Shopping has changed along with the times. But your customer is still the same as always.   Even more so in an online store, every customer wants a smooth shopping experience. This is what online shopping is supposed to offer: a quick and easy way to shop.   As the owner of an eCommerce site, your main goal is to make shopping as easy as possible for the end-user.   It all depends on how your online store works for customers.   I'll talk about user experience and explain why it's important for those of you who don't know what it means.  

What Is UX?

    The way a person feels after using a system, product, or service is called the user experience. In the same way, the eCommerce user experience is the whole experience the user has after using your eCommerce site.   It's all about how visitors to your online store feel and how easy it is for them to take the action you want them to take.   So, when you are building your eCommerce website, use the idea of user experience design.   What is UX design, though?   User experience design is an approach to design that takes into account the needs and goals of the end-user.  

Why is eCommerce User Experience so important for online stores?

  The customer is king, and if he's not happy with your service, you won't make any money. In this way, all online shops are the same. Customers will leave your site if they don't like how it works, and 88 percent of users won't come back to a site where they had a bad time.   But if you give your customers a great experience, they will stick with you, your conversion rate will go up, and they will buy more of your products.   Forrester says that for every dollar spent on UX, you get back $100 (ROI = 9,900%).   Customer service is the most important thing here. With a better UX design, conversion rates could go up by as much as 400%.   If you are still reading, I think you know what user experience is and how important it is.   Now, I'll tell you about some of the best, easy-to-implement ways to improve the user experience on your website.  

1. Pay Attention to Your Customers

    Listening to your users is the first step to making their experience better. The end user's opinion is the most important because they can tell you more than the people who run your online store.   Read both the good and the bad reviews, answer your customers' questions, and respond to their complaints with a solution. You can find out how people feel about your website from the feedback forms you give them.   When you ask for feedback, your customers will feel like you value what they have to say. Customers will tell you a lot of what you need to know to make the user experience better. So, please hear what your customers have to say.  

2. Make a Website that is Mobile-friendly

    There are now more than 4.32 billion people around the world who use the mobile internet. That's almost half the world's population, so it's important to make sure your eCommerce store is fully mobile-friendly.   All of the big eCommerce sites have mobile apps and have also made their websites work better on mobile phones.   Remember that mobile users are 5 times more likely to give up on a task if the site isn't optimized for them. That alone should be enough to get you to pay attention to optimizing for mobile.   Your eCommerce user experience design should center on making a website that works well on mobile devices. This will help you reach more customers and make more sales.   Use mobile-friendly plugins on your website so that people can use all the features of your online store and have a smooth experience.  

3. Prevent Broken Links And 404 Pages

    404 pages and broken links are a nightmare for both you and the people who visit your site. Because there are so many products listed in online stores, broken links, and 404 pages are bound to show up as you add and remove products.   A few other things can cause 404 pages: · Moving a page · Changing a page’s directory · Migrating a whole site · Broken redirects · The users mistyping a URL   All of these things can and will make the user experience worse. Even if the users are to blame, they will hold you responsible for the trouble.   So, what can you do to stop it?   First, you need to keep an eye on how your web pages are doing and act quickly if something strange happens.   By using a plugin like WP 301 Redirects, which will keep track of any changes to your URLs and automatically set up the right redirect rules. This way, you won't lose any traffic, users, or sales, and your users won't have a bad experience.  

4. Cut the Time it Takes for your Online Store to Load

  People like shopping online because they don't have to wait to buy anything or stand in line to pay for the things they have in their carts. When you shop online, you save a lot of time.   But what if it takes forever for your eCommerce site to load?   Most people who come to your online store will leave right away, and they may never come back. In fact, 40% of people leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.     You'll lose almost half of your potential customers in a few seconds. Let that sink in.   I can't say enough about how important it is for a website to load quickly. The best time for a website to load is between 1 and 2 seconds. The better your user experience will be, the faster your website will load. Also, it will help you move up on Google.   So, how can you make your eCommerce site load faster?  

a) Test Your Speed

The first step in solving a problem is to figure out what the problem is. So, do an audit of your eCommerce website to find out what's wrong. You can use free tools like PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom, WebPageTest, and Gtmetrix to check how fast it is. You can also use paid SEO tools such as SEMrush, WooRank, Neil Patel SEO Analyzer, etc.   Here is a report on a website's speed:   This audit report also shows problems that make it take longer to load.     All of these tools will look at your site and tell you how long it takes to load. It will also help you find underlying problems that are causing your website to work less well.  

b) Use Appropriate Image Size

Images can make the difference between a good and a bad user experience.   People often make the mistake of using high-resolution images where they aren't needed when building a website. Even if you shrink the image, it will still take longer to load.   If you have a 500x500px image but need a 250x250px image, don't descale it. Instead, use free online photo editing tools like Pixlr, LunaPic, Canva, etc. to change the size of the image.   Source: Pixlr   When you change the size of the images, the file size goes down, which helps your web pages load faster.   You can also compress your WordPress images without losing quality by using tools like TinyPNG, Compressor, ShortPixel, etc. It keeps the quality of the image while making it smaller.  

