E-commerce is something that almost all business owners are after. The point of developing a website for your company is to bring in traffic and ultimately use it as a tool to bring in more business. Building a store into your website is one of the fastest growing requests in the Web development world. All kinds of companies ranging from handmade soap developers to kids self esteem programs are capitalizing on a user base that likes to do, find and get everything all in one place.

It’s simple enough to request a store be added as a part of your projects scope, but the real tricky part is setting it up in a way that will convert users and increase your sales. Some will argue that on-site stores aren’t the answer, and in 3 years they might not be, but for now this is where the industry is headed and you have to be hip to the trends.

So, how can it be the “ultimate e-commerce tool”? Well, it’s going to take a great deal of time to organize the thoughts of the designer and the rest of the development team. If you’re utilizing this kind of tool then it’s important that you have a few spots on your home page to entice users to visit the products area of your website. This could be in the form of an elegant button located in the top right area of your site or a featured product box in a sidebar or somewhere else so long as its above the fold.

You can use all kinds of other marketing tactics such as offering freebies if they purchase a product now. This is a great way to pull people in. If they can get something for free without having to do a whole lot of work than that can be big, especially if they like what they’re receiving. They’ll say good things about the company and direct other people to the site who might be interested. Word of mouth, in my opinion, is the most important piece of the small business puzzle. If you have a great website that has some interesting offers and you’re visitors are pleased, then wouldn’t you agree that Web usability could very well be the ultimate e-commerce tool?

Use Web usability to direct traffic towards the areas of your website that you want them to go. This is how you get customers to convert.

I’m sure most of us have come across a site at one time or another where you’ve clicked on a link that takes you to a 404 error page. The Web savvy people out there know what it means and aren’t put off by it, we simply click “back” and find another way to get to the information we were looking for. Now, think about this same situation from the perspective of someone who uses the Internet maybe once a month.

After ten minutes of searching for information they find what they need, but when they click the link in the search results it takes them to a scary looking “404 Not Found” page with big dark letters. The knee jerk reaction would be to click on the “back” button and find another website because, to an unskilled web user, they’ve reached a dead end…and that’s what you want to avoid.

When a visitor has reached a dead end that’s not good, so consider doing something that’s rising in popularity. Customize your 404 page if at all possible by setting up a new rule in your “.htaccess” file.

This is a great way to improve a sites usability. When you’re trying to come up with some design ideas for a 404 page check out some examples that Sitepoint has gathered. Most of them are entertaining but helpful at the same time.

Don’t be afraid to give your custom 404 pages some personality, we are human after all and having a page like this can improve the users experience and keep them on your site for a longer period of time.

What kind of emotion does your website convey? At a glance, what kind of feeling does it give you? If you take a quick look at your website and it makes you feel happy or excited, chances are everyone that comes to your website are experiencing the same thing.

Colors have a dramatic impact on your audience, so you have to make sure you’re making the right selections to fit the marketing goals and the audience.

Here are some real world examples:

• www.beachcombersnw.com: This site looks great. The first thing I think of is vacation, wind and relaxation. You get this feeling because it uses light blues and shades of tan which often symbolize sky and sand.
• www.yeahyeahoutloud.com: Every time I see this site I think about crayons and drawing. The topic of this website is Children’s Self Esteem, so it makes sense that you would have a vibrant design like this. It makes the experience fun, but educational at the same time.
• www.dwassoc.com: This site is focused towards business men and women and uses various shades of blue. The site has a professional feel, but the colors can create conflicting emotions such as cool and calm or depressing and sad.

You have to be careful when selecting colors for a Web site design. Your strategic color choices will change the way your audience translates the site.

Getting results with color is a key ingredient in a sites design not just for web usability, but for marketing purposes as well.