Ecommerce footer is very often the very last thing that one would consider in a design.  What ends up happening is checking out your competitors site and mimicking their design with your own links.  So let me give you some best practices when it comes to designing your footer, 9 trust elements and 9 non-trust elements you can add with a note on design.

Remember back on Day 13 we created the Privacy Policy and Terms & Condition pages.  This is where you need to put them.  These pages explain what your website collects and what the users agree to when they visit your website.

This can be a phone number, address and link to your contact us form. People trust companies with a phone number and address.

Add Social media icons like Pintrest, Facebook or Instagram as a way for visitors to see what other channels that they connect with you.  

Tip: Have you ever thought of why you see this at the footer instead of the header?  

The reason why we put this in the footer is so that you will not lose out on the traffic immediately before someone actually looks at your product or service.  You work so hard to earn or pay for the traffic, you don’t want them to click off so quickly. 

Twitter feed and Facebook widget is great to have if you’re very active on social media.

Your mission and value statement summarized into 1 or 2 sentences and a link to your about us page for a full story.  Great reminder to the person to why they are visiting your website.

Awards and certifications that you have acquired for your industry is another form of social proof that can build trust.  How many times have you been to a doctors office and saw rows and rows of recognition and awards.  Makes you feel like you’re in good hands right?

How about associations and memberships?  If you’re an alumni or sponsor certain events that your customer can relate to or perhaps them themselves have a particular affiliation with, they’re more than likely want to do business with you.  This includes chambers of commerce and industry associations. Any connection you make with a customer would just build trust and people want to buy from people who they can associate with.

If you can get your customers to say how your product and services have benefited them, this will definitely add value.  Not only can you put this in your footer, but also your emails, specific product pages and on your cart page.  A testimony might the way to get a customer who is on the fence to make that purchase especially if your product is a large ticket item.  

Testimonies is more effective if you can, get a picture of the person giving the testimony and a link back to their website or social media profile.  How many times have you read a testimony and wonder if it was fake or not?  

Shopping cart abandonment rates vary by site, but are generally between 55% and 75%.  Of consumers who dropped out of a purchase, 17% mentioned “concerns about payment security” as a reason.   SSL Certificate is a great way to ensure that your payment security is secure to your visitors.

Check your analytics and list your most popular subcategories here.  Also include things like your login or my account.  Some people include all the categories and subcategories listed out.  I don’t have any data to tell me which works better, a full or partial navigation, so you’ll need to test this for yourself.

Email signup forms – maybe your customer couldn’t find anything they like today, but they like your brand, give them the option to optin.  Better yet, give them a lead magnet like a first time customer discount or a valuable download specific to your industry that they can use.

I don’t see this used that often in the footer but sometimes it makes sense.  By the time someone gets to the bottom of your page and if they can’t find what they are looking for, give them an option to search.  Sure they can scroll back up, but sometimes users will go for the “x” to close the tab instead of search.

Mini gallery is great if you have images or your artwork or portfolio. You can add a widget to show tiny thumbnails of your product or projects.

Add your Logo/brand as another chance to reinforce your brand.  Maybe an alternate logo with text or a different shade.

If you like to run events, having a calendar of events is another option to promote them.  

If your website contains content such as images, videos or other media, make sure to include to copyright the material.

Sitesmaps is an XML file that lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site) so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site.Your last ditch effort at your Call to action.  This can be to donate or subscribe to your podcast or whatever it might be.  By adding it to the footer, you can make sure that it will appear every where.

In short, a list of all your webpages used by search engines to index your website.

Your last ditch effort at your Call to action.  This can be to donate or subscribe to your podcast or whatever it might be.  By adding it to the footer, you can make sure that it will appear every where.

Two points I want to make to designing your footer.

Make sure your footer color contrasts from the rest of your website to give users a visual separation.  For example, if the background of your website is gray, you should have another color like blue or black.

The number of rows and columns you will have on your footer will depend on which elements you want to show on the footer.  For example, if you want to include your SSL certificate and a list of links like your privacy policy and terms and condition, you might only want one row and two columns.  If you decide to add an email signup form, you can add a 3rd column.  And if you decide to add more, you can add another row for your footer if you like.  First decide what elements you want before the design.