In today’s competitive online market place, creating an excellent user experience is one of the most important tasks for eCommerce sites. It can be the defining reason why customers choose one vendor over another. Along with good customer service and prompt delivery, it can help you compete against stores that charge lower prices. Here, we’ll look at seven ways you can improve the user experience on your Magento store.
- Make product search simple
One of the most off-putting things for a customer is not being able to find the products they are looking for. If they can’t locate them quickly, they’ll soon look elsewhere. One way to make this experience better is to provide an advanced search bar on your site. Not only will this help them find products, it can even provide suggestions as they input the keywords.
In addition, you should also provide product filters which will help customers narrow down their options. These can help customers easily find products of the right price, size, style, brand or colour, etc. - Easy navigation
Easy navigation is just as important as a search facility. Customers should be able to find everything they want on the site, products and all your other information, without difficulty. Putting this into place starts with creating a logical and intuitive structure for your website so that all the information is placed in the categories where customers expect them to be.
Once the structure is set and the information organised, you then need to ensure that it can be easily accessed. This means putting well-organised menus in the right places (header, footer, sidebar, etc.) and using universally recognisable navigation icons. - Enable wish lists
Wish lists are an incredibly helpful feature for users and can help you retain customers over the long term. If someone shopping for a t-shirt sees a jumper they like, they can add the jumper to their list for purchase at a later date. The customer experience is enhanced when they return to the site and know they can instantly find the jumper without having to search for it again.
Wish lists can also be divided into categories to help customers organise their shopping. You can also enable customers to have private and sharable wish lists. Many couples about to get married now share a wedding present wish list with their friends and relatives.
eCommerce stores can also use wish lists to entice sales, perhaps sending customers a notification if prices of listed items change or offering them a discount on items on the list. - Display product availability
It is now possible to link your inventory data with your website and this gives you the potential to display item availability on your product pages. Showing customers if an item is in stock or even how many are available, gives them increased confidence to buy. There’s nothing worse than placing an order only to find out it’s going to be weeks before the store gets a new delivery.
Additionally, if the number of items is low and this is clearly displayed, it can incentivise customers to buy more quickly before it runs out of stock. - Showcase products more effectively
Everyone knows the importance of providing high-quality product images and detailed product descriptions. However, there are often more effective ways to display your products. Many stores now show videos of the products, often in the form of a presentation. There are also 360° images that enable the product to be seen from all angles. The latest website technologies include such things as augmented reality which display images of items like furniture in the customers’ living rooms.
The aim of these things is to give the user a better experience of knowing the product before they buy it. Hand in hand with this should be customer reviews which are useful in helping potential buyers understand what previous purchasers had to say. - Personalised shopping
Personalised shopping has become increasingly important over the last few years. It provides an experience that is tailored to each user, giving them product ideas based on their previous browsing habits and purchases. It also enables you to offer targeted discounts and offers which customers will find more appealing.
When visiting a site which provides personalised shopping, a customer feels welcomed and at home. This is a huge incentive not only for them to buy but to continue shopping there over the long term. - A reliable website
At the heart of creating a great user experience is the need to provide a website that is always available, loads quickly, runs smoothly and which is seen as secure. The lack of any of these things can quickly make customers abandon your site and look elsewhere. For this reason, it is important to choose the best hosting for your Magento site.
Dedicated Magento hosting uses servers which are configured for optimal Magento performance, ensuring your site stays online, that loading times are speeded up and that the site performs well even when you have lots of traffic. With the addition of an SSL certificate, you can also have your site labelled as secure on browsers.
Conclusion
Giving the customer a great user experience means they will be far more likely to buy from you and stay loyal over the long run. It can even help you stay competitive when other sites are charging less. Hopefully, the seven points raised here will show you how to improve the user experience on your Magento site.
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