considerable difference from the $29, $79, and $299 Shopify plans. If your business isn’t quite there yet, it may not be worth the money.

That said, ecommerce stores that make more than $800,000 annually have a revenue-based fee of 0.25%. You may have fees for applications, maintenance, and credit card processing as well.

When you reach the level of an enterprise business, the Shopify Plus fees will likely pay off in features and functionality. But until then, $2,000 a month is a lot of money for features you may not need yet. With this in mind, the current recommendation for ecommerce stores is to consider upgrading when they have an annual revenue of $1 million or more.

Benefits of Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus has plenty of features that pay off for enterprise businesses, such as:

Omnichannel marketing capabilities
International storefronts with independent currencies and events, all from a unified dashboard
Advanced analytics for customers, transactions, and performance from prominent analytics partners
Workflow automation
Optimization across platforms and devices, including desktop, mobile, and third-party apps
A fully customizable checkout experience with tools for discount triggers and VIP customers
24/7 support
Script Editor to run custom code
Cross-channel selling
Lower transaction fees
Full customization for product launches, pricing, promotions, etc.

Shopify Plus has a lot more to offer, including exclusive educational and support resources to ensure ecommerce store owners maximize the plan’s features, such as Shopify Plus Academy. This resource has a full library of learning tools and resources like videos and workshops that you can access at your convenience. Store owners also have Shopify Plus Experts for more in-depth support.

If you have high-volume sales during busy periods like the holidays, Shopify Plus is a must to support the transactions and avoid a site crash that frustrates customers. The plan can support up to 10,000 transactions per minute, allowing an influx of customers to complete purchases quickly and seamlessly.

Questions to Ask Before Upgrading

Here are some questions to ask before upgrading to Shopify Plus:

Are you making over $1 million in annual revenue? As mentioned, this is important to ensure you’re not overpaying for features you don’t yet need.

Are you bogged down by mundane tasks? Growing companies are demanding, and you may struggle to manage the mundane tasks like order fulfillment and processing. Shopify Plus has automation tools to relieve the burden and free your time to focus on growing a successful business.

Do you need more support for your ecommerce store? There’s a lot to manage with your ecommerce store, and if you don’t feel like you can learn it all on your own, Shopify Plus offers expert guidance. You have the Shopify Plus Experts, the Shopify Plus Academy, and a dedicated Facebook community of similar sellers to learn from.

Are you expanding into the international market? International sales expand your market, but they also add to the workload. Shopify Plus makes this easy and simple with up to nine international storefronts that all operate from a centralized dashboard. You still have the flexibility to use different languages and currencies in each store, however.

Do you want to offer wholesale products? Like the international storefronts, Shopify Plus has an exclusive wholesale channel that you can set up and integrate with your existing storefront in a snap.

Do you need more staff accounts? At some point, you may need more staff accounts to manage your Shopify store. Advanced Shopify tops out at 15, however, which means you may need to upgrade to accommodate your whole team. Shopify Plus offers unlimited staff accounts with access control for each staff member.

Do you want to customize the checkout experience? The customizable checkout is one of Shopify Plus’s most desirable features. You can tailor the experience to your brand and change different aspects to improve the customer experience, such as offering different shipping methods or payment methods.

How to Upgrade to Shopify Plus

If you think it’s time to move up to Shopify Plus, it’s a quick and painless process. You will need to request a quote from Shopify to know exactly what you’ll pay, however.

Once you upgrade, the platform promises a full migration in 90 days, but it may take even less. It’s also free to migrate, so you can rest assured that you won’t lose business while you prepare your operations for the new plan. Shopify takes care of the setup, testing, and hosting via the Launch Engineer.

Shopify Plus has other features that are helpful, such as upgrades, security features, hosting, patches, and more. All of your data will be transferred to Shopify Plus seamlessly, including your product details.

Upgrade to Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is a top-tier Shopify plan designed for scaling enterprise-level businesses. Upgrading is a big decision that you should consider, but if you’re bringing in $1 million annually in sales and finding the lower Shopify plans limited for your business needs, Shopify Plus may be the perfect choice.

