Due to the COVID19 pandemic, users are more flexible in the action or task of searching for products and services that they want or need to buy or hire. The data indicates that online stores or Ecommerce have suffered a considerable increase in both traffic and conversion.
When a user wants to buy a product, within an Ecommerce, a good fast, immediate, relevant and uncomplicated user experience must be offered adapted to any type of device.
20 UX principles or keys to improve purchases in Ecommerce or Online Stores
The fundamental basis for creating a good user experience in an Ecommerce or online store is to have people at the center of the design () that will use the digital product.
It is convenient to carry out research on how users search for a product, navigate through the product detail pages, how they interact with the shopping cart or basket and how they execute the Checkout task or purchase process.
After exhaustive research and analysis of the data and records obtained, we must be able to generate designs and experiences that meet the needs of users.
The key to a good user experience within an online store or Ecommerce is to accompany or guide the user throughout the purchase.
1. Ecommerce must load quickly on mobile devices
Users have little time to execute tasks. If the online store, be it a website or an application, loads slowly, it can frustrate people who want to use it and abandon the intention of searching for a product and possible purchase.
Using page load or rendering measurement tools is a good practice to keep it under control. For example, an interesting tool is Google Page Speed or Google Analytics. They are a Google tool that will give us an analysis and recommendations on how to improve the loading speed of the website.
2. Offer added values to encourage registration
More and more Ecommerce are offering the possibility of carrying out the purchase process without prior registration, or requesting too much data from users.
ANDThis type of purchase process as a “guest” usually has a better conversion rate in terms of the completion of the Checkout. User registration in an Ecommerce should only be required if it is essential or fundamental for the task they are performing.
We can check how many Ecommerce to be able to add a product to the Wishlist, favorites, create stock availability alerts or even for a Follow Price or “let me know if the price drops”, many data are requested from users.
3. Categorize the content well and create a good information architecture
The is a technique that helps to know the mental map of users in terms of organization and categorization of content. It is necessary to carry out a Card Sorting test in order to define a good information architecture.
Along with this test, we can also support ourselves for the definition of the information architecture with the .
The Tree Test is a usability evaluation technique to check content trees or the . It helps us to validate the content tree and to know if it is understood by the users.
At the moment in which the navigation menu of a website is generated, two factors must be taken into account:
- Your suitability to be found by search and indexing systems. Therefore, the labels that make up the menu are very important.
- Its suitability so that when a user reaches the website through a search engine, they are able to find other types of content in which they are interested. Therefore, we can say that the Tree test will help us to know if the Users are able to locate a specific item within the navigation tree, if users are able to find specific categories and if they find a menu link quickly or have to think hard to locate it.
4. The search engine is a key piece. Make it effective and efficient
The search results must be those expected by the users. Useful results must be produced.
In the search engine of an Ecommerce it is very important to take into account the vocabulary used by the user and know exactly how you search in order to offer interesting and expected results.
The recognition of the words, as well as the prediction of the texts together with the suggestions options offered while the user enters search terms in the search field, are key pieces to guarantee a good experience and success.
An agile search tool must be offered. That it helps to anticipate the errors made by users, reducing the probability of abandonment due to not finding the product.
5. Product detail pages with good information
For users who must make a decision about buying a product or not, within an online store, the information offered about the product itself and how it is offered is very important.
Some of the information, although it will depend on the type of product, can not miss on a product detail page are:
- Stock quantity.
- Available options (Color, Size, etc).
- Descriptions.
- Characteristic.
- Photos and videos.
- Shipping costs and delivery dates.
- Ratings and opinions of buyer users.
6. If there is a discount or savings option, it must be clearly visible
Some Ecommerce make the mistake of placing a single price on the product detail page or in the results that are obtained when a search is carried out when a product has a discount or saves the user.
To take advantage of promotions, You must show a comparison between the offer price and the original price of the product. It can be done in many ways, such as filtering the previous price crossed out, the percentage of price reduction, the amount that the user saves when buying the product resulting from the subtraction between the price without offer and with offer, etc.
7. The ratings and opinions of buyer users help make decisions
The opinions of other people are a strategic and key factor when making a purchase decision. The evaluations offer confidence to a user who is doubtful about purchasing a product in the Ecommerce.
Displaying the number of ratings as a numerical value and the total result of product ratings will help increase conversion and started shopping carts.
Allowing users to sort by most recent, best or worst and filtering those opinions will also be a key factor in saving time and effort in learning about the product.
It is also interesting to include the possibility for users to ask questions and these are answered or answered by other users who purchased the product.
8. Related products increase cross-selling
For all those users who are interested in purchasing a product, it is also interesting to show a module of related products as a recommendation.
This module can appear in different parts or pages of the Ecommerce, such as:
- The product detail page.
- The cart or shopping basket.
- Intermediate Basket (Between the card and the cart or basket).
9. The cart or shopping basket must be editable
It is important that users who have added a product to the cart or shopping basket can edit it so as not to have to go back in the conversion funnel.
The objective is for them to go to Checkout, therefore, everything that goes up through the funnel is a symptom of a bad experience and optimization of the navigation flow.
It is necessary to offer in the shopping cart the possibility of removing or modifying added items, as well as the quantity.
If a user accidentally adds a product to the cart or an unwanted quantity of product, if they can’t make the necessary corrections, they will be frustrated. He must be able to carry out that specific task of correcting the error in an easy and intuitive way.
10. Checkout forms should be easy to complete
Forms are a sensitive issue in Ecommerce, especially in purchase processes, login, registration, etc.
It is important that they are compatible with the methods that users use to enter information.
The way to validate each of the fields, as well as the way to anticipate and , is of the utmost importance.
In the payment process, many online stores have included the possibility of using the mobile device’s camera to scan the credit or debit card to save the user from entering all the data.
It is also important to bear in mind that, if we already have that user registered and they have previously logged in, we will be able to auto-complete many data at Checkout.
This is the first installment of two about UX keys or principles to increase sales and improve the user experience in an Ecommerce or Online store. I will post soon!
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