7 Steps to Improve Your Online Store's UX

UX is one of the concepts most closely tied to running an online store. What's behind it, and how does good UX help increase sales? You'll find the answers in this article. It's aimed at anyone just starting to sell online, as well as anyone wondering how to further improve their store to raise the conversion rate.

Table of contents

• A positive experience is the key to higher conversion
• What is UX, and why does it matter for an online store?
• Step 1: Make a good first impression
  • Polish your visual elements
  • Limit pop-up windows
• Step 2: Improve navigation in your online store
• Step 3: Organize your categories and subcategories
• Step 4: Add filters and make it easier to find products
• Step 5: Optimize your shopping cart
• Step 6: Simplify registration and login
• Step 7: Build a smooth checkout
• Take care of UX so customers keep coming back

A positive experience is the key to higher conversion

You're spending an ever-larger budget on advertising, adjusting prices to match the market and the competition, growing your business accounts across every available social platform, but... sales still aren't growing? So you try to attract customers with appealing promotions, freebies, or free shipping. At first it looks like the temporary bonuses and discounts are boosting sales. But a few weeks pass, everything goes back to the previous, weak results, and the people who took advantage of your promotions never bought again. What now? That's a sign it's time to focus on your online store's UX.

What is UX, and what does it mean for e-commerce?

UX stands for User Experience. In other words, it's the impressions a person has when visiting your website or mobile app.

A site built with UX principles in mind should be attractive, easy to use, and useful. This lets the consumer easily find what they're looking for, get to know the product thoroughly before paying, and rate the purchase process itself as safe, fast, and as intuitive as possible. The better and more pleasant the experience, the greater the chance that the user will spend more time in your online store and, most importantly, make a purchase.

User experience isn't just about a site that looks attractive. A huge range of different factors shape a positive experience for an online shopper. Naturally, the more complex the store, the more elements need to be analyzed to find the best solutions. But when optimizing your site, always let the needs of your target audience guide you - design the store so it meets their expectations at every stage of the buying journey. Here are the 7 most important steps to make your store user friendly.

Step 1: Make a good first impression

Does your store rack up plenty of views and clicks, but they all end on the homepage? It looks like users may not have found what they were looking for, or got discouraged after interacting with the interface. Here's what you can do to make the site easier to use:

Polish your visual elements

Improving your visual elements takes attention to a lot of detail, but it effectively helps create a positive, appealing, and usable environment on your website. Every slider, carousel, or banner you place on the site should have a clear purpose that the user can easily recognize. Remember that all graphics need to be adapted to different screen resolutions, whether on desktops, tablets, or smartphones.

While the homepage is usually visited the most, remember that a customer doesn't always start their visit there. They may have clicked an ad or a Google search result and landed first on a category page or a specific product page. So make sure every subpage can make a good first impression and encourage visitors to stay longer.

Limit pop-up windows

A pop-up is a notification that automatically appears on a page, usually meant to grab the user's attention and prompt them to act. It can take the form of a graphic, an animation, or sometimes a short video. Its purpose can vary - most often it's a banner announcing a promotion, new items, a newsletter, or an upcoming event. There are many possibilities, but when designing a pop-up for an online store, you need to exercise caution and restraint.

If pop-ups appear too often, are too large, and make it hard to access the information on the page, you risk scaring the user away and achieving the opposite of what you intended.

The worst practice is making it hard to close a pop-up. Imagine visiting a new site and being greeted right away by a large banner where you can't find an "X" or a "Close" button. It feels like a trap, or like being forced to click on an intrusive ad. Practices like that are far from good UX.

Step 2: Improve navigation in your online store

Intuitive navigation is key to delivering a positive user experience. Simply put, a store that's user friendly lets users quickly and easily find whatever they're looking for - whether it's a specific category, a search bar, a contact form, or an "About us" page. Frictionless browsing shortens the time needed to shop, which matters to a lot of consumers.

• Make sure your main menu is clear and contains the most important tabs. It's worth exercising restraint here so the user isn't overwhelmed by too many options.
• Add an easy-to-use, clearly visible search bar. You can enhance it with phrase suggestions, spelling correction, and result filtering.
• Use clear, understandable CTAs and anchor text - words or phrases used as links within the text that direct the user to specific places on the site.
• Place information about delivery costs, return policy, and contact details in an easily accessible spot, such as the footer. You can group the links there to make information easier to find.
• Add a visible button or company logo that lets users easily return to the homepage.
• Make sure navigation in your store is simple across different devices - including smartphones and tablets.

Keep in mind that some elements aren't worth changing just to be original and stand out from the competition. When designing an interface, rely on proven solutions that users are already used to. A logo and company name in the top-left corner, a search bar near the top of the page, a cart icon "within reach" on the right - sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Step 3: Organize your categories and subcategories

When building your category tree, go from general to specific - add smaller, more precise subcategories to the broadest groups. Keep in mind that not every user uses the search bar. Many people navigate only through the available categories and subcategories. So make sure every product is assigned to the right group, and that each group is named appropriately.