c) Reduce HTTP Requests

  Web browsers send HTTP requests to the server of your website in order to load page content. Your server takes these requests and sends the files back to the browser that asked for them.   The more files your page has, the more HTTP requests a web browser will need to make to download it. That makes the page take longer to load, which makes more people leave.   The more files your page has, the more HTTP requests a web browser will need to make to download it. That makes the page take longer to load, which makes more people leave.   First, you need to keep track of how many HTTP requests your site makes. You can use free tools like GiftOfSpeed, HTTP status, and Google Chrome's Network Panel to check HTTP requests.   Start getting rid of the files you don't need that are making it take too long to load. Take out any pictures from your web pages that don't belong there. Large image files also take longer to load, so you should shrink and compress them.   Find out what other parts of your website are making it take longer to load and what you can do to reduce HTTP requests.  

d) Upgrade Hosting

  How long it takes for an eCommerce website to load depends on how good the server that hosts it is.   If you have high-performance hosting for your eCommerce store, it won't go down when there's a lot of traffic. Basically, it makes your online store better able to handle a lot of visitors.   Going with a cheap hosting service may seem like a good idea at first, but it will cost you a lot in the long run. So, you should spend more money and choose a good hosting service.   Here are some of the best hosts for eCommerce sites:

• SiteGround Source: SiteGround
• A2 Hosting Source: A2 Hosting
• DreamHost

Source: DreamHost A good hosting provider also makes sure your eCommerce site is safe, has great customer service, ranks higher on Google, and improves the UX as a whole.  

e) Remove Unnecessary Plugins

  Plugins and extensions are added to your online store to make it run better and give your customers more features. However, if you have too many plugins, they might do more harm than good.   When a website has too many plugins, it gets bigger. So, find the slow plugins that you don't need and are slowing down your eCommerce site, and remove them.  

f) Use CDN To Improve UX

  A Content Delivery Network, or CDN, is a group of servers that are spread out all over the world. It helps websites load faster by loading page assets from the server that is closest to the visitor.   It makes content available to the end-user and works well even when there is a lot of traffic, which is perfect for eCommerce websites that need to be optimized.   It will give you security and speed, improve your site's ranking, and make your online store run better as a whole.   Some of the most well-known CDN providers are Cloudflare, Akamai, Amazon Cloudfront, and StackPath.   Source: Cloudflare  

5. Showcase Organized Product Variations

  Source: WP Swings   People are different, and so should the things you sell.   Because of this, you need to have different kinds of your products, especially if you sell consumer goods.   If your customers can't find the version of the product they want, they will be upset. You may have the product variation your customers want, but if your online store isn't well-organized, it will be hard for them to find it. This will cause them to leave your website.   An important part of UX design is showing the different ways a product can be made. Making it easier for your customers to find your products and the different ways they can be used will help them find exactly what they want. It will increase sales a little bit and make it easier for people to use eCommerce.  

6. Personalization Is the Key To A Good User Experience

  Personalization is one of the best ways for eCommerce sites to keep customers coming back and improve the user experience (UX).   One big advantage of personalization is that it makes your customers feel like they are important, which makes them more likely to buy from you. Through personalization, you can give your customers a better experience and make a lot of money.   Here's how you can give each visitor a personalized experience:

a) IP Personalization

Find out where your visitors are from by looking at their IP address and then giving them a more personalized experience. For example, if someone from India visits your online store, you can suggest products that are popular among Indians and also show "Namaste" as a welcome message. It will make people feel like they are important and make them want to buy more. GeoFli is a geo-personalization software that you can use to do this.   Source: GeoFli

b) Personalized Recommendations

As your customers look at your products, pay attention to what they are interested in. Then, start recommending similar products with tempting offers. Customers are more likely to buy when they get suggestions that are tailored to them.  

c) Personalization Based On Time

Think about how much time your customers have when they visit your online store and tailor the experience to that. It could be based on weekends or any other popular time of year, like the holidays. But what is special to people in your country at a certain time of the year might not mean anything to people in other countries at the same time. So using a place's location is also a big part of it.  

d) Personalization Based On User Profile

For registered customers, it's easy to personalize your services because you know their names, their shopping history, and when they like to shop. You can learn a lot about what and when a customer wants to buy from their shopping history. So, use that information to your advantage and greet registered customers by their first names on the welcome page. Show them personalized suggestions, such as special deals on the products they want to buy. If you use all of these ways to make things more personal in the right way, your UX will get a big boost.  

7. Reward Your Customers

    If you get something for doing something, you are more likely to do it again. This is how the mind of a person works.   So, give your customers something when they do something that leads to a conversion. This kind of positive reinforcement can be given in the form of reward points, gift cards, gift coupons, and discounts. All of the big online stores let customers sign up, shop, use referral links, etc. to earn reward points.   A good way to improve eCommerce UX is to use a reward system. It will make customers more loyal, make them more aware of your brand, bring in new customers, and make them more likely to keep shopping at your online store.   You can set up a good reward system and a program to keep customers coming back.  

8. Optimize Product Description

  People want to know "why" they should buy a certain product, and if you can tell them, you'll be able to sell it. Because of this, you should make sure that the product description gives your customers the best information possible.   If you do this, your user experience will get even better. So, here are some of the best ways to improve the UX of your product descriptions and make them work better.  

a) Write a description of your own product

Do not copy and paste the features and descriptions that the product manufacturers use. Give yourself time to write a good description by yourself. Make the description easier to understand so that all types of customers can see what you're selling.  

b) Write a story about a product

Use a story to tell customers what your product is good for. Show them how your product can solve a problem and give them a good deal for their money. Keep the story easy to understand and simple.  

c) Evaluate Product Description

It's good to write a product description, but you need to see if it works. Update and change the descriptions of products that aren't selling well. Always check how well your product description is doing. Keep these things in mind as you work on the product page. Well-written product descriptions will improve eCommerce UX.  

9. Improve Your Website Design

  The look and feel of your website will be the first thing a customer notices about your online store. It depends on the layout, theme, organization, size of the text, images of the products, and clear information about the products.   “75% of people form their opinion of a website based on its aesthetics.” (Source: BCS)   When designing an eCommerce user experience, the needs of customers are taken into account.   To improve your UX, make sure your website's design is consistent and make it easy for people to get around. Make sure that the themes you choose for your online store will work well on all devices.  

10. Product tutorials can improve the user experience

    Some products are easy to use, and all you need to show them off is a well-written document and a picture of the product. But some products are more complicated, so customers would have to go to YouTube to see how they work.   Taking into account the above fact, it makes sense and makes money to include a product tutorial video that shows how to install and use the product. Show your customers how to use and care for your product in the right way.   On the WP Swings YouTube Channel, we have produced video tutorials, product information videos, product demo videos, and so much more.   In the same way, you should make a YouTube channel to teach people about your product. You can put these videos on the product page to tell people everything they need to know about your product while they shop in your online store.   When you give good information about your products on your eCommerce website, you will keep more customers and improve your UX.  

11. Give your customers access to online help

  Even if your eCommerce site is well-organized, some visitors might still find it hard to use because they aren't used to shopping online.   So, how can you help your clients?   You can show people how to use chatbots. A chatbot helps customers and makes it easier for people to buy things. Chatbots also make it easy for people to find the information they want on your online store.   A chatbot between a customer and a business is good in the long run because it builds trust, makes the user experience (UX) better, and gets customers to come back to your online store.   35% of people have already bought things with the help of a chatbot.   On WP Swings, we also offer virtual help.   Live chat is another thing you can add. It has become one of the most popular ways to help customers because it saves time, lets you talk to more than one at once, and gives each customer a more personal experience.  

12. Provide Various Payment Options

    How easy it is to pay also affects how happy an eCommerce user is. Customers are upset when they can't buy things from your online store because they don't have enough ways to pay. And not having enough ways to pay can cause you to lose good customers.   We also give our customers more than one way to pay.   E-wallets are a common way to pay for things online. The Worldpay Global Payments Report says that eWallets are the most popular way for online shoppers around the world to pay (36%), followed by credit cards (23%) and debit cards (12%).   The number of people who use payment apps keeps going up, so you should set up your store to accept payment from the most popular apps. So, save your customers' time and improve the way they use your eCommerce site.  

13. Enable Guest Checkout

  Having a guest checkout improves your overall online shopping experience because it has the following benefits:

a) Increased Sales

If your checkout page requires visitors to sign in before they can make a purchase, many first-time visitors will leave their carts empty. But if guest checkout is available, people who are visiting for the first time can easily finish the checkout process and buy something. You get the money, and they get the product.  

b) Lower Cart Abandonment Rate

  Source: WP Swings   As I said above, if you can only check out if you have an account, you are turning away a lot of potential customers. So make sure it's easy for first-time visitors to buy something by making the checkout process simple. It will make it much less likely that people will abandon their carts. Most UX designers don't pay much attention to this feature, but letting guests buy things can help you get new customers and make a lot of money.  

Conclusions

  So, these are the best ways to make your online store's UX better. I've gone over the eCommerce user experience, and UX design, and how important they are for your eCommerce website in detail.   Now Use these methods to improve the user experience of your eCommerce site. In the long run, these simple solutions will help your online business make a lot of money.   And hey, if you want to learn more about how to do eCommerce right, check out our blogs.