Calm equals cash

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Medicalsupplydepot.com has seen an increase in visits in 2012 and Meir Tsinman credits the site's complete overhaul in January for making the site more welcoming to customers.

“We wanted an atypical website,” said Tsinman, president of the online provider. “A lot of websites for medical supplies look pretty much the same. We wanted to introduce a website that's really different and provides a better user experience.”

Gone are the bright green, orange and purple of the previous Medicalsupplydepot.com. In their place are shades of blue with a few pops of a more muted red.

“I think part of what made the other site noisy were the colors and variety of colors,” said Tsinman. “What we wanted to do with this site was take that down a few notches and make a much more relaxing atmosphere for the customer.”

Also gone: nearly 90% of the home page's previous elements, including customer testimonials and info boxes about best-selling products. What's left are basic search and purchasing functions that make the site easier to use.

Tsinman is on the right track, said Laura Hand, creative director at VGM Forbin. A simple site that points users in the right direction is better than one with so many options users don't know what to do.

“Instead of just making a website be flashy, we're trying think more strategically now,” said Hand.

Tsinman has updated his site several times since it went live in 2005, but he said the recent overhaul has made the biggest difference.

“Every month our traffic keeps growing,” said Tsinman. “Within a week or two after we went live, our bounce rate went down 15% or more.”