Another web design firm, Questus, polled 435 employed US residents over 18 and asked them what influenced their decision to buy from a website. What they found was their initial reaction to the site made a large impact. 43% agreed that a web site’s appearance will affect their decision-making on whether to trust or distrust the store and 25% strongly agreed with this. 25% of the respondents neither agreed nor disagreed.

“We find that Web sites have three seconds to make an impression,” said Jeff Rosenblum, co-founder and research and strategy director of Questus. “The actual usability is more important than aesthetics, but at the same time aesthetics are critical.”

37% of the respondents noted that navigation can make or break their decision to buy next to 32% who said that checkout process is important. A whopping 68% said price is a factor as well. Another factor was product descriptions and shipping options, 38% and 44% respectively.

So what are we to read from this? Well, design is a very important to a web site’s success. For e-commerce site’s just having your web site on the internet with the best prices is no longer acceptable, a design’s look and feel, navigating to products and service, shipping policies and the checkout process will all determine whether a customer feels comfortable enough to buy from you.