Many businesses do not realize that all aspects of the design of their online storefront are critical. From the landing page to their shopping cart, all elements have a direct effect on their sales. The slightest changes can improve or harm the rate of conversions. Moreover, there have been many tactics and methods that have been found that a web developer can implement to increase online sales.
It is always a good idea to try and see things from your potential customer’s point of view. You would want your shopping and browsing experience to be as intuitive as possible.
A web developer can get too caught up in the creativity part of the design and lose sight of this. Some examples are as follows. Using flash animations or other widgets that can slow down the visitor’s browser. Sometimes is something as simple, yet crucial, as using a color scheme that “works” but just isn’t right.
It is always important to do thorough A/B testing of the online storefront and making sure that it will appeal to your target audience and make their shopping experience as intuitive as possible. As we mentioned before there are many design elements that can affect the online users and their experience on your website. The following are tips on what you can do to increase the conversion of visitors into customers.
1. Make Sure Your Shopping Cart is Easy to See
When a customer adds an item to their cart, they instinctively want the peace of mind to know that their item was actually registered. having the shopping cart located somewhere visually accessible at all times during the shopping process will provide them this. It is also important for a web developer to include an area listing the number of items in the customer’s cart and other important checkout information. Having this information available eases the transition from shopping to checkout. No matter where your customers end up finishing their shopping, it’s important for them to have easy access to the checkout.
2. Optimize “Add to Cart” Buttons
Visitors respond differently to different calls of actions. If your “add to cart” button says “more details” or “learn more” your potential customer might not click as this seems to be too indirect. On the other hand, having “add to cart” or “buy now”, direct calls to action, tend to have a higher and much more positive response from your shoppers. In this instance, the color of the call to action is just as important as the directness of the call to action. Using colors that flow with your site’s color scheme helps further clarify your call to action.
3.Organize Your Product Page
The organization of your product page is a critical part of making sure that your customers are drawn in by the information that appeals to them the most. For examples, customer reviews are an important part of gaining future customer’s trust, but it doesn’t need to be the first thing that they see. There are so many elements to a successful product page, that organizing them correctly is very important.
First should always be the product image. Customers need to see exactly what they are going to be paying for. Following next should be the product name, product description, and the price of the product. Links to similar products as well as customer reviews should be placed closer to the bottom of the page.
4.Be Sure Your Navigation is Clear
Hidden menus and other hidden elements can be very frustrating and thusly ineffective. Also, they have a tendency to lead to customer frustration.
Making a clear and unhidden navigation can be a difficult task to accomplish if you have too many categories. A solution to this can be fly out menus, as they are an effective way of keeping your page decluttered while still giving the customer access to any category at any time. It important to not get too caught up in being artsy when it comes to your navigation. Customers will show their thanks for making practicality a priority through higher conversion rates.
Another way to ensure a smooth shopping experience for your customer is through the use of breadcrumbs. Being able to trace back where they came from and making a pathway between categories and subcategories makes for easy navigation. Another good thing to add would be a “continue to shop” button to intuitively lead the customer back to shopping.
5.Remove Distractions From Your Checkout Page
When your customer is ready to purchase, you want them to be moving in a very specific direction, Therefore, when you are designing the checkout page, it would be a good idea to remove any extra elements such as sidebars and other navigations. As this will help define a clear path to the goal: purchase.
Every second between arriving at the landing page and checking out is crucial to making sure that the sale is actually made. Simplifying the checkout process and making it easier for the shopper is a good way to ensure that the sale is completed, this is one of the reasons why single page checkout tends to have a higher conversion rate. In one page, a customer’s is able to fill out their shipping, billing, and credit card information. A good checkout experience is a great way to ensure you will stay in the customer’s mind and keep them coming back.
What is important for a web developer to keep in mind is the user experience. How easy will it be to navigate intuitively through the website? if a web developer keeps this in mind and implements these tips they will have happy clientele and likely an increase in sales.
