What to know about web design & UX for e-commerce websites

What Is User Experience and why is it important?

 

UX is how a person feels when interfacing with a system. This includes a website, web application, desktop software and basically any form of human/device interaction.

UX is important because it tries to fulfill the user’s needs. It has an immediate impact on the relationships with customers, the conversion rate, and sales.

Without a positive user experience, your marketing tactics can be affected. Most of the buyers would pay more for a better customer experience.

 

 

Look and Feel

 

On the web, a website has exactly 50 milliseconds to create a first impression.

 

Create a great first impression

• Relevant content
• Clearly presented
• Stand out
• Emotionally appealing: Use the “Seven Deadly Sins” to Turn Visitors into Customers

 

Essential factors to take into account

Be clear about the purpose of the page and draw the attention you can on your value and how to bring the click on the Call to Action without bringing diversions, elements that would confuse or responsiveness issues that would prevent people from converting.

Values

• What are your strengths, why they should buy from you
• Make sure the headline clearly communicates your value proposition
• Be clear on what you are offering

Call to Action

• The buttons should tell exactly what you are expecting from the visitor
• Use a strong call to action (CTA) text that entices people to act
• The CTA buttons should be found in less than 2 seconds

Content

• Content is relevant, clear, concise, readable
• Use only high-quality product images
• Fast loading time

No diversion

• No diversions from the CTA
• Try to keep visitors in the buying funnel, not too much link to go to another website or to go another page
• Keep all info needed on the product page

No confusion

• Bring trust by showing all details about products / shipments / prices
• Consistency through the website
• Make it easy for potential customers to reach you and find info about you
• Is there anything that could be: confusing, unclear, alarming, frustrating, too much-perceived effort

Responsiveness

• Make sure that your site and landing pages perform well on all devices
• A website must be thinking differently about mobile users

 

Conversion Rate Optimization

 

Conversion rate optimization is finding out how to make visitors converting more.

The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website that complete a desired goal (sale in our case) out of the total number of visitors. The Conversion Rate Optimization is the process to increase that number.

The immediate goal of CRO is to sell to more people to make more money.

 

Discovery and Goals

 

Identify the goal of the page, evaluate and analyze your visitors.

 

Identify the goal of the page

1. What is the searcher trying to accomplish?

Measure your customer journey, not just your conversion path. Do they come back? Do they buy more stuff from you? Are they amplifying? Are they sharing the product?

2. Are there multiple intents behind this query, and which ones are most popular?

Don’t cheapen, mislead or bundle products without evidence it matches your customer needs. Educate before you convert and find ways to filter for not right customers.

3. What’s the business goal? What are we trying to accomplish?

Sometimes we will make more money by increasing the spend than getting more conversions.

 

Some essential questions

• How long does it take my pages to load, and will visitors get bored waiting? (One way to test page speed is through Google Page Speed Insights.)
• How easy is it to find information?
• Which button do I see first on my landing page?
• Do all the links work? (Test for broken links at W3C Link Checker.)
• Does the site work in different browsers? (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc.)
• Does my site look good on mobile devices?
• Do people feel safe on the website? Is the visitor know that his information is secure?

 

Use Analytics

• Customer behavior
• Shopping behavior
• Type of visitors
• Exit rate
• Bounce rate
• Browse rate
• Return visitor rates
• Time on site

 

Test and Report

 

Check if your users can understand what you do and how to use your website.

Don’t make the assumption that your visitors think like you. Study your customers to find the right design for them.

 

A/B Testing

A/B testing (also known as split testing or bucket testing) is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage against each other to determine which one performs better.

Two or more variants of a page are shown to users at random, and statistical analysis is used to determine which variation performs better for a given conversion goal.

Things to test with A/B testing:

• the headline
• your call to action (text used, shape/color/size and location)
• any graphic you use in direct correlation to your sales efforts
• the sales copy or product descriptions

The cons of A/B testing:

• Devoting time to testing
• Test one thing at a time
• Results can get distort by the customer splits or the time and duration of the test

 

Surveys and New users test

A website should be so simple, a drunk or old person could use it.

Requirements for testing:

• The test subject is a part of your target market
• They should have never seen your website

Conclusion

For any small e-commerce who wants to design or re-design their website, I would recommend to not make assumptions and to check the data that you have to your disposition. Be sure before starting that you know what your goal is and which feeling you want to bring in your customers. Any bad choice could bring confusion on your website and has a negative effect on the sales.