A positive user experience is essential for any online store’s success. It not only sets your business apart in your industry, but it can also be a deciding factor for customers when they decide whether or not to buy from you.
You must evaluate the performance of your online store before you can make improvements to your website’s user experience. There are many ways to identify your UX strengths and areas that need improvement. We will be discussing a variety of ways to assess the quality UX that your store offers to customers.
Step 1: Do some research and take stock
The first step in evaluating the user experience is to get a better understanding by gathering the relevant information and resources. You won’t be able to accurately evaluate your website if you don’t understand the rules.
You don’t have to focus on UX in general. It’s important to also do research that is specific to your business. This is where you distill the essentials of your business into an outline that you can use to improve your ecommerce website. Here are some questions to ask:
What can I do to help my customers? Who are I?
Also, make sure you check out your competitors to see how they are doing it. To determine which site has a simpler workflow, go through a task you have on your ecommerce site (such as searching for a product). You can take a look at what your competitors are doing differently and decide if it is something you would like to do.
You’ll need to understand user experience, how it can help your business and the best practices. This will also allow you to get to know your brand and business. This will help you make informed decisions about how you view your website.
Step 2: Delve Into Website Testing
Website testing can be a great way of determining if your online store is on track or needs some work. A/B testing is one the most effective ways to find out what works and what doesn’t. There are many things that you can test. We’ll discuss just a few.
CTA Buttons
CTAs can be a powerful tool to get customers’ attention. You’ll need to run some tests to ensure that your CTAs are effective. You can experiment with the button color and size from a design perspective. Your current CTA button color may be the same as your website’s design, but you might want to experiment with a different color. Larger buttons perform better when it comes to size. However, this rule is not universal so make sure to test it.
You should also test the copy of your CTA button. Even minor changes can result in very different results. You can test more specific language like “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart” on product pages, as well as more casual language like “Order Information”, vs. “Get More Info.”
Pricing
Pricing is an important aspect of the user experience. It might seem that lower priced items will sell more, but this is not always true. In fact, higher-priced goods can sometimes outsell lower-priced ones. Customers who are driven by lower prices tend to lose brand loyalty. However, customers who purchase higher-priced items will spend more time considering their purchase and be more likely to buy again.
Also, you should look at the way prices are displayed. You could see a huge difference between $4.99 and $5.00 or $4.50. Odd pricing is a psychological concept that can have a significant impact on your ability to convert customers.
Discounts and Promotions
Your discount or promotion’s description can impact how appealing it appears to customers. Consider how you will present your discount visually. Do you prefer to use numerals (i.e. Do you want to use a lot of numerals (e.g. “2 for 1”) or do you prefer a text-based promotion (e.g. “Now at half price”? It’s also important to decide whether you want to be more specific with your campaign.
The location where you will be promoting your discount or promotion on your website is another important aspect of your discount/promotion. Is it on the first page of the slideshow? It could replace your hero entirely. You could place it in the header or in a navigation menu. You’ll need to test them all and determine which one is most effective for your customers.
Overall Layout
The layout of your ecommerce website can have a huge impact on whether or not you are successful. It’s best to stick to the rule that customers will find the most useful pages in the easiest-to reach places. Customers may find a page confusing or not appropriate for their needs.
You can test out the location of your navigation menus, or change the order in which the items are listed in your submenus and menus. Consider whether shipping and/or return information should be visible in a banner or if they are fine with their own page in your footer.
Copy
There are many ways to express any particular thing. You should test the content you choose to use before you decide which one will make it into the final cut. Some words are more effective than others. You might want to refresh your headlines, product descriptions, categories descriptions and other key blocks of content on the site.
You might be unsure where to begin rewriting content. Try the Three Versions Exercise. Write one version that is as simple and direct as possible, another that is more sanitized, and then a third that is somewhere in between. You’ll likely find the right version. With minor editing, your copy will convert more easily.
Security seals
While it is a good practice to have your security seals and badges on all of your transactions, you should also test them. While online shopping is a great way to protect your customers, some industries may not appreciate being reminded of this. Some stores actually see an increase in conversion rates after taking down their security seals.
