UX in e-commerce - simply explained

The user experience that your store offers determines your success as a retailer. We'll show you what UX is all about!

"UX" in e-commerce? You should know about it!

Do you remember what the majority of online stores looked like in the early 2000s? Lots of small sections, overwhelming menus with brightly colored fonts or navigation tiles that resembled a broken jigsaw puzzle. Today, such online presences would cause some amusement, but certainly no conversions.

As an entrepreneur or business owner, you know that the user experience offered by a store plays a decisive role in its success. More and more people are shopping for more and more different products online, which means that the importance of UX in e-commerce stores is also increasing.

"UX" stands for user experience, i.e. the experience that users have with a product, service or website. It is a term that has played an increasingly important role in e-commerce in recent years.

It's true that UX is mainly implemented by website designers or copywriters. However, it is important for you as an e-commerce entrepreneur to know the importance and impact of UX on your business.

The same principle applies as for the Jobs-to-be-done-A successful e-commerce company focuses on the needs of its customers when designing its products and services. The user experience transfers this principle to the shopping experience and ensures that your customers' experiences on your website also meet all the requirements for a well-rounded, satisfying user experience.

"If you create a great experience, customers will tell each other about it. Word of mouth is very powerful!"

- Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon

But what exactly is the user experience and how does it affect the success of your e-commerce company? What are the elements of a good UX? And what are the steps to implement them?

What is UX and how does it affect your e-commerce website?

The three pillars of an e-commerce company's success are as follows:

1. A great product that meets the needs of customers.
2. High-quality content and designs on the e-commerce platform.
3. A satisfying experience when using the website that meets the various needs of customers: easy to find all the information they need, convenient selection of possible solutions, smooth, irritation-free shopping experience, in short: a positive user experience.

This means more specific and more relevant for you:

The overall user experience with your store makes the difference between satisfied and frustrated customers:

Good UX increases sales and conversion rates

E-commerce stores that offer a good user experience have higher conversion rates than those that contain certain moments of frustration. It has been shown that with a poor user experience, an average of 76 out of 100 customers go as far as the checkout, but then do not complete it. This is referred to as Cart abandonment.

Good UX improves customer loyalty

A bad user experience can drive customers away from your business and to competitors' websites. In fact, 90 % of customers share their negative experiences with others online. So not only may they never return to your website, they may also discourage others from visiting it in the first place.

That's why it's so important to make visitors to your website and customers of your brand feel comfortable. Not only will you encourage them to shop with you again in the future, you will also motivate them to advertise you to their friends and family for free.

Good UX reduces the bounce rate

The bounce rate is the number of visitors who leave your website immediately after accessing it. A high bounce rate can have various causes, e.g. poor design or confusing navigation elements. Web users are impatient because the next store is always just a click away. On the other hand, if you offer a pleasant user experience, visitors will be happy to stay on your site for longer - Google and others reward this with good rankings, which in turn means more people find their way through your virtual store door.

The elements of a good user experience

So much for the theory. So what does UX actually involve? User experience can be divided into four categories:

1. Utility / Usefulness
2. Usability / suitability for use
3. Accessibility
4. Desirability / Desirability

"Utility" and "usability" are closely related and together form "usefulness".

1. utility

Utility answers the question of whether your e-commerce website provides the elements that customers expect: this includes a check-out process, attractive and informative product presentation and a high quality of the information provided.

2. usability

Usability describes how clear and easy it is to use the website. The aim here is to guide customers to their purchase without any annoying stumbling blocks or unnecessary detours.

The most important strategies are:

• Simple and intuitive navigation.

Here, it is crucial how quickly users can find what they are looking for. Categories and products must be logically organized. Every element of the website (text, images, links, buttons, etc.) should be well thought out and serve the sole purpose of informing - not confusing.

• An easy to find and stable Search function for the whole page.
• Optimal presentation of content for mobile devices.
• Clear and quick Check-out transaction with as few clicks as possible.
• Micro-interactionsthat support without being intrusive.
• Website texts and CTAsthat are optimized for a user experience with a certain flow.
  In detail, this means, for example, that buttons are labeled briefly, clearly and precisely and show what happens in the next step: Instead of "Next", visitors read "Download e-book", for example. This also means that texts should be informative but easy to understand, written in the language of the customer. So you need to understand exactly whether you are preparing content for B2C customers without in-depth prior knowledge or for B2B specialists, for example.

3. accessibility

The importance of accessibility for online presences has become increasingly clear and important in recent years. This now also has an impact on the evaluation of a website's SEO. The idea is that the internet and its content should be accessible to as many people as possible, including those with physical or mental disabilities.

Specifically, this involves

• visual,
• auditory and
• physiological barriers.

The aim of removing visual barriers is not to focus the usefulness of the website too strongly on colors, as this could cause difficulties for users with color or red-green vision deficits.

Audibly accessible UX is aimed at people with impaired hearing. People who have limited or no hearing need alternatives for audio playback on websites. Information is displayed as text for people with hearing impairments. Videos display subtitles accordingly.

Physiological barriers relate to restrictions in fine motor skills. In this area, it is important not to make the buttons and links relevant for use too small, especially the clickable areas of the navigation.

4. desirability

When it comes to desirability, it's all about making your e-commerce website appealing in terms of design so that it creates a good feeling for customers. Why is design so important? According to a study by Adobe, more than a third of visitors leave a website immediately simply because they find it visually unattractive.

Conclusion

When you combine the right UX design strategies with a strong e-commerce website, you can offer a user-friendly website that makes shopping easy and enjoyable. Loyal users who remain loyal to your website are one thing above all: profitable. They ensure ongoing sales and act like magnets for potential new customers.

In short: a smart, motivating user experience brings in money. So it is definitely worth investing the necessary time, energy and planning.

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