There is an opinion that if your business is not online, it stands still. In the realities of today's world, the digital marketplace is dominant, allowing you to expand your client base, increase revenue, and impact brand reputation. But to make a website that sells and achieves your goals by unlocking your store's potential, you must plan and think about your content and products for an effective presentation on the net.
Retail underwent a severe but rapid disintegration with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been replaced by eCommerce, which has rapidly bridged the gap between client and merchant, making the digitized economy of the future. For example, Walmart's sales grew by 97% in 2020. Smaller entrepreneurs such as B-Wear Sportswear also saw a triple income increase in contrast to the year before. But the impressive luck of these sites is due to their excellent eCommerce UX design: visitors have longer sessions on them than on other sites, which is one of the many decisive factors in making profitable campaigns.
Experience can form consumer-business interactions: physical and digital presence is vital to purchase. Modern design optimized for conversions will help join the market leaders and win them over. The MPS editorial staff compiled a guide on how to design an eCommerce website and what methods to utilize to make a viable product.
Thinking about the design with having site speed in mind
Sometimes perfect custom solutions are doomed to failure - a considerable amount of website details can slow it down, which has a killer effect on Google rankings, traffic, and conversions. When eCommerce web design contains large image files, unoptimized code, file compression, or its security certificate is out-of-date, etc., this is likely to cause loading issues. If the rate is too low, you risk losing audiences’ attention or disrupting its potential reach. But what should one do? The site must be beautiful, comfortable, and fast.
According to statistics, after 3 sec of waiting for the website to browse, 53% of visitors stop the session. That is why customers abandon the contents of the cart. Nevertheless, the ideal loading speed is considered among 2 seconds. Here are some methods to pay attention to when designing your dream website.
Lazy loading for ads
To make eCommerce product page design work, you should take care of effective advertising, which will appear at the right time. Lazy loading reduces resource consumption and develops the viewability rate.
Since every millisecond affects the UX, this implementation will increase load speed by 8 milliseconds while decreasing page latency.
The <img loading=lazy> attribute is maintained by Chromium- and Firefox-based browsers, while others disregard it without any consequences.
Pictures are the most in-demand resource and often hold the most bandwidth. You can view media files even if JavaScript is forbidden in the client browser with delayed loading. So to implement this feature, there are two ways:
Sometimes, the pictures are too heavy. Take care to optimize them by compressing, delayed loading, CSS Sprites, and the popular image formats.
Progressive web apps (PWAs)
PWAs make the webpage faster, more secure, and lighter to navigate. Their purpose is to fulfill the needs of consumers, which entails expanding the audience, reducing the bounce rate, and growing the conversion rate for mobile devices. So, installing an app may require several steps of searching, downloading, signing up, setting, etc. While installing a progressive web app doesn't require as many manipulations. It is enough for a visitor to open a browser and click a button to become a member of the sales funnel. Users can utilize any device when working with PWAs - content will be available anyway. Keeping offline visitors in your PWA provides a smoother experience than when you return to the default browser page (especially useful when navigating to a URL that has not been cached.)
Installing a progressive web app is a great way to keep visitors returning to your site and increase loyalty. For instance, Weekendesk achieved a high installation rate by offering to download the app on the second page visited. Customers who created the icon on their desktop were most likely to book apartments than those who did not react to the banner ad.
Another model of a successful PWA is an offline game with a dinosaur in the Chrome browser. It has been played more than 270 million times, which seems like an incredible achievement and progress, especially in markets with unstable networks (such as India or Mexico.)
Note! Use incognito mode so that your personal information won't affect the results.
If your performance score is low, there is probably an issue with the website optimization. It is triggered if the redirects on your website are wrong and lead both crawler and user to nowhere. To maintain the speed of your web pages, keep only vital redirects. It would help if you also focused on on-page and off-page SEO optimization.
Remove everything unnecessary in your CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
Cluttered code (e.g., spaces or line breaks) is a significant cause of poor performance. Utilize HTMLMinifier, CSSNano, or UglifyJS to minify a code.
Responsive web design
According to statistics, smartphones account for about 50% of global traffic. So, the content should be easy to view on various screen sizes. To make your site effective and responsive, please consider:
limiting the use of plugins that load unutilized CSS.
Content delivery (distribution) network; CDN
This network allows users to access web content without paying attention to localization while not affecting download speed. In this case, the traffic will be distributed between servers and thus accelerate data processing.
DNS service
Any DNS hosting determines the server response time. But to improve it, you should switch to the premium version of Cloudflare, which can increase the site's speed by 40%.
Page not found
404 errors annoy visitors and notify the site admin that their creation will likely fail. To fix the problem:
analyze the site using Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) or Ahrefs;
if the 404 error webpage has a lot of external backlinks, consider installing a 301 redirect;
add it to your sitemap for better indexing.
Remember that mobile wins in most eCommerce niches
About 53% of sales are made through the mobile traffic channel. Should we endure the outcomes of losing an audience from one device for the advantage of their gaining from another? Or is there another variant?
As we said before, one of the best eCommerce design practices is to make the best viewing of the page on different devices.
About 46% of clients finish their purchases on smartphones, while for the rest, it is significant to do in-depth research by searching for the item on a PC. Most customers typically abandon non-optimized eCommerce homepage design. Currently, every visitor wants a mobile version of the webpage.