Author Bio: Sean Richards
Sean Richards is the VP of Strategy & Partnerships for Vincit. Richards provided business development, React-Native Consulting, digital marketing strategy and partnership development at several reputable companies and marketing agencies in both California and Arizona. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Design Management from Arizona State University.

Artists Portfolio Website Design

August 21, 2022

Author: Sean H.

An art portfolio website is essential to making sure that you maximize all opportunities to gain and increase an audience for your artwork. Art portfolio websites connect your natural ability to your target clients and what they are looking for. An art portfolio website usually represents some or all of a carefully curated collection of art and example work, and it’s a great place to explore the critiques of the art pieces and movements. We loved having the opportunity to work with Valerie to create a style, look, feel and function for her artist website that really complemented and highlighted her diverse portfolio of styles and let her work really stand out.

About TIMMONS ART: Valerie Timmons is a Louisville-based artist whose genre-spanning work includes landscape, portraiture, still life, minimalism, and geometric abstraction. While her paintings may vary wildly in style and even mood, their unifying tonal element is a rich emotional resonance that finds as much beauty in the turbulence of a non-representational tempest of form and color as it does in the clean-lined serenity of a still life.

How Offline Visual Trends Impact Web Design

August 17, 2022

Author: Eleanor Hecks

Design has always been impacted by other trends, such as fashion, interior design and what’s popular with people at any given time. Some styles stand out more than others, but everything eventually circles back around to one art movement or another.

An older design style, such as minimalism, might get a fresh face but still be highly recognizable to those who’ve seen it before. Knowing what the trends are of today, as well as yesterday, gives you a wide range of options from which to choose for your next project.

Are Trends Important in Design?

Statista estimates there are around five billion internet users in the world. With so many cultures, ages and individuals browsing the world wide web, you can assume they all have differing tastes. Keeping up with the trends may not matter as much as coming up with a web design that functions well for the majority of people.

Understanding current trends, however, helps you gather ideas for what might work best for your audience. It shows your company understands the times and what users want. Being aware of offline visual trends can impact your web design in a variety of ways–here are a few ways to incorporate real world examples into your digital presence.

1. Be Alert

One of the best ways to add offline trends to your web designs is by paying attention to the world around you. Did a new ice cream shop go in around the corner? What colors and fonts did they use? What does the interior look like?

Pay attention to billboards, print promotions and even vehicle wraps and tee shirts employees wear. What’s unique about each look, and does it apply to your industry?

2. Include Trendy Colors

Interior design is known for embracing new color palettes every season. If you’re struggling to come up with the best combination of colors, turn to paint stores to find out what the top hues of the season are.

Interior design magazines can also offer a bit of inspiration. You can also combine more than one palette for a unique look. You’ll find that paint swatches often complement one another.

3. Turn to Nature

Natural hues and earthy tones never really go out of style. When you’re feeling stuck in your designs, head to the great outdoors and take in the vibrant sunsets, beautiful blooms on flowers and shades of shrubs.

You can always start with nature-inspired tones and then add a pop or two of color to grab attention. If you sell something that makes one think of the earth, even better. For example, a company selling organic coffee might use browns and a hint of green.

4. Grab a Weather Mood

Weather can set the tone for a mood. Icy days may remind one of warm memories by the fireplace with the family. A gloomy, cloud-filled, gray sky might put a somber tone on the day. Think about what the weather is doing and if it can apply to your design. Sunny yellows, bright blue skies and fluffy clouds brighten anyone’s mood.

What is the emotion you most want to invoke in your viewers? Can you accomplish that through weather? You could add in some images of weather moments to your design. Use a rainy day hero shot or share a beautiful sunrise.

5. Revisit Your Favorite Art Movement

Modern web design gathers a lot of inspiration from art movements of the past. Favorites such as minimalism show up over and over in today’s designs. Find your favorite style and apply it to your current designs. For example, if you love art deco, you might add some ornate flourishes to your website.

Does your industry lean more toward realism or the abstract? Can you add an abstract background to set your design apart from other sites in your industry? Become familiar with the different art movements, so you can apply them as it makes sense to your web designs. Head to a museum to gather even more inspiration.

