The Holidays are almost here and you’ve got a lot of product to push. Is your website ready? Only those who offer a great online user experience can truly answer yes. If you can’t confidently answer yes, you should be worried. What happens to eCommerce websites who don’t offer a great user experience?
In 2005, User Interface Engineering conducted a study to answer this question. They had consumers visit a website to make a purchase. Sounds simple but they found that,
only 30% of participants were able to successfully make a purchase. Why? Most of the participants couldn’t find where to check out and pay on the website. In a real life scenario, that would mean that a whopping 70% of customers who attempted to make a purchase, would have left empty-handed.
A website offering good user experience can make or break a business. So can you create the ideal customer experience on your website to maximize the number of customers who purchase your merchandise online? Here are three ways you can improve your website’s UX to drive customers to the golden “BUY” button.
1. Make your Website Customer-Centric
A good user experience starts with
understanding the customer. Effective UX design guides visitors exactly where they need to go. Get to know your target market and what they’re looking for in your brand. Request feedback from customers and conduct testing to gain insight into how to improve the UX of your website. Then base the design of your website on these needs. That means putting the most important concerns your audience has right on the homepage, where they can easily find it.
2. Follow Standard Design Practices
Customers’ previous online experience using different websites, games, and applications will impact the way they use your site. When designing your website, keep in mind standard design practices used on other websites that affect the behavior of users. This will improve usability for visitors and make a more effective design. For instance, a visitor will look for the icon of a shopping cart when ready to make a purchase because they’re familiar with that icon on other sites.
3. Lead the Way with Online Guidance Software
Understanding how and when to guide users on a website directs them to action. Interactive online engagement platforms guide users as they navigate a website or application, showing them where they need to go. Guidance programs typically use tip balloons or arrows that help push visitors through the website with ease. As a result, users will find the checkout process more intuitive, an immediate boost to your conversion rates.
Because of the enormous impact that user experience has on the success of eCommerce websites, businesses invest a great deal to make sure that their sites abide by UX principles. Use these tips to put customers at ease and re-create the pleasurable, leisurely window shopping experience we’ve all come to love.
