Managing successful e-commerce stores can be extremely tricky as you have to focus only on one objective that is increasing sales. But e-commerce websites are much more than merely an online identity for a business. They reflect the essence of a brand and leave the first impression that can either make or break the users’ experience.
You can hire an experienced web development company for building an e-commerce store for your business. But it’s equally important for you to get an understanding of the basics of e-commerce web design so that you can avoid the fundamental mistakes that can act as conversion killers.
Let’s look at 6 such blunders which you must not commit if you want to provide an excellent experience to all your visitors.
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1. Product Descriptions That Can Confuse Users & Make Them Indecisive
In order to persuade visitors to consider your products and services, it’s mandatory that you should describe their features in the best possible manner on your e-Commerce website. As per research, 1 out of 5 purchase failures happens because of confusing product descriptions.
This is why you have to create concise but clear product descriptions with quality content and fully optimized real images. Also, use pictures showing your products from different angles. It will automatically attract more visitors and increase your credibility. Get as expressive as possible, state all specifications such as functions, size, colours, etc.
2. Unavailability Of A Search Option
It’s imperative to provide your users with a search option so that they can easily find items they are looking for. In case you will avoid it then be prepared to bear less organic traffic and mobile conversions.
In order to discover the best search options, you have to ensure that the development is performing strategic roadmapping of the website in order to envision the offering’s direction over time. Make sure to integrate a mobile search box and include an auto-complete feature to make the searching process much more convenient.
3. Not Providing Users With An Option To Checkout As Guests
You have to give importance to the first-timers who are visiting your e-commerce portal by giving them a chance to check out as guests. Don’t force them for creating an account as they might feel awkward in providing you with their personal details immediately.
First, try to build trust with a guest checkout option and give them some time so that they can be sure and can freely signup for an account on your e-commerce site. In the long-run, this can bring in more visitors and there will be a higher chance of them getting converted.
4. Using Average Stock Images & Cluttered Navigation
In order to make your e-commerce site eye-catching, it’s important to use high-end quality images that can be visually digestible to the users. Also, keep the resolution in mind and optimize each and every image it can perfectly fit into the screens irrespective on which device the user is viewing.
In addition to quality and cohesive pictures, it’s a must to keep your site navigation easy. This will ensure that the visitors can easily move from one page to another without any hassle.
Make sure to pay attention to the landing page and make it minimalistic so that it helps to build your sales pipeline and capture quality leads that can smoothly move down through the sales funnel and get converted easily.
5. A Checkout Process Which Is Totally Messed Up
According to Marketingcharts, building a seamless UX is still a big challenge for more than half of the e-commerce professionals. But the majority of them don’t know how to build smooth user journeys with transparent communication.
One of the best ways to provide customers with a great experience you need to design the checkout process in a clear and clean manner. Lengthy and complex checkout process annoy customers and they might make up their mind to abandon the shopping carts at the last moment.
Make sure that they can complete the purchase process in just a few clicks and access all the information related to shipping and taxes easily. Also, don’t integrate multiple checkout pages as it can be a major conversion killer.
Along with a smooth checkout process make sure that your sign up form is easy to understand and painless to fill. Don’t bombard users with back to back questions but try to collect relevant information.
6. Incorporating Unresponsive Design With Excess Loading Time
The majority of users use their smartphones to browse the internet which is making it even more important for you to make your e-commerce portal mobile-friendly. Make sure that every element in your e-commerce website can be displayed properly on small screens and it can provide an amazing experience to the smartphone users.
You should also develop your site in such a way so that it can function seamlessly on other platforms as well which can be a desktop or a tablet. But remember to optimize your e-commerce portal for maximum speed as maximum visitors will abandon the page if it will load slowly.
In addition, you must update your website at regular intervals of time so that it can cope up with changing web design trends and establish a unique online presence for your brand. Also, there should be no design flaws so that it can look picture perfect.
Avoiding these mistakes can enhance the usability of your e-commerce store and can improve the conversion rate. So, don’t rush but do your homework and try to create an ideal selling platform for your targeted users.