6. Study Marketing Materials

People in advertising come up with unique takes on design. With 32.5 million small businesses in the United States alone, advertisers have to grab user attention and keep it. They have a way of thinking outside the box and coming up with fresh concepts.

When a postcard arrives in your mail, take the time to study the color choices, layout and any unique features. Watch television ads to get an idea for tone and mood. Look at every piece of advertising you see, break it down and try to learn from it. You may find you only apply an idea or two here and there, but you’ll add to your artist tool box.

Talk to Other Designers

Spend time chatting with designers more experienced than you. What do they use for inspiration? Taking a walk, visiting an art gallery or going to a trendy store can all serve as inspiration for your next design.

Author Bio:

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.

Contracting and Construction Website Design

August 12, 2022

Author: Sean H.

Vincent Abell Construction, a general contractor and construction expert in the Louisville Area, knew quality and innovation is key to bringing in new clients, and their website was no exception. We were excited to work with them to highlight some beautifully built construction projects through website photo galleries and to help inspire a user-friendly site that provided details about their skilled services. We know small business owners often don’t have a the time to build their own website, so we created an easy-to-edit and highly polished construction website that provides an efficient and engaging user experience for both customers seeking information and team members keeping the website up to date.

Full Service Salon Website Design

August 6, 2022

Author: Sean H.

Gentlemen’s Cuts needed an updated website for their Men’s Salon to market a range of men’s services, including haircuts, shaves, and more.

Web Designer Vs. Web Developer: Definition, Roles & Responsibilities And Education

July 7, 2022

Author: Rock David

There is a huge deal of difference between a web designer and a web developer. From the names themselves, we can get to know the distinguishing features of these two designations. A designer is responsible for designing the layout of the webpages, whereas a web developer is supposed to bring functionality to the design with the help of HTM, PHP, Python & Javascript.

Web Designers

It won’t be wrong to say, “A web designer is a planner”. A web designer plans element placement, visual hierarchy and the sections of a webpage. Besides that, he is the one who coordinates with web developers and explains to them —how the design is supposed to work.

Responsibilities

A web designer requires to frame a design strategy in the first place. That strategy includes —

How many sections should be there?
Which color and font style will suit the design?
What kind of content will suit my design?
How many graphics are needed?

Next up, he sends his strategy to the project manager for approval.
After approval, he is supposed to complete the task within the given timeframe (deadline)

Types

Web designers can be categorized into three types – UX designers, UI Designers, and Visual Designers. Usually, a website development company looks out for all these designers.

UX Designers

Such designers merely focus on the User experience. They check whether the design is human-centric (engaging, attractive per users’ point-of-view). They are responsible for making calculative and data-driven decisions.

UI Designers

They can be considered the conversion experts. They add usability to the web design and carry out various optimizations. Their end goal is to create a web design that instantly converts traffic into potential customers.

Visual Designers

They work in coordination with the UX and UI designers. Their principal responsibility is to create a sexy layout including catchy visual elements. They work with the designing softwares like Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Canva, and Invision. They may also use CMS like WordPress or any website building platform like Wix or elementor.

Skills Required

Every job profile requires the candidate to have a certain skill set. Here are some of the skills which every web development company looks for in a web designer:

Basic knowledge of HTML & CSS
Basic understanding of web design principles & web accessibility standards
Ability to create responsive & interactive design
Know-how of user journey mapping
Good understanding of wireframing & prototyping
Great knowledge of branding & color theory
Various designing tools & softwares

Web Developers

A web developer is accountable for building & maintaining the core structure of a website. This role is suitable for candidates who are adept enough to handle the technicalities of the website. Web developers must have advanced-level skills in doing complex coding. They can be considered executors. To know the role of a web developer, we can consider an example: “The web designer is an architect who creates an architectural design for the house, but a web developer is an engineer who brings the design into reality.”

Responsibilities:

They are responsible for creating & testing the websites for any errors.
They must collaborate with the graphics & the other designers.
A web developer is always available to troubleshoot the problems springing up on the website.
They maintain the website’s functionality. Also, they bring timely updates to the websites.

