By Jim Clanin
When is the last time you purchased something online or on an ecommerce site? Did you download a book or music to your smartphone or tablet, or buy toiletries or other items on Amazon, or perhaps a gift for a friend on Etsy? Likely, you’ve done one of the above recently and are more than likely planning to buy more online in the immediate and near future. You probably don’t shop on sites that look boring, or have unappealing design. Your customers shop the same way you do!
If you have a brick and mortar store, or are selling items already and haven’t thought about selling them online, there are several template and open-source platforms that allow you to build a functional and cost-effective ecommerce site. But just because you can build an ecommerce site yourself, should you? Or should you hire a professional web designer to design your site? While we are biased at DoubleDome and geek out on web design, here are four reasons why you shouldn’t build your own template-based ecommerce site.
Decrease Your Brand – Your business has a brand, which is best described as how your customers and employees think and feel about your business. If your website is designed from a template, it can appear cheap and boring, making your brand appear cheap and boring. A template ecommerce website that 
reflects your brand poorly can decrease sales and decrease your brand value.
Look Like Everyone Else – Templates are used by a lot of businesses, and because they are so similar to other businesses sites, your site can appear unoriginal and just like hundreds of other websites out there, and in the same industry. Yes, good design alone will not increase or produce more sales on your site; however, customers and online shoppers do respond more positively to a great-looking and appealing site. Sites that look like everyone else’s can be seen as unoriginal and less appealing, driving visitors off your site.
Steep Learning Curve – So you can build your ecommerce site using a template and within a few hours. That’s great! But what about the sites’ features, functionality, and ease of navigation, specifically for your customers and industry? If your site doesn’t have the base features that your customers are used to seeing or are expecting, they will leave promptly and go to a different site. Most businesses don’t have the time to learn mistakes or industry hints and tricks because they are too busy running their business. While template ecommerce sites are easy and quick to build, they don’t offer the knowledge and personal expertise that an experienced web designer can.
Some Lack SEO Integration– Let’s say you do use a template ecommerce website. Your site is now live, which is great! How are you going to drive visitors and shoppers to it to get customers and sales? SEO, or search engine optimization, is a critical aspect to your businesses online success. Depending on the template you use, it may or may not be well-suited for search engines, and the template provider may or may not offer additional options to help with SEO. It is imperative that your site is well-suited for search engines like Google and Bing. If it’s not, your ecommerce sales can suffer.
Like you trust your car to your mechanic and your health to your doctor, you should trust your ecommerce store to a professional web designer. DoubleDome Digital Marketing understands ecommerce website design. We take the time to learn about your business and customers so we can provide you with the best design, functionality and optimization services to sell your products online.
