Welcome to a world where user experience reigns supreme. In the fast-paced realm of eCommerce, where every click counts, optimizing the user experience (UX) isn't just a nice-to-have, it's a business imperative. It's not just about making your website look good, it's about driving sales and conversions.
In this blog post, we're diving deep into the art of eCommerce UX and how it can be your secret weapon for boosting sales.
What Is eCommerce User Experience?
eCommerce User Experience, often abbreviated as eCommerce UX, refers to the overall quality and satisfaction that users experience while interacting with your online store. It encompasses everything from the website's design, navigation, and performance to the ease of finding and purchasing products. In essence, it's about how seamless, intuitive, and enjoyable the shopping journey is for your customers.
Today, the status of eCommerce UX is continually evolving. It's no longer a box to tick, it's a dynamic field that's central to business success. As a result, businesses are not only striving to meet current standards, but also proactively seeking ways to innovate and stand out in a crowded digital marketplace.
Remember, in the online shopping universe, where customers have endless choices, your eCommerce user experience can be the key differentiator that sets you apart from the competition.
How Can eCommerce User Experience Increase Sales Performance?
You now have a clear understanding of what eCommerce User Experience (eCommerce UX) is and its status in the current eCommerce landscape as well, but how does it translate into increased sales performance? Or why should you care about eCommerce UX?
Let the numbers talk:
Minimizes Friction: Research indicates that a 100-millisecond delay in page load time can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. A seamless and intuitive UX eliminates obstacles like this in the buying process. When customers can easily find products, navigate the website, and complete purchases without frustration, they're more likely to convert. Fewer barriers lead to more sales.
Increases Conversion Rates: Research has shown that a well-optimized eCommerce UX can lead to a significant increase in conversion rates. In fact, studies indicate that every dollar invested in UX can result in a return of up to $100.
Reduces Cart Abandonment Rates: High cart abandonment rates are the nightmare of eCommerce. Did you know that 88% of online shoppers have abandoned a shopping cart without completing a purchase? Many of these abandonments can be attributed to a poor user experience.
Boosts Customer Loyalty: A positive eCommerce UX isn't just about the first purchase. It's about fostering loyalty. Happy customers are more likely to return, and research suggests that acquiring a new customer can be up to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.
In short, eCommerce UX is a revenue-generating asset. By minimizing friction, increasing conversion rates, reducing cart abandonment rates, and boosting customer loyalty, an optimized eCommerce UX directly affects your sales performance.
Investing in eCommerce UX is a strategic move that can lead to a significant return on investment. It's about creating a win-win scenario where customers enjoy a seamless shopping journey, and your business enjoys increased sales and growth.
How to Audit eCommerce UX?
The ultimate status of eCommerce UX is that users completely feel easy and satisfied when interacting with your online store to perform actions you want them to do. You need to optimize lots of things, from content to layout, from page speed to web load time, etc to achieve this status.
But firstly, it’s crucial to perform an audit about its current status.
So, what are some options for you to detect eCommerce UX problems?
Online Store Funnel Analytics: Funnel analytics provide insights into how users move through your site and where they may drop off. This data is essential for identifying weak points in the user journey and optimizing them for better conversions.
Heat Maps: Heat maps visually represent user interactions on your website. They show where users click, move, and spend the most time. Analyzing heat maps can reveal which areas are engaging and which need improvement.
5-Second Test: The 5-second test involves showing a user your website for just 5 seconds and then asking them what they remember. This test provides valuable insights into the first impressions users have and whether your key messages are clear and impactful.
Start by finding out conversion problems through Funnel Analytics, ask yourself specific questions: Why are home page visitors not clicking products? Why are product page visitors not adding to carts?
Then, you can use different methods to answer them: Heat maps, 5-Second Test.
By conducting eCommerce UX audits using this guideline, you can gain a deep understanding of your website's current state, pinpoint areas that require improvement, and lay the foundation for a successful eCommerce UX optimization strategy.
Remember, the audit is not a one-time task but an ongoing process to ensure that your eCommerce UX continues to meet and exceed customer expectations.