This is how it could happen. It’s possible. But, think about this: Would you feel more secure shopping in a department store than a store that requires three security screenings before you can enter? It may seem that the second store does more to protect you, but it can still be scary for customers who might think there have been security breaches in the past.
Step 3: User Testing
User testing is a great way to get feedback from third parties. It gives you insight into your customers’ thoughts, but also the type of feedback that you won’t get from website tests, such as what their intention was to visit your site, what their feelings are about your store design and what obstacles prevented them from completing the tasks they desired.
Here are some things to consider before you dive into user testing.
What is your goal? What is your goal? What number of responses would you like? It doesn’t matter how many responses you need, but it is helpful to have an estimate of who your target audience is for your tests. Are you looking for completely new customers? Your loyal customers? Oder a combination of both?
You have the freedom to do user testing in any way you want. Your test could be as simple as a collection of questions that are sent to a list. There are many user testing tools that you can use. You can test user behavior by buying lunch for a friend and asking them to do some tasks in your online store.
It all depends on what your goals are when it comes to which questions you will be asking. Here are some ideas to help you get clear on the questions you will be asking.
Is it easy for customers to use your site?
User testing is a flexible and effective tool for getting feedback from users about your UX. It should be part of your assessment arsenal.
Step 4: Examine Your Analytics
Analytics can be a great tool for creating amazing user experiences. They give you a snapshot of how customers behave in your store. Analytics won’t tell you why your customers behave the way they do, but they can help you to understand it better by providing behavioral data.
You should set up analytics immediately if you don’t have an ecommerce website. Analytics takes time to collect enough data so that the findings aren’t skewed. If you have a small sample size, it is possible to misunderstand your audience. Google Analytics is a great option for those who are just starting out. It’s free and easy to set up. You can use it on any size business, from small boutique shops to large corporate stores.
Once you have your analytics setup, you can start digging into the data. These are some things you should consider when reviewing your analytics and why they are important.
Locate your most popular landing pages
Use your analytics to determine which pages and products get the most traffic. These pages probably have a good track record based on the traffic they get. A high bounce rate means that customers land on the page and read what it has to offer, but it is still being visited frequently. You can either figure out why people end up on that page, especially if it isn’t what they are looking for. Or you can encourage them to visit other pages by creating internal links.
A page with a low bounce rate, high traffic and a high conversion rate is a good performer. It should be able to showcase a highly sought-after product, have well-written content and answer common questions. You can identify your most important items by looking at the pages that have received the most traffic and then make improvements.
List your most searched queries
You should look at what your customers are searching for most often in your internal website search. This information is crucial not only to highlight popular products but also to determine if you want to make user-friendly modifications to your website. If you find a topic that is highly searched, update your FAQs to include the answer.
Another example: Let’s say that “water bottle” is one of your most searched keywords. Try searching for “water bottle” on your own to see what results you get. If you don’t get the results you want, optimize your water bottles to that keyword. Or, look at how your products are organized and see if there is room for improvement. You should also decide whether water bottles should be a sub-point in your navigation, since they are so popular.
Peak activity times
Your analytics can help you determine when your ecommerce website is most active. The internet is open 24/7, so your customers may not be working on a regular 9-5 schedule. You may be located in the Pacific Northwest but your customers could be in the Southeast. This means you need to adjust for time zones. This is particularly important if your customer base includes large international customers.
You will want to know when customers are most active. It will also let you know when you should not make major UX changes to avoid frustrating customers while they are making a purchase.
Last Thoughts
After you have done your research and conducted various types of testing, as well as reviewed your analytics, all you need is the information to improve your ecommerce website’s user experience. These steps will give you a solid foundation to build your user experience strategy.
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By: Volusion Staff
Title: 4 Steps for Assessing Your Ecommerce Site’s User Experience (UX)
Sourced From: www.volusion.com/blog/steps-for-assessing-your-ecommerce-sites-user-experience-ux/
Published Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2022 16:05:00 GMT
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