UX and Ecommerce: Ensuring a Positive Experience

person on a laptop

Every business wants to provide a top-notch user experience, drawing in repeat customers and attracting new ones through referral and reputation – since there are countless options, consumers will choose your e-commerce site if they have a superior UX. Below are a few of the steps that can get you to that high-quality status.

Research
Before beginning any UX design initiative, gather data about your users and what type of experience they want to have (since every industry is tailored to a specific set of demographics). Using that data, you can create user profiles, define the users’ objectives, and design and develop the environment that will allow those users to achieve their various goals.

Testing, testing, testing
Test out different layouts and versions of your pages, thus ensuring that you are improving the experience for your customers, consistently looking for improvements and ways to build the user experience into a positive one. When customers see that their experience matters to your business and company vision, they will reward you with loyalty and solidify revenue.

Labels Matter
Clearly labeling information and routes within your site will encourage your users to explore your site at will, without fear of clicking in the wrong direction and having to repeat the entire process. This breeds a sense of confidence and control, where they can prevent any errors. Studies have shown that this technique brings higher CTRs, as it makes your site easily navigable.

Easy Checkout
Ensuring a satisfying user experience is not complete without a clean and easy-to-use guest checkout. Most customers would be put off by a long and dull registration process – allowing consumers to check out as a guest on your site (instead of taking precious time to create an entire profile for a single purchase) reduces the likelihood of shopping cart abandonment. A simple and easy way to increase conversion!

Keep It Clean
This point seems self-explanatory – however, many e-commerce sites have yet to implement this strategy. Beautiful design and clear graphics appeal to a customer’s aesthetic preferences and ensure that there aren’t any needless distractions taking away from the user experience.

HD Quality
Colorful and detailed images bring your brand to life – photos that show the storytelling and in-depth details have proven to increase conversion, as users harvest information through the visual center of the brain, associating your business with the crisp images they see on your site.

Ultimately, the benefits to your organization include: more customers will continue their business with your site (a happy customer is more likely to return), will avoid your competitors, and will refer other potential consumers to you (the greater the user experience, the more recommendations will be sent your way).

User experience design is crucial for your e-commerce success and continued growth, and constant testing will ensure that the user experience continues to be of the highest quality.