9 Most Important UX Principles for eCommerce Success

Written by  AJ Leale, Sr. Director eCommerce 
Mobile shopping has made customers pickier than ever. Almost 40 percent of customers will drop off the website if they find its design unattractive or its interface confusing.
A good UX design will spark dopamine in the brains of your customers and make them more likely to trust the brand.
These UX principles will keep online customers happy and eCommerce revenue growing:

1. Welcoming and Informative Homepage

Your website’s homepage is the first thing your customers will see. Therefore, a homepage should effectively explain what your brand sells and what makes you different from your competitors.
This is usually done with taglines – short and memorable texts that reinforce a key aspect of a brand or a product.
For retail brands, in particular, this differentiation is extremely important.
You should also have a clearly visible ‘about’ page where users can get more in-depth information about your company’s products, values, and what makes your company different from your competitors.
Online retail websites should also showcase their main product offerings in a simple and uncluttered way.

2. Clear Product Organization & Navigation

Your website should have a product organization that makes a clear distinction between different categories.
Good product organization can be achieved with the use of meaningful labels. These labels are typically single words that describe a broad range of products. They help shoppers easily understand what each label represents within the store context.
Your site should also be able to support poly hierarchies which are AI structures that allow single item files to fit into more than one parent category.

3. Promote Subcategories While Exposing Product Listing

Fewer retail sites provide traditional category pages. In an effort to reduce the number of pages shoppers need to click through, most retail online stores have added faceted navigation with different filters to narrow the choice of products.
In addition, highlighting available subcategories on the same page, usually above product listings, has resulted in a lot of success. This leads to increased discoverability of the subcategories and it encourages users to navigate to a more specific group of products.

4. Differentiating Product Information

Shoppers are buying through mobile devices more than ever. In order to help users compare products without having to open too many tabs, it is necessary to have clear product descriptions.
Each product should have a distinct differentiation such as the primary product attributes like:

• Clear name with concise characteristics
• High-quality images
• Information on product variations, sizes, other styles, options, and colors
• Price

Some brands go an extra step by adding more information, such as customer ratings, availability information, alternate product images, etc.

5. Onsite Search  

The search bar is a very basic feature, but many websites don’t have one!
Typing a specific product name is often much faster than looking through the available categories.
In addition to a search bar, you should consider a predictive search. Once the customer starts to type, they can rely on the system’s algorithm to fill out the rest of the search. This small implementation can result in increased conversion rates.
Your site should showcase the most relevant results at the top along with suggested similar products if there are no exact matches to the search terms.

6. Better Checkout Experience

Before a buyer completes the purchase process, present a concise order summary page. It should include elements, such as items purchased, quantity, price, and the order total.
You can also make the shopping experience easier for your customers by allowing them to check out as guests. Providing this opportunity in a single form removes the potential barrier and entice your customers to quickly proceed with shopping.
The checkout page should also offer payments via major credit cards and other popular payment methods such as PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe…
After the purchase has been completed, customers should see the confirmation page with detailed information.
Lastly, ensure that customers will receive an order confirmation email with the exact information that was provided on the confirmation page.

7. Faster Load Time

Nearly 25 percent of web users abandon a web page if it takes more than 4 seconds to load.
That’s why it’s extremely important to have pages optimized for faster loading time. This can be achieved by choosing a good hosting provider for the website along with optimizing images, enabling GZIP compression, HTML caching, etc.

8. Valuable Content & Social Media

Many eCommerce websites lack a good content strategy. In 2019, it’s not enough to only have a visually appealing site. Brands should also engage with their customers by producing great content built around products or services.
Social media can be a secret weapon for many retailers as nearly 90 percent of social media users reach out to them via different platforms. For example, Pinterest is one of the best places to showcase products online.

9. Visual Design

A retail brand can use the power of colors to influence users to buy. Another thing they should pay attention to is related to headers, sub-headings, and body copy. These should be consistent throughout the website.
Investing in a great design and building a well-defined style guide will pay off big time.

Conclusion

Retailers who recognize the importance of UX for the eCommerce user journey can improve their position in the market.  
Visionet can help you achieve that. Schedule a meeting and let us help you create best in class user experience for your customers. We use a customer-centric approach to deliver a unified experience across all digital channels.