Tips to Create a more Usable E-Commerce Website

When you consider that your rivals are no more than a click away, e-commerce is one of the most competitive online fields. Because your competition is no more than a click away your customer experience needs to be bang on to ensure that your customer doesn‘t look elsewhere for the product that you are selling – this can only be achieved by creating a customer-friendly website that is a joy to interact with.

Creating a website that ticks all the right boxes isn‘t easy, though. Many e-commerce websites take a number of years to refine their customer experience to a point where there is the opportunity for sustainable growth. With lots of case studies and online tips to go on, along with our own hands-on experience, we can offer four tips that will transform your website into a more customer-friendly one.

Without further ado, let‘s begin.

1. Sign-up forms

One of the worst decisions you can make when designing your sign-up form is to ask for your customers address, phone number, or the type of work they do – your customer just wants to set up an account fast! A simple e-mail and password sign-up form is all you need. Your customer will appreciate the quick process and they will be able to save or input their personal details at the checkout stage.

2. Buying without having to register

Not everybody wants to sign-up for a free account. Rather than push your customer to signing up, offer them the ability to checkout as a guest and then if you want them to sign up, have a courtesy e-mail at the ready offering them an incentive afterwards. The trick with this is not to rush your customer into a decision. This trick has been known to increase sales and reduce cart abandonment. 

3. Search

A lot of a lot of your customers will already know what they want when they arrive at your e-commerce store and if that‘s the case, they need a search function so that they can find that product fast. Your search form needs to be visible above the fold and be easy to use – a simple keyword input + search button will suffice. You can then deliver results pages that offer related products and special offers. 

4. Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are one of the simplest things to integrate on a website, yet they are also one of the most powerful. Your customer needs to be reminded where they are on their shopping journey otherwise they might get bored or think that your process takes forever. To reduce abandonment, integrate breadcrumbs which show where your customer came from and the future steps they may take.