4 UX Tips That Increase Conversions for Your eCommerce Business

We innovate by starting with the customer and working backwards. The focus is not the product, but the customer.” ~ Jeff Bezos

You’ve been in eComm for a while now. You’ve probably read a bunch of articles on how to improve your store’s performance.

And most of those articles on eCommerce UX focus on the product, oddly enough.

Sounds a bit like they’ve never heard Jeff’s spiel before, huh?

There’s another thing most of those articles do. They all include the same basic 8 to 10 things that every eCommerce business needs right from the start. They level the playing field by touting the same beginner-level info.

We’re about far more than that at eCommerceFuel, which is why our regular readers and members appreciate us. We hope you will, too.

With that in mind, we have four advanced tips that will do the trick to increase your conversions and recharge your cash flow.

Here’s what we have to offer your eCommerce businesses today:

Intrigued? Good. Let’s get started.

Above and Beyond the Basics of UX

The early days of starting an eCommerce business are fine for setting up those basic online store necessities. Things like:

• Which eCommerce platform to use
• Matching your domain name and business name
• Social media and email lists
• Matching products to the target audience
• Pricing issues
• SEO and onsite search for your online store
• Simplifying checkout
• Customer service

Yet, to take your eCommerce business to the next level, you have to focus on going above and beyond those essential online business elements.

Few of us start an eCommerce business knowing it all. Not even Amazon was Amazon when it first hit the internet.

That’s why at eCommerceFuel, we offer guests and members the best in-depth information and advice to advance their eCommerce endeavors to higher levels.

And, honestly, it’s necessary. According to a survey by MarketingSignals in 2019, 90% of all eCommerce businesses fail in the first 4 months.

Don’t be part of that 9 out of 10 who start an eCommerce business that can’t last six months. You literally can’t afford it.

Branding, UX, and Your eCommerce Business

You may not think of branding as integral to the success of your UX. It’s just not obvious. After all, branding is how you present yourself to your customers, and UX is how they interact with your eCommerce business and its store.

There is a link. Gone are the days when UX was simply limited to how the user feels interacting with your chosen eCommerce platform. Customer experience has become a large part of user experience.

UX involves how customers feel when they interact with your brand, as well as your business, store, and products. We can no longer mentally separate a brand from its components.

With that, you can create positive user experiences by creating positive customer experiences through your branding. Let’s see how.

Branding and UX Alignment

First, your product experiences must align with your branding. Your eCommerce business has a well-established brand — a voice, a personality — that attracts your ideal customer. Never waver from that.

Would Disney advertise itself as the “happiest place on Earth” and then present you with a website that’s dark, serious, and sad? No. And neither should you. Present your branding through your design and interface choices.

Branding and UX Evolution

Brands change. In the 80s and 90s, Apple was known for its easy-to-use computer: the iMac. No one used the terms innovative or stylish to describe it, though.

And then came the iPod, the iPad, the iPhone, and an entire line of products that were innovative and stylish. Apple’s branding evolved with its product line.

As author Mark Gobe put it in his book, Emotional Branding, “Without the brand, Apple would be dead.”

Don’t be afraid to evolve as a brand, and develop your UX right along with those changes. Without your branding, you might find yourself as dead as Apple could’ve been.

What’s Your Value Proposition?

Your value proposition is a huge part of your branding. It’s what makes you unique. And it’s another way branding can improve UX.

Put your value proposition right up front on your eCommerce business website. Present it to your visitors in those 3 to 7 seconds you have to get them not to click away.

Place it on the header, so it follows them throughout their entire shopping experience. Let them know why they should buy from you, and only you.

Set Your Products Up for Success

The quickest way for an eComm business to fail is to sell the wrong thing to the wrong people. The second is to sell your great products poorly. Our members know many ways to avoid both.

Let’s get one thing straight — a simple product image with a few lines of bare-bones copy is not enough. Every eCommerce business presents its products that way.

You want your eCommerce store to stand out, right? To draw the buyer in with your unique way of doing things. Why follow the pack and do the bare minimum? You didn’t start an eCommerce business to become just one of the crowd. Be different. Do different. Think different.

Think of every single one of your product sales pages as the last step in your sales funnel. Would you finish off a sales funnel with a page that listed the bare Joe Friday facts? No? Then isn’t it time you changed your presentation pages?

Start With the Image, Then Add More

Make sure your product images are the highest quality, highest resolution you can get. To take it a step further, how about a dynamic 360 image?

Or better yet, video. Animoto says that 96% of customers find videos instrumental in their buying decisions.

Nail Your Sales Copy

Your words have to take the place of the brick-and-mortar sales clerk. Anticipate questions about your products and answer them before customers have time to ask.

Present your products with their benefits as well as their features. Tell me why I should buy it, and not just what it does or is.

Present your products with style and charisma. Your business will thank you for it.

Trust Me?

A customer new to your business doesn’t know you. You’re a random eComm site that popped up in their Google SERPs. Therefore, you have to gain their trust. And trust comes with reducing their risks.

Risk reducers include:

• Free shipping
• Money-back guarantee
• Hassle-free returns
• Secure payment processing

And here’s where to place those offers:

• At the top of every page
• Beside the “Add to Cart” button
• In the sidebar or footer of your checkout page
• Frequent mentions on your social media

Please don’t add all of these. Choose at least two and follow through with them consistently. You don’t want buyers to think you’re some used car salesman coming on too strong.

Get them to trust your business with their business by reducing the risks involved in doing business with you.

Add a Persistent Cart

One of the small ways to increase conversions on your eCommerce website through UX is by having a cart that allows users to leave items in it for later consideration.

Over 50% of customers want a cart to come back to when shopping in an online store. The reasons given are to conduct further research, compare prices, and build a wish list for future purchases.

It’s a small thing to integrate for most eCommerce business owners. A small thing that can have a significant impact.

Putting It All Together

Our 4 advanced tips for you today — beefing up your branding, properly presenting your products, removing risks, and allowing for persistent cart use — should take your eComm store to the next level.

By creating UX that breeds good CX, you’ll create a thriving eComm store. You’ll beat the odds. Rise above the crowd. And perhaps even one day rival Jeff and his rainforest paradise. We could all use some “just like Amazon” in our business.

Photo by Flickr

Source: https://www.ecommercefuel.com/ecommerce-business/