In this era where speed matters, technology advances and competition grow with every passing day. The evolution has transformed the face of marketing that we know of, which seems to be customer centric, where every company and brand have indulged themselves in this rat race of providing consumers with best in class experience.
While observing the take of businesses with transforming marketing tactics, consumers have also upgraded the buying habits, backed by comfort and convenience. With this shift in trend, we witness a hike in online purchases with:
- 43% of shoppers globally searching products online.
- 75% of shoppers happen to make an online purchase once a month
- US alone is expected to exceed $740 BN by 2023
Scenario, as it explains – companies, now are expected more than ever to provide customers with the desired experience in order to justify the claims and to keep up with the shopper dynamics and evolution. As with increased awareness, interest and desired to online shopping, customers’ expectation is on the rise and to improve these online shopping statistics it is important to provide the consumer with the staggering user experience.
Here you will find some of the best targets to aim at, while planning a winning user experience strategy.
1. Make sure your site loads quickly.
It hardly takes online shoppers 10 seconds to decide if they want to stay on a site or leave. Fast sites make more money because with fast paced world, the consumers are now impatient with a limited attention span. 14% of the audience will start shopping on other websites if they don’t enjoy it. Mozilla saw 60 MN more downloads each year by making their web page 2.2 seconds faster. If you fail to be fast, you’ll be lagged behind and consumers will leave without making a purchase, most probably with a negative impression.
Cloud web hosting solutions are perfect for eCommerce websites that focus on fast perfomance, smooth scalability, managed security and customer support. Acording to this cloud hosting review on Woblogger, Cloudways offers feature-rich cloud hosting platform for eCommerce sites so you can focus on maximizing your profits. Also, you can find a great discount to get started.
Tips on getting the desired speed:
- Get the hold of hosting, a cloud hosting service will add a star to your speed, and vice versa.
- Use a lightweight theme/framework.
- Get the hold on difference interfaces, as customer varies
- Be careful with third party application involvement, don’t let outside privileges slow you down.
2. Focus on easy navigation: (Shopper Journey Mapping).
A key to making a successful sale is to facilitate the shopper journey. User friendliness is the game and talk of the town, when it comes to business tools, that customer self-steer. Hence, the design of the website should be able to provide easy navigation. Complex designs result in confused customers and such confusions keeps the money aback.
Tips on enhancing user friendliness:
- Limit unnecessary clicks
- Implement special features like auto scroll, quick and custom search options.
- A site map is essential to understand the product placement. Placement of Categories and sub categories right at start of the journey.
- Include chat bots, for immediate query resolution
3. Optimize your online store for Mobile.
Studies reveal that 2/3rd of the cell phone owners use it as their primary access to the Internet. People want everything at a click these days, from browsing about product, to reading customer review to making the final purchase. E-Commerce players merely have milliseconds to hook the customer
Mobile applications have proven to be a great way to keeping the customer engaged with promotions, wishes and updates about new products, simply putting everything you want the customer to know, let it be delivered right into customer hands – popping up into their notifications.
Tips on Mobile Optimization:
- Make it available on vast used platforms (iOS and Andriod)
- Make it available on Google Play Store & Apple Store
- Keep it simple and navigable
- Easy experience scrolling
- Font should be readable with imagery aloud
4. Use product images to build trust.
We live in a visual world, hence we should never underestimate the power of high quality photographs and visuals of products. Online shoppers find images reassuring. It helps identifying that they’re getting the thing they want.
Keep them large and Hi-Res, as according to VWO blog, there is a direct relation of larger product images to sales. A 9% increase is directly related to image inclusion in digital retailing. Consumers can extract a lot of information to help them from large images. Stick with clear views to add that extra oomph for the users.
Tips on Visual Excellence:
- The images should be realistic. If they do not match what user had ordered they might not return to your online store.
- Take care of Pixels: Make users feel like viewing a product right in front.
- Adding multiple angles and views help online shoppers better understand the product. It helps them make an informed decision. Size matters with product imagery.
5. Include customer reviews.
Customer reviews are a best judge of the product than any marketing gimmick. It can significantly improve the customer experience. Consumers consider an essential resource when making purchase decisions. Placing user generated content can create social proof and trust. One good review can help result in a chain of reaction and automatically generate more good reviews.
Tips to upscale customer satisfaction:
- Include legitimate reviews
- Don’t forget to add a review section on your website
- Actively respond to customer queries
6. Simple and easy checkout options.
One of the most irritating parts of online shopping is a difficult checkout option. If checkout options are too lengthy and takes time, user may get frustrated, give up and leave.
Tips on easy checkouts:
- Check out options should be user friendly so the customers who are not ready to buy yet should have the option to return later and make a purchase.
- Easy checkout forms with auto filled options can help ease the user’s requirements.
- Once the online shopper has decided to check out there should be a clear path without any distractions.
7. Keeping the website up to date.
Perception is powerful. A website that fails to create a good impression transmits the idea that the company is unprofessional and incapable. If the interface is not welcoming, the consumer will close the window. Therefore, it is important to have aesthetics and updates right in place to rank well on search engines and to offer customers with the best experience.
Tips on keeping up the website:
- Keep product inventory actual and updated at all times
- Add a blog section with informative content, this can drive magnets and potential customers.
- Skillfully constructed content guides shopper journey through the website. It positions it well in search engine too. It attracts more inbound links which will be helpful in spreading the voice about your business across the Web.
Conclusion.
eCommerce has reached its peak point. If you fall short online, it is the loss of opportunity. Any business that hopes to survive and scale should make an instant hit with its audience and an online impression, the answer to which enhancing user experience.
All of the above points can help you improve user experiences for online shoppers. It will help develop a long term customer base for your site.
No doubt! An enjoyable user experience can lead to perpetual sales as it is the first step that online shoppers take to climb the rest. Therefore, improvising the online user experience is really a winning move.
