5 UX Improvements You Can Make To Your Online Store In 1 Day

Just like a brick-and-mortar store, the work of running, maintaining, and upkeeping a retail site is never finished. Your online store evolves as your business does, and merchants need to keep abreast of changing design trends and industry practices to keep their customers satisfied.

As the global population of online shoppers continues to grow year over year, maintaining user satisfaction remains an issue for online merchants. In fact, only 1% of users say that eCommerce sites reliably meet their expectations.

While most eCommerce companies understand the importance of a seamless and engaging user experience, many don’t take the time to make consistent updates based on ever-evolving market trends and user behavior-resulting in missed conversion and sales opportunities.

As a UX design agency and a certified eCommerce expert, Codal often sees merchants balk at the thought of retooling their website-it can seem like a huge undertaking. But upgrading your eCommerce site doesn’t mean an overhaul of the navigation or a complete redesign of the UI.

You can enhance your customer experience with a few simple changes that are easy to implement-so easy in fact, that when you’re done reading this you could add them to your store today.

Optimize Your Product Descriptions

Did you know that roughly 70% of all online shopping carts are abandoned? There are many ways to address this issue, but one of the fastest and simplest solutions is optimizing your product pages. Through accurate, detailed, and concise product descriptions that answer any question a consumer may have, you can decrease buyer anxiety, and increase the likelihood of your customers following through with purchases.

While the visual presentation of your store’s products is paramount, many merchants fail to utilize the product’s description text to boost conversion. Often, the description is copied directly from the manufacturer, or hastily written as a placeholder that gets forgotten.

But when written correctly, product descriptors can act as valuable tools in the conversion process. Your product description needs to be a blend of informative and promotional. It should concisely tell the user everything they need to know about the product, while also serving as a persuasive device.

Product listings shouldn’t be displayed in lengthy paragraphs, but rather broken down into aesthetically appealing chunks. We recommend writing the technical specs and stats of the product in bulleted form while writing a short paragraph that references the user, shows value, and uses emotionally charged, descriptive language.

Revisit Your Value Proposition

Your value proposition is arguably the most important aspect of your eCommerce site. It describes what your online store sells, and why users should patron it instead of the competition. But since users only stay on a web page for ten to twenty seconds on average, the manner in which you present your brand’s value proposition is critical.

To get the message across as effectively as possible in such a short window of time, your value proposition should be summarized in concise copy and should be the first thing a user reads when visiting your site. For example, Codal’s value proposition is clear: we use UX design to grow businesses.

Ask someone unfamiliar with your site to visit and see if they can explain what you sell after five seconds on the page. If they can’t, it’s time to reframe your value proposition. This can be achieved by simply rewriting the copy to make it clearer, or more succinct, but it can also be accomplished with other UX design changes.

Consider emphasizing images that showcase your products in use, or highlighting any additional value that accompanies the product, like free shipping or an included warranty. Ask yourself how every element on your homepage works together to answer the customer’s question: what do you sell, and why should I buy from you?

Boost Credibility

Despite the rise of eCommerce, many consumers still have concerns about online shopping, fearing fraudulent websites and the security of their financial or personal information. It’s important to ease this reluctance with a few quick-fix design changes.

These can be as simple as emphasizing your contact information or prominently displaying the logos from certified secure payment services. For a more in-depth solution, you can highlight your product testimonials or customer reviews-as 95% of consumers read reviews before making a purchase. But this may not be a quick-fix option if you’re looking for a robust review display.

Other ways to boost your credibility and provide your customers with peace of mind is to showcase any press your business may have received, awards your products have won, or, if applicable, notable clients that have used your services previously.

Revamp Call To Actions

Like product descriptions, the placement, design, and copy used for calls to action (CTAs) often gets hastily created and shelved under “we’ll come back to it later,” when it should be one of the most scrutinized elements of your retail site.

Ask yourself how well your CTAs are performing. Is there room for improvement? Do they consistently convert users? The good thing about CTAs is that they’re easy to tweak and test-if you try a new CTA button and it flops, it isn’t hard to revert back to your tried-and-true one.

Also, don’t forget to reevaluate the CTAs on your brand’s social channels. If you don’t currently display CTAs on your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram pages, start doing so immediately. Studies show that on Facebook alone, adding CTAs can increase your click-through rate by 285%.

The best CTAs use dynamic, actionable language that’s written concisely and gives the user a sense of urgency. Your CTAs should use catching colors (without being garish), while also being easy to locate, read, and understand. If your CTA is lacking in any of these areas, it’s time for an upgrade.

Last But Not Least…

While all of the changes discussed in this article can be implemented in a single day, there’s an even easier way to improve your eCommerce site — actually use it.

As a UX design agency, Codal sees a surprising amount of merchants who are so busy with other aspects of their business that they don’t visit their own online store as a customer.

Whether you’re trying from different mobile devices, tablets, or just a regular desktop computer, entering the mindset of an unbiased customer and traveling through your own conversion funnel can reveal all sorts of pain points or areas of improvement your website needs.

And if you do find major issues, or if you simply feel as if your website’s outdated, you can contact a trusted UX design company that specializes in eCommerce websites like yours.

Team up with Codal to enhance your UX

Our passion is helping eCommerce companies solve problems via elegant digital solutions. We regularly conduct audits of our clients’ websites, identify areas in need of improvement, then carry out any design changes and implementations. Also, once a project is finished, we provide ongoing web maintenance and support for our clients, acting as less of a simple UX design agency and more of a long-term digital partner.
With an award-winning design team, backed by cutting-edge technology and a data-driven strategy, we can help improve user engagement, increase conversions, and boost revenue for your online store. Interested in learning more about how Codal can help bring new life to your eCommerce website? Reach out to us today!

Originally published at https://codal.com.