How Good Website Design Can Increase Your Online Business
We can buy just about anything without leaving the couch now – clothing, household goods, groceries, and, apparently, even a GigaYacht. E-commerce is becoming more norm than novelty, with U.S. retail e-commerce sales reaching $520 billion in 2017. Online consumers have endless choices, and e-commerce companies are feeling the pressure to set themselves apart.
Great website design, which comprises user interface (UI) and user experience (UX), strengthens your corporate brand and sets you apart from the competition. It could be the difference maker between a passing window shopper and a loyal repeat customer.
Effective web design can also help to drive higher conversion over time in several ways:
- In the short term, good design can boost key performance metrics
- In the medium term, it can influence customer behavior and loyalty
- In the long term, it can generate consumer insights to improve product offerings
Every interaction a customer has with a web platform should be intentionally designed and meaningful for the customer.
Three Design Tips to Increase Customer Conversion
1. Help your customer find your product or service
Thinking through site navigation is crucial for final conversions. Some companies sort products into useful categories via drop-down menus. Each screen should immediately make its objective clear to the visitor, with special emphasis on page titles and login forms.
E-commerce companies must consider investing in software that helps them track eye or cursor movements on their website to recognize areas of high visibility on their online store. Such high-visibility areas will be prime locations to showcase new products or promotions.
2. Make the shopping process seamless
Online consumers seek an efficient and fuss-free experience and don’t appreciate slow pages speeds.
While companies cannot control the speed of their customers’ internet service, they should strive to optimize page load times. Nearly half of web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and every second of delay can result in a 7 percent reduction in conversions. Good ways to speed up page load times include opting for smaller images, writing in fewer jQuery and animation elements, as well as minimizing third-party resources such as ads or widgets.
More crucially for e-commerce players, checkout needs to be seamless. Cart abandonment rates hover around 75%. Consider offering payment options that accelerate the checkout process, like Paypal or Apple Pay, which make the shopping journey smoother. It’s important to find a payment provider that limits your abandonment by keeping your checkout simple. When Putting together a simple checkout will quickly increase conversions.
3. Build trust with secure checkout
Displaying security elements more prominently on checkout pages will build trust and can boost conversion rates.
E-Commerce is the New Retail
As e-commerce grows in popularity and convenience, customer expectations will evolve and change with technological developments. For an e-commerce company, staying dynamically responsive with not just website design, but also product and price, is the key to customers’ hearts.
About the Author
Ben Lindberg, CR is a partner in Lion Tree Group, a digital marketing agency in Madison, WI. His expertise is in multi-platform brand messaging with a focus on inspiring consumers. His agency specializes in website design and comprehensive branding solutions. He regularly blogs at his company’s digital news blog: The Bark and Roar.
