What is Ecommerce User Experience?

In simpler words, the primary focus of a regular user experience (UX) design is to determine what will make the customer’s purchase process easier, more sensible, and more satisfying.

BigCommerce is here to help. You can make and modify pages quickly and easily by using Page Builder – no need for coding. All you need to do is drag-and-drop the content.

Imagine yourself walking into a brick and mortar store. You are looking for something that’s hard to locate. When reaching out for help, a customer service representative may be seen occupied in playing a game or sending messages on their phone.

How would you feel? Annoyed? Disheartened? You’d probably just walk out! These feelings also apply for online businesses. There is a large amount of income that goes unfound due to an increase in the number of people abandoning their shopping carts.

Let’s illustrate this with an example:

Amazon.com : The Godfather of Ecommerce. The million dollar venture is renowned for the A/B testing techniques they employ for their shopping cart. Despite having constructed a website that was widely regarded as disordered, the firm has continued to make alterations on a regular basis.

What did they actually do?

First, they focused on top billing. Amazon makes sure to provide the essential information quickly, including the cost and savings, customer comments and ratings, and even if the product is in stock.

They highlighted the “buy button” by changing the color of the background around it. In addition to this, Amazon began to provide free delivery – one of the most attractive motives for customers to purchase products. Amazon completely remedied the issue of needing to wait for online purchases to arrive which has been a problem for online shopping.

Ecommerce UX Drives Conversion

The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, claims that if one creates an excellent experience, people will talk to one another about it. Word of mouth is very powerful.

UX design is a key factor in determining the success or failure of any ecommerce venture, and it goes beyond just the look and feel of it.

Beginning with detailed reasoning and transitions, along with swift reaction from the system, attractive display of the product, simple payment process and several intuitive components, every one of these elements may have an influence on your ecommerce situation explicitly or implicitly.

Some of the basic yet crucial factors you should take into account include:

Operational simplicity.
Design that’s not overshadowing the ecommerce site.
Product promotion.
Security of user’s data.
Appropriate visual elements such as menus and catalogs.

It’s like stumbling into a retail store that is incredibly chaotic and unkempt.

I’m certain you’d like to make it simpler, not more difficult, for customers to buy your goods. Want to avoid this? Let’s take a look at SkullCandy ’s work.

The well-known website, established on BigCommerce, is distinct from its competitors due to its vivid colors and meticulous product photos. Product descriptions and relevant information are prominently featured on detail pages. The business really goes to extreme lengths on their offerings and tunes, corporate setting, and so on.

While visiting the website, my first impression was extremely positive and I thought that it had a smooth and effortless interface that kept users engaged throughout the entire experience. The mobile ecommerce design is exceptional in providing customers with their desired user experience in a very expedient manner.

E-Commerce Website Design Tips and Best Practices in 2023

Design is an opportunity to make a positive initial impact for an online store. The usability of the website or app will determine how long people are going to stay and how much product they will purchase. It is evident how essential all design components are, ranging from the attractive user interface to the intricate user experience. It’s not only appearance that matters in e-commerce website design, but also functionality.

In addition to the well-thought-out marketing plan, it is essential to package it attractively and in a way that allows for easy consumption. It only takes a moment for someone to decide whether they will remain or not. In a hotly contested market of ecommerce, websites serve as a way to show the worth of the items and retain customer interest. There must be an incentive for people to utilize a particular website, and the layout can act as this incentive.

Up to now, only about two-thirds of small entrepreneurs in the US had a website. This quantity is increasing as time goes on, as an increasing amount of businesses acknowledge the significance of having an online presence. The situation with COVID-19 coronavirus only intensified it. The use of online shopping has greatly increased and business owners can no longer ignore it.

It is vital to understand how to generate effective electronic commerce sites that are able to generate sales. Let’s examine the key elements to take into account when constructing an e-commerce website.

Use quality photos and videos

Since there is no prospect of actually experiencing the products, people looking at them can solely rely on the photos and videos of them. This is a situation where brick-and-mortar stores are unarguably advantageous. At least, for now. It is essential that photos and videos used on a contemporary e-commerce website be of good quality. The higher quality of this visual representation, the more favorably users will view this particular e-commerce site. This incorporates high-resolution images, panoramic views, 3D simulations, and video recordings.

According to the most recent report from the Baymard Institute, 25% of e-commerce sites do not feature high-quality visuals of their products. This leads to page abandonment. At first, people find it strange to carefully examine pictures that have been broken into pixels. Second, poor photos can ruin the overall impression of the items. No matter how great the items are, poor pictures will make them appear just as bad. In addition, people have the impression that inferior photos suggest that the store does not take into consideration the importance of trying to make a sale, so they will most likely look for another store that gives them more respect.

Photographs that can be enlarged to show greater detail are becoming customary. It is important to have an appropriate amount of zoom to ensure that users are able to get the data they need.

