5 eCommerce UX Strategies that Can Boost Conversions

There’s a lot that’s been said about improving UI for e-commerce sites. But for the overall UX design, the UI design is only a part of the story. Not putting enough of an emphasis on a great user experience can mean the difference between a sale and website abandonment. While there are many aspects of UX that you can improve, here are five different strategies that will help you see an immediate lift in your sales conversions.

#1 Improve the findability of your products

Ask yourself this question: can users easily find what they’re looking for? Are the product pages listed in the right categories? Do you have a search bar that can accurately help users discover what they’re looking for and can correct misspellings or make alternative suggestions? You want to make it as easy as possible for users. You don’t want them to expend much effort or else you risk them going elsewhere to make a purchase. Don’t stop at making it easy to find products users are looking for. Group similar or related products together so that users can discover other products they may possibly want. This improves their experience while also boosting the value of the average sale.

#2 Help users evaluate your products

Users that shop online will always look for some kind of guidance to help reassure their purchase. That’s why you need to look at your product pages and ensure that they do a good job in helping them make a decision. Do the products come with clear pictures (multiple pictures if needed)? Do they have all the necessary information and offer physical variations (sizes, color, shapes)? Are there reviews of the products posted by other customers? The gist is that you want to provide as much information for them so that they have choices available to them and the reassurance to make a purchase decision.

#3 Make it effortless to use the shopping cart

Shopping carts can often lower the conversion rate for e-commerce stores. Some shopping carts make the user go through multiple steps such as signing up as a user or making them enter their address multiple times. You want to make the process as easy as possible for users. For example, if you want to get them to sign up as a user, try to do so by offering an incentive after the sale is made. All their info can be prefilled and the users can sign up with a single click.

Another idea for improvement is to make it so that if the browser crashes after a certain point, there is a system that emails them and saves their information so that users can come back and make a quick purchase. The idea is to think about how to simplify the shopping cart process. By improving small aspects of the shopping cart, you’ll see incremental lifts in conversion over time.

#4 Help users feel secure about shopping with you

You want the user to know that they are safe shopping with you. Ensure that their privacy is protected and their information won’t be shared or sold. Let them know that order is a secure process and their financial information will be safe. Summarize their order before they click the order button at check out so that they know their order is correct. Show credibility through security seals, certifications and other design elements that signify trust for an e-commerce site. State your refund policies clearly so that users know they can shop with ease.

#5 Great customer service

Nothing feels as good as great customer service when dealing with a business. It’s important to realize that customer services goes beyond the visible website features/functionalities. The general rules apply here. You want to make it easy for users to reach you, provide a comprehensive FAQ section, give easy to understand directions, and follow up with customers over the phone when relevant. This is the ultimate UX win and is what often leads to referrals from your old customers.