Semalt Advice On How To Improve The User Experience For An E-Commerce Site
We all know that the first wish of any e-shop owner is to reach the customer and gain traffic to the online store. However, the real success is to make your customers end their stay with purchase. Today we will deal with the user experience in an online store. Also, we will show you which actions to take and the right tool to use to increase your site conversion using its potential to the full.
Why is UX in an online store important and what does it affect?
When you run an e-shop, acting in the spirit of marketing orientation, the most important goal of the organization (apart from achieving and maximizing profit) is customer satisfaction. Nowadays, no one needs to be convinced that a dissatisfied customer shares a negative opinion at a dizzying pace and, unfortunately, it echoes. However, this can be prevented! Indeed, the user decides in a fraction of a second whether to stay on the website or look for products from competitors. Therefore, it is worth planning the activities of the e-store and its functionalities in a way that is satisfactory for the user. Below are the top 6 advantages of a well-planned UX in an online store. Below are the important tips to have a great UX in your online store.
1. Get to know the target group of your e-shop and its needs
UX means preparing a purchasing process that is as close as possible to the expectations of the target group. Try to put yourself on the client's side and list all the expectations that must be met. Enter the store and try to go through the entire purchase process one by one. Adapt the store's image and offer to the target group. It's also a good idea to take a look at the websites where you personally like to be. What do you like the most about them and why are they so encouraging to stay on? Analyze your favorite websites and think about how you can implement the most interesting solutions in your e-store.
2. Positive reception of the e-shop
Surely you've heard about the first impression. A newly met person evokes a specific bouquet of emotions in others. A similar situation arises during the first visit to a newly known online store. When a user visits your website, their first impressions count. They influence his / her further emotions and decisions about staying on the site or leaving immediately. Remember that the first page the customer enters may be a homepage, product category, or even a specific product card. The more subpages you create in the e-store, the more opportunities to search for your website grow, so you should prepare a specific plan on how to make a good first impression. What influences the positive reception and what is particularly worth paying attention to when working on the brand image using UX in an online store?
The first impression is influenced by many factors and, in fact, the consistency of the store verifies them. We will, of course, break everything down into smaller batches and we will look at each of them separately so that a person starting his / her adventure with UX in an online store has no doubts about the essence of specific factors. Before we go any further, if you are at the stage of designing your e-shop or your website is already working, answer the following questions honestly:
- Is the store visually attractive?
- Is the distribution of elements in the store convenient and transparent for the user?
- Is the graphic design of the store adapted to the current trends and is it not outdated?
- Is the color of the store appropriate to the industry?
- Does the store inspire trust?
- Does the subpage on which the user lands call for action?
- What makes your store stand out and do you communicate it clearly?
3. Customize the responsive version
The mobile-first principle says that it is best to start a website design by preparing a mobile website, then a desktop one. M-commerce is gaining more and more new followers every day. Currently, 69% of users make purchases using smartphones, and 80% use computers. During the day, Internet users use their smartphones to search for information about products. Additionally, when we decide to promote in social media, we will redirect buyers directly to the mobile website. Therefore, in order to effectively use all channels, it is today's must-have. Interestingly, the Google search engine also pays attention to the adaptation of the e-store to mobile devices and this has an impact on the positioning effects. The responsive version is therefore not only the current trend, but also a requirement to achieve high positions in organic search results. If you want your e-store to constantly develop, allocate enough time to prepare a responsive version of the store, so that it ensures safe and convenient shopping.
4. Website loading speed
A characteristic trait of today's e-consumer is impatience. No one likes to wait, and twenty-four-hour access to information forces Internet users to ask online stores to act here and now. So don't let the customer wait too long for your website to load. Research shows that nearly 50% of users give up visiting the website within 2 seconds! In addition, by offering quick access to information and answering their questions, you stay ahead of the competition by being ready for micro-moments. What should I do? Provide a page that loads in a flash! How do I do it?
You first need to use a powerful tool such as the Dedicated SEO Dashboard to test the load time of your online store. Indeed, the Dedicated SEO Dashboard is a very powerful SEO tool that allows you not only to know the loading time of your site, but also to know the problems that can be at the root of your site's slowness. Moreover, thanks to this tool, you will know exactly what you need to do to make your site load as fast as possible.
5. Provide intuitive e-shop navigation and call to action
The goal of the user who visits your website is to quickly and easily find the product he/she is looking for. The main menu plays a key role here. Currently, the most common brands use the so-called megamenu, which presents many product categories, thanks to which the user can see immediately what he/she is interested in and will not have to wander around the numerous tabs of your store. Megamenu is especially useful for a large assortment in the e-shop.
