The Importance of User Experience (UX) for Your eCommerce Store
A positive user experience is critical to the success of your eCommerce store. This ensures that your customers can easily (and enjoyably) navigate your website, find the products they want, and purchase them. Impress them, and it’s likely that they’ll come back again.
Many businesses are making UX a crucial focus for their brand, especially in this transitional market, with a huge shift to the eCommerce digital space and less economic stability.
User experience is affected by a variety of elements, including website design, content organization, usability, layout interface and hierarchy, eCommerce fulfillment services, and user behavior research.
A recent study by Forrester found that 71% of customers have ended their relationship with a brand due to poor user experience–so if you’re worried about your eCommerce store's UX, don’t wait to take action!
In this article, we'll discuss 4 key ways to improve your online store's user experience, from updating your website design to using 3PL companies for your warehousing and fulfillment needs. Let’s dive in.
1. Make Sure You Understand Your Customers
The first step to improving your online store's user experience is understanding your customers and what they want. What are their needs and desires? What do they like and dislike? And ultimately–how can you make their shopping experience more enjoyable?
If your customer is predominantly mobile shoppers, then a user-friendly mobile experience will be especially important to them. A recent study by Impact found that users are 5 times more likely to leave a website if it's not mobile-friendly, so make sure you focus on optimizing your site to be easy to navigate and simple to use on mobile devices.
If quick and easy shipping is important to your customer, use eCommerce Fulfillment services to help you get your products to your customers quickly and efficiently. Understanding the value of outsourced fulfillment and what it can bring to your business is important for anyone looking to improve their online store's user experience.
Ultimately, you want to research and learn about your specific audience–and what elements of their UX are most important to them–and begin implementing the necessary changes right away.
2. Make it Easy for Customers to Find the Product They are Looking for
Once you understand your customers' needs, it's important to make it easy for them to find the product they want. Research by Impact shows that 61% of users will try a different site if they can’t find what they’re looking for quickly.
This means that you need to have a well-organized website with clear navigation. Customers should be able to easily find the products or services they're looking for without difficulty – it’s all about speed and ease.
If they can’t find it, or it’s taking too long, they're likely going to leave your website and take their business elsewhere. So make sure you focus on creating a smooth, streamlined shopping experience for your customers!
3. Make it Easy for Customers to Buy Your Products – Use Warehousing and Fulfillment Services
Once your customer has found the product that they want, the next step is ensuring they can receive it without a hitch. Working with warehousing and fulfillment services can help you take your online store to the next level, and the benefits are manifold.
Warehousing is the process of storing products in a facility until they are needed, while fulfillment is the process of receiving, storing, and shipping products to customers. These are examples of eCommerce fulfillment services that are offered by a 3PL (third-party logistics) company.
Here are a few benefits of warehousing and fulfillment services and how they help with your customers’ UX:
- Utilizing a warehousing and fulfillment service can help you keep track of inventory and make sure items are shipped out as soon as they are purchased. This ensures your products are available when your customers want them.
- Customers today expect to receive their orders quickly, and in many cases, for free. With a 3PL service in place, this becomes much easier to offer, keeping your customers happy.
- A good warehousing and fulfillment service will provide you with data about your orders so you can see what’s selling well and respond accordingly, making product tracking a breeze.
- When you outsource fulfillment to a warehousing and fulfillment centre, you free up time so you can focus on other areas of your business, such as optimizing your website or marketing. This can lead to improved efficiency and overall profitability.
- eCommerce fulfillment services can help you save time and money by streamlining the order process and reducing errors, leading to more repeat business and referrals. That means more money in your pocket!
Clearly, having a 3PL company in place to take care of your warehousing and fulfillment needs can be an effective way to improve your customers' user experience. Learn more here about how to find the right partner for you (link to The Ultimate Guide to Using a 3PL Partner for eCommerce Fulfillment).
4. Make Sure Your Customers Can Receive Support if Needed
If something goes wrong with an order, or if customers have any questions, they’ll appreciate being able to contact someone for help. No matter the issue, customer support shows that you care!
You can provide support over the phone, by email, or via a live chat on your website. The goal is to be responsive and helpful, as this will go a long way in making your online store’s user experience a positive one. You need to ace your customer service if you want shoppers to return and become raving fans that help drive your store’s growth.
Conclusion
Improving your online store’s user experience is a great way to increase sales and keep customers coming back– and this list of tips is a great place to start.
From ensuring your site is easily navigable to utilizing warehousing and fulfillment services through a 3PL company like eShipper, there are many ways you can make sure your customers have a positive user experience and keep coming back for more.
