UX Design Principles for Ecommerce

The last years have seen booming ecommerce development. Currently, it provides numerous opportunities for user-to-user sales platforms, online auctions, and e-trade. Ecommerce activities and systems today include booking and presenting an excessive amount of commercial operations, e-banking, services related to diverse forms of marketing, and many other issues that people are using on a daily basis. If you purchase services or products online, you deal with ecommerce.

When a business wants to build an online presence, first of all it creates an ecommerce website that should handle financial transactions made over the Web. In their turn, designers, marketers, and business strategists are being tasked with turning it into an ideal place for people to shop. Unfortunately, they often fail to make the online shopping process engaging and easy.

Why is that? The answer is simple. Typically, customers do not ask for the impossible. All they want is a safe, easy, and fast shopping experience. To make this happen, all you need to do is to build intuitive UX. In this posting, we will take a closer look at some of the core UX design principles that are must-haves for any ecommerce site.

The Role of Design in Ecommerce

Ecommerce is all about providing clients with services or goods by means of the Web. And this is where the UX design for ecommerce can be useful. Easy payment flow, attractive product presentation, fast feedback from the system, clear and simple microinteractions, smooth transition and logic, and plenty of other features and elements can directly impact your sales. This is where business experts and UI/UX designers must work as one team to build something really unique. The success of any ecommerce website depends on many aspects among which:

the quality of ecommerce website design
the quality of the content presenting the offer
the quality of the services or products offered

In order to get all things done, UI/UX designers should consider the following principles.

UX Design Principles for Ecommerce

Intuitiveness

Try to prioritize functionality above all else, while putting your customers in focus and bearing in mind the objectives you’re they might have. Then, think of how they can fulfill them. Remember, even the most advanced design solutions, such as ghost buttons and parallax scrolling, will not make sense if they hurt functionality. Consider these practices when creating intuitive UX for ecommerce:

Analyze user behavior. This indicator is a key to intuitive UX
Pay special attention to color psychology to convey the feeling of comfort and security
Allow customers to scan their payment cards
Use microinteractions to make the shopping experience more pleasurable for customers
Utilize a save cart option
Add a guest checkout feature
Save client information
Ensure your website loads quickly
Apply cross-browser/cross-device testing
Make your content (my account, favorites list, shopping cart, search box) easily accessible from any page
Support picture zooming
Simplify the UI and ensure convenient interactions with your mobile UI design (responsiveness)

Secure Payment

Ensure that your site provides a secure payment environment. An SSL certificate is a must for any ecommerce site. It encrypts the data between users’ devices and your server to protect the payment data from any external interference. In addition, it helps your site to be favored by search engines.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

We have already discussed these features in our previous articles (here and here).

Indeed, virtual/augmented reality is pretty new to ecommerce. Despite this, these features have a huge potential in providing an excellent shopping experience.

User-generated feedback

People love to see photos taken by average people rather than professionals. From this perspective, your task is to encourage your customers to share their experience with your services or products on social networks. In order to help your potential customers make a choice, just monitor those mentions and share them on your site.

The all-around perspective

Typically, having the ability to touch and feel products make customers want them. Although people cannot physically touch things on the screen, a 360-degree product view will get them closer to explored products. This will give your customers a kind of the first-hand experience.

Video instructions and reviews

Did you know than most people are more likely to make a purchase after watching a video instruction that explains a service or product? So it is recommended to make video instructions a part of your site content.

Try-on videos

Demonstration videos not only show more details of products but also let customers see how they look in reality.

High-quality images

An image is worth 1000 words. And this is especially true when it comes to ecommerce website design. Include HD product photos taken in a realistic environment and from different angles to allow your customers better understand them.

Search box

Customers who use site search are more likely to convert into leads. From this perspective, the proper search is critical for an ecommerce company. Here is how to improve website search experience:

Again, analyze user behavior
Display a list of related items
Ensure your search returns results for misspelled, plural, and singular search requests
Let customers search using item codes
Display suggestions
Provide a Quick View option
Show the product status: back in stock soon, out of stock, or in stock
Add a Sort By option (availability, relevance)
The search box should be made big enough so it can draw attention and fit most queries

Key Takeaways

Designing for ecommerce typically involves numerous issues, such as establishing strong branding, ensuring clear product presentation and security of users’ data, effective use of visuals, and operational simplicity. At Loonar Studios, we can help you with any of those aspects mentioned above. We know how to build the UI/UX design that supports your ecommerce business. Contact us if you have any questions. Cheers!

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