6 UX Design Practices every eCommerce store should follow in 2021
Tags: ux, ecommerce, design
Published: 2021-02-11 05:23:43

Have you ever landed on a web page and been frustrated by long load times, 404 pages, and difficult to navigate menus?

User experience is one of the critical aspects to increase your revenue. But most of the time, many small business owners leave the user experience to chance. 

That's why, in this article, we'll go over the 15 best ecommerce user experience practices that you can start using today to convert more traffic into sales.

But first, let's see what user experience is and why you should care about it.

#**What is the user experience?**

User experience abbreviated as UX means how customers feel about their interactions with your website, product, team, and company values.

The one we are addressing here is when they interact with your online presence.

UX is one of the most overlooked aspects of eCommerce stores. Businesses spend thousands of dollars on Facebook product research, design and ads.

After all that work and money invested in getting traffic, they often don't realize why their conversion rates aren't as high as expected.

This problem is due to a bad user experience. It affects your visitors, customers, and businesses.

Not to mention your earnings.

Think about how these Truelist statistics in UX can affect your results:

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/rmqnjmyv632pyw0chat5.png)

* *50%* of developers' time is spent on fixing issues which could have been avoided. 

* *46%* of online shoppers are unable to tell what a company does from their website and leave.

* Strategic user experience has the potential to raise conversion rates by as much as *400%*

Quick page loading influences *52%* of customers' loyalty to a site.

To create a better experience for your visitors, and increase your bottom line in the process, let us focus on these **6 UX design practices every eCommerce store should follow in 2021.**


**1. Use Attractive Fullscreen Welcome Mats to Showcase A Product/Offer:**

Similar to a popup, a fullscreen welcome mat is an option that slides over the entire page. Its sole purpose is to draw the visitors' attention to your best products or offers. See it like the guy who shouts SALE! SALE! SALE! In a market.

Applying this UX design method in eCommerce websites has proven to increase conversions by up to *80%.*

Wondering how this improves UX? Well, this enhances the user experience because it offers a product that will attract and delight your visitors. Who doesn't love that?

You can hire UX developers and set specific display rules & triggers to always show your offers to the right people at the right time.

This goes a long way towards improving the UX, as it allows you to only show personalized offers to visitors who are most likely to be interested.

**2. Create a clean and clear home page:**

*Did you know? You only have half a second to make your first impression*

The homepage of your website is the first thing your users will see when they visit your site. It is also usually the page that receives the most traffic. Therefore, it is essential that it looks clean, tidy and has a clear purpose.

Here are some tips to make sure your site makes a great first impression:

* Use a simple and minimal design
* Lay emphasize on items like your recent blog posts or your latest product.
* Stick to a consistent colour scheme

Below is an example of a website that has a clean and simple design:
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/kcwvpo3s7gq5zc21rv25.png)

The website is not too crowded and uses high-quality images. A good example that sometimes less is more.

**3. Make it easy for users to navigate your site**

Think about how you would feel wandering around a store without signs showing where something is.

Or what if there were billboards everywhere with arrows pointing in all directions. You will likely end up leaving empty-handed and confused.

Visitors to your site feel the same way. When they arrive, they want to know where they can go without feeling overwhelmed.

**Here's how to make navigation easy to use:** 															

* Use visual cues like colour contrast and arrows to draw attention to your call to action.
* Divide your products into different categories with columns and sidebars.
* Always include a search bar for those who know exactly what they want
* Use familiar words when labelling

Below is an example of a real website (which still exists) and it's doing everything wrong. It's messy, there's no clear call to action, and it's not apparent what your main product is: 

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/d7god6wlx8tgzzvdhatg.png)

Try browsing this page and finding what you need.


**4. Use exit-intent popups for exciting offers:**

You can use an exit-intent popup tool to detect when visitors are about to leave your website.

Your popup can be anything: from an invitation to chat with a support agent, a special discount offer, or an invitation to download a lead magnet by joining your email list.

The truth is that most consumers appreciate pop ups if it is something that interests them.

 You may ask, How do we know this?

Because we have data that comes from AdBlock detection triggers. And about *77%* of the people who see this popup choose to turn off their ad blocker to see the promotion.

It turns out it's just the spam ads they don't want.

With the help of a [**top eCommerce web design company**](https://bit.ly/3d2MkS5), you can add countdown timers, sliders, coupon code popups, and other tools that help you promote your sales and increase conversions.

**5. Avoid automatic sliders, video backgrounds, transparent buttons, and parallax scrolling:**

Your website design can be great, but if it doesn't perform well, you will have problems making or retaining customers.

Design trends like automatic image sliders, video backgrounds, parallax scrolling, and transparent buttons are popular because, well, they may look good when they work. But in reality, they are prone to failure.

These design elements can slow down your website if not done correctly and distract the visitor from reaching the checkout page. And considering that both site speed and user experiences are SEO factors to consider, these design elements are not worth your hard-earned money.

Functionality is what UX is all about. It's not about adding extra elements and creating "fluff." Every aspect of your page should support what you want the visitor to do.

For instance, if you look at a website like Amazon, it doesn't have the most beautiful design. But it has excellent functionality.

Amazon exists to convert traffic into sales, and everything about your site design stands behind it.

**6. Use a clear call to action:**

Your purchase call-to-action (CTA) will generally be an Add to Cart or Buy Now button for eCommerce sites. Having a clear CTA is critical to converting traffic into sales.

The button should be distinguishable from the rest of the page. A great way to do this would be by adding colour contrast and bold lettering. Or you can always consult an **[eCommerce website development service.](https://bit.ly/3puwoeK)**  

This does not mean that you write laurels in your CTA. Keep your CTA wordings short, crips and clear- this is where to click to checkout.

Phrases like Buy Now, Add to Cart and Pay work very well. Also, they are tried and tested.

It's also common for many e-commerce site owners to create a sense of urgency alongside their call to action.

**For example**, posting a notice that only two items left in stock can push people to buy earlier instead of postponing it later. Or that they only have a limited period before an offer expires. 

eCommerce biggies like Amazon are, as you might suspect, really good at this!

**Bottom Line**

The bottom line is that the user experience on an eCommerce website should no longer be an afterthought. And as we saw, one of the best ways to improve the UX is to target specific campaigns to users that you know they will love.

These targeting rules allow you to customize campaigns to make visitors feel more welcome on your site. And that's what improving UX is all about! All you need to do now is get in touch with an [**eCommerce web designing company in India**](https://bit.ly/3p8WQcV) and give your eCommerce business the gift of success.