5 eCommerce UX Best Practices to Increase Sales
Now it’s the high time to roll up your sleeves and make improvements on eCommerce user experience. Among lots of things you can do, there are 5 eCommerce UX best practices you should focus on to increase sales:
- Build websites like a sales funnel
- Deliver eCommerce personalization experiences
- Follow a clear product page layout
- Leverage trust building elements
- Minimize checkout process
1. Build websites like a sales funnel
One of the best eCommerce UX best practices is to build your website like a sales funnel. But what does that mean, and why is it crucial? Let's dive into the details.
Building your website like a sales funnel means structuring it in a way that guides users smoothly from the moment they land on your site to the point of making a purchase. It's about creating a journey where every element plays a role in nurturing and converting visitors into customers.
An eCommerce sales funnel approach is effective since it simplifies the user experience, reduces confusion, and keeps users focused on the path to purchase.
To build a website like a sales funnel, you should follow an eCommerce sales funnel model such as AIDA, then build links among web pages that will guide shoppers from stage to stage, with each page serving a main purpose or stage in a sales funnel.
For example, the home page will be at the Awareness stage, and will be designed with the aim of creating impressions for shoppers by using hero sections and showcasing various products and collections. Product pages will be at the Action stage with emphasis on the “Buy” button as well as upselling and cross-selling sections such as “Related Products” or “Recently Viewed Products”.
It’s hard to design your entire online store by following an eCommerce sales funnel, unless you have a suitable tool. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered with an effective and smart Shopify page builder: Foxify.
Foxify helps you build any page types you need: landing page, home page, product page, etc from 60+ templates or from scratch. The core competitive advantage of this page builder is that it offers conversion-boosting built-in as well as analytics features. Therefore, you can design your store-front and keep track of your store performance at the same time effortlessly.
Key takeaways:
- Building website by following eCommerce sales funnel, each page type will serve a main purpose (funnel stage)
- Leverage useful tools such as Foxify to design your online store efficiently
2. Deliver eCommerce personalization experience
Delivering a personalized experience means tailoring your website's content and offerings to individual user preferences, behaviors, and characteristics. It's about creating a unique and relevant journey for each visitor.
Among eCommerce UX best practices, web personalization is a game-changer, and you can do it well by following the 4 expert ideas: dynamic content, personalized recommendations, personalized delivery experience, AI-powered chatbots.
To learn more about guidelines and tools to leverage eCommerce personalization experience on your online store, let’s dive into this article:
4 Expert Ideas to Leverage Website Personalization for Shopify Stores
Thinx has introduced “period undies”, an alternative to tampons, the brand has understood that women have different periods with different needs for their products. Therefore, they create a quiz-style tool named “Know Your Flow” to collect customer information, then craft personalized product bundles for them (personalized recommendations).
The results from this tool is impressive with 90% completion rate, x5 conversion rate for desktop users and 7x conversion rate for mobile users.
Key takeaways: 4 expert ideas to deliver eCommerce personalization experiences: dynamic content, personalized recommendations, personalized delivery experience, AI-powered chatbots
3. Follow a clear product page layout
Following a clear product page layout means organizing your product pages in a structured and intuitive manner, making it easy for users to find and understand the information they need to make a purchase decision.
With a clear product page layout, you give shoppers clarity and reward yourself with efficiency. In more detail, it will simplify the decision making process for shoppers by presenting essential information (product name, description, price, policies, etc) clearly and concisely.
To acquire those benefits, you should keep the product page layout straightforward and easy to navigate. Avoid clutter and distractions. Use consistent fonts, colors, and image sizes for a cohesive look.
If you are looking for more eCommerce UX best practices at product pages, you can try to showcase your products at the highest quality as possible, craft not short but engaging product descriptions, involve some testimonials & reviews, design stand-out CTA texts and buttons, and organize policy information in an easy and accessible way.
