The e-commerce market has significantly grown over the past few years and it continues to do so. In addition, more people are finding it convenient to conduct their shopping online. That’s why there are plenty of new e-commerce businesses being developed each day, to meet this increasing demand. However, online consumers are quite picky when it comes to choosing e-commerce stores to do business with, even with plenty of options to choose from. UI & UX for E-Commerce is crucial in capturing and retaining customers in this competitive landscape
The main reason is that many e-commerce websites aren’t performing too well and they simply cannot meet the needs and expectations of online consumers. For every new e-commerce business on the market, they must have a well-developed website that’s functional and usable. That way, e-commerce websites can provide customers with an amazing user interface (UI) and a seamless user experience (UX). Here are a few reasons why UI and UX are so important for e-commerce.
1. Importance of UI and its elements
The user interface design refers to what your customers see when they land on your website. UI is closely related to web design and its dynamics. For instance, interface design, or how users interact with the website, aesthetic design, or the visual representation of the website and how it feels, and information design i.e. information architecture (IA) or how organized the information is and how well it’s presented to the user are all major elements of the UI design.
UI elements can be further broken down into intractable features and content on the website, such as a search bar, breadcrumbs, tags, lists, and so on. How it all comes together, is what’s truly important. UI design helps customers navigate through pages on the website and easily find what they’re looking for. For e-commerce websites that have plenty of products on display, everything must be categorized and organized accordingly so that the customers can browse without any difficulties.
2. What’s UX and why is it so important?
User experience can be defined as the sum of all experiences customers have while on your website. Aspects that influence UX are website’s performance, functionality, user-friendliness, and usability. In short, everything that happens on your website, whether it’s good or bad, has an impact on the user experience.
This is crucial for e-commerce websites, especially since consumers expect a seamless experience when browsing through goods on your website. If you’re uncertain that you can create an exceptional UX and UI, you should consider getting some help from a digital agency. If customers’ expectations aren’t adequately met, they’ll abandon your website for good. Let’s have a look at some of the important factors that influence UX.
3. Website speed
Fast-loading pages are essential for UX. Online consumers can quite easily get aggravated if your website takes too long to load pages. In this particular scenario, too long can mean a single-second delay in page loading time. A single-second delay can cause a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction and a 7% decrease in conversion rate.
In monetary terms, if your e-commerce website makes $100,000 per day, a one-second delay can cost you $2.5 million annually in lost sales. Moreover, 47% of online consumers expect your web page to load in 2 seconds or less, while 67% of mobile users expect it to load in less than 4 seconds. Therefore, if your website is sluggish, your customers will quickly become dissatisfied.
4. Responsive design
Nowadays, mobile usage has surpassed that of the desktop. Today, there are over 3.7 billion mobile users, and mobile traffic accounts for 52.64% of all Internet traffic worldwide. That’s why e-commerce websites must account for mobile users browsing their websites. However, it’s no longer enough to have a mobile-friendly website.
Online consumers are now expecting a responsive design when visiting websites via mobile devices. Having a responsive design means that your website can easily adapt to any screen size and any device. It certainly beats having two versions of the same website, both in cost and functionality. If you’re planning on delivering a good UX, you simply cannot ignore mobile users and their need for responsiveness.
5. Security
Customers provide sensitive data, such as personal and credit card information, when making purchases on e-commerce websites. It’s important to adequately implement website security, to protect customer privacy and ensure their satisfaction. Proper security measures are also another aspect that influences UX. Imagine having a flawless design and performance on your website, but once your customers reach the checkout page, they discover that there’s not even a proper HTTPS protocol.
You can be sure that customers will abandon their carts immediately. Consumers are savvier these days and they can see if your website is secured or not. After all, it’s they who risk exposing their sensitive information on your website. That’s why you must have strong security so that you can guarantee a good UX.
UI and UX are equally important for a good e-commerce website. Moreover, they play a vital role in determining customer satisfaction, engagement, and even loyalty. If you plan on having happy customers, you must focus on improving your website, so that it can provide a seamless UX and an excellent UI for customers to enjoy.
About Author:
My name is Raul, editor in chief at Technivorz blog. I have a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing.
