The global pandemic in 2020 hit brick-and-mortar stores hard, but it provided a significant boost to ecommerce. Stores that had once used their sites as only auxiliary sale locations turned their online homes into the hub of their brand; sellers and service providers without a virtual location quickly put together e-commerce sites.
At first, it was simply a matter of surviving, but the trend towards online businesses shows no sign of slowing down.
Now more than ever, brands need to focus on the customer experience (CX) to draw in consumers and make their web store stand out from the others.
Here are nine important things you can do to improve the design of your e-commerce site and boost CX across the board. They address different aspects of design: visual, back-end, and content.
Why start with color choice? It all comes down to what the people want and making sure you can give it to them.
66% of website visitors point to visually appealing web design as a major factor in their continued interest in a site. This isn’t too surprising; we like visually appealing things, and if something is pleasant to look at, it’s more likely that we will invest our time and attention there.
However, contrast this statistic with the experience that most of us have had at some point — the experience of visiting a website with such a poor color palette, either low contrast or too-sharp contrast, to the point that the content was difficult, if not downright impossible, to read.
Put yourself in the shoes of the visitor to your site. Have you chosen customer-friendly colors in a way that is not only aesthetically appealing, but which boosts the user experience? If not, this is the time to reassess your choices.
Cohesive branding across any website, social media account, and marketing materials is important for any brand, but in the world of e-commerce, it can make an even bigger impact.
Why? Because, as we discussed, there are more e-commerce websites out there now than ever before, and the arena continues to grow. This means a rash of hastily put-together sites, often without good brand identity design considerations. You want your visitor to know exactly where they are, with no case of mistaken identity.
That likely includes the aesthetic decisions you make in your design, from your colors and fonts to your inclusion of your brand logo on each page of the site. If you haven’t got one yet then ZillionDesigns’ free logo creator is the place to get one for your business. A well-branded site boosts recognition for your visitors, and in turn boosts loyalty to your brand. It also sets a standard for reliability and brand symmetry.
A clean, simple layout is a joy to behold — and simple web design tends to be a fan favorite. Simple = better is a formula that has been followed for years, to great effect.
Why is a clean layout a boost to CX? Simply put, it’s user-friendly. Allowing for plenty of negative space, making sure that individual elements have room to breathe, makes for an easier viewing experience. It cuts down on the elements that your visitor is trying to perceive all at the same time; give them one thing at a time to look at, and you’ll see your engagement go up.
Simple, clean design keeps your customer from becoming overwhelmed and helps them to focus on the point of their visit.
Load times are often cited as one of the major factors in what makes a successful website design. They’re also cited as something that will quickly lose traffic if the load time is too long.
Google’s analytics algorithm suggests that load times of three seconds or less are optimal for keeping your bounce rate low; in fact, the faster, the better. The fact is, web consumers have become more impatient as design and functionality have improved over the last ten years. We want to see the site, and we want to see it now.
This can be tricky with e-commerce websites, which often function as an online product roster or brochure. The more and larger photographs and images you have on your site, the balkier the load times will be.
To cut down on that time, optimize your images, and choose thumbnails for product photos when possible.
Whether you’re suggesting products or content related to the products, internal links are an excellent way to improve the user experience.
Is your customer choosing a product that works well with others, or one that requires other products to be used? Make sure that those are suggested links.
Is it a difficult product to use, or can the use be optimized with some expert tips? Include links to articles or videos that will start them off on the right foot.
Does their search history on the site show that they may be interested in other products or services? Suggest these to them.
Internal links are a way to make the search load easier on your customer, as well as improve their engagement with the site, boost sales, and ultimately make the customer experience better.
More and more consumers are turning to mobile devices to make purchases. The thousands and thousands of retail brand apps make it ever easier, and often, what we want to buy is just two taps away from showing up on our doorstep.
Consumers not only expect that a website will be designed for smartphones and access, but it also makes a hefty impact on their willingness to engage with that site. 74% of consumers are more likely to go back to a site if it is proven to be designed with responsiveness in mind.
Designing a mobile-friendly site or an app may add a little time, effort, and investment to your ecommerce website design, but with more than half of consumers who shop online choosing to do so via their smartphones, ignoring responsive design is too big a risk for an ecommerce brand to take.
We mentioned internal linking that reflects the interests of your consumer, but there’s another aspect to this: telling them about the most popular items right up front.
Many e-commerce website designs include a slider or links on the main page to pinpoint their best sellers. Not only is this a good idea for your consumer, but it also serves as an excellent way to upsell products and highlight new services.
Consider updating your “best seller” list frequently, according to actual sales, seasons, events, and so on.
Navigation is key for a successful website design. If you’ve ever gone to a site and found yourself unable to locate the information you wanted, you know how frustrating bad navigation can be!
It’s only natural that an easy, simple, obvious navigation system with a low learning curve would improve your CX. But it also improves the overall success of your website as a whole, especially in the world of e-commerce.
Of course, it isn’t just about the navigation bar or the menu, for an e-commerce web design. An integral part of e-commerce is smart search. Make sure that the search bar is easy to find, and incorporate a sensitive search engine that can give suggested keywords or phrases if no products are found.
A final key to improving your CX on your site is this: listen to the people!
Building an e-commerce brand requires adaptability and responsiveness, especially to feedback from your customers. To adapt to that feedback, though, you need to ensure that it’s easy to give.
Reward your visitors for engaging with your brand. It’s an excellent way to build brand loyalty — and it’s ideal for improving the customer experience on your e-commerce website.
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