Optimizing Your Ecommerce Website Design to Boost Conversions

 

Today’s ecommerce website conversion rates are lower than most people realize. In fact, the industry average is currently hovering just under the 5% mark. Given this reality, you should seize every opportunity to optimize your digital strategy, engage shoppers, and ensure their ability to complete purchases quickly and easily.

Good ecommerce website design should be at the top of your list of priorities. When people shop online, often their only experience with your brand is your website. The modern consumer expects a seamless, personalized journey — an effortless path that leads them from initial click to the completion of their purchase. Anything that hinders this shopping experience has the potential to drive clients away. For example, consider that nearly eight in 10 consumers would stop engaging with content that doesn’t display well on their device.

Good website design ensures that the shopping experience is fast, easy, and as personalized as possible. This is the best way to engage users and boost those all-important conversion rates.

Things to consider when optimizing your ecommerce website design.

How does an ecommerce website designer create seamless, personalized shopping journeys for a wide range of customers? Developers at top ecommerce sites use a number of different methods to make sure that they give shoppers the best experience possible, thereby reducing bounce rates and boosting conversions. Here are a few of the most important things to consider.

Embrace mobile functionality.

As more and more shoppers interact with brands on their phones, a huge consideration for your website’s design is making sure that users have the same experience across every channel, on every device. This makes mobile functionality and responsive design essential.

For example, did you know that mobile pages that load one second faster experience up to a 27% increase in conversion rates? As such, optimizing your ecommerce site for mobile is no longer an added bonus or afterthought; it should be your main priority. It is imperative that your site works across every major device and operating system, ensuring that you are not automatically ruling out a large portion of shoppers. A good way to prevent problems across devices is to use a platform that prioritizes responsive design. This saves time on testing and guarantees that your site will function well anytime, anywhere, on any device.

When it comes to designing mobile experiences, it is also important to embrace the latest innovations that respond to today’s consumer demands. For example, one-touch mobile payment option and optimized checkouts have been proven to reduce abandoned carts, giving mobile shoppers fast, easy purchase methods that maximize convenience — and conversion rates.

 
 

BEST PRACTICES GUIDE

Six Ways to Master Mobile-Friendly Site Design

To increase conversion rates and ensure growth, you must embrace mobile website design and provide shoppers with a truly mobile-first experience. These six best practices will help.

Grab a shopper’s attention — and keep it.

Writers and ecommerce web developers alike will be familiar with the “inverted pyramid” concept. This is essential in crafting an effective webpage that captures browsing customers and inspires them to pause, consume, and engage with your content. Following the inverted pyramid model, place the most eye-catching important message and desired action at the top, then follow with supporting content and secondary actions. Since most visitors rarely scroll past the first or second message presented to them, it is important to lead with something strong, leaving background details for the bottom of the page.

How you present your content is as important as the order in which you present it. Most people tend to quickly scan website pages, jumping from headline to image to text, and from page to page. The use of catchy headlines, images that engage directly with both the content and the user, and concise, action-oriented messaging are all great tricks to catch the user’s scanning eye and ensure that your message is read. Be careful not to go overboard — too many images, colors, headlines, and fonts can be as difficult to navigate as no variation at all.

Prioritize your clicks.

Did you know that with every click, you lose a large percentage of your audience? Make sure that the journey to purchase is quick by minimizing the number of steps it takes to find a product and complete a transaction. It is also essential to make sure that your main call to action is featured prominently near the top of the page, with a clear purpose and destination. Try not to drown the page with links and buttons that compete for attention. Use thoughtful design to visually prioritize the clicks that are most important to both you and your customers.

Make it personal.

Many ecommerce sites are not reaching their full conversion potential, but with personalized site content, that doesn’t have to be the case. Personalization puts customers at the heart of your site, allowing you to speak directly with all shoppers and tailor their experiences to every click they make. Personalization techniques include serving up different designs tailored to different target audiences, tailoring search results to each user’s individual shopping behavior, and providing personalized product recommendations through the power of AI.

Promote conversation.

Personalization extends beyond content. Social media platforms have made it possible for customers to engage with your brand conversationally. This creates a unique opportunity to build personal relationships and inspire brand loyalty and evangelism, provided that you are willing to take advantage of it.

