Skiing Business

Skiing Business
2011-09-13 10:43:11 | 4846 views SHARE

Between in-your-face intros and bright colors, a lack of site contrast and inappropriate use of Flash, many websites disregard all rules for a good design. But, according to experts, that turns people away and doesn’t close sales.

“It is now imperative for companies to have a presence on the Web,” says David-Michel Davies, the executive director of the Webby Awards, which annually honors the best sites on the Internet. “Having a website is an easy way to engage with your community and provide resources and information about your company.”

Davies says there are six components to a well-designed website: structure and navigation, content, visual design, interactivity, functionality, and overall experience. With the first five intact, hopefully the last falls rightfully into place.

Skiing Business caught up with Davies and other Web experts to find out how to revitalize a company’s Web presence.

1. Be interactive
Rather than a one-sided, business-pushing-information exchange, the Internet is a great place to connect with customers and keep them coming back, Davies says.

“The Web is a many-to-many relationship, not a one-to-many relationship, like TV,” he says.

Therefore, supporting these types of interactions, be it through message boards or a social media strategy, is what makes sites engaging.

Aaron Carpenter, The North Face’s marketing director, agrees, saying that interactivity has taken more and more precedence in The North Face’s online strategy.

“We are always watching the best trends in interactive design,” Carpenter says.

2. Light on the words, heavy on the pics
The North Face uses a strong athlete-based marketing strategy, and, because of that, using imagery, videos and multimedia are important to convey its message.

“Our athletes are going on some of the most exciting, interesting and thought-provoking expeditions in the world, making it difficult to choose just one photo to tell a story” Carpenter says. “It’s a great problem to have.”

To maximize reader appeal, Carpenter and his team test which photos work best with various text so that people feel a connection to the image.

“We don’t want to overwhelm our customers with too much information, but we also don’t want to leave critical information out of the story,” he says. “The image is what people see first, but the text should also be simple and effective.”

Those same principles apply to retailers too. Shops can post point-of-view athlete footage, employee trip photos, style photos or “how to” videos on topics their customers want. Keeping customers engaged means a better chance at making a sale.

3. Give customers what they want
Going hand-in-hand with the heavy use of visuals, for Carpenter, it takes just that to convey the essence of the outdoors. But The North Face takes it one step further by delivering precisely what its customers want.

Davies cites The North Face’s “Exploration” section that provides valuable content such as news and event information as a good example of catering to customers.

“It includes information about the variety of outdoor activities their customers are interested in and provides additional content for them to engage with when they visit the site,” Davies says.

Beth Krodel, co-owner of Insight Designs Web Solutions, which has created sites for a handful of outdoor-related companies and organizations, says businesses can dictate the content customers focus on.

For instance, she says shops and brands alike should showcase particular items. For some that means new gear, items on sale, products with limited availability or bestsellers. Customers want somewhere to look, she says, so the business should give it to them.

4. Navigating without a map
Before The North Face started designing its website, it met with dozens of sponsored athletes and customers who intended to use the site.

During the discussions, the company found out that customers wanted to see specific categories, like running, hiking and yoga, separated for easier access.

“That is why, with the new site, you’ll see our product, athlete and brand storytelling pages divided into these activities and categories that are easy to find and navigate,” Carpenter says.

Davies says that, since having a website is an easy way to connect with customers, it’s important to collect and pay attention to feedback.

“And with the availability of inexpensive, and sometimes free, tools for creating a website, it’s an easy endeavor with a huge payoff,” he says.

5. Sales should come easily
“In general I think sometimes people don’t make it clear how to buy product on their site,” Krodel says.

She suggests making the cart logo static on every page so customers know where to find it immediately. People who can’t find what they want will stop looking, and Davies echoes that.

“For e-commerce sites, companies should especially focus on the functionality and structure and navigation of the site,” Davies says.

Customers should be able to navigate the site quickly and intuitively. After all, they’re planning to spend money, so making it easy for them to navigate is key.

One obvious downside of shopping online is not being able to try products before buying, but a few design tweaks can mitigate that hurdle.

“It is important to include a variety of high-quality photos of the product to make up for that,” he says.