One of the many things COVID-19 appears to have changed in a lasting way is retailing. Because of the pressure to go digital to survive, companies are now investing more in and prioritizing their customer’s online experiences, and upgrading their e-commerce stores has proven to be a powerful way to do that.
Getting your customers to load up their carts and check out requires a well-designed online experience. We’ve put together some e-commerce website design tips to help you assess your current website as you plan a new one. Keep reading to learn about the areas we recommend focusing on to achieve the right design for your customers and business.
Navigation
When your website navigation works smoothly, your customers will be able to find what they’re looking for and understand how to purchase it with ease. Also, it will help them find the information and answers they need to make decisions, such as FAQs, contact information, and product information. While you may envision the homepage as the starting point for your customers, in reality, they will reach your website in a number of ways. It could be a blog post or a product page that gets them onto your site. Where do they go from there? How can you connect them to other products seamlessly? Consider various ways people will use and move through your website when you plan the navigation.
Information architecture
Achieving the smooth, intuitive navigation described above requires a well-planned information architecture, which will impact both UI and UX. A good IA will enable your team to select UI features that will give your customers a better shopping experience and boost your sales. User experience experts Nielsen Norman Group describe the two main components of IA as follows:
- Identification and definition of site content and functionality
- The underlying organization, structure, and nomenclature that define the relationships between a site’s content/functionality
It entails a number of activities, including information grouping, where your team will examine the user-centered relationships between pieces of content. Factoring in how much content your site will have and how complex it will be is essential while planning your IA. This will eventually help your content team align their efforts with the website objectives and create effective content that will help you get more traffic onto your page and more products into customers’ shopping carts.
Usability
It’s advisable to follow best e-commerce website design practices that cover load speed, how your website works on different browsers and devices, meta-tagging and alt tags, and SEO as you plan your website. As the number of websites increases with companies adapting to the pandemic, it’s important to set yourself apart and meet today’s user expectations, such as having a top-notch mobile experience or a fast-loading website with a low page weight. Learn about some of the best responsive website design testing tools and sites that can help you give your customers a good experience no matter how they’re accessing your site.
Visual experience
Now more than ever, the visual experience you offer your customers matters. They may not have the opportunity to visit your brick-and-mortar store, if you have one, to get a feel for your products. What they need is a high-quality visual experience that gives them adequate information and helps them see what they’re buying. You can think beyond basic photographs and consider videos or 3D renderings. Take a look at these e-commerce website design trends to see how different companies are meeting today’s challenges with creativity and engaging their customers.
Branding
A good e-commerce web development company will advise you on the importance of branding. If you had been selling out of a physical store until the pandemic hit and are now moving your customers to an online experience, branding can help them feel comfortable and adjust better. This means making sure aspects such as your logo, colors, and layout all reflect your brand identity. This is especially important if there is a growing number of websites selling products similar to yours.
Checkout process
For a beautifully-designed website to be an effective website, it needs to convert. After putting in the work of attracting visitors, you will want them to turn into customers. By optimizing your checkout process, you can cut down on issues such as shopping cart abandonment. Also, think of how you can improve your shopping cart design to give your customers a better experience. Talk a look at these dos and don’ts for inspiration.
As you consider various e-commerce optimization strategies, ask yourself these 5 questions:
- How many form fields do I really need? Keeping them to a minimum will prevent the process from feeling tedious and time-consuming, which is something that makes customers postpone checking out, often leading to cart abandonment. Also, remember to use simple, easy-to-grasp language.
- How secure is your checkout process? Customers are sharing important data with you anytime they purchase a product from you, so it’s crucial to prioritize security. Google explains that a secure checkout process with a valid SSL certificate is a must.
- How many payment options do you offer? Today’s customers expect a variety of payment options to suit their preferences. You may have thought of the basics like credit, debit, and PayPal, but there are several more such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Offering these can increase your sales.
- Can customers see a progress bar during the checkout process?When your checkout process is well-designed, it won’t feel tedious or long to your customers. Seeing how close they are to completing their order on a progress bar can encourage them to finish it now instead of putting it off for later, which may or may not happen.
- Can customers see what’s in their cart and how much it costs throughout the process? Offering customers a view of their cart can prevent them from leaving the checkout process to take another look at what they’re buying and how much they’re spending.
Placing the focus on your customer like this will help you create an e-commerce experience that works for them and your sales targets. At Chittlesoft, we offer custom website design solutions that meet today’s customer expectations and get you the results you’re looking for. Get in touch with us to learn more about our high-quality designs that work.
Many of our customers come to us in search of a good creative branding agency or digital design studio in Pune and then find all the design services they need under one roof. Learn how we use our design expertise to supplement your resources!
Key Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/
https://www.entrepreneur.com/
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.nngroup.com/
https://uxplanet.org/
https://www.uxlibrary.org/