Still confusing about how to execute product page optimization? Read this article and you will be covered in a minute:
5 Inspiring eCommerce Product Page Examples & Best Practices
Feeling too lazy to read? Check out the below image to learn some tips on creating a perfect product page in seconds:
Let’s analyze an amazing product page from Outdoor Voices, an athleisure apparel Shopify store. Its product page consists of high-quality and playful photos. Essential details such as product description, shopper instructions, and fitting information are well-organized by following a clean 3-column layout that will be read easily by shoppers.
Key takeaways: keep the product page layout simple and fill it with only must-have content in an engaged and organized way.
4. Leverage trust building elements
Leveraging trust-building elements means incorporating features and content on your website that establish trust with your visitors. It's about creating an environment where potential customers feel confident and secure in making a purchase.
We can all agree that trust is the foundation of eCommerce success with 88% of shoppers buying from a trusted brand more often. Therefore, leveraging the use of features like reviews, testimonials, user-generated content, and influencer marketing is a must if you want to grow your sales today.
But, how to leverage them on your online store?
The answer is simple, you need to showcase them on every possible pages with the main focus on those 3 page types:
- Home page: testimonials section about your brand, hero sections to utilize the power of influencer marketing through big sized images and authentic videos.
- Product page: add reviews section under the product description, attract and showcase user-generated content to demonstrate your points and build trust from customers at a much higher level.
- Landing page: since the landing page can stand alone, you should involve all trust building elements on it. Remember to organize their sequence from testimonials and influencers to create strong impressions to reviews and user-generated content to remove shoppers’ worry and encourage them to take actions.
An example of a Shopify store that makes the most of trust building elements is Kylie Cosmetics, their entire online store is linked with the reputation of Kylie Jenner, a celebrity who is well known for her beauty and fashion.Â
While the home page is filled with testimonials and user-generated content from the brand’s Instagram page, the product page is added with authentic video and reviews from customers. From all of them, the store is easy to deliver convenient and trustful shopping experience, then acquire brand trust from shoppers.
Key takeaways: Utilize the mix of various trust building elements including reviews, testimonials, user-generated content, and influencer marketing.
5. Minimize checkout process
Minimizing the eCommerce checkout process is about simplifying the steps users must go through to complete a purchase. It's streamlining the journey from the shopping cart to the final click of the "buy" button.
Why is this important? Let’s see a statistic here: according to Baymark’s research, 18% of shoppers abandon their shopping cart since the checkout process is too long or too complicated.
So, as store owners, finding ways to resolve this problem is obviously essential, and one of the eCommerce UX best practices to do it is minimizing the checkout process.
A quick and short eCommerce checkout process reduces the chances of users leaving before completing their purchase, reduces friction and barriers to conversion, and keeps the user’s journey smooth and straightforward.
There are 3 things you can do to minimize the checkout process:
- One Page Checkout: Consider implementing a one-page checkout system where users can review their order, enter shipping and payment details, and complete the purchase all on a single page.
- Simple Layout: Keep the checkout page clean and simple. Avoid distractions and unnecessary information. Focus on the essential elements: order summary, shipping details, and payment options.
- No Registration Required: Offer the option for users to complete their purchase without creating an account. While account creation can be beneficial for customer retention, it should never be a mandatory step.
For detailed steps, tips, and tools, we've prepared for you a comprehensive guideline on how to customize Shopify checkout page, let’s check it out!
Key takeaways: your eCommerce checkout process should follow all those 3 things: one page checkout, simple layout, and no registration required.
Wrapping Up
A well-optimized eCommerce user experience isn't just a nice-to-have; it's a strategic advantage that can directly impact your sales and customer loyalty. By implementing these eCommerce UX best practices, you can create an online store that not only meets but exceeds customer expectations.
Remember, eCommerce UX is a journey of continuous improvement. Regularly assess your website, gather user feedback, and stay informed about evolving trends to ensure that your eCommerce UX remains top-notch. With the right approach, your online store can become a thriving and customer-centric destination in the competitive world of eCommerce.
In that journey, having a well-designed store-front is a must. If you are looking for a tool which allows you to design captivating pages and measure store performance at the same time, look no further than Foxify, a smart and high-converting Shopify page builder.
Don’t miss out the chance to redeem a 7-day FREE TRIAL of using Foxify here.