Ensure that all your webpages have easy-to-find links to all your social media platforms, and be sure that your brand’s message is consistent across all channels. When clients reach out to you over social media, don’t let them go unanswered. Show them that you value them as individuals, and respond promptly and politely. Answer questions, address concerns, or even just chat. When shoppers see that your brand is willing to meet them on their turf, they’ll be more willing to do business.

Be informative.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that your website visitors know everything you know about your products, services, and business. They’re likely encountering your brand for the first time, and they may have only the most basic knowledge going into the experience. First-time users can easily become overwhelmed and will not hesitate to leave your site if they are confused or cannot find the information they need to make confident purchasing decisions.

Level with them. Take an objective look at who you are and what you are offering, and try to anticipate the questions, objections, and concerns your targeted audience may have. Address these issues directly on your page using clear, concise language, and easy-to-consume formats. Your customers must be able to find what they need to make an intelligent decision without having to expend a lot of effort.

Keep checkout simple.

Not everyone who browses your site and fills an online shopping cart is going to end up completing their transaction. In truth, as many as 77.3% of online retail orders are abandoned prior to purchase. Why is this? While there may be any number of factors in play, the most likely explanation is that the checkout processes themselves are simply too complicated.

User experience is paramount in any retail business, but even more so in ecommerce. Users can abandon their cart, close their browser, or take their shopping elsewhere with no more than a click of a button. If any aspect of your page ends up confusing or slowing them down, you will lose them.

The solution is to keep it simple. Cut out any unnecessary obstacles. Request only the information you need. Allow buyers to make purchases without having to set up an account. Offer multiple payment options. Make errors easy to fix, without forcing customers to restart the purchase or payment process.

Shoppers who make it to checkout are nearly at the finish line. Make their last few steps straightforward and easy, and they’ll be much more likely to see it through.

Today’s shopper is connected and tech-savvy, and expects the latest and greatest website experiences from brands — including yours. That said, keeping up with the latest trends is a double-edged sword.

If you start relying too heavily on trends to drive your site design, you may find yourself scrambling as the latest feature quickly becomes obsolete. For example, website slide features are still a popular aspect on many ecommerce websites, but their effectiveness is in question — a recent study showed that only 1% of all website visitors clicked on a five-feature slider, 89% of whom only clicked on the first image.

It is just as dangerous to ignore trends altogether, especially if there is evidence to back up their effectiveness. Don’t be afraid to take risks and try new things — just be sure to do your homework. We also recommend testing website design changes to see if your new vision actually resonates with your audience. It is far easier to play with innovations and take design risks when you back them up with informed, data-based insights.

Don’t forget about post-launch.

The hard work doesn’t stop once you have a site design that you’re happy with. Both before and after launch, your ecommerce web developers should constantly monitor and update the site to keep things running smoothly. These are just a few of the tasks required:

  • Regular audits and analysis of your competitors are essential. Review sites, social media, customer experiences, pricing, and market positions regularly to stay up to date with the market.
  • Regular audits are also important for your own site. For example, don’t forget the importance of SEO audits and functionality reviews. For example, just a one-second delay in page load time can decrease your conversion rate by up to 7%. Make sure that everything is working smoothly and that any problems with functionality are corrected as soon as possible.
  • You can also use audits to monitor checkout flow and identify the most common places on the site where users stop shopping, bounce from the site, or abandon their carts. There are a lot of tools and programs that can help you track these vital behaviors and inform future design decisions.
With ecommerce on the rise, it is becoming increasingly important to design a website that can set your brand apart from the crowd. Providing each customer with a seamless, personalized journey that leads them to that final purchase and beyond is one of the best ways to make sure you are doing just that. With Commerce Cloud, you have access to the right tools and analytics needed to craft exactly this kind of exceptional digital journey across every channel and any device, inspiring shoppers and maximizing conversions.

Questions? We’ll put you on the right path.

Ask about Salesforce products, pricing, implementation, or anything else. Our highly trained reps are standing by, ready to help. Or, check out our packaging guide to learn more.