eShop Usability. Design Trends to Follow and Avoid. Part 1
Tags: Ecommerce, Selling, Usability, Stqmarket, Storiqa

There is a girl who’d been working for a huge clothes eShop for a long time, once she has decided to open her own store. She has established the links with some suppliers, dealt with delivery options and defined the portrait of her target audience. As an entrepreneur, she was completely sure that low prices and high goods quality would attract clients from other eShops, but… First working month analysis was quite disappointing: people entered the website, took a look on it and left it.

We know that price and quality is not the only things that matter. It’s vital for customers to realize what kind of shop they visit and how it works. Only then the customer will stay and buy what they need. Here and in next articles, we will consider eShops usability — and also tell you what design trends it’s necessary to use, what of them you should refuse in order to boost your sales. Let’s start with the main thing — making accents on your website and goods navigation.

To Follow: less steps

The less steps your visitors have to do for items search — the faster they will start processing their order. Here are some things that will be helpful:

Website main page. Don’t hide your goods! Place a banner with most popular and new items in plan view — buyers will see it first after entering the main page.

Easy navigation. Make clear and noticeable search field and navigation system as simple as possible — don’t make users to be confused with multiple catalog categories falling on them immediately. Put 3–4 most useful benchmarks opening on pointing or clicking on it with a cursor. Hide all categories and subcategories under “All” button and make it opening on the left side of the screen only after clicking. This won’t bother the user, won’t overlap the main page, though it will still give all the info about website structure.

“Buy Now” button. A fast purchase is one of the main trends of eCommerce now. Let your customers buy what they like immediately. Besides “Add to cart” standard option, add the button allowing the buyer to make a fast purchase — after clicking that they should be redirected to the page for processing the order instantly.

To Avoid: registration strongly required

Oh, that feel… You choose things to buy, filled all shipping data and selected payment option but after clicking “checkout” button the system requires signing in or signing up (and fill the whole page about the delivery again). Let your clients to sign up while placing their order or make it possible to sign up with social networks accounts — that’s even much easier!

To Follow: show competitive advantages

Tell about your advantages at once! Make bright banners if you offer fast delivery or free fitting. Highlight “SALES” section to attract customers with special discounts. No one will be looking for your strong sides intentionally — accents on the main page will help to build better vision even if this client has never heard about your company before.

Advantages of Asos: next-day delivery and special discounts

To Avoid: everything best in one place

Lead a user consistently, according to clear algorithm: do not put anything that extra to a product page (instead of it, focus on checkout buttons), do not add support buttons or social networks too close to the cart icon. The client may be distracted by your Instagram or sales — and this is good, but not in case when they almost made a purchase.

Only one accent on the page

In the next article we will tell about custom service and communication and will consider product pages from the usability point. And we don’t forget about little bonuses for you! :)

eShop Usability. Design Trends to Follow and to Avoid. Part 2

Good luck with your eShop design!