Having a good design is one of the essentials of an online shop. But with more entrepreneurs jumping in the online selling bandwagon, you need more than the basics. A user-centered Ecommerce web design can go beyond your customers' expectations and bring you benefits worth every investment.
What is User-Centered Design?
For Ecommerce websites, aesthetic design isn't enough anymore.To attract and retain your site visitors' attention, you need to focus beyond your visuals—you need a user-centered design.
A cognitive scientist and usability engineer named Don Norman coined the term user-centered design. It aims to create a pleasurable experience for the user, beginning with the customer experience to the technology rather than the other way around. In general, designers implement it with the user experience in mind. They have two goals: to make the site more usable and useful, always keeping the user at the center of their process.
In Ecommerce, user-centered design seeks to improve the customer experience, from websites to apps. By adopting this process, you can curate experiences that show your understanding of your target audience. When you take your audience as the center of your design process, you can put yourself in their shoes. It allows you to generate insights about their shopping patterns and optimize touchpoints to meet their needs at every stage of their journey.
Benefits of a User-Centered Web Design
User-centered design can improve your website's interaction with your customers. Amidst the competition in the Ecommerce marketplace, it's the best next step you can take for your site. See these benefits once you build it into your website:
1. Boost Traffic to Your Site
Among digital channels, search provides the best opportunity to meet and understand user intent. Consider this scenario: A user types a product name in a search bar. Whether for shopping, research, or informational purposes, they show intent the moment they go to a search engine. That's your chance to match what they're looking for.
As a business owner, you'll want to meet your audience's queries. With the right SEO strategy, you can rank high on the search engine results page (SERP) and up your chances of a potential visitor clicking on your listing. The higher you rank in the SERP, the wider your opportunity to generate brand awareness among your target audience.
How is this relevant to web design? Google evaluates if sites are easy to use. Their search algorithm considers the following factors that concern your web design:
- Browser compatibility
Your site must appear correctly in different browsers.
- Device compatibility
Users can view and navigate your site through different device types and sizes.
- Page loading speed
Your page loading time must work well, even for users with slow internet connections.
These factors focus on one thing—user experience. When you meet these items, Google will recognize that your Ecommerce site puts user experience first.In turn, you'll see your listing rank higher in the SERP, resulting in two things: a higher organic impression share and a better opportunity to drive traffic to your site.
2. Help Your Visitors Quickly Navigate Your Site
For Ecommerce sites, having a slow loading time is a big no-no. Let's look at some stats: Based on a study by KissMetrics, 47% of consumers expect a page to load in two seconds or less.
On top of that, if your loading time takes more than three seconds, you lose 40% of your visitors. A one-second delay can already result in 7% fewer conversions. A customer might be a few clicks away from buying a pair of shoes from your online shop, but if your product page takes five seconds to load, you might lose out on a sale.
Think of it this way: If you make $100,000 daily from your site but have a second of delay in your loading time, you could lose $2.5 million in your annual sales. A user-centered Ecommerce web design prevents this from happening at all. Its main goal is to turn your site into a usable and useful shopping experience, wherein your potential customers can quickly move from one page to another.
Meanwhile, you won't have any fear of losing them—your web design will allow you to have a fast loading speed that won't get in the way of your customers' shopping journey.
3. Improve Your Conversion Rate
One of the biggest challenges you'll encounter as an Ecommerce business is cart abandonment. Baymard Institute gathered 41 different articles on cart abandonment. Based on their calculation, the average cart abandonment rate is 69.57%. That's close to seven lost sales out of ten potential customers.
Moreover, among the top triggers of cart abandonment, a "too long/complicated checkout process" ranks third. You'll see that user-centered design is the answer to having a below-average cart abandonment rate and improving your site's profitability. It can increase consumer satisfaction as you assist your customers until the last part of their shopping journey. So, start by removing friction in your checkout process.
With a distraction-free and no-nonsense checkout, you can allow your shoppers to complete their purchase and grow your conversions by 36%. Consider it the best experience you can provide to your customers to make up for the lack of physical interaction.
Must-Read: How to Optimize Your Product Pages for Conversions
4. Strengthen Your Customers' Trust
You might be thinking, "how can my site design affect my customers' trust?" According to researchers in the United Kingdom, 94% of users who distrust a website have stated that the reason they do is site design. That's why you need to design your website in a way that will foster your customers' trust in your business.
You can start by showing them that you understand them as your customers. With a user-centered design, you can develop a site that will always keep them as a top priority. Empathy is valuable in this process. When you communicate your understanding with your target audience, they'll see that you care about them. When you empathize with them, you can build an ethical design that respects your shoppers' privacy and prioritizes their experience.
Your Ecommerce web design will reflect that you understand your customers' expectations when they're shopping online. Once they see in your site design that you value them, they'll start trusting you. This trust can majorly impact your customers' behavior. The more trust they have in you, the higher your chances of making huge sales. In the long run, your customers will see you as an online shop that's worth building a business relationship with.
5. Shape Perception of Your Brand
Your website provides your brand with an opportunity to shine. It's a direct representation of your Ecommerce business. Think of it this way—your website is a stage and the spotlight is on your business. With a user-centered design, you can bring a positive light to your online store as your site helps generate a good impression on your potential customers.
Your target audience can see this in various elements, from your SERP ranking to your quick loading time to your seamless checkout process. The moment they realize that you focus your site design on them and their experience, the returns can be long-term. Your site visitors turn into customers. After going through a positive customer experience, they can become your advocates. Let them do a little word-of-mouth marketing, and you'll soon see your customer base increasing.
People love to share positive experiences with businesses—even more often now that we have social media. Take this opportunity to develop a user-centered design that will leave you looking better in the eyes of your current and prospective customers.
Get the Right Ecommerce Web Designer
User-centered web design can bring wonders to your Ecommerce business. It's not a must-try anymore—it's a must-have that will allow you to stay one step ahead of your competition and stand out with your brand. Now that you've learned its benefits, the next step is to get the right web designer in your team.
As an outsourcing company, we provide Ecommerce outsourcing services for web design. Our UI and UX designers will guarantee that your site focuses on your user, and we can turn the benefits above into a reality for your business.
