Increase the conversion rate of your online store with UX and usability design

1. Usability vs. User Experience
2. The design process of successful UX and usability
3. Usability and UX best practices
4. A clear structure of the online shop
5. A simple and instinctive navigation
6. Help your customers to orient themselves better
7. A promising search function
8. Eye-catching CTA button
9. Optimization of the shopping cart
10. Fast loading times
11. The choice of colors
12. Different fonts
13. Other advantages of an optimized UX and usability design
14. Conclusion

Usability vs. User Experience

Before we give you a few examples of how you can use UX and usability design to optimize your conversion rate in the online store, we would like to briefly explain and compare the two terms. Because the terms are very close to each other, but mean something different.

Usability includes the general usability of a website while your customer is on it. The main thing is how well your target group can find their way around the site and how easy it is for them to use it. Usability is measured by its effectiveness, its uniqueness, and its success, among other things.

In contrast to usability, UX (user experience) describes the user