The technological innovation witnessed in the last two decades has led to the boom of eCommerce globally. Ecommerce stores are slowly replacing brick and mortar stores. An estimate by Forbes Magazine indicates that eCommerce is currently worth $6.7 trillion. Alibaba and Amazon are the giants in the eCommerce space.
User experience plays a significant role in eCommerce especially in encouraging and making it easier for the customer to buy goods/services offered. User experience refers to the functionality and aesthetics of an application or a website. Users prefer interactive, engaging, rich, and easy-to-use websites. Now, let’s look at how user experience affects eCommerce stores.
Increased Revenue
Websites with good user experience generate higher revenues. Customers don’t like ordering from eCommerce platforms that are cumbersome to use. A good user experience informs customers how the product/service meets their needs. Surveys show that 76 out of 100 online shoppers stop shopping mid-way. This is attributed to poor user experience.
A Good User Experience Increases Conversion Rates
When customers experience a great user experience on an eCommerce platform, they are more likely to recommend others. Word of mouth or recommendations is a powerful form of advertisement. Hence, user experience plays a significant role in the success or failure of an eCommerce platform.
Great user experience doesn’t only mean aesthetics. Great user experience is derived from logic and transitions, elaborate micro-interactions, and a quick feedback system. Attractive product display, easy payment systems, and features that are perceived as attractive affect user experience.
Customer Satisfaction
Ecommerce platforms that provide excellent user experience report an increase in customer satisfaction. When customers are satisfied, they become loyal and are likely to return. Furthermore, they are likely to subscribe for membership, leave good reviews, and recommend their friends. Poor user experience turns customers away.
Lower Cost of Development
If you have a good user experience incorporated early on during the development of an eCommerce platform, it significantly reduces the cost of development. Including a good user experience later on, after the online store is built can be costly. Moreover, having a good user experience earlier saves time for developers.
Better Employee Satisfaction
Good user experience leads to employee satisfaction because it enables them to offer good customer service, increase productivity, increase the quality of the product, and retain employees. This lowers the cost of hiring and training employees.
Tips for Improving User Experience in Your Ecommerce Store
A Simplified Navigation Pane
Having many tabs, menus, commands, and buttons is confusing to customers and make your eCommerce store difficult to navigate. For example, Amazon the biggest eCommerce platform has a simple user interface, which makes it easy for customers to find what they need.
Make It Easy for Customers to Checkout and Pay
Customers should be able to checkout and pay quickly as this leads to high conversion rates. This can be achieved by including different payment methods and having a guest checkout experience.
Make Menu Elements Attractive
Don’t include complex menus like slide-in menus (hamburger menus) because they hide key elements and make it difficult for customers to navigate. Concentrate on adding attractive elements.
