If you walked into a physical store and the products weren’t arranged in any obvious order, the checkout was hard to find, and the staff were rude, you probably wouldn’t make a purchase – and you definitely wouldn’t pay them a visit again.
When it comes to your digital, eCommerce store, it’s no different. In fact, because it’s so much easier for customers to find your competitors online than in person, you have to try even harder to get their attention.
What is UX?
User experience [UX] describes the overall experience someone has when they visit your website. It’s not just about having a good-looking site that’s professional and works well [although that doesn’t hurt]. You have to make sure that the copy is super easy to read, that the site loads properly on mobile devices, and that calls to action are clear and specific.
Improving UX on your website doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated. We’ve put together our top four ways of improving user experience to get more conversions, and ultimately, more profits.
1. Never forget mobile
Global mobile retail eCommerce sales [try saying that after a glass of wine] reached $2.9 billion USD in 2020 and that figure is expected to rise to $3.56 billion in 2021. Basically, if your store isn’t mobile friendly, your profits will suffer.
Because mobile screens are smaller than desktop or laptop, it’s important to keep things succinct because you have less room to play with. That means adding buttons and important calls to action [CTA] nearer to the top of the page so that customers don’t have to scroll and scroll to find what they need.
One of the top UX mistakes that people make when it comes to optimising their site for mobile is speed. Image sizes should always be optimised for your site because faster sites mean better conversion rates. No one wants to wait around more than ten seconds for a page to load.
2. Checkout simplicity
There’s nothing worse for a store owner than having high abandoned cart rates. And there’s nothing worse for a customer than a confusing, long-winded checkout process. Along with making the buyer journey easy, there are a few other things you can do to improve your checkout UX:
- Mention your shipping costs upfront on product pages rather that surprising people when they’re about to pay.
- Provide a guest checkout option for those who don’t want to create an account.
- Include a progress bar so that customers can see how many steps are left in the checkout process.
- Offer basic auto-complete functionality to speed things up.
3. Let your copy do the talking
Effective copywriting is often overlooked in favour of snazzy design and fancy website features. Whether you’re selling a product or a service, you can improve UX and increase conversions easily by crafting purposeful, engaging copy. That means thinking about the following key copy elements:
- What’s your value proposition?
- What problem does your product or service solve?
- Who’s your audience and what kind of language would really speak to them?
4. Get consistent
Visual consistency across your website [as well as your social media platforms] is an absolute must if you want your business to stand out from the crowd. You want your customer to know what you’re all about from a quick glance. Inconsistencies can be confusing and make the whole user experience way less seamless. Some important visual elements to consider are:
- Are fonts the same across your site?
- What colour theme have you chosen? Avoid too many colours as it can weaken your brand identity.
- Make sure any images or illustrations used reflect the same look and feel across your site.
What makes your customers tick?
User experience is a crucial aspect of any successful digital marketing strategy, and it’s not just applicable to websites. It’s always important to think about how customers are experiencing your brand in every single way they interact with you – whether that’s on LinkedIn, Facebook, via email marketing, or through your customer service offerings.
At 3PM, we help business grow by putting ourselves in the shoes of your perfect customer and asking what makes them tick. If you need a hand with content marketing, want to improve your site’s UX, need a captivating eDM to boost sales, or just want a chat about the best way to grow your business, get in touch today.
