Why UX Design Is an Important Aspect for Ecommerce Business

Customers are the backbone of every business. Nothing influences sales like customer satisfaction. In an eCommerce business, several factors contribute to building customer satisfaction. These include the quality of products, mode of presentation, and the design of eCommerce platforms.

About the secret of Amazon’s success, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, said:

“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.“

From this quote, we can identify how important user experience (UX) design is for eCommerce businesses. It not only plays a role in meeting customers’ needs but also opens up doors for marketing. A bad UX can ruin the reputation of eCommerce businesses in seconds, while a good UX will encourage customers to make purchases. Thus, eCommerce UX design has a vital role to play in improving sales.

Shopping Cart Abandonment and Its Reasons

A crucial challenge that eCommerce owners face is shopping cart abandonment. It is a situation where visitors leave a platform after adding some products to the cart but without making a purchase. Research shows that almost 70% of online shoppers abandon their shopping cart. So what are the factors that lead to this? Let’s take a look.

• Site loading speed: Even a 1-second delay in loading will be perceived as a lag by the users during online shopping. Because eCommerce gives users plenty of options, users will have no problem in forsaking a slow site for a faster one.
• Mandatory account creation: This is among the topmost reasons why people abandon their carts before checkout. The time and effort required in creating an account and validating information are not appreciated by many. Guest checkouts should be implemented more widely in eCommerce platforms.
• Complicated checkout process: People want everything to be completed in simple steps. When a person hits the checkout and is given a long form to fill first, it puts them off. It is best to maintain desired input to the bare minimum and get extra details if necessary once the user completes the checkout process.
• Hidden charges: When it comes to price, eCommerce sites should maintain transparency. Hiding shipping costs or tax rates is never a good approach. Users will lose trust and simply leave your site looking for a better option.
• Lack of clarity in delivery: Because people are shopping online, they need to know when they will receive their order. When no information is provided regarding delivery, customers will back off.
• Site errors: Nothing can be as frustrating as this! Imagine you almost finished a purchase, and the site shows some error and asks you to retry. How disappointed will you be? It is important to ensure a smooth checkout flow and test for bugs in the eCommerce applications.

How Ecommerce UX Improves Customer Retention

The aim of implementing UX design in eCommerce platforms is to make the journey of the customer, from start to finish, simple and smooth. It takes care that people who reach an eCommerce site are interested in purchasing from the site and are able to do it quickly. To ensure this, it pays attention to four aspects.

• Accessibility: Users can be of different categories. There will be people of different age groups, different tech knowledge, disabilities, etc. The best design is the one that allows every user to enjoy the benefits of eCommerce.
• Desirability: It is about accentuating the look and feel of the e-commerce site so as to create an enjoyable user experience for customers. It also plays a role in motivating customers to know more about the products or services offered and drives them towards a purchase.
• Utility: It ensures that users are able to find and buy the products that they need. The utility is determined by the nature of the products as well as its way of presentation to users.
• Usability: It takes care of the customer journey and focuses on making it simple and easy. Fast loading pages, relevant feedback, good communication, etc., improves the usability of sites and increases eCommerce sales.

By working on these aspects, eCommerce UX improves customer experience, which helps to attract new customers as well as retain existing customers.

Wrapping Up

Rule number one from Google’s “Ten Things” philosophy is:

“Focus on the user, and all else will follow.”

Ultimately, the goal of every business is to serve its customers. When the medium of business changes, the process to carry out sales must also change. That is why it is important to implement UX design trends in eCommerce platforms. When clients are happy, they return for more. Better customer retention is key in outrunning competition and creating a stable position in the marketplace. If your services succeed in making the customers feel at home, you have succeeded as a business. The future of eCommerce is bright, and you must leave no stone unturned to establish your presence in the field.