A recent study conducted by Smart Insights found that 39% of customers will leave a website if it takes too long to load, while 38% will do the same if they find a website’s layout unattractive. It was also discovered that 59% of all users were accessing e-commerce websites from their mobile devices.
It goes without saying that having great products and high-quality blog content on your e-commerce website equates to only half of the recipe for success. The other half? Having an excellent user experience.
This means not only having an attractive website, but also one that is fast, easy to use and free of errors or annoying elements that could deter customers from hitting the checkout button.
Here are five ways for you to improve the user experience on your e-commerce website.
Improve Loading Speeds
The longer your pages, images, and menus take to load, the more time your customer will have to reconsider their decision. Ensure that you have the best hosting provider a performance-focused theme. Remove any unnecessary elements that are slowing your website down, such as super high-res images and bloated menus.
Incorporate Experience Design
Experience design (XD) is a separate concept to UI and UX. It refers to drawing on your customer’s needs, mindsets and feelings to make them commit to certain actions. This is not only done through the design elements and layout of your website but also the way your customers interact with you.
For example, your checkout page should make the customer feel safe enough to provide their personal details and make the payment by reassuring them that their information is secured. Here’s a more in-depth guide detailing experience design and why it’s important.
Use Responsive Design
As we learned earlier, more customers are browsing e-commerce websites from their mobile devices than on desktop. This makes not having a responsive design that accommodates smartphone and tablet users a bad idea. Your users should be able to easily navigate your store from any device.
Put Function Before Form
Modern consumers don’t want to be wooed by elaborately designed websites; they want convenience. That’s why you’d be lucky to find a successful e-commerce store that still uses parallax scrolling, moving navigation bars, autoplay videos, carousel images or any other intense, rather pointless design elements that do little more than deter customers.
Focus on providing easy access to all your products, with short but detailed descriptions, easy selection, and a stress-free checkout process. Each element you choose to incorporate should improve the user experience. If it stands in the way of functionality, it should probably be scrapped.
Work on Customer Service
Many customers will want to know more about your products before checking out. They should be able to easily reach you and receive a helpful response. This will go a long way in building trust among your audience and keeping customers happy.
Conclusion
When improving your user experience, browse your store from a shopper’s perspective. What do you like about it? More importantly, what don’t you like? This should help you better determine where work still needs to be done.