The Importance of UX for Ecommerce Websites
If you’re like many companies starting out in ecommerce, you probably assumed having an aesthetically pleasing website would be the key to securing traffic and sales. But a site’s visual appeal won’t matter much if it’s frustrating to use. If your site’s bounce rate is high or you aren’t generating as many leads as you’d like, chances are you haven’t put enough thought into user experience (UX).
At IntuitSolutions, we’ve seen firsthand how prioritizing UX improvements can have a massive return on investment for online stores. While there are several site enhancements to consider, here are a few of the top areas that positively impact UX for ecommerce sites.
1. Page load speed
Maintaining a quick page load speed is integral to boosting site conversions. While a few additional seconds may not seem significant, statistics show that as each second passes, the potential to miss out on prospective customers increases. This study found that a site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 2.5x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds.
2. Easy navigation
A seamless navigation ensures users find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. Keep navigation simple and easy to read, and use intuitive controls that let customers move around the site without getting lost or frustrated.
3. Searchable features
Having powerful site search features can give your business an edge over competitors. One study shows that about 30-60% of shoppers conduct an on-site search — and those shoppers are 2-4 times more likely to convert. Customers should be able to search for products both within your store and on external sites like Google or Amazon to find what they want quickly and easily.
While BigCommerce store owners benefit from the platform’s native features, many of our clients have sought a more unique look and feel for their storefronts or wanted to add custom functionality not available out-of-the-box via BigCommerce.
Below are some examples of how we’ve helped BigCommerce merchants take their UX functionality to the next level.
Custom Brands Page for Heinnie Haynes
Supplying tactical professionals with a vast range of knives, supplies and equipment, Heinnie Haynes wanted a way to showcase their 500+ brand names in a digestible, easily navigable format. They needed a fast and straightforward way to search the brands while staying within the same page and minimizing the number of clicks it took to find products.
The IntuitSolutions team developed a custom brands page, a modern solution to help shoppers find the products they love by the brands they trust – quickly.
Brand page highlights:
- Organized layout showcasing 500+ brands for Heinnie.com
- Blazing fast page load speed
- Modern, mobile responsive design
- Alphabetical listing for easy navigation
- Sorting functionality without leaving the page
- Great solution for industries and companies that stock large number of brands
1ink.com Custom Blog Search Functionality
Serving a diverse customer base of individuals, schools, small businesses, and Fortune 500 companies, 1ink.com has become a trusted name in printer ink and specialty printing supplies. To boost their brand authority and keep their shoppers engaged, they needed a searchable blog page that helped shoppers find answers for a variety of printing topics.
While BigCommerce has basic search functionality built into the platform, our team built upon the native features to create a “quick search” option on the 1ink.com blog page, helping users quickly search a range of topics and discover relevant posts.
Blog page highlights:
- Quickly find blog posts based on the search term entered
- Scroll search results without leaving the page
- Allows users to find relevant posts with less click through
Swatch Options Randomizer for Liquid Blue
Liquid Blue began their business in 1987 making Grateful Dead tie-dye t-shirts. They’ve since expanded to supply a vast selection of creative tees, apparel, and merchandise for shoppers of all ages and creative interests – spanning music, fantasy, nature, entertainment, and more. The company’s impressive apparel selection called for a unique way to showcase myriad color and style combinations in their artistic palette.
Our team built a custom-developed solution that further enhances the Product Swatch Options on Category Page add-on for BigCommerce. Shoppers looking for inspiration can now click a “Randomize” button to instantly preview an array of style combinations for shirts without leaving the category page.
Level Up Your Ecommerce UX with IntuitSolutions
Do you need a UX audit for your website, or are you looking to customize your BigCommerce store to improve shopper engagement?
Our BigDev Certified developers can take any idea for custom features and functionality and deliver an efficient, optimized solution on BigCommerce to help your ecommerce business grow more sales.
We’re an Elite BigCommerce Partner ready to help you take your online store to the next level of growth. Send us a message or call us at 866-901-4650 to discuss how we can help your business succeed online.
