A well-designed e-commerce website makes all the difference in the way your customers will interact with your brand. If your site looks nice, functions properly, and leads them around nicely, customers will most likely stay longer and make a purchase. Research proves that a whopping 88% of online shoppers would not return to a site after a bad experience; good UI and UX design matters.
Here are a few simple tips that will help enhance the look and feel and usability of your e-commerce website, thus keeping customers happy and coming back for more.
- Make Your Navigation Easy and Intuitive: Customers will quickly leave your site if they can’t find what they need in just a few clicks. A clear, easily navigable menu is important so that people find it easy to navigate around the products you offer.
For instance, we helped an e-commerce brand reduce its bounce rates by 15% when it reorganised its navigation menu into simple, logical categories with dropdowns up front and a search bar. Add a predictive search if you have a lot of stock items. Research shows that people who use site search are twice as likely to convert, so a good search function can substantially raise your revenue.
- Optimise for Mobile Devices: More than half of online purchases now come from mobile devices, making a responsive mobile-friendly site one of those must-haves. A mobile-responsive site automatically resizes itself to fit any screen, making it easy for customers to browse on phones and tablets. For instance, we updated one of our client’s mobile sites and witnessed a 20% increase in conversions from mobile users. You can test your site’s mobile friendliness with various tools available in the market, which can show areas that need improvement.
- Page Load Time: Improve page load times. A slow website is an absolute deal killer for any online shopper. As a matter of fact, Google claims that delays of just a few seconds can increase bounce rates by over 30%. The customers who browse for products will very soon get frustrated if the pages take too long to load. Compressing images, enabling caching, and using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) are some of the ways to help your site load more quickly. When we helped a client optimise for page speed, they saw a 15% decrease in bounce rate even though it was such a reasonably simple optimisation.
- Include high-quality product images and videos: Images are paramount to e-commerce. Quality, clear, and close-up images—or even better videos—can give consumers more conviction in their selection of a particular product. A study by eMarketer found that 83% of online shoppers said product images were the most influential factor in their buying decisions. Be sure to optimise image sizes so they don’t slow down your site. Consider lazy loading, where images only load as the customer scrolls, to keep your site’s performance smooth.
- Make the Checkout Process Simple: The checkout process should be as quick and easy as possible. The major reasons for shopping cart abandonment are usually too-long checkouts, with close to 70% of all shoppers abandoning their purchase. Streamline checkout: reduce the number of steps, allow for guest checkout, limit form fields, etc., so they can have faster checkout. Multiple payment options and secure payment icons set a customer’s mind at ease. One of our customers who managed to iron out their checkout saw a 20% drop in the abandonment rate of shopping carts.
- Employ powerful calls to action: The CTAs must be seen. Examples include “Add to Basket” or “Buy Now,” encouraging consumers to take action. Place them in positions that naturally draw one’s attention and make them noticeable using contrasting colours. According to the study provided by HubSpot, personalisation of CTAs can increase conversions by over 200%.
Avoid using generic words for calls-to-action, such as “Click Here,” and use specific action words instead. Testing different placements and styles will often show you what works best for your audience.
- Leave Plenty of White Space: White space is the space between elements on a page. It can make your site feel uncluttered and easy to read. Because of a cleaner layout, important elements in product descriptions and CTAs stand out way more easily. We had a client for whom adding white space made the site unclog and enabled the customer to retain the page for a longer period and surf through. Elements of breathing can also help a lot in readability and keeping the customer satisfied.
- Add Customer Reviews and Ratings: Customer reviews help in building trust and also let the buyer know what they are buying. Meanwhile, about 92% of consumers read online reviews before making their decisions; therefore, having a review section on product pages can become convincing. Giving the customer the capability to filter the reviews by rating can facilitate it even more in finding feedback relevant to their experience. Adding reviews for a client led to higher engagement with product pages since potential buyers became way more confident in the choices they were making.
- Deliver personalised product recommendations: The personal touch to product recommendations will come from the customer’s browsing or buying history. Brilliance cited that personalised product recommendations can account for over 30% of an e-commerce site’s revenue. One of our clients whom we helped increased its average order value by 12% simply by adding sections like “Customers also bought” or “Recommended for you”, since shoppers were more likely to find other products they liked.
- Make Customer Support Easy to Find: A good user experience means it should be easy for customers to find support at any time. Adding functionalities like live chat, an FAQ section, or a contact form will help them find answers as quickly as possible. By allowing and placing live chats on a client’s site, customer satisfaction went up a lot since the customers loved the ease of getting instant help. Keeping the support options out front keeping a floating chat button or a contact link so users know they can get assistance if they require it.
Wrapping Up
As mentioned, it all boils down to making shopping an easy and enjoyable experience for your customers. At its very core, having a site to make repeat business is all about easing up navigation, speeding up loading time, using quality visuals, and shortening checkout.
At e:command, we have experience in enhancing e-commerce business websites with efficient UI/UX design. We have seen for ourselves how such adjustments can increase conversions, improve customer loyalty, and provide an overall superior shopping experience. If you are ready to leap with your e-commerce website, contact e:command today. We will work in tandem with you to create a website that looks amazing, functions even better, and makes shopping easy for your customers. After all, investing in a high-quality user experience is not to drive sales; rather, it’s about creating a loyal community of people who like coming back for more. So, start using some of the tips today and watch your site change into a place where customers love shopping.
