When deciding on buying online, we always want it to be convenient – no one wants to forge through endless pages and waste time. A clumsy interface is one of the most important reasons for users to leave the website. Well, it is easy to say how vital interface is, but there should be tips on how to make it better. So, let’s find out what should you pay attention to in your store and how to increase online sales with these tips.
Does Your Navigation Safes from Getting Lost?
Imagine you have come to a shop to buy a fiction book, but instead of getting straight to the fiction section, you get lost among endless poorly organized shelves without any information signs. That’s poor navigation.
Navigation in a web store is as important as it is in a real one. When customers are unable to find the desired thing, they leave the shop with a deep feeling of sadness for wasted time and efforts. On the contrary, convenient navigation will keep users satisfied and help them in buying.
In its turn, navigation is the issue too complicated to be considered in one piece, so it is better to divide the issue into several parts and examine them solely:
Search
Many people already know what they need and want to find the particular item quickly and easily. Provide them with a direct path to it. The traditional yet efficient solution is to add a search bar in the upper part of the website – the most expected place for it.
To make search even more comfortable, you can add autocomplete. Some users don’t know the exact name and the offered variants will help them. There is also an issue of spelling errors, so take it into account as well.
Convenient Filters
Some users don’t have a solid vision of the item they need, but they have some specifications. Let them narrow their search by applying filters. It will release your clients from scanning an enormous amount of goods they don’t need and drive them right to the point they find interesting.
Sitemap
Sometimes it is easier for a customer to see all the pages your website has and then choose the one that has drawn his or her attention. A site map will be the best solution here. Just put a link to it on every page and by that reduce the searching time of your clients.
Go to Section and Scroll Up
No one likes much scrolling. But it is inevitable if you have products with a huge description and lots of sections. So don’t forget that after reading all of it, clients will have to return to the upper part, where the functionality is located.
Allow your users to jump to the start with one click using an extension like, for example, Scroll Up. Ease their pain and give them a little table of content with clickable links at the beginning of the text just like Wikipedia does:
Benefits of Mobile Optimization
Mobile eCommerce is rapidly growing each year. According to the OuterBox research, in 2018 62% of phone users have purchased something with their devices. However, the more interesting fact is that 84% have faced some troubles during the mobile purchase. It shows that for now, show owners don’t pay much attention to the mobile platform, underestimating its value.
Don’t make the same mistake. New clients may appear only because of smartphone optimization. However, to have a high and stable conversion rate, it is better to have the mobile version working correctly. Luckily, Magento® 2 has some means for essential responsiveness like SEO optimization and easily adjusted interface to any screen.
Do You Suffer from Shopping Cart Abandonment?
Customers are fickle folks. Even having all the desired products in the cart, they can still change their mind and leave without buying. This is usual practice – according to SaleCycle, a bit more than 75% of all the carts are abandoned. Moreover, the reasons for it lie in the interface. Here is the table with quickly from the Barilliance research.
Main Reasons for Cart Abandonment in the USA
| Reason | Percentage of abandonment |
| No express shipping | 4% |
| No coupon code | 8% |
| Difficult checkout | 9% |
| Not sure about payment security | 15% |
| Will buy later | 17% |
| Have to create another account | 22% |
| Unexpected shipping costs | 25% |
There are many issues. But when you think of them, you realize that some of them may be resolved. So, let’s see the possible ways out.
Improve Shipping Methods
It’s hard, but various shipping methods offer new opportunities. Not all the people are ready for customer pickup, and lots of them will pay for convenience. Add this convenience in their life with express shipping and enlarge your interface. Even more, some users prefer to have products of a single cart to be delivered to different addresses. Though vanilla Magento doesn’t have such an option, you can add it with, for example, Extended Table Rate Shipping extension.
Give Folks a Coupon
Not just for nothing, of course. But a little bonus for a huge purchase or on the particular date will give you more credibility and make your customers more loyal. Or you can excellently greet them a happy birthday and present a slight discount coupon. If you do not tend to follow all the users’ birthday manually, you can install an extension like Birthday Coupon.
Simplify the Checkout System
A list with lots of lines to fill in is a challenge for a client. Just do it simply and remove all the unnecessary questions, like mother’s maiden name and hobbies. It is possible to place an order without this information indeed. One step checkout will help here as well.
Make Users Feel Secure
Search for security is vital for all of us in all the spheres of life, what to tell about payments. Improve your general store security by adding advanced password settings, password authentication, and encrypted connections (SSL is meant). Frequent Magento updates with security patches are also great. Still, to have all the possible tools for security improvement, it is better to have a security extension, like Security Suite instead of check all the issues manually by yourself.
Remind Them About Their Cart
It is not a problem if they decide to buy something later. It is a problem when they forget about it. Remind them of you with a cart abandonment email. If sent within a short period (up to three hours) it even can convince clients to buy the items right now. If not – it will be a reminder for them.
To increase sales more, you can use a cross-selling technique right in the email. Just add here featured, most viewed, or other products to keep their interest. Moreover, you can add these tabs with products to your web store with Featured Products extensions. Cross-selling is too effective to underestimate.
Creating Another Account Should Be Quick
There are various reasons for creating another account – it’s nothing bad in it. Still, to help, clients, you can make the procedure of signing up easier. Just remove all the unnecessary registration lines again or offer the connection with social networks – it will simplify the registration.
Show All the Costs at Once
Hiding something, especially additional costs, is a bad idea. Clients will learn about them anyway, but they can feel deceived. To avoid it, display all the costs a client will have to pay clearly – it is fair.
Are Your Products Appropriately Displayed?
Visual representation is an ace in the hole of a store owner. It is because of our psychology – if we see something beautiful and eye drawing, we want to buy it. There are not empty words – according to Martech, 93% of clients take visual representation as the main buying factor.
But visual doesn’t only mean the product photos, though they are essential as well. There are a few other things that touch upon the website interface and products representation that is worth being implemented. That’s how to increase your business sales and make your brand stronger.
Make a collection
Though it works better for clothing websites, stores or other specification may also use it. The idea is in setting all the items according to their collection or trend. Still, these “collections” may be of various types – if you sell an instrument, you can make a professional collection for locksmiths or plumbers.
See, what your targeted audience may find interesting and provide them with it. Sorting all the products in the right order and following their in-stock availability is also a great thing. To perform it easily, you may use such extension as Product Sorting.
Video Explanation
According to the Hubspot’s statistics, on the average we watch 1.5 hours of video content per day and 15% of all the responders watch even up to 3 hours. A broad opportunity for creativity, knowing that 97% of marketers claimed that videos had helped them in sailings.
Make a video of someone using your item instead of written guidelines and put it on the product page. Your users will probably find it more useful than a text explanation.
Useful for you:
360-Degree View
Despite the type of products you sell, your clients want to see it from all the angles. Offering this opportunity will positively affect the user experience and will lead to more sales. Moreover, customers like extra interactions with items and we can see how Addidas perform this feature flawlessly.
Product Comparison
Sometimes people can’t make a quick decision and need some time to think. Provide your users with a possibility to compare products and see all the characteristics. Probably this may require some changes in your interface, but this is the point – to make it more user-friendly.