Ecommerce User Experience Best Practices 2021 

Ecommerce user experience has become crucial to creating a frictionless customer experience. In fact, customer experience has overtaken price and product as the key brand differentiator. Therefore, your main goal should be to create a consistent and seamless customer experience across all touchpoints. We outline 8 eCommerce user experience best practices retailers should stick to in 2021. 

Make the eCommerce user experience as easy as possible 

The more hoops a customer is forced to jump through, the higher the likelihood they will abandon their cart. You should aim to create an eCommerce user experience that allows a visitor to find what they’re looking for as quickly and easily as possible. This can be done by reducing unnecessary steps, reevaluating your navigation,  and removing all the clutter. 

 Use high quality photos & videos

High-quality imagery visual content can make or break your eCommerce user experience.Because users are not able to hold/touch/try on your product before purchase all imagery and videos should be high-quality and consistent with your brand experience. In fact,  56% of users’ first actions upon arriving on a product details page is to explore the images. In addition, don’t just show a single image, showcase as many as you can from different angles. Moreover, you should incorporate 360 rotating images or include a zoom option. 

Prioritise Convenience & Speed

Page speed, a measurement has a significant impact on eCommerce user experience and conversion rates. In fact,  47% of customers expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less. Moreover, 40% of users will abandon your site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. In other words, the faster your website’s load time is, the more satisfied your customers will be. Simple steps to making your site faster include: Optimising your imagery, using a content delivery network and enabling caching. In addition, Google Pagespeed Insights is a free tool from Google that runs a performance test on your site and provides recommendations on how to increase performance. 

Include as much detail as possible

Customers shopping online rely on product information and descriptions to decide what to buy. Therefore, you need to ensure your customers have enough information to make an informed purchase decision. In addition, use buyer reviews to reinforce trust and confidence.  Remember, nearly 95% of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase. 

Make sure checkout is seamless

Checkout is arguably the most important part of your entire eCommerce experience. Convenience, speed, choice, and ease is paramount at this stage of the shopper journey. According to Tidio, 21% of basket abandoners felt that the checkout should be simpler. Therefore, you need to make sure you do everything you can to get the customer through this final point.

 Make sure you offer payment choice, do not ask for unnecessary information or include long forms, and use a clean website design that has no distractions. Most importantly, offer guest checkout.  Many sites still insist upon customers creating an account in order to make a purchase. And while this has its advantages, it is also a primary cause of cart abandonment. In fact, as much as 28% of  people abandon their carts because the site required shoppers to create an account. Enable your customer to checkout as a guest or via their social media platforms to ensure a swift and hassle-free checkout process. 

 Adapt for mobile

Mobile commerce sales are projected to reach $3.56 trillion in 2021—22.3% more than 2020. This incredible growth means mobile needs to be a major focal point of your eCommerce user experience. Customers should receive an exceptional experience no matter the device they are using.But with 96% of consumers having encountered sites that weren’t designed with mobile in mind, retailers have their work cut out for them.  Your first step should be testing your site via Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. Other key factors to consider include the responsiveness of your site, page load times, image sizes, as well as navigation. 

Include a functional and user-friendly site search

 

You might not realize just how many visitors expect to be able to search your online store. Therefore, a well-designed search interface is central to a good eCommerce user experience. In addition it is a powerful tool to keep users engaged as well as  help them find what they’re looking for. Make sure you place the search bar somewhere where users are accustomed to finding it. In addition, consider including predictive search or autosuggest, to give the user recommendations in real time as they type. Moreover, search filters help users refine their search as they navigate your site.

Offer virtual assistance


Shoppers want the same attention on a digital platform as they would receive  in a brick and mortar store. Which is why chatbots or live chat tools are so important to the eCommerce user experience. In fact, more than 41% of customers expect live chat on your website. And for customers that visit your website on a mobile device, this number is as high as 50%. Similarly,  82% of consumers say the number one factor that leads to a great customer service experience is having their issues resolved quickly. Therefore, if you have not already, consider implementing live chat or a chat bot on your website to help address consumer concerns, issues or problems. 

Wrapping up

The ideal eCommerce user experience makes transactions easier, fosters customer loyalty and boosts conversions. As an eCommerce merchant, you need to continuously improve and find new ways to enhance the user experience if you want to remain competitive. Even simple, small changes can have a big impact on conversions, so the key is to keep experimenting and trying new things. And with these simple tips, you are already halfway there!