Make sure that the megamenu is transparent, does not overwhelm users, and helps to find the product. In this case, minimalism also wins. However, it should contain all subcategories so that it takes seconds to locate them on the page. Arrange them in the order of those most willingly searched by Internet users or alphabetically, so that finding a specific category is child's play. Sort the products properly. Nothing discourages the search more than product categories containing errors and random products. If a given assortment fits several categories, put it in each of them so that the user who decides to look at one selected category does not miss the opportunity to buy. Additionally, above the navigation, place buttons such as the basket, registration, and login.
6. Create appropriate content
The content on the website should be legible, written in the language of benefits. It is worth dividing long texts into fragments, adding graphics and using headers, which will also have a positive effect on the positioning of the e-shop. Analyze all messages if there is a risk to mislead a potential customer. Make sure all calls to action are clear. Remember that you direct the content on your website to a specific target group that you decided on in the initial steps of creating a brand. The way you communicate, language, and brand culture should speak to specific users and ensure that your store responds better to their needs than the competition.
7. The home page that serves as an e-shop website
The home page is the most important subpage of your e-shop. Take care of it, because it is a showcase of your brand and acts as a specific e-shop website. Present products, unique series, or a new collection in a special way. Present the bestsellers, inform about promotions or special initiatives. Maybe there is a chance to see you at local fairs? Share the opinions of your users and show the full range of possibilities offered by your brand. This is the moment when you have the chance to catch the attention of a potential client. Use it effectively!
8. Payments and registration in the online store
Add in the e-shop the possibility of making orders without registering. In the order form, require only the necessary elements so as not to unnecessarily extend the process. When an error occurs while filling out the form, it is best for the system to mark it in red immediately, without waiting for us to be ready to go to the next page. This way, in case of problems, users will not be so irritated and complete the purchase.
To encourage users to register in the store, offer an advantage. Remind them about it at this stage as well. Additional discounts, loyalty system, the fastest information provided and promotions and new collections, the possibility of quick orders without the need to provide shipping data each time. Create a consumer club and make customers want to belong to it by registering on your website.
9. Make an audit regularly to be aware of all the problems linked to your site
So far we have just highlighted a lot of things related to the user experience, but that will not be all! It is important to talk about regular site audits. Since the field of online business is constantly evolving and the data can change at any time. So to maintain the effectiveness of the user experience you need to be constantly aware of issues that could harm the user experience. To achieve this, you must periodically perform a thorough audit of your site. This will allow you to easily prevent any danger related to the malfunctioning of your site.
So to perform this audit, you need a very effective SEO tool that will be able to bring out all the information and suggestions you need for the smooth running of your online business. As far as tools are concerned, there are several types of tools that you can use for this purpose. But it is important to pay a lot of attention to the SEO tools, because not all of them are effective and complete.
But there is a very powerful SEO tool that you can use at a low cost to perform several SEO jobs on your site. This tool is called the SEO Dedicated Dashboard. Indeed, it is the latest-generation tool developed by Semalt Experts. It is a complete web analysis and SEO audit platform that can be performed on your domain at zero cost. It will allow you to perform advanced analysis work under your brand.
Discover some of the features of this tool below:
Google SERP analysis
This set of features allows you to know the exact position of your website in the Google SERP. Moreover, you can know the TOP pages and the keywords for which they rank. And that's not all! Thanks to this feature, you can easily know the main competitors in your niche, and check their traffic-generating keywords and finally get an idea of their promotion strategy.
Technical SEO audit
One of the competitive advantages of the Dedicated SEO Dashboard is that you can perform a complete analysis of the website. Everything from technical audits and speed tests to plagiarism checks is now under one roof. Here is a great advantage; you will no longer need to pay for other tools to perform any SEO work related to your site. Because with the Dedicated SEO Dashboard, you will have access to all the tools gathered in one place with one subscription.
There are many other features of this tool that I invite you to discover for yourself thanks to a 14-day free trial period offered by Semalt. During this period, you will have the opportunity to discover the speed, performance, and other great features of this tool before making a financial commitment.
So, I invite you to start your trial today, as you have nothing to lose.
10. Analyze and optimize
Don't just prepare your first e-store vision. Over time, when you get more traffic to your website, analyze user behavior and draw conclusions. Implement changes as soon as you notice an error or an element that can be corrected. Trends are changing, and so are users - do your best to keep your store up to date and focus on UX in the online store!
If you managed to go through all the points indicated in this article, then you already know how to take care of customers in your e-store and how to use UX in the online store to your advantage. Remember that putting all the steps into practice is a process and you are faced with a difficult task. However, Semalt guarantees that the change of approach and UX optimization in the online store will bring many benefits for your company and will result in an increase in conversion. We keep our fingers crossed for transforming stores into the perfect place, meeting the needs of even the most demanding customers.