A responsive site guarantees that consumers can utilize all sorts of devices and have an identically remarkable on-site experience without restrictions. The method consists of flexible grids and layouts, pictures, and reasonable CSS media. That is reminiscent of responsive architectural design, whereby a room or space depends on the number of people within it. But it's not just about changing extensions or omitting less important media files - it's the beauty that lies in usable functionality.
Many devices of various sizes globally, and adapting a site seems like staggering work. But there is an unspoken rule of “flexibility of everything.” The structural parts and text may be instantly variated without loss of quality.
One of the main WordPress eCommerce design problems is dealing with pictures. To make them more flexible, there are several techniques that involve utilizing CSS - img { max-width: 100%; }, or a configurable HTML5 attribute - data-fullsrc. As for iOS, the web design is scaled to fit the screen. The initial scale 1 setting predetermines the default settings for proportional resizing.
Other units may also be adapted to the display extension as follows:
by demonstrating or hiding content;
as a custom layout structure modified through a CSS media query;
by introducing unique designs for touchscreens.
Another advantage of the mobile interface is finding information while offline. The user may perform several manipulations with an eCommerce application without waiting for the browser to launch and getting lost between multiple tabs. Apps provide personalized content while briefly explaining important info. The introduction of AI, push notifications, the internet of things features, etc., only improves the UX and opens up access to unique features, which we'll discuss next.
David Keefe, a managing partner for Conran Design Group, believes that one of the leading eCommerce web design trends is simplification or removing complexity. This approach speeds up the client's journey through the sales funnel and reaches their endpoint - the sale.
Customization
Personalization must be implemented to make small and medium-sized enterprises work. To get the user away from the routine experience of large companies, you should interact directly with customers and develop sales relationships. After all, to mitigate the effects of pricing policies, the practice of negotiation should be introduced, which will bear more fruit than clearly established prices on well-known platforms.
Card-like layouts
To allow the visitor to see the benefits of products quickly, many sites utilize short informative text snippets, images, and buttons. Card-like layouts ensure that information is delivered fast.
Call To Action (CTA)
This traditional practice of engaging the clients and increasing conversions remains relevant in 2022. CTAs are designed to interact quickly with content. Create a bright, memorable button with text like “Buy now” or “Free Download.”
Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented Reality in eCommerce allows the user to evaluate a product by viewing it from all sides using a realistic 3D model. The object can easily be placed in the appropriate environment and understand how well it fits with other elements. Experience AR has become so popular that it is already used by many global giants, like IKEA Place or Amazon AR View.
Gamification in eCommerce design
People like games because they satisfy their needs for communication and expertise. These natural desires have become the basis of such an experience, prompting people to take specific actions. It concentrates on realizing recompenses and attainments to keep visitors engaged.
Yu-kai Chou, the guru of gamification in eCommerce, argues that this practice forces the user forward through the purchasing funnel.
One of the most successful gamification eCommerce examples is the Maison Karl Lagerfeld competition. It was part of the advertising campaign for the fashion house's collection. You could walk through the spacious rooms of the famous designer's house with his beloved cat Choupette while picking coins and trying not to be seen by angry dogs. Participants who scored the highest points could participate in the raffle, where the main was shopping.
Interestingly, this campaign was visited by over 21 thousand people in its first week, but the fashion couturier had to re-read all 18 thousand emails.
Identify and reward the returning customers
Regular customers are the most loyal and motivated part of any business's audience. Customer data enables a company to identify repeat customers. For example, your phone number, personal information, emails, loyalty cards, and voucher codes can help you find people who prefer to shop on your site. By creating special terms of service, you honor their traditions and motivate them to buy more. Here are some basic ways they're sure to take into consideration.
Propose discounts for clients with high costs
To stimulate quick purchases and get more profits, you should make unique conditions for consumers who have spent impressive amounts of money in your shop. For instance, you can access them via email or text.
Hold a preview event
Utilize custom eCommerce web design to make an exceptional shopping experience. Nothing makes people happier than shopping ahead of everyone else and the scheduled release date of the collection. Special terms of the communication with the client will be an incentive to make purchases for big sums of money.
Fair reviews
When launching a product, spread the word in advance, which will help you reach a larger audience and make more revenue. Please make a special offer to these people on the condition that they share their opinions on social media.
Here are a few more ways to reward your loyal customers:
please give them a lower interest rate for financing a large purchase;
write a thank-you note;
have a giveaway and offer gifts on multiple purchases;
make a loyalty card scheme.
Conclusion
You should stick to actual eCommerce design trends to create confidential communication with people. Given the digitalization of society, enterprises should concentrate on the speed and attractiveness of information through design. This guide looked at designing an eCommerce website, new methods to engage the audience with gamification units, and reward systems for returning customers.
Every self-respecting business owner, at some point, thinks of improving employees' knowledge, mastery, and confidence. They may already succeed in creating an eLearning platform for corporate training. However, it still needs constant updating to keep the staff up with time and deliver the most relevant data. While developing online lessons is a lengthy process requiring experience and tech power, distributing tasks can become the only solution for companies searching for quick and efficient results.
Today’s busy and tech-savvy online customers are interested in mobile-friendly educational courses suitable for smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets. User-centric and accessible, gamified and bite-sized, mLearning can happen anytime, anywhere. You should learn how to implement it in the organization to make it a part of your corporate culture.
If you practice edtech in your organization, then you might already understand the crucial role of digital learning platforms in constant employee growth. Corporate training has a direct impact on your company’s productivity.
