Ecommerce websites primarily thrive because of increasing traffic and conversion of that traffic flow into tangible business. Naturally, any ecommerce website cannot take the visitors for granted. They need to deliver an engaging interface that can turn visitor footfall and searches into real product sales. It is not possible without a user experience that the users really like. This is why ecommerce stores should give more priority and emphasis on good user experience (UX) than all other website niches.
Let us explain here some of the most useful tips for ecommerce store UX development.
Did you ever think the inability to find a product alone is responsible for driving out a vast majority of the churned audience that always goes away from one store to another? Well, inability to find the required products is akin to a total waste of browsing time and effort and so, has a big impact on undermining the user experience in an ecommerce development services. Moreover, each customer searches for products in his own way with his own set of parameters and considerations. This is why it is extremely important to deliver a thoroughly customer-centric search function for the customers. They should be able to find their products as effortlessly and as easily as possible.
Let us explain here some of the time-tested methods to create a customer-centric search function for ecommerce web stores.
In 2018 at least 50% of the searches on mobile devices have been conducted through voice commands. Voice search is now the most popular and user-friendly method to search contents across all web platforms. It cannot be any different for ecommerce stores. Voice search offering more ease and convenience makes the search function really effortless.
With the advent of virtual assistant applications like Siri or Alexa, there has been a renewed and invigorated emphasis on voice search. Just by speaking you can tell command your speaker to speak aloud news and contents. Similarly, just by speaking out to the voice-enabled search function in Google you can get the search engine results delivered aloud. Similar things may be incorporated by the voice search function of an ecommerce platform as well.
Most buyers these days depend upon images to decide on purchases rather than text. Human beings are born attached to visuals and naturally, they find it easier to make a buying decision with the product images rather than text. By incorporating image recognition the ecommerce store can help users search by images.
A website unfolds the message and its offerings gradually rather than by providing all information and functions at once. This gradual unfolding and accommodating user activities leading to purchases happen through navigation. Remaining at the home page the user may not decide to go for a product at all. But when being informed he can decide for the same. The browsing of products to checking out for purchases, all activities need the customer to navigate and move from one page to another. Now, how intuitively the web store allows the customers to navigate remains to be the most crucial.
Intuitive navigation is created through creative placement of buttons, content boxes, menu and CTA buttons to facilitate easier movement across pages and sections. Intuitive navigation also makes it obvious to tap on buttons or move to another page for decisive action. This actually saves time for the customers in browsing or making purchases. Ecommerce store must ensure more convenience, ease and flexibility in moving from one page to other than the real stores and this is only assured by intuitive navigation.
We all are familiar with the left-hand toolbar for filtering your product searches. It is common across all major ecommerce websites and ecommerce web applications. But over a span of past few years, there is enhanced the popularity of horizontal toolbar for filtering. If you are amazed why vertical toolbar is being replaced by horizontal ones across web stores, let us explain here some reasons.
For an ecommerce solution, it is most important to guide the customer to the checkout page through the twists and turns of the on-page activities and content engagement. To help businesses achieve this there is a time-tested technique called sales funnel. This technique is basically all about subtly persuading the customers to make the purchase. By incorporating sales funnel perfectly in your store user experience you can give an assured boost to your business conversion.
Let us explain here the key constituents of the sales funnel.
One of the most crucial aspects of user experience is the loading speed. It is particularly true for ecommerce stores. Leaving a store only due to slow page loading speed can really be detrimental for the business outcome. There is a famous statistics that a delay of one second in page loading can amount to a whopping 7% decrease in sales conversion. Other statistics say that around 40% of website visitors just prefer leaving a website if it takes more than 10 seconds to load. All these statistics only confirm that faster loading speed is absolutely important for steady business conversion.
Here are some effective ways to boost page loading speed for an ecommerce store.
Most ecommerce web stores remain utterly indecisive when deciding about the way products will load. There are quite a number of advanced and time-tested techniques for loading items as the customers continue to browse and search. Pagination is the age-old and common way to help customers browse more products. Then there us infinite scrolling to load products as the customer continues to scroll down. Lastly, there is a Load More button waiting at the end of browsing results to deliver more results.
Let us explain these 3 different ways of loading results one by one.
Pagination: This way to load search results in a web store is good for customers who are looking for something particular rather than browsing a lot of items at one go.
Infinite scrolling: As the customer scrolls down the search results continue to load offering a seamless and effortless product browsing experience.
Load more: Load More comes as a functional button at the end of a search result page. By tapping on it users can opt for loading some more search results while browsing products on a web store.
Finally, ecommerce stores to ensure a smooth and seamless shopping experience must make the signup and checkout process simple. The signup process is all about helping customers to settle while checkout is about offering a great buying experience with a lasting positive impression. Both the processes need to be simple and quick.
Here are some effective tips for facilitating a great signup and checkout process across ecommerce stores.
CTA
Do you want to ensure for your ecommerce store a great customer experience? Do you want to know what it takes to make an ecommerce store really engaging and growth-proponent? Let us help you achieve that. Just drop us a message and we will get back to you at the earliest.
WRITTEN BY: Jeegnasa Mudsa
Jeegnasa Mudsa is Executive Director at CMARIX Technolabs Pvt. Ltd. a leading eCommerce development company with 15+ years experience. A blend of true Engineer and…
FEW MORE POSTS BY Jeegnasa Mudsa: