Blog - October 28th, 2019
5 top tips for improving your eCommerce site
How often do your customers visit your site without buying anything? Do they frequently abandon shopping baskets full of items at the checkout? Do they view your products but don’t follow through?
If you’re experiencing high bounce rates and a lack of conversions, it might be because you need to improve the UX - user experience - of your eCommerce site.
Websites that are difficult to navigate and lacking in the kind of information shoppers are looking for tend to rate badly for conversion rate.
If you think this might apply to your site, take a look at these 5 tips for improving your eCommerce site and making more sales.
#1 Understand your user journeys
The best way to design a website is to base it on your user journeys. These are the actions typical users take when they go to a website, and the kind of experience they expect to get from a website. For example, your most important user is likely to be a shopper. Anticipate their journey and base your site design on the things they are likely to want to do on your website.
For example, they will probably be looking for a search function that works really well, useful product filters, high quality photography, and an easy way to select items they want to buy. Think about every little detail that could make the difference between that shopper buying from you or going elsewhere. You can read about user journeys in more detail here.
#2 Be transparent about your costs
Shoppers want to know how much an item is going to cost before they commit to buy. This includes any add-on pricing, such as shipping and tax. If you’ve ever tried to buy a flight only to find out at the checkout that it will be significantly more expensive than you were first led to believe, you will understand how frustrating that can be. If you fully disclose all costs upfront, your shoppers are more likely to complete their purchase with you than if you surprise them with additional costs further down the line.
#3 Invest in your content
Go the extra mile when it comes to adding content to your website. Does your product copy describe the product in plenty of detail? Does it inspire the shopper to buy? Does it preemptively answer any questions they might have about your product?
Does your product photography show the product from every angle? Does it show plenty of detail? Does it show the product to scale? Is it high quality, and can you easily zoom in to look more closely? Can you add short videos to your site to show your product in action?
The aim is to give the shopper an experience that is as close as possible to going to a real, physical shop. Just because online shopping is more convenient does not mean you can get away with providing an inferior experience.
#4 Make the checkout experience easy
At the checkout is where you are most likely to lose your shoppers, as they weigh up the pros and cons of purchasing your product. If you give them enough reasons to change their mind, they will do so.
That’s why it’s vital to make the checkout process smooth, fast and easy. Shoppers are used to the one-click payment systems offered by Amazon and PayPal, so if your checkout process requires them to fill in loads of information, or takes a really long time, chances are they won’t stick around to complete their purchase.
Using Amazon Pay, Apple Pay or PayPal are great ways to help your customers finish their purchase quickly, easily and with the confidence that their money and data will be handled properly.
#5 Analyse and adjust
You may not get your UX right first time, but that’s okay. Keep trying different things, and then measure your success. Identify areas of weakness and work to improve them. Keep analysing how well your changes perform using reliable metrics, and continuously improve your site.
Bonus tip: Develop trust
All of these tips are designed to do one thing - inspire trust in your audience. If you fail to do this, they will not want to spend money on your site and will shop elsewhere. If you can reassure them that your products are high quality, your pricing is fair, your checkout is secure, and your returns policy is legitimate, they will happily shop with you.
If you want to learn more about how to improve your eCommerce site, get in touch to find out how we can help you to make your eCommerce site amazing.
Who wrote this?
She / her; red / blue. Mel is a writer, editor and designer. Equally happy hiking a muddy trail as playing tabletop roleplay games by candlelight. Will seize any opportunity for a party, as long as said party features copious food, prosecco and hits from the 1980s. Her true passion lies in words. A student of literature, she is fascinated by enduring myths, etymology and science fiction. Kurt Vonnegut is her hero. “We are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.”
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