5 Hints For Killer eCommerce Usability Design

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5 Hints For Killer E-Commerce Usability Design
WWW.NEWPATHWEB.COM.AU
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Easy Navigation

• Come on, this is a bit pre-school, right? You got
  to know from countless experiences online that
  good websites will have easy to use navigation,
  while bad websites will have you tracking in
  loops to get the information you need. Too much
  information, too many menus and infinite
  categorisation is going to limit the amount of
  time users spend on a page, and can negatively
  impact conversions too. You might think
  youre helping, but youre not, so just peel
  it back to about half a dozen header items and
  less than half that number of sub-tiers in each
  of them at max!

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Straight-Line Checkouts

• The worst ecommerce websites are ones that bounce
  users between carts, suggested items and checkout
  processes. If you click checkout, you expect to
  have purchased that item within five minutes,
  max. By trying to squeeze extra dollars out of
  users with add-ons or making them confirm their
  items on any other page than the checkout, the
  user will just leave. You can take people to
  subdomains or different websites if you want to,
  but straight-line checkouts are the only way to
  get users to engage and follow through with their
  purchase intent. You dont want to lose a
  customer at that point in the process, I assure
  you.

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Clear Error Messages

• At any point of browsing or purchasing on an
  ecommerce website, if something goes wrong, you
  need to tell people clearly and efficiently
  whats happened. With clear, direct language
  about what exactly happened, you can potentially
  reduce any negative outcome of the error. This
  is especially critical in the checkout processes.
  People are very protective of their financial
  details, and if something goes wrong, they want
  to make sure everything is still secure, and more
  importantly, that no extra or additional charges
  were put through. Be clear, communicative and
  helpful.

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Fast Load Times

• I think we all know by now that a slow website
  just cant hold onto customers. As user attention
  spans become increasingly shortened and
  fragmented, a slow webpage is likely to be
  quickly passed for something more accessible.
  While speed is a fundamental issue for all
  websites, ecommerce relies on speed to keep that
  customer happy and most importantly engaged with
  your products. Do you want them to buy something?
  Give it to them fast and easy.

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Search Ability

• If you have literally thousands of products for
  sale, be sure to include some search
  functionality. If a user is returning to you to
  find that particular set of leg warmers (what? My
  legs are always cold), they dont want to have to
  go through ten levels of categories. They want to
  type leg warmers and see it right there,
  straight away. Give them exactly what they want,
  when they want it, and there wont be any
  problems.

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Good User Experiences Are Crucial for eCommerce
Websites

• You can have a crack at building your own little
  e-shop on Shopify just fine. You can
  probably even implement these above points
  quite comfortably too. But youll forget
  something, Im sure. As a leading eCommerce
  website designer in Melbourne, were great at
  building sites for all types of companies, big
  and small.

WWW.NEWPATHWEB.COM.AU