The user experience is what dictates the possibility of a sale. Without a good UX (user experience), visitors to the website are likely to leave– and fast. A good user experience keeps the visitor on the site longer, allowing them to find what they’re looking for and get the information they need to make a decision. Improving the UX through the following best practices can help businesses keep visitors on the site, Increasing the likelihood of a purchase.
Create the Right First Impression
The right first impression makes a huge difference. Homepages should be uncluttered and should look good. It should be possible to view the website on mobile devices as well as computers to help draw in more visitors. Now’s not the time to try something fancy, to add on videos that start playing automatically, or to try out various tips and tricks. The homepage should be somewhat minimalistic — it’s important to include visuals and content, but make sure the look is overall clean. Working with an eCommerce app development company offers businesses the opportunity to make sure the homepage looks great, well-designed, and encourages visitors to look around the site more.
Another benefit of a clean, somewhat minimal homepage design is the speed at which the website will load. Visitors aren’t going to wait for a long time to view the site, so a faster loading time is always preferred. Plus, search engines value websites that load faster. Subsequently, this means these websites will rank higher, bringing in a lot more visitors. Once the visitors are there, the business can sell and engage with the customers.
Organize Products into Categories
The organization is important for websites. It needs to be easy for customers to find what they’re looking for when they visit. Products should be separated into categories to keep them organized. Then, the navigation menu on the website can lead to product category pages. From there, customers can easily find the specific products they want to check out. It is important to make sure the categories make sense for the products and that it’s easy to tell what products might be in a specific category. There can be many categories, but keep it simple to avoid making too many, as that can get confusing, or customers may not want to search through them all to find a product.
Improve Product Pages and Encourage Sales
Like the homepage, product pages should be carefully designed. Each category page should showcase products in that category, then link to those products. From there, customers should be able to view the product images and more information about each product before they make a decision to purchase it. Like the homepage, keep the product pages clean and free from any distractions. Less is more, here, and a page that’s too cluttered can be emotionally confusing, causing visitors to leave before buying anything, which leads to a higher bounce rate.
Category and product pages are the perfect places to showcase discounts and specials for products. These are recommended, as they can help increase sales, but keep it simple and clean. Make sure it’s easy to spot when there’s a discount and how the discount can be used, but avoid making it overly flashy or confusing for visitors.
Make it Easy to Checkout
The visitor has gone through the website, checked out everything they can purchase, and decided what they want to buy. They’re almost there, but they need to check out. This is where a lot of business is lost. Checkout pages should be as simple as possible to use. Avoid forcing visitors to sign in to make a purchase, as many will prefer to check out as a guest. Offer a simple checkout process and plenty of options for how to buy so that customers can use their preferred method of payment. This is a great time to upsell to the customers, but make sure it doesn’t make the checkout more confusing or get in the way of checking out.
Website design should be done carefully to make sure it’s easy for visitors to navigate and that they can find what they’re looking for when they’re on the site. Use the UX tips here to make sure the design is ready for visitors and that they’re encouraged to say longer. The longer they stay on the site, the more likely it is they’ll make a purchase. Combined with an easy way to check out, updating the website can be a great way to boost sales.