If you are an eCommerce business owner or a web developer, you must have come across the term UX (User Experience). You might have even heard people saying that UX matters more than anything else when selling products online.
It is true because if your website has an excellent user experience, it will make customers want to browse through your entire catalog, not just the product they came for initially.
However, if your site has a bad user experience, this will drive customers away from your site and towards competitors’ sites. According to Red Signal, 72% of customers abandon carts because of poor UX.
In this article, we will discuss 5 free web designing tips that will help you enhance the user experience on your eCommerce website so that more visitors find what they need quickly, easily, and enjoyably while browsing through your catalog’s pages.
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UX is a Human-Centered Design
UX is a way to make your website more user-friendly and focused on the users’ needs and goals. You can start integrating UX principles into your eCommerce designs now, as long as you understand what makes for a great user experience. The best way to do so is to check some online resources that have UX design for eCommerce explained on their website.
When we use the term “user experience” (UX), we mean how people interact with an interface and how they feel about it. All too often, when we discuss websites or applications with clients, they focus on the aesthetics of their site without considering user experience from their customer’s perspectives. It is why so many great-looking sites fail. They need to consider how people actually use them in real life.
If a user cannot find your navigation, it can be assumed that they will leave your site. The most important thing to remember here is to make navigation simple and easy to use. Consistency across all pages is also necessary for usability. This is where custom website development comes into play, allowing for tailored navigation that matches your brand and user needs.
Consistent navigation is one of the most critical factors in maintaining good UX, especially in eCommerce sites with many options available on any page or screen. When users visit multiple pages within an eCommerce site, they should be able to easily find their way back using the same navigational elements throughout all sections of an online store’s UI.
It’s not enough to have one type of menu at the top. Each category needs its primary navigation bar if you want the optimal user experience within your store. So that customers always know where they are without being distracted by other links and buttons further down on each page or screen they visit while browsing through products or categories within an eCommerce website.
Understand User Psychology
Users are the lifeline of your eCommerce store. You need to understand their psychology and behavior patterns to provide them with a great user experience. The UX design must be intuitive, easy to use, and fast for users to access your website or app. If your users are unsatisfied with their experience on your site, they will move away from it and look for other options that provide better solutions.
Mobile phones have become an integral part of our lives now. According to BankMyCell, there are 6.648 billion mobile users worldwide, which means 83.32% of the global population owns a smartphone.
Hence it would be best if you designed user interfaces that are compatible with different devices such as smartphones, tablets or laptops/desktop computers, etc. So everyone can access your eCommerce store anywhere at any time without facing any problems related to compatibility issues between devices like slow loading speed and poor navigation system etc.
Fast and Smooth Loading Pages
Your website should load fast and smoothly. The user experience of every eCommerce site depends on the speed at which it loads. No one likes to wait for more than a few seconds, especially when they cannot do anything else while their browser is loading the page. According to Digital.com, 53% of online shoppers want eCommerce pages to load in 3 seconds or less.
To ensure that your eCommerce site loads quickly, you should use a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN stores copies of all your website’s images and other media files across multiple servers worldwide so people can access them faster from closer locations and reduce latency times.
Provide Related Product Suggestions
Your users are likely not looking to buy one product but maybe two or three. To help them find what they need, you can offer product suggestions based on their search history or similar searches performed by other users.
For example, if a user is looking for a new pair of running shoes and has previously searched for “sneakers” and “running shoes” on your website, show them suggestions for other athletic shoes that might interest them. It will keep them engaged with the site longer. More time spent on your website means more chances for sales.
Google’s Autocomplete feature uses automatic suggestions based on previous searches performed by other users. The function is designed to help people find what they’re looking for faster than ever, so why not utilize it?
Leverage Smart Search and Filters
In eCommerce, it’s vital that your users can find what they’re looking for quickly. That’s why it’s crucial to have a search bar that’s easy to find and always visible. While this should be standard practice in web design, there are still many sites where the search bar is small or hidden away on a sidebar menu. If you want people to use your site, make sure it’s easy.
Besides ensuring that the search box is always visible, consider its design. How long is the input field? Is it easy enough to see? Are there unnecessary words like ‘search’ or ‘go’ cluttering the space?
Finally, provide some filters. It helps customers find exactly what they need faster than scrolling through page after page results. For example, if someone has searched for ‘black sneakers’ but doesn’t have time to sift through every pair of black sneakers on sale today, then filter by size and price range so only qualifying products pop up.
Optimize Your Product Images
The next step to make your eCommerce website more engaging is to optimize product images. The type of image you use for a product can make or break the user experience, so it’s essential to consider which images will work best for your target audience and optimize for them.
The first thing to remember when optimizing your product images is to use high-quality images specific to the needs of each item sold. If you’re selling a pair of jeans, don’t just take any old pictures from Google Images. Instead, get creative and find a photograph that conveys what makes these jeans unique.
In addition, make sure all of your products are clearly visible and manageable when someone looks at them on their phone screen.
Conclusion
User experience (UX) design is a human-centered approach to the practical aspects of digital product development. It’s about enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure of interacting with websites. UX generally includes all aspects of a website, including its visual design, content, and functionality.
In conclusion, UX is one of the most critical aspects when designing your website. It’s not just about making sure that users can find their way around. It’s also about making them feel good about what they are doing. That last part is sometimes overlooked by many eCommerce entrepreneurs focused on getting customers in the door rather than keeping them there with a great user experience.
