User experience is everything when it comes to running an online store, and is something you should prioritize from the very beginning. When it comes to physical stores, everyone knows the importance of having a great-looking interior full of great products and enticing deals, and the same goes for the online environment.
Of course, that’s easier said than done, and in the beginning, it’s completely normal to stare at your landing page, wondering where to start or how to go about improving your first attempt.
This article is here to aid you. Here are four top tips for helping you design or redesign your website so that people want to shop there.
1. Start with Navigation
While having an aesthetically appealing site is important, you shouldn’t try to run before you can walk. Creating a site that’s nice and easy to navigate should be your first port of call.
First and foremost, you need to make sure that your potential customers have a clear path to the items you’re selling. It’s best to organize everything into a few broad but distinct categories with easy-to-use drop-down menus, and you could also use color, texture, and images to segment things in unique ways (and don’t forget to have a prominent search bar).
2. Developing a Quick, Easy, and Secure Checkout Experience
You should always endeavour to optimize your checkout experience where you can, as this element forms the very core of your online store. If it’s too long-winded and complicated for your customers to pay for the goods or services they want, they’re much more likely to abandon their shopping cart.
For one, you should always offer a guest checkout option, as many people don’t want to go through the hassle of creating an account. More generally, try to minimize the number of steps involved as much as possible and work to reduce those clicks.
3. Provide Personalized Recommendations
Personalized recommendations are a big part of the retail experience, and it’s no different in the online world.
If you have the option, use a recommendation engine on the back end of your site to offer customers unique recommendations based on what they’ve previously browsed for and bought. You can implement these tools throughout the search page and also at the cart to entice shoppers with last-minute purchases.
4. Improving Loading Speed
And finally, it’s key to remember that we live in a world where people’s attention spans are greatly reduced from what they were even ten years ago, so make sure your website loads nice and fast.
You can improve speeds in a number of ways, such as by compressing images (but without compromising on quality) and using a website hosting service that’s known for utilizing fast and reliable servers.
Wrapping Up
Hopefully, you now have a solid idea of how to better design your website to be conducive to long-term customers. Start by getting that all-important smooth navigation down, and systematically work through the list until you have a site to be proud of. Good luck!
Collaborative Post
SA Examiner 