The task of each online store is sales. And how will UX design practices help ecommerce websites in this?
The best UX design practices for ecommerce are not only the correct structure of the site, it is an opportunity to make the site simple and convenient, which, thanks to the usability and visual beauty of the UI, will be able to allow users to fulfill their goals in just a few clicks.
Today I will share with you my experience in UX design, and I am sure that these 10 principles that I have prepared will help you improve the sales on your ecommerce website.
What is e-commerce?
To begin with, let's remember in a few words what E-Commerce is a solution that helps to buy goods/services on the Internet.
The main, but far from the only, advantage of e-commerce is the absence of geographical restrictions. Cooperation with logistic companies will help to reach the audience on a global scale. This is how the giants of online commerce act, such as AliExpress, Alibaba, eBay, Amazon, Zappos, iTunes.
How do UX design practices work for e-commerce?
First of all, remember that User Experience (UX) is used not only for websites but also for products or software.
User experience for an ecommerce website is a concept related to the impressions and emotions received by the customers as a result of purchasing a product from that online store.
In fact, UX design practices for ecommerce are related to how well the website meets the needs of its customers.
Why are UX design practices so important?
A good User experience brings more money to the business and sales grow: therefore, if a happy user is happy, the business owner is also happy.
And also, UX brings more traffic to the online store which is very important since it is directly related to the user experience (user interaction with the site) and sales increase.
Our goal is to help you improve the user's interaction with the online store and also optimize the experience to increase your sales and make more money. Let’s go.
10 best practices of UX design for improving user interaction in an e-commerce website
Having understood how users move around your site or web application, we can go and get acquainted with the basic principles of UX design for e-commerce, and I will give you some examples of well-designed e-commerce websites with the best UX as well to help you determine what is exactly influencing on your customer experiences.
1. Clearly position your brand
The first thing that is most important for e-commerce is the correct positioning of the brand. Every detail of your online store should correspond to the concept of your brand, and at the same time, the site should be user-oriented. This is influenced by many aspects of UI/UX design, from choosing the right colors or typography to creating a convenient way to let customers navigate through your site.
The official Samsung online store is a model of excellent positioning in the market, where everything is done and resembles the ideology that was laid down at the very beginning.
2. Develop an intuitive navigation
Intuitive and/or convenient navigation is what helps users move through all stages of the sales funnel. Currently, because there are numerous sites that already bring millions and billions of sales, do not hesitate that you can just copy their ready-made UX patterns and make them in accordance with your brand book by slightly redesigning and customizing.
I will give you a great example-Shopify. On this website, each UX practice is designed very carefully to help customers make their purchases as conveniently as possible.
3. Provide search and filter options
In the best UX design practices, you need to make sure that the client can immediately recognize the sections, products, where, and even how to search for them by designing suitable sort and filter options.
Based on this, the advice was born that the search field should be accessible from anywhere and clearly visible on your site/application. If you have a popular online store that has dozens or hundreds of new products every day, then you need to provide a convenient filter to enable your customers to navigate your assortment even faster and with greater accuracy.
Nike mobile app is an excellent example that uses an augmented reality technology, to help customers visually select their preferred shoes by simply pointing the camera at their feet. Thanks to this technology, all buyers can quickly pick up their suitable shoes from a huge selection.
Walmart is also an excellent example of filtering which can be taken for implementation in your online store:
4. Add recommended products
As I have already said, a good and thoughtful UI/UX can help ecommerce websites to attract more visitors and help them enjoy the purchasing process. Therefore, adding the Recommended Products section to the site is very important.
For example, you can add a carousel with similar products on your product page, that will be similar to the product the customer is looking for. Fortunately, there is such a technical opportunity to show the most similar products in different ecommerce platforms such as Upsell and Cross-sell in WooCommerce.
You can also try to show the new products, based on the characteristics that the customer has filtered or searched on your website to encourage adding them to their cards.
For example, you can take a look at the eBay website:
5. Display proper Call to action buttons
CTA is something that motivates the user to do some action, whether it is a purchase or registration, and also helps to lead users to the next stage, namely, sales. But you do not need to use CTA excessively on the site, since this is not a very good idea and may, on the contrary, harm User Experience and decrease your sales.
To know, how you can use CTA elements so that they work effectively, Spotify is a great example where the main button is under a great slogan:
6. Display the main actions
To make your site even more convenient, you should give your users a quick opportunity to understand how your site works and what its main functions are.
To do this, many major brands, such as Adidas, make FAQ sections on their websites, where all possible questions about the company's products are described:
7. Develop trust among customers
At this point, let's first define what customer trust means in ecommerce? First of all, it is the protection of user personal data, and therefore, it’s very important to improve the security of your website, especially for transactions and payment gateways.
8. Add reviews on the product pages
Reviews are a very powerful opportunity to motivate potential customers to act as real buyers. In addition to the reviews about the product, users also want to know about the services they will receive after ordering your products.
By showing reviews on the product page, you are known as a reliable seller for new visitors. Since about 90% of users make purchases on e-commerce sites relying mainly on positive reviews, you should definitely include them on your product page.
A very important factor is also the presence of negative reviews. The main thing is to learn how to work with these reviews and respond to them in such a way that you remain in a positive light, and then this will help make your site more reliable in the eyes of consumers.
As an excellent example, I will present you with a product page with reviews from Target. They respond to negative reviews regularly, so they have an excellent rating rate for the quality of their products.
9. Make it easy to register and place an order
Providing registration forms and order forms considered one of the most important UX design practices for e-commerce websites because it can significantly improve the usability of your online store
Just look at how this aspect has been successfully implemented on the Amazon website:
10. Offer different payment methods
There are many advantages to this, and now we will briefly consider the list which will help your customers feel that:
- Purchase process is more convenient on your website
- Set up payment is more flexible in your online store
- The security of their purchase is guaranteed
- They can pay in different ways
When people know that they have different options, it gives them a better chance to choose their preferred payment method.
At the moment, there are more than 200 different ways to accept payments online, and you can find out which one is the best for you by conducting some market research. Alternatively, just use the payment channels that your target audience most often uses.
Here is an example of common payment methods:
- Credit cards,
- PayPal,
- Stripe
- Alipay.
Conclusion
Let's summarize the results and remember the best UX design practices for e-commerce:
Thanks to this article, you now understand how you can improve your User Experience for your online store. First, try to follow the tips that were suggested. Then try to constantly monitor all kinds of UX solutions (UX patterns) in E-Commerce sites, to be able to find new trends.
Finally, do not forget that you need to have qualified employees to implement all the practices. If your company does not have such qualified personnel, you can contact outsourcing companies that can help you in this way.
You can also write to us here and get a free consultation on your project.