Add convenient navigation, filtering, and search

Convenience is the main reason why people shop online. What will be the purchase amount of someone who is not at ease? At present, a large focus within UX design is to come up with websites that make it simple for people to take advantage of and at the same time, effectively steer them to the key step – completing a sale, offering contacts information, enrolling, and so on. A designer must consider every minor detail to accomplish this.

It is important that the website have an orderly layout so that visitors can move through it without confusion. The links should be logically connected and make sense to the user so they can find their way from one page to the next without having to try and piece together the flow. Menu — product page — cart — and back. In order to succeed, specialists in graphic design businesses generate customer journey diagrams and trial multiple solutions. As a result, the most optimal ones get selected.

The brand logo should lead to the homepage and always remain in sight, no matter how deep the user goes.
The catalog helps users switch to the correct category of products and find what they need.
Breadcrumbs allow users to return to several hierarchical positions and thus expand the search field.
Filtering allows excluding unnecessary items from massive search results and leads consumers from the homepage to the product page.
The search bar lets users quickly find a particular item or category. It should be prominent and easy to find.

An essential factor to bear in mind when constructing an electronic commerce platform is the concept or ambiance of the shop. For instance, at a furniture store with 100K products, the most important factor is not the aesthetics of individual items, but rather how simple it is to search and explore the catalog. For the store that has 100 products on display, the design is the most important factor. You can experiment with some updated website navigation techniques (all while still ensuring that the website is user friendly), and get rid of the search bar completely.

Put emphasis and maintain the visual hierarchy

Sticking with the topic of creating a well-organized system and a fluid shopping experience. The most essential data sections should be placed at the beginning of the page. For example, on almost every online store homepage, you can see the following elements that help understand what the website is about:

logo and name in the header
search bar
navigation menu
contacts
A hero image or a slider
an area with the main content
footer.

A design that effectively promotes its features has a clearly defined visual structure. A basic layout and logical visual organization aid visitors in utilizing the e-commerce site. Because of the inclusion of CTAs, the user is prompted to quickly identify the direction to take in order to find the wanted area, with just a few words providing useful knowledge. By using colors or typography to highlight your sale section or most recent products, it can act as an incentive for customers and create a sense of urgency.

Additionally, someone in the West would scan a page reading in the pattern of F then Z. A designer has the ability to alter the path a user takes and direct them to the important sections of the website, due to visual hierarchy principles. This helps the user get to their desired outcome.

Stick to simplicity and appeal to the wider audience

A e-commerce site should be simple to navigate and easy to process. A website does not need a detailed or complex visual style to be interesting. A website design that is successful from an e-commerce perspective should encompass minimalism, cleanliness, refinement, and the ability to show off products.

Everything should be done intentionally, with nothing interfering with the user being able to focus on the content. It is particularly essential to make sure not to provide too much data on sites that offer a great selection of items. The best e-commerce design is light and spacious.

The pinnacle of success is attained when there are no more additions to be made, not when nothing else remains to be taken away.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

There is also a risk that the user will be opposed to new notions or novel choices as far as e-commerce sites are concerned. The more intricate the format of the e-commerce site, the likelier it is that the customer won’t comprehend or be fond of it. It’s advantageous to pick established templates that have been utilized on other webpages.

Plenty of white background, no more than three colors on each page, solid hues and tints, uncomplicated and legible fonts – these are the elements that make up successful e-commerce sites. The buyer must be able to observe the big picture, instead of just focusing on the details. The most beneficial information should not be obscured by the appealing design.

Make the checkout process and payments faster.

Have you considered making payment methods for customers as convenient as possible? Ultimately, this change leads to an augment in conversions and sales. Here are some tips to help facilitate payments for your customers and boost sales.

Provide numerous payment methods (e.g. debit or credit card, Apple pay, PayPal)- According to reports, 56% of respondents expect a variety of payment options on the checkout page.
Do not force people to sign up; it’s a major conversion rate killer.
Have a seamless look and feel on your checkout page.
Offer a guest checkout experience.
Minimal form fields (seriously, the less the better!).

Use eye-catching elements to draw attention.

These days, no one is fascinated by hamburger (or slide-out) menus – it is recommended to remove them right away, particularly in mobile user experience. These kinds of menus obscure essential components and create more complexity for the user. Last year, Spotify and Next both got rid of their hamburger menu when they overhauled their websites. It appears that the situation is beginning to change.

Instead, focus on adding eye-catching elements to your website. Product images and additional types of media, for example movies, social media, or user created content, can accomplish this objective successfully and with a lot of imagination. Examine your clientele and comprehend what attracts them and take advantage of that.

Take a note from minimalism.

Minimalism and maximalism stand at opposite ends in terms of design trends, just as yin and yang are completely different. No matter their variations, they are involved in all categories of labor, ranging from writing, artwork, and scholarly exploration.

Digital media is no exception. Minimalist design centers around emphasizing the product or emphasizing a certain phrase that a company wants viewers to take note of. The main objective of the homepage should be to provide an atmosphere and a sense of quality for the brand instead of giving out a great deal of information.