Several things can cause a potential customer to abandon your website and shop elsewhere. Once you understand the website factors that turn people off, you can find ways to fix those things, turning more visitors into leads or paying customers. The best opportunities for improving the user experience lie in page response and page layout. These five tips give you a way to improve in one or both areas without a bunch of money or deep knowledge of any programming language. An e-commerce UI specialist can help you implement some or all of these tips.
1 – Go With a “Clean” Design
You’ve probably been to sites that have ads running down one side and a big ad or graphic in the middle of the article, maybe a promotional video that pops up in the corner and plays automatically. This can dilute a visitor’s attention. This is the exact opposite of the experience you want to give a potential customer. A good e-commerce UI features images and text that focus on selling a particular product or service.
Focus each page on your service, your pricing, ordering information, technical specs, and other things that help you sell. Use simple design, easy-to-read fonts like Arial and Calibri, and an uncluttered look. Pages that are crowded with extra material also tend to be slow. This gives customers an excuse to click away and look for another store. A “clean” page design minimizes that risk.
2 – Make It Mobile Friendly
Your site needs to be fast and it needs to look good on Android and iOS phones and tablets. Some free website builders offer built-in responsiveness. Use that option, but test your site on various platforms, or get someone to do that for you. Note anything that doesn’t work then tweak your site design so it will perform well for mobile users. This is even more important if you have a brick-and-mortar store because so many people looking for a local business will browse the web on their phone.
3 – Go with a Familiar E-commerce UI
You may be tempted to get creative with all aspects of your site’s design. Innovative navigation schemes may be especially hard to design with menus, registration, account creation, shopping carts, and so on. Think carefully before you implement some of those creative ideas. The best way to make prospects happy is to give them a familiar shopping experience. Complicated menus and buttons with vague labels can frustrate visitors and make them leave your site.
4 – Use Customer Testimonials
Customer testimonials are great for social proof, evidence that you can deliver the benefits your promise in your ad copy. Always use real testimonials and always identify the person if you can. “A User from Michigan” sounds like a fictional person. “Diana Wilson from Grand Rapids, MI” sounds like a real person. People will notice this. People will also notice stock images from Pixabay or Google Images. Use real customer photos, if you have them. And always get written permission before you use a customer’s name and image in your testimonials.
5 – Making Paying Easy
The payment processing area should be focused entirely on collecting payment and shipping information. However, you can offer an incentive to customers who spend a certain amount. Show an image of each product instead of just listing them. Don’t make customers create an account to make a purchase, either, as this is another chance for them to become impatient and just leave the site.
UI Design in Knoxville
A user-friendly site is a must. Any difficulty getting information, registering, or ordering can deter potential customers. You can solve these problems, but working on an e-commerce UI isn’t easy. Consider calling on the team at 245TECH to give your site the best possible user interface design for your e-commerce site.
