A successful brick and mortar store puts a lot ofthought into the design and feel of their store long before they open doors. Thereis thought put into the flooring, the paint on the walls, and the music that will play while customers shop. The location of the cash registers, how theaisles will flow, and where management will stand are all considered during theconstruction process of a store. A good shopping experience can make you feelbetter about the money you just spent and one of the best ways a business cancreate that for a customer is good design. For e-commerce businesses the samerules apply. In order to succeed you must create a beautiful space for yourcustomers that is easy to navigate and creates a comfortable experience. If youfeel like you are losing sales because of poor design or usability, here aresome tips that will help improve your sites usability:
Minimize the number of clicks: Effective E-Commerce navigation should make it easy for yourcustomers to find what they are looking for as quickly as possible. This is becoming increasingly important as more users are visiting websites from mobile devices.
Simple Checkout: One thing that can cause a user to abandon their cart is a long and tedious check-out process before finalizing a purchase. In order to minimize the chance of customers getting frustrated, provide one-click purchasing option to your customers or the option to check out as a guest rather than create an account.
Breadcrumb Navigation: When placing orders, customers have to know where they stand in their purchase process - how many steps they have accomplished and how many more there are to go. Without breadcrumb navigation, customers will get easily or believe that their in for a long journey. Also, breadcrumb navigation will help your customers return to previous stages and edit mistakes they may have made during the process.
Suggest Related Items: By showing recommended and related products online store can increase the user experience and more importantly the sales.
Don't hide any fees: Hidden fees are one of the main reasons shoppers might abandon their carts during the checkout process. Having a transparent shopping cart is essential when it comes to creating a usable e-commerce site.
Conclusion: Building a beautiful website is important but if it is created without thinking of the end user or how the site will function, its useless. Also, keep in mind that every store is different and constant usability testing and collecting customer feedback is crucial for e-commerce success.