We all know that modern e-commerce is all about the customer experience (CX). What drives success in this area, another X, User Experience (UX). The challenge for many e-commerce merchants is they don’t have the time or resources to test changes they’d like to make to their online store. And that’s the best method to determine what works and what doesn’t.
Let’s be honest, just labeling it “UX” starts to scare online merchants away from doing much of anything, Discussions of UX start to be like discussing SEO; prone to mystery, too-diverse opinions, and unsupported data.
That’s why we are plunking down, right here, 10 time-tested changes you can consider making to improve your online store, today (okay, not all at once). Review these ideas and pick one that you think (your opinion matters here) might just have a big impact on store sales, and as the commercial says, “just do it.”
Sometimes Bigger is Better
If your audience skews towards the 40 + crowd (100 million+ and about one-third of the US population), larger images and text will help win your customers' hearts (and eyes!). Giving your customer the ability to see all the details without having to zoom or even click (tap) a button to zoom. Three images per row on your desktop for your collection page? Yes!
Shop by Category
If your store has more than a few products, you need categorization, but why hide that in your navigation? Have a horizontal scroller with your top categories right on your home page and landing pages. Make sure your photography matches your brand guidelines!
Shop by Image
Selling jewelry or clothing? Having an image with multiple products and the corresponding products next to it recreates an in-store experience for your customers on their device of choice.
Creative Hero Images
Your homepage hero image is likely the FIRST thing your customer sees. Make it pop! One great way to introduce a customer to your brand quickly is to do a split-style image (or even better – text and buttons on top of the image!).
Product Upsells
Don’t miss an opportunity to show like styles or even items that would pair well with your products. Upsells make up a large portion of sales for many stores, sometimes accounting for +30% of all items ordered. It also gives you the ability to increase your average order value (AOV).
Mega Menu Works!
Have a product catalog larger than 10 items? Maybe it is time to look into a Mega Menu. A good portion of all the Shopify Themes in the Theme Store have this as an option that you can configure. It allows your customer to quickly find the exact place they want to go, in fewer clicks. It might even prompt some customers to explore other products to buy.
Analyze and Heat Map It
Every store and customer group is different. Do you know how everyone interacts with your store? Installing a heat map application like Microsoft Clarity or HotJar gives you the ability to watch and replay your customers' sessions as if you are sitting next to them. Learn about Rage Clicks and how to fix them.
Reduce Rage Clicks
A Rage Click (we love this phrase) is an indication that someone is getting frustrated at your store or site. Rage Clicks occur when a user repeatedly clicks or taps on some element on your website or app that isn’t doing what they expect. We look for Rage Clicks on stores to find issues with components that may have been missed on previous QA reviews.
Common Example: side of an Add-to-Cart button works, but the right side of the button is covered by some invisible object (maybe the menu container?) and it is preventing people from clicking on the right edge of your Add-to-Cart button. Stop the rage!
Stop Spamming
Emails are amazing sources of revenue for an e-commerce store when used right. When used wrong (or for evil!) a misplaced email can cause your store to slowly spiral down.
We typically find 1-3 emails per month does well as a baseline for most brands. Never DAILY! When a brand sends multiple emails a week it becomes a hassle for your customer to handle and deal with all those emails. Less frequent, but more targeted emails will help your email performance (sometimes less really is more). Stop the spam!
Inventive and Descriptive Product Pages
Do you have product variants that need a little more description than just a color name? Maybe you have a compelling upsell you want to show off? Adding inline descriptions to your variants may help you convert more traffic. Here, less is not more!