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Introduction
With changes in modern commerce, online revenue has seen an exponential growth. This year in 2023, global e-commerce is set to bring in a whopping $5.8 million in sales. With such high stakes, you need to ensure you get a decent piece of the pie. This article will help you navigate your way through the world of e-commerce and how you can ensure users have a seamless experience of your product in the e-commerce space.
What is E-commerce UX?
In simple words, the buying and selling of good and services online is called e-commerce. Digital platforms like websites, applications, social media, etc. enable this transaction. With information freely available on the internet, it is very easy to find what you are looking for. At the same time, you might be lost in a sea of other products. Paying closer attention to e-commerce presence online can help brands solidify your market presence and capitalize on the high growth associated with the industry.
User Experience is the overall experience a person has from visiting your product/s. B2B, B2C and other types of e-commerce functions very differently from each other. Designers need to understand the target audience in each and build products which resonate with their respective audience.
Why E-commerce UX?
Unfortunately we have all suffered the consequence of poor ux. We have all abandoned a website which is unable to load a page on time or has a complicated checkout process. E-commerce ux has gained importance only in recent time after businesses have lost billions due to these reasons alone.
For every business to succeed you need to first understand your potential customers in the industry. E-commerce is no different. If you are building a product, you need to understand what they want from it and what is the best way to make it available to them. This needs to be done from the get-go of planning a new product rather than as an afterthought. Many brands realize this later leading to costly rework for websites and apps.
With the recent shift in mindset, brands are starting to realize the importance of good user experience. The point is to make it as convenient and easy-to-use as possible. To start with, gather user data and information through qualitative and quantitative research to understand their online buying behaviour and preferences. Once you have done that, you will also get an idea of why they would want your product and how they would like to interact with it. This ensures you connect with your users early on during the sales funnel and create products centered around users.
While understanding how a user experience is going to be, different factors should be considered while creating your website or app.
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Factors Affecting E-commerce Success
E-commerce today covers a wide range of goods and services on various platforms. The first step is to determine who you are selling to within the e-commerce space. While both Business-to-Consumer (B2C) vs Business-to-Business (B2B) should be easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing, the content would be very different for both.
In addition to the brands offerings, the success for your e-commerce activity depends on a few other things:
- Product or services you are offered to users
- Content presented around the product or service
- Ease of use on the website or app
Here the role of UX in e-commerce becomes crucial. Your website or app should be designed in a way that attracts new users and encourages repeat purchases. In both cases, user experience is key to building and nurturing these relationships.
Tip to Stay Ahead with E-commerce UX
Responsive Design: To please the new-age, tech savvy shopper, convenience is key. Ensure you have a product which is designed to work well with any kind of device- mobile or desktop.
Intuitive navigation: A seamless experience is always a desirable scenerio for an brand with an e-commerce presence. In this case, users are able to navigate your product and filfill their objective without too much effort or hardship. If they are unable to do that, users tend to to drop off and go to a competitor. The easier it is for users to move around within your website or app, the longer they tend to stay.
An example of poor navigation design is not making the search box easy to find. Clear menu structures and navigation tools make it easy for users to find what they are looking for through information architecture testing, usability testing, etc. an improved website structure would reduce friction and enhance the overall experience.
Optimize Functionality: The content should be optimized in a way that does not make it difficult to load. Too much information can slow down a page making users drop off and leading to wasted growth opportunities. Not only that, one bad experience is enough for users to form a negative opinion and make it difficult for you to get them back on your page at a later point.
Simplified checkout processes: The more steps you have in the final purchase process, the more users tend to abandon their cart. A simple, fast checkout process would make the conversion period faster and encourage people to not second-guess buying decisions. Possible distractions like ads and other links should be removed to ensure users are focused and easily able to complete the buying process.
Use engaging elements: The buying process for online purchases for products can be a little difficult with the absence of touch-and-feel associated with offline shopping. Here, engaging your online content is becomes very crucial as it is one of the most important means by which users would take buying decisions. For a brand’s success, high quality images, videos and texts should be included in a way that users can connect with. This would promote favourable buying decisions.
Minimal design: While making your content engaging is integral, brands also tend to overload users with information in the hope of a drawing user attention. This will end up making your page look cluttered leading to drop-offs. Minimal, clean design is key when designing an e-commerce ux.
Personalization: A product’s success come not just from new users but majorly from repeat customers who becomes brand advocates and refer your product. UX should be designed in a way that helps brands establish relations with customers and understand them better. These insights will help iron out product and design issues for a better ux experience.
Exemplary E-commerce Website
With good user experience, your page also tends to go higher up in the search results. One of the biggest examples of a website with a successful ux is Amazon. It has an almost seamless user flow that makes buying and checking out a breeze. From the search bar to the navigation menus, it has been designed to ensure user needs are met. It is the leader in the e-commerce space with over 2.2 million visitors on a monthly basis.
Key Takeaway
In today’s world, being simply good with your e-commerce efforts is not enough. A great e-commerce UX experience knows and learns about users the moment they land on your product. Each touchpoint can end up delighting or disappointing users. Brands have to go above and beyond to differentiate themselves from other players in the market to make themselves more visible while building a relationship with existing clients. This will not only increase growth but also improve brand value to ensure success.
Keeping up with the recent developments is important as well. So testing and reiterating your product regularly is crucial to stay ahead of the curve. Since online businesses have taken centerstage, having a strong e-commerce UX is fundamental for every brand to be a part of the e-commerce story and build a sustainable future.
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