Types

Just like web designers are divided into different categories, web developers are divided into several types —Front-end, Back-end & Full-stack.

Front-End Web Developers

They are the people who do the coding for the website’s visuals. They require a good knowledge of HTML, CSS, Javascript etc. A good website development company usually requires the front-end web developer to have good knowledge about the content management system.

Back-End Web Developers

They code for bringing the functionality to the website or doing server-side development. For that, they usually use languages like – Java, Ruby, SQL, PHP, C# & NodeJS.

Full-Stack Developers

They are all-rounders and thus prove an asset to awebsite development company. They can code for both front-end and backend. They are much more than that as they can do the following as well:

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
Query Database Management

Skills Required

The web development professional needs to be adept in all these. If they have all of the following, they are eligible to get paid higher salaries:

Major coding & programming languages –HTML, CSS, Javascript & PHP

Testing
Debugging
Javascript Frameworks
Content Management System
Search Engine Optimization

Should I Become A Web Developer & Web Designer?

This is the most asked question. People are confused about their careers. They are finding it difficult whether they would do good in web designing or web development.

Advice – Follow Your Interest

If you love to deal with visual elements, apply for the web designer position in a website development company. If you love to code and see things reacting to your instruction, you will do wonders being a web developer.

Final Comments!

Web development companies are constantly looking to hire designers and developers in their companies. They are ready to pay even the highest salaries in such a scenario. So if money-making is your primary goal, it would be best to step into this field.

Author Bio: Rock David is a professional content writer employed in Kinex Media, Canada’s highly renowned web designing & digital marketing agency. Being an experienced and highly reputed content writer, copywriter and SEO writer, he is committed to produce the best stuff curated after carrying out a strong research.

How to Assemble a Web Design Team in 5 Steps

July 6, 2022

Author: Romy Toma-Catauta

Assembling a great web design team is all about understanding your target audience and creating a clear image of the ultimate goal.

Preparation is key in creating the perfect team for your web design process. Have a solid prospectus with timelines and budgets ready to go to let other designers know that you are serious and have an actual goal in mind. But, a prospectus is just the beginning. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how you can assemble the best team quickly and easily.

1. Prepare a prospectus

Assembling a team requires a plan. While the plan is subject to change, planning is still essential. What do you prepare in a prospectus? Think of a project prospectus as an executive summary of your app.

Your prospectus should include your app’s central idea, the platforms you plan to leverage, and the marketplaces you’d like to use. This basic outline will help you figure out how many developers you’ll need and what role each will play.

2. Iron out your market research

Before delving into the wild world of hiring freelance app designers, you’ll want to make sure you give your marketing plan a fresh coat of polish. Your marketing plan acts as a guide for your web design process, specifically the UX design you want your app to have.

Having a clear go-to-market strategy will help you find the right fit in terms of designers and project managers. And, those you hire will be more able to help you achieve your vision.

3. Determine the size of the project

Before you look for talent: determine the scope. How deep or shallow will the features be? How many features will there be? While you don’t necessarily need concrete answers, you will need a general idea of your project’s size.

4. Search remote freelancer talent pools

Vetting, interviewing, and onboarding talent can be quite an ordeal. It can eat up months and months of your precious time. Hiring correctly is a subtle art, one that takes years of experience to master. Don’t fret though there are hundreds of apps and platforms that can help you find qualified designers.

Remote work has also been shown to increase work satisfaction while gaining increased productivity. Whichever method you choose to use, make sure that you keep their personalities in mind so that they work well together. Assembling a great team for your app is about preparing a comprehensive prospectus and staying open to the possibilities of freelance talent.

5. Compare prices, pros, and cons

A great place to start your search is the various freelance employment boards that feature great talent with flexible contracts. These talented freelance designers are available around the world and have just the skills that you need to complete your dream project.

However, that means that you will have to be able to spot the right web designers for you on separate boards. Comparing skills and prices is key in getting a good deal of meaningful employment that will change your financial future.

