Did you visit a shop because of its super impressive architecture, uniqueness, and design? Most certainly you must have heard a friend recommending you one, right? How do you think that implies on your eCommerce store?
With eCommerce “How you sell” works equivalent with “what you sell” and that reminds us how essential it is to build an exclusive first impression on your customers and how important is your website designing aspects. The initial few seconds of impression determine whether a website visitor will transform into a customer or not? And what determines those moments of impression is whether you’ve obliged the Current trends in eCommerce.
1. Add convenient navigation, filtering, and search.
Whenever we are talking about eCommerce, convenient navigation stands by, alongside. And how can't we when Convenience is one of the primary reasons for people shopping online?
Today, a significant eCommerce UX design trend is creating websites that deliver ease of shopping on all steps and smoothly transition them towards the checkout process. The checkout can predominantly focus on user info or payment gateway.
All the components and web pages should be in sync to avoid any hassle or rush for the user. Menu- product page- cart- payment gateway. To acquire these steps right, design professionals execute user journey maps by testing several options and selecting after that.
- The brand logo should always be visible throughout the website.
- The search bar should be at a focal position, and users should be able to find a product quickly.
- The product section should not contain irrelevant content or unnecessary items to keep the user's attention undivided.
- Proper filters in the product catalog should be present for users.
2. Use landing pages for specific purposes.
This tip brings significant advantages on profit rates and doing more business.
There goes lots of complex detailing to get the live website right and a variety of information involved; thus, directing traffic from the web to the home page might reduce the options of profitability and conversions given that a lot of traffic deviates through the process.
Your website visitors might get overwhelmed with so much information and data they encounter while navigating through what they require. Using landing pages for specific purposes can concentrate their attention on particular components since landing pages focus on specific actions, services, or items. Landing pages can effectively reduce delays while the target is to take one specific action.
This is a fundamental issue in e-commerce websites when unwise design solutions bring poor user experience and financial losses.
3. Make it Mobile-responsive
Surveys depict around 79% of online purchases are made through smartphones in the last couple of quarters. If your eCommerce website is not optimized for smartphones, users might feel extreme discomfort while navigating through the website with the interface elements and texts appearing too small. This will eventually reduce a lot of traffic and potential conversions from locking in.
And in 2021, Mobile responsiveness is no more just a topic of discussion. Rather it's absolutely essential for your business to build a more extensive practical customer base.
4. Put emphasis on and maintain the visual hierarchy.
Maintaining the visual hierarchy is essential to keep your website organized, so the focus lies on the crucial segments like landing pages, information blocks on the top of the page. The hierarchy ensures the users understand what the web page is about. Such as-
- The search bar
- Navigation menu
- Main menu
- Footer
- Logo and the header name
- Specified area for the main content
Your website design sells! A straightforward yet comprehensive visual hierarchy helps find the website components easily. Selective CTAs follow an order and attract visual attention with colors and typography, triggering your sales rate and acquiring important user information.
Through visual hierarchy, a designer can skillfully control where the website visitor pays more attention and guide his flow to the primary segments of the website and reach the goal.
5. Don't Force People to Register (Have a Guest Option)
They say the key to marketing is not being aggressive about it.
Reportedly 1 out of 4 customers leave the website or abandon their carts due to forced registrations. Forcing your customers to register and acquire data is just a greedy marketer syndrome and increases unnecessary friction between you and your customers.
Guest Checkout is vital for those customers who do not want to sign up with their details right away. Your sign-up page should be effective when customers want to, and other cases should have the guest checkout option. Customers shall provide their name and email before any purchase. You are only required to generate a password and email them once they have completed the purchase.
6. Set Up a Prominent Sales and Specials Section
Studies globally have shown that almost half of the internet buyers would buy under discounted offers or if a sale or price drop is going on. And nearly 60% of them predominantly focus on finding the sales section.
Well, Remember we just spoke about how smooth and evident web page navigation is essential?
Nevertheless, this behavior tends to continue for quite a long, and eCommerce giants leverage this very well. They always ensure a particular discount or "sales" segment is the home page to attract customers and exert a feeling of urgency if not completed within a limited time. There's always some room open for experimenting and identifying what goes well for your brand with the discounts page.
While discount pages are excellent, do not confuse this by displaying default coupon codes boxes.
Your customer hit the discount button and saved a big deal from the purchase. While they're about to hit the payment button, there appears a blank coupon code box. So now, they believe they can save more bucks from the amount, and they sure do not want to miss it but google the coupon code.
The moment you direct your potential customer out of the website, the chances of them returning and completing the purchase is very rare.
On the contrary, you can fix it by asking your customer if they have any promo code links. And after hitting the link, a pop-up coupon code box will avail them of the discounted amount.
Final Thoughts?
While the ultimate goal is to sell, a good eCommerce UX is a robust conversion tool. Your optimized eCommerce UX can potentially generate more revenue than a generic website design. The key is to retain your customers and have them coming back for more to provide a delightful user experience.
And as always, good eCommerce UX in an already dynamic market will always be a competitive advantage.