Avoid "empty" categories - there's no point inviting a user to a subpage where they'll find no products at all. A common mistake is displaying empty categories like "Easter offers" or "Christmas", which sit with no products in them for most of the year.

Building a category tree is a process that requires ongoing analysis and adjustment to user needs and changes in your product range. Regular optimization will help you maintain a positive shopping experience.

Step 4: Add filters and make it easier to find products

Product filtering is unfortunately an often-neglected area in online stores. Frequently, narrowing down displayed products stops at selecting a minimum and maximum price. Yet products have plenty of other attributes, such as color, material, dimensions, and more. Choosing the right attributes depends, of course, on your industry and the products you sell. A clothing and shoe store needs different filters than an electronics or furniture listing.

Imagine a customer scouring the internet for a fairly specific product - silver earrings with a floral motif. After typing in the right phrase, they land on a store with over a thousand products. Choosing a category narrows the results down to around 200 items, but finding that exact product still requires tediously scrolling through dozens of subpages. Yet adding search filters for pendant color and motif would have been enough to solve the problem.

Simply having various filters isn't everything. The real trick lies in how they function. Make sure the user can freely combine several filters at once without the page reloading after every click. It's also important to allow users to change their selected filters or reset their choices.

Step 5: Optimize your shopping cart

The shopping cart is where a customer's selected products are summarized. While there's no single right way to build a cart page, you should always tailor it to your target audience, keeping in mind what a given user needs and how they shop.

Whichever solution you choose, it's always worth following the principle that "less is more". The cart should primarily show the key information - the product name with a photo, quantity, price, and a link back to the product page. Many customers will change their minds, so allow the cart to be edited - add clear buttons for changing quantities and removing items.

Don't take the risk of cluttering the cart page with promotional banners and other elements that could get in the way of shopping.

Should delivery costs be shown in the cart? Some stores choose to do this, and it can prove very helpful to the customer. Before reaching the final step, they'll know not just the total value of the products, but the full order cost including delivery. What's more, the customer can see early on how much more they need to spend to qualify for free shipping.

It's also very important that a small cart icon stays with the user throughout their entire shopping journey, showing the number of items selected. A distinctive button placed at the top of the page keeps the customer constantly informed about what's in their cart, even before they move to a dedicated order summary page.

Step 6: Simplify registration and login

Having an account with an online store should come with extra benefits for the customer, such as:

• order tracking,
• fast returns,
• access to a wishlist,
• a view of purchase history,
• a faster checkout process,
• automatically filled-in shipping details,
• extra perks available only to registered users.

The registration process on an online store should be as simple as possible, and above all, secure. Make sure your forms are easy to understand and that customers only need to provide the essential data during registration - no date of birth or gender required.

Remember that above all else, customers value speed and ease in the purchase process. That's why you should offer login via Facebook or a Google account.

Most importantly, don't forget to allow purchases without registration. Shopping as a guest eliminates the need to share personal data and fill out lengthy forms, which for many people means a faster and more hassle-free purchase.

Step 7: Build a smooth checkout

Time to finalize the purchase - moving to checkout. Don't let mistakes on this critical page lead to a so-called abandoned cart, meaning the customer backs out right at the "final stretch". You can use a so-called one-page checkout, putting the entire summary in one place, or split the final step of the transaction across several pages.

If the entire checkout fits on one page, it means less clicking between subpages and the ability to check all the information in one place. To avoid overwhelming the buyer, though, make sure your forms are clear and the individual sections are laid out logically.

The second option, a multi-step checkout, can help organize the individual steps instead of cramming everything onto one page. For example, the first checkout step might cover choosing a delivery method, and the next ones could cover payment method, pickup details, a summary, and a thank-you page. A visible progress bar here goes a long way, letting the buyer know exactly what stage of the purchase they're on.

Regardless of the type of checkout, this is where you can hide the navigation bar and any unnecessary elements, leaving only the store's logo at the top of the page, linking back to the homepage.

Take care of UX so customers keep coming back

In an era of massive e-commerce growth and ever-increasing competition, attracting a buyer once isn't enough. Loyal customers - people who consciously return to a trusted seller and make repeat purchases - are an enormous asset in e-commerce. By taking care of proper UX, you increase the chance that consumers will be more willing to use your offer again. After all, why look elsewhere when you can go back to a store that meets your needs?

As you can see, a positive user experience is made up of a huge number of different elements. It might turn out that all you need to do is work on your store's mobile responsiveness. But an analysis might also reveal that your store needs a general "overhaul". Changing categories, optimizing descriptions, modifying the interface, and simplifying the transaction process... that's a lot of challenges to face. In a situation like that, it's worth getting help from professionals. An experienced online marketing agency will carry out an audit that helps identify every area that needs to change. UX specialists will then start rolling out the necessary changes in the right order. As a result, your store will feel welcoming to buyers, and in turn, will be ready to handle a greater number of transactions.