Conclusion

Developers do not want to join a team where it’s all fluff and no filler. Market research is an integral part of creating an in-depth prospectus that will entice great developers and managers. Market research can be accomplished by studying the app market and identifying which strategies work and which ones are profitable. This is also the key time to identify a target audience in as much detail as you can.

Create use cases that are varied and practical with scenarios that directly target the focused audience. A clearly-identified target provides clarity to prospective team members and managers who want to join your team and make your app a reality. The scope and size of the project will also matter as a determinant in the contract length of your proposal. When your prospectus is in order and your market research is completed then it will be off to find great designers.

Freelance designers are often open to extending their contracts and changing whatever happens during the design process. Hiring freelance web designers takes the burden off of you and the developer allows you to work it out without pressure. Freelance designers are also typically remote designers which can save you a lot of precious resources and time.

Veterinary Clinic Website Design

June 17, 2022

Author: Sean H.

Case Study: Enhancing Online Presence for a Veterinary Clinic

Introduction

In today’s digital age, even sectors like veterinary care require a strong online presence to reach and serve their clientele effectively. This case study examines the transformation of a veterinary clinic’s online platform, emphasizing the importance of user experience, accessibility, and trust-building in the pet care industry.

The Challenge

The veterinary clinic, although well-established in its local community, lacked a comprehensive online platform. They faced challenges in:

Reaching a younger demographic of pet owners who primarily search for services online.
Providing easy access to essential information such as services offered, appointment scheduling, and emergency care.
Building trust online, given that pet care is a highly sensitive and personal service.

The Solution

User-Friendly Design: A clean, intuitive website layout was developed, ensuring that visitors could easily navigate and find the information they were looking for.
Online Appointment Booking: An integrated system was set up, allowing pet owners to book, reschedule, or cancel appointments at their convenience.
Informative Content: Detailed sections on the services offered, preventive care tips, and profiles of the veterinary staff were added. This not only informed visitors but also helped in building trust.
Emergency Contact Integration: Recognizing the urgent nature of some pet ailments, a prominent emergency contact section was added to the homepage, ensuring that pet owners could quickly access help when needed.
Client Testimonials: To further build trust, a section dedicated to client testimonials and success stories was incorporated. Real-life experiences shared by pet owners added authenticity to the clinic’s services.
Mobile Responsiveness: Given the increasing number of users accessing websites via mobile devices, the site was optimized for mobile viewing, ensuring a seamless experience across all devices.

Results

we estimate that post-launch, the veterinary clinic should receive:

A 60% increase in online appointment bookings.
A 40% rise in website traffic, with a significant portion coming from mobile devices.
Enhanced engagement with the local community, with many pet owners citing the informative content as a valuable resource.
A notable increase in emergency calls, indicating that the emergency contact integration was effective.

Conclusion

The revamped website for the veterinary clinic not only enhanced its online visibility but also solidified its reputation as a trusted pet care provider in the community. This case study underscores the importance of a well-structured, informative, and user-friendly website in the healthcare sector, even when it pertains to our furry friends. With the right digital tools and strategies, businesses can effectively bridge the gap between online and offline worlds, ensuring they cater to their clientele’s evolving needs.

How the Live Stream Industry Impacted Web Design (for the Better)

May 16, 2022

Author: Eleanor Hecks

Video content has significantly grown in popularity within the last few years. One of the primary reasons is that video technology has rapidly developed. In fact, video content has become so popular that research by Statista shows video viewership will increase to 248.9 million U.S. viewers in 2022.

However, out of all the video content available online, one of them has had the biggest impact — live streaming videos.

These days, more people are watching live streams. In 2021, live streaming estimated 548.7 billion hours of watch time. That impressively makes it one of the most popular forms of online content.

Because people enjoy live streaming content daily, it’s clear that the streaming industry will keep expanding. In fact, the live-streaming market reached $70 billion in 2021, and it continues to grow.

While live streaming has impacted the world, web design is one area that will have a mark.

