User experience (UX) has always been key on websites, however, now more than ever, in such saturated and competitive online spaces, it’s something that simply cannot be overlooked. We’re here to introduce 4 of the key considerations that you need to be focused on for your e-commerce website.
We can’t exaggerate enough how important UX is, so this is your sign to put some time into improving it, potentially working with a design agency Manchester, to transform your website and your business!
Mobile Optimisation
Another key consideration should be mobile optimisation. As of April 2024, around 9 in 10 users access websites through their mobile device, so ensuring that it’s well tailored to the experience of mobile users is important. Working with a web development agency Manchester or London to create a responsive mobile design, create touch friendly buttons and menus, revise the content layout and optimise images properly for mobile can make the biggest difference when it comes to the performance of your website.
One of the biggest things to focus on when it comes to mobile optimisation is the scrollability. It can be really off-putting to land on a page on a mobile device and be faced with a huge chunk of content or too many large images where a user doesn’t see a good variety of products quickly. Instead, you should have a small piece of content to introduce the category at the top of the page, whilst making sure that without scrolling, the user still sees products. If you need to use a “Read More” dropdown, then do so. The first screen before scrolling should never be filled with pure text and you should reduce scroll time to get to the images/products wherever possible.
Then, you should think about the layout of your products on the page. You should always have the option for users to choose how many products they want displayed per line on the site, for example one product per line, two or four. This will help them to tailor the experience to their personal preference, as some people like to get more of an overview by seeing more products at once, whereas others prefer more detail so only like to see one product at a time.
Spend time focusing on your mobile optimisation and it can really transform your website and specifically, the user statistics like bounce rate, pages per visit and engagement rate.
Website Speed
Something else that can’t be overlooked when it comes to user experience is website speed. Modern consumers will not sit around and wait for a website to load, they will simply leave and go somewhere else. So, ensuring that your website loads quickly is essential in today’s online landscape, now more than ever.
Every website is different and depending on the CMS that your website uses, there will be different challenges when it comes to site speed. Typically Shopify is the best CMS when it comes to website speed for ecommerce businesses, as it’s specifically designed for ecommerce websites and the structure they tend to follow. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t have a slow website when you use Shopify.
Some common ways to improve your website speed include:
- Reducing the size of largest contentful paint elements
- Removing render blocking resources
- Allowing for text compression
- Reducing server response time
- Reducing unused JavaScript
- Reducing unneeded third party code
- Avoiding large DOM sizes
- Properly sizing images and deferring offscreen images
- Considering the size of network payloads
Again, because every website is different, it’s advised to work with a well-recommended web development agency that will help to make improvements specific to your website.
