The skill of designers and the fatal mistakes of managers: why will customers love or/and hate your store?

A friendly design that takes care of all the slightest things to create comfort for customers on your site and an informal individual approach to each client – there are two indissoluble parts of a single whole. If both factors form synergistic unity, your web store is guaranteed ongoing success and high conversion.

 

Let’s start with the design

In this case, we will not discuss the color scheme selection or the form of icons corresponding to the latest trends. Let’s talk about the convenience of the location and functionality of the elements that allow the visitor to your web store to take the pleasure of choosing goods and making purchases. The easiest way, of course, is to seek the development of the appearance of your store and the subtle debugging of its internal mechanisms to recognized professionals who have rich and diverse experience in this area. For example, experts from SECL, whose portfolio convincingly confirm their high competence in this area.

In any case, understanding the principles of the interconnection of design solutions and UI/UX optimization with high conversion of e-commerce resources is extremely important both for developers and owners of such sites.

It is essential to understand that high competition in electronic trade is caused by an abundance of excellent web resources, the developers, and owners of which consider not only apparent expectations but also the subconscious desires of customers. Thus, visiting your site, a potential client has, so to speak, the best samples of online stores printed on the retina. He constantly unconsciously compares you with what he considers the norm and expects, at least, correspondence to these ideal parameters. Under these conditions, you have to permanently solve a comprehensive problem: to be no worse than websites setting standards in your niche and offering unique features that will allow you to stand out from the total mass, turning a visitor into your regular customer. On the way to this goal, every trifle acquires decisive importance.

Based on the preceding, it is natural to conclude that your potential buyer entering your store’s website expects to meet there:

  • accessibility, ease of submission, and fast loading of information;
  • logical arrangement of elements;
  • effective solution to urgent problems;
  • the absence of difficulties in the process of performing any actions.

Therefore, if the UI/UX optimization of the interface of your marketplace is carried out correctly, the client’s stay on your site becomes an absolute pleasure. And as you know, a satisfied customer is a generous customer. Therefore, it can be said without any exaggeration that each correctly working element on your pages makes the edges of the sales funnel, more and more sloping, delicately but inexorably leading the visitor to the target action. Such a client predictably and highly probably, thanks to a competent and well-designed interface and flawlessly working site mechanisms, turns into the buyer. It happens because your visitor:

  • easily interacts with the resource;
  • understands the process of performing the necessary operations on an intuitive level without additional effort;
  • promptly receives comprehensive information about the product;
  • performs the target action, passing the minimum path.

Three fatal mistakes of e-commerce sites

Lampooning Leo Tolstoy, we can say: all successful online stores are successful in their own way, and all unsuccessful ones – repeat similar mistakes.

Here are just three of the long list of possible errors of marketplaces managers, which are guaranteed to lead even a promising store with an ideal design to abandon in the blink of an eye:

  • Lack of profound preliminary studies of the target audience. The desire to make a site “for all and everybody” is a way to nowhere. If you can’t imagine a portrait of your average buyer in all details, you throw letters in bottles into the vast ocean instead of aimed firing at targets. Accordingly, the result is predictable in advance.
  • Limited and unreliable methods of communication of customers with the seller. If your visitor cannot contact an employee who will provide all the necessary information in one click, you have lost not only this buyer but also at least a dozen of his acquaintances, whom he will tell about his negative experience. Another mistake in communication: to be in the blissful confidence that, saving on the staff of customer service, you will increase the store’s profit. Most often, owners of online stores are guided by the following logic: there is an administrator on the site, and he can provide any information about the goods if such a request is received. At the same time, the attention of those who make such a decision eludes a vital nuance: the techie will limit himself to a dry presentation of the data. Meanwhile, an experienced sales manager can find the best way to satisfy the customer’s needs in comprehensive conversation and gently bring to the intended action.
  • Limited or uncomfortable payment methods. Yes, of course, the integration into your site of various payment systems and ensuring transactions to protect implies additional expenses for you. However, if the buyer cannot conveniently pay in your store, he will merely leave his money in another marketplace.

Summing up

A successfully designed interface is an online store visiting card that attracts many satisfied and loyal customers. Having paid enough attention to its design, you can automatically ensure the high efficiency of the website and eliminate unnecessary losses in the form of interrupted transactions and abandoned baskets. The main thing in this matter is to thoroughly hang out and work out each element, focusing on the needs and expectations of a potential buyer.

At the same time, managerial miscalculations and insufficient professional personnel can negate all the efforts of designers. Remember the inextricable connection of these two components, and your marketplace will always be full of happy customers. As a result, you can recoup your investments with an optimistic forecast in the first quarter of work or, if external circumstances suddenly do not develop in your favor, during the year. In any case, online stores are a very profitable business with a high ROI coefficient.

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