How Live Streaming Impacted Web Design

In the live stream industry, there are several reasons why it has become so popular. One of them is that streamers can engage with thousands of viewers across the globe in real-time. During a live stream, creators get to communicate with people via live chat — making their streams highly interactive and intriguing to watch.

Additionally, live streaming is cost-efficient. Unlike broadcasting on TV, live streams are entirely free to run on the internet. Plus, they don’t require as much of an expense for production. With lots of savings and the ability to monetize live streaming, this increasingly attracts streamers and has helped many businesses worldwide.

Moreover, it has allowed people to stay connected while the lockdown orders proceeded during the pandemic.

However, streamers are starting to realize the opportunities that live streaming brings when it comes to monetization.

Creators Are Designing Their Own Live-Stream Platforms

Streamers rely heavily on some of the most popular live-streaming platforms, like YouTube, Facebook and Twitch. These networks allow live streamers to be successful with the billions of viewers that use these sites.

However, public networks have limitations — restricting monetization, enforcing strict content guidelines and limiting channel discoverability with the algorithms.

Now live-stream creators look for a place where they have complete control over their content. That’s where web design comes into play because more streamers require their own live-streaming websites. And they need special features to create a successful live-stream site.

Between the popularity of live-streaming and the realization of creating their own platform, web design will have a crucial role in the industry. With more live-stream creators turning to their own platform, they get to:

Have creative freedom.

Control their income.

Reach more people with SEO (search engine optimization).

Increase their brand awareness.

Essentially, it empowers you to take control of your live streaming business. That’s why more designers are creating websites for people to achieve their own success. But for you to reap the benefits of your own digital space, you have to incorporate certain web design elements.

Web Design Features Needed in a Live-Stream Website

Web design can help you establish your brand as an influencer or live–streamer. You’ll look more legitimate and professional to your fans, helping you create more opportunities.

However, web design is critical when creating a website. A good live-stream web design uses the right colors, fonts, words, images and graphics to appeal to users.

Here are some elements to consider incorporating when designing your live-stream website.

1. Create an Online Store

You generate as much revenue as you desire with your own website — more than what’s available on social platforms. If you plan on selling items during your live streams, you’ll need to host an online store, so people have a place to buy merchandise.

When designing your e-commerce store, try to keep it simple. The more pop-ups, banner ads and colors you add, the more it takes away the point of closing a sale. Your design should be clean, clear and simple so users can easily find what they want.

2. SEO-Friendly Website

When developing new web pages, you need to ensure you optimize your site with clean, SEO-friendly code. Incorporating SEO into your site allows your streaming brand to appear in Google’s search results. As a result, you show all of your brand’s entire offerings.

Take time creating your site’s code to increase your return on investment. SEO-friendly coding will guide search engine spiders and provide them with a clear picture of your website’s content.

Furthermore, it helps to design a blog page to drive traffic to your website. If you create a blog section, you can target your audience with keywords and answer your user’s with the most common questions.

3. Drive Brand Awareness

A professional-looking website can attract more fans to your live-stream platform. To achieve better results, though, you need good branding. Branding awareness is crucial since it provides credibility in a saturated market and can set you apart from other live-streamers.

To design a brand successfully, you’ll first need to create a brand strategy that defines who you are in your business. Then, you can start incorporating your branding into your live-stream website.

For instance, colors are an essential part of branding. They can stimulate different emotions and associate with other characteristics.

When choosing the right color palette, consider its effects on the human mind. Doing so will help you determine which ones are the right fit for your brand. Once you pick the right colors, you’ll be able to create an attractive logo design and ensure your brand is memorable.

4. Create an Interactive and User-Friendly Experience

Finally, your website will need a user-friendly design. Users expect a lot these days when they interact with websites. Therefore, you need to create a live-streaming website that’s interactive and easy to use.

Some of the important features you’ll need to pay careful attention to when designing your streaming site will include:

User registration: Ensure you set up the proper sign-up forms, so users have access to your live streaming content. You can provide various formats for users to log in, including email, Facebook account and a mobile number.

Video search: Users will need a place where they can find your previously uploaded content. Consider categorizing your videos by topic, date, video length, genre, most-watched, etc.

Video player: For better user experience, provide the options of sharing and embedding videos. Offer related videos, playlist configuration, download buttons and video quality selectors for enhancements.

Payment Integration: If you plan on creating a subscription model for your live stream business, ensure you support online payments using third-party integrations.

Kickstart the Design of Your Live-Stream Website

It’s no wonder more streamers are turning to their own platforms. They get freedom and creativity doing it.

However, designing a new website considers usability, attractiveness and optimization. When incorporating live-stream into your web design, consider following the tips above to ensure you enhance the overall experience for your users.

How to Boost Your Sales with a Smart Web Design

May 9, 2022

Author: Sophia Young

There’s no question about it. Websites are a must for businesses who want to reach out to their target audience. With almost every modern business having an online presence, it may be more difficult to set yourself apart from the competition and lead your target audience to your website, which makes it even more important to have a smart web design. You spent so much effort and resources to drive traffic to your site, so don’t let your website visitors cut their session short just because of a slow and outdated web design!

3 Main Benefits Smart Web Design

First impression

For most users, your website will be their first introduction to your business. They can already have an impression of your company from the first few seconds on your website, so make sure to put your best foot forward with a smart web design. Dysfunctional or slow websites can turn off potential customers, while a smart web design can increase engagement, drive leads, and boost sales.

Build credibility

A smart web design will not only help you create a good first impression, but having a well-functioning website that looks good and is easy to navigate adds to your company’s legitimacy. If your site is difficult to load with outdated design, clients might be hesitant to trust your business with their hard-earned money.

Better conversion

An improved web design will lead to better engagement with your clients and, eventually, successful sales for your products or services. The key here is to make the visit easy end-to-end: from navigating the page to adding to the cart and the entire checkout flow. Achieving this will help you turn a visitor into an actual customer.

Smart Web Design Tips to Help Boost Your Sales

Don’t make customers wait; improve your page loading speed.

Don’t keep potential customers waiting just to see what your website looks like. You may have a great, aesthetically pleasing website, but your target audience may not have the patience or time to wait too long to see it; they could even switch to your competitor’s site instead. To make sure your customers don’t have to wait too long, ensure that the photos on your website are minimized or compressed while still maintaining good quality. Additionally, you can consider minimizing third-party plug-ins or even moving your website to a better host. In today’s fast-paced world, you need not only a good-looking website but also one that is functional and fast.

Make your website look good and function well on all types of devices.

Your web design must load fast and look good on all types of devices, from desktops to tablets to mobile phones. It’s always good to remember that most people do make purchases from their phones, but it’s also important to continue to optimize your website for various devices because a one-size-fits-all approach is already outdated, including for web design.

Embrace the white space and avoid a too-busy web design.

While it can be so tempting to jam-pack information and elements in your web design just to communicate everything to your customer, it can backfire. Try to embrace white space to create more balance in your web design. It can also help your website visitors navigate the site better and direct them to the elements that you really want to highlight, like a featured product or call-to-action (CTA).

Easier navigation and clear CTAs can improve the customer experience and increase conversions.

To make their visit even easier, consider implementing sticky navigation for users. This way, your navigation bar and perhaps even your main CTA are always available to the user while scrolling through a page on your website. Utilizing contrasting colors to make your navigation bar easier to spot and click can also make a big difference in your visitor’s website experience.

When adding CTAs, it’s important to know where your client is on your page and in their customer journey. Additionally, you should also try to create urgency and make CTAs brief.

Feedback from actual users can add confidence in your products.

Include client reviews of your products or services. While you might be the one that knows your product in and out, feedback from actual customers can help potential ones make the purchase. This can apply not only to your web design but also to your marketing strategies like email marketing to target those with abandoned carts or through social media efforts.

Because technology trends are ever-changing, you should also keep up by continuously improving your web design. Just because it works well now, it may not be what you need in the future when you want to scale your business. It’s important to religiously measure customer experience and maybe invest in ways to make your web design better for customers. Ideally, your website should also have strong cyber security and sustainability measures in place, creating a truly smart web design.