With the rise of smartphone and tablet technologies, consumers have moved from brick-and-mortar stores to online browsing for products and services. Millennials enjoy the commodities, speed, and accessibility of shopping on ecommerce stores. For business owners, on the other hand, it is probably the most competitive field because rivals are not physically distant, but just a few clicks away.
What happens if a customer doesn’t like your website? He or she closes the browser tab and searches for another set to purchase products from.
This points out the importance of a well-designed and functional website. If people get confused or lost while navigating your website, then it doesn’t matter if you offer the best products in the market or your prices are very low, your conversion rate won’t reach its maximum. Once you make the purchasing process as easy and quick and possible, you will increase your website’s usability, attract attention, and eventually gain more customers. Here’s what you can do to make your ecommerce website more usable.</p<
1. Remove the need to register
The one thing online buyers resent the most is a long and boring sign-up process, as a precondition for making a purchase. By removing the need to register, allowing guest users to checkout products freely, and asking them to sign-up afterward in order to make their next purchase easier will reduce cart abandonment, improve customer retention, and increase sales.
2. Search function
A customer’s shopping experience is made more satisfying by search functionality. Do you go and browse every single page of an e-commerce store and read every description in order to find what you’re looking for? Of course not. If you offer a wide variety of products on your ecommerce site, then it is highly recommended to improve your website’s search function and add category refinement to make the search process even quicker and more convenient.
3. Shopping security
Without personal detail security and the right content management, every e-commerce website is incomplete. Your online store needs to instill them with confidence, and it can be achieved by assuring them that your website is reputable and has features that protect their privacy. To offer better shopping security and build up customer trust, get an updated SSL certificate and a trust certificate like VeriSign or Hacker Safe.
4. Clear display prices and shipping
The shipping cost or prices are things that nobody likes to be deceived with, so be as clear as possible when it comes to pricing. Shopping carts are often abandoned due to high shipping costs, but it also happens when the shipping costs get listed too late in the buying process or when product or service cost more than expected. According to this study, a stunning 95.5% of participants cited that clearly stated shipping and pricing information as a crucial factor in making a purchase decision. So, calculate shipping and taxes on add to cart, so your customers know the total cost before they checkout.
5. About us page
Telling a unique story is one of the best ways to set your store apart from countless other e-commerce websites. Write an article or upload a video that tells your story in your site’s About Us page, that you link to in your website navigation. It’s worth the effort.
6. Sign-up forms and call to action
Don’t add a long sign-up form that takes a few pages before your visitors can register to your website, because a lot of the would most likely find it tedious and give up. An email address and a strong password are enough, because you don’t really need to know their personal information such as phone number, address, or their professions. Also, call-to-action buttons can greatly help in improving site usability and increasing conversion rates, so don’t underestimate their value.
Think about the button font, color, size, positioning and wording. The color of your call-to-action buttons should make them stand out from the background. Consider using IP delivery to provide custom versions of your call-to-action buttons (based on the location of the customer), because it’s important to take local language into consideration.
7. Address pain points
Pain points are the possible objections that a customer might have about making a purchase from you before they even think to object. Such are certain features or policies, like a return policy or free shipping. By mentioning your low-price guarantee, easy return policy, and free shipping at the top of your website landing page, you’ve addressed all potential pain points, so the visitors can browse and shop without having to worry about them. Also, if you don’t have enough of your own storage space (lack of funds to build or buy your own storage space), you can use 3pl storage that is great for startups and early-stage businesses.
Shipping is the top reason why shoppers abandon a shopping cart, and it’s the most important pain point to address. Also, return policies and pricing are always a big deal of e-commerce stores. If you offer a price guarantee, have a great return policy, offer free shipping, and make it as detailed as possible – you’ll influence potential buyers to decide to purchase from you. Be clear and transparent, don’t let them get surprised at the last minute, because 44% of shoppers leave a cart due to high shipping cost, according to shopping cart statistics.
Focus on the overall user experience, your website’s look, and feel. These are great and implementable steps to increase your conversion rate and optimize your ecommerce business. Make sure you implement them before investing your finds in social media ads, display advertising, and paid search campaigns. Take care of your website structure and homepage first, which will guarantee a higher return on investment once you start driving the traffic to your ecommerce store.
