How Important is UX/UI Expertise in eCommerce Development?
According to a Forrester study, UX/UI expertise in eCommerce shows UI can improve a website’s conversions by 200% and good UX can increase conversions by 400%.
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Web development has witnessed the rise of an entire field known as User Interface and User Experience (abbreviated to UI and UX respectively) during the past few decades. These two concepts often go hand in hand: UI is concerned with the appearance of a website, while UX is concerned with how end users conceptualize and experience it.
Another study referenced recent research from Forrester that showed, “on average, every dollar invested in UX brings 100 in return. That’s an ROI of 9,900%.”
Consequently, the importance of UX/UI expertise can’t be understated. Big brands are putting a LOT of time and money into better understanding the user experience in order to make sure the user interface meets and exceeds customer expectations.
An eCommerce brand cannot simply count on their product offer to sell itself without the proper standards in place that contribute to a smooth and pleasant customer journey. These standards are crucial because they guarantee that users can quickly explore a website, locate exactly what they need, buy it, and move on.
In a nutshell, when you make the user experience more simple and enjoyable for people to buy from you, they will do it more frequently.
Let’s take a look at some of the key reasons why UX/UI expertise is so important.
Why are Good UX/UI Standards Important for Ecommerce?
A solid user interface and user experience is a must-have for any online store. Not only can it enhance your ROI, it can also decrease the time and cost that goes into resolving site-related issues.
Online businesses are sometimes conflicted about investing in their UX/UI staff or hiring at least one expert consultant. Often, they believe it is enough to build their online store to look and behave a certain way, and that occasional updates will suffice.
However, take a look at the results of any case study on the impact good UX and UI can have on the success of an online store. You will find that investing in an appealing user interface and user experience is one of the major drivers of conversions and customer loyalty.
Additionally, investing in proper UX and UI increases positive customer ratings, lowers the frequency of customer care requests, leads to higher rates of customer retention, and results in a better brand reputation across the board.
Enhancing Conversions
UX/UI experts hold the vital role of establishing a seamless customer journey through excellent web design, no matter what the customers are shopping for. This role means developing a website that allows for quick and useful navigation, while also keeping in mind how to nudge customers in the direction of buying.
Therefore, while many factors influence conversion rates, strong web design is a key element. Initial impressions are everything; it only takes a few seconds for a person to decide whether or not they enjoy the online shop they’ve landed on.
Furthermore, when an eCommerce website is designed to be easy to use, it limits the amount of steps a customer needs to take to complete a purchase. It also provides clear call-to-actions throughout, which boosts greater conversion rates.
Increasing Customer Engagement
In today’s hyper-digital world, grabbing and keeping the attention of internet shoppers is an increasingly challenging feat. With the amount of campaigns going on at the same time through Google ads, Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms, people have understandably become more prone to prioritize attention-grabbing content.
While there are many different approaches and tools that you can use to enhance user engagement, none of them are worthwhile if the final result simply does not function well. A non-functional online store will drive away users faster than anything.
By focusing on immaculate UX and UI design, websites become more efficient at maintaining their target users’ attention, leading to an increase in customer engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty.
To gain a better understanding of how functional your current UX and UI design is, one practice can be to seek out direct feedback. One way to collect this feedback is via chatbots on the website as they collect real-time data on customer behavior and preferences.
An appealing and functional website provides great utility and ease-of-use, which enhances overall engagement. Strong UX combined with a beautiful UI that improves the user experience is the ideal formula to maximize this element.
Establishing Brand Credibility
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People don’t need to be internet-savvy to be distrustful of an online brand or its offer. All it takes is for them to have a slow, confusing, or otherwise unpleasant experience with the brand’s website.
Your products will be viewed as reliable and trustworthy as long as your potential customers are convinced that they will be able to satisfy their demands. Establishing a good website reputation like this takes time and demands consistency throughout each user encounter and transaction made on your website.
Therefore, a company cannot establish or maintain brand credibility if customers believe it is unprofessional or unqualified due to having a poor customer experience (like having trouble navigating the website). They won’t believe they can trust the brand with their money or personal information if they have issues during payment transactions; they will doubt the reliability of the goods or services the company is offering as a result.
Working on smooth and reliable UX and UI is, therefore, essential to develop trusting, long-term relationships with your customer base.
Improving SEO
A good quality brand begins with the right name for your business. Optimizing your online store for search engines includes targeting the right keywords, incorporating your brand name, and telling your story to your target audience.
Reach a specific target group by using a business name generator, a strong domain with the same name, and optimized website to improve interactions with potential buyers.
Prospective buyers spending more time on your website enhances your search engine optimization, whether it be Shopify SEO or any other eCommerce platform. This improvement occurs because search engines frequently crawl online stores to detect traffic and other indicators that help them rank websites in their search results.
Apart from traffic, the design and usability of your online store influences whether search engines prioritize your website or not. If your business has a fusty and outdated user interface with a non-optimized user experience, platforms like Google will push it down to subsequent pages in favor of more modern, shopper-optimized web retailers.
Therefore, every aspect of your website, from your contact us forms to your product feeds, needs to be designed with great SEO in mind. UX and UI experts are there to help with that.
Catering to Mobile Users
More and more people use their mobile devices to search, browse, and purchase all sorts of items online. To cater to this demand, online store owners need to thoroughly analyze their websites’ performance from a mobile-first standpoint.
You need UX/UI expertise to enable the desktop and mobile versions of your website to provide the same, seamless kind of experience to users. Failure to match the need of customers expecting a smooth mobile UX/UI design on your website dramatically reduces your chances of conversions.
With too many categories, a bad scrolling system, or a cluttered navigation, online shopping on smartphone devices grows complicated and stressful for customers. Therefore, eCommerce websites with mobile-friendly UX and UI make a lasting positive impression on customers.
The goal of any eCommerce business owner should be to give a consistent experience through a user-friendly, quick, and well-organized UX and UI. It is the most surefire way to keep users satisfied, engaged, and motivated to buy.
Takeaway
When debating the significance of UX/UI in eCommerce, think about the following: would you rather run an online store that has an intuitive interface and is free from conventional errors, or make constant changes and resolve issues as they arise?
With the answer to that being clear, focus on strategically planning your UX and UI design, and invest in the required expertise that will save you time and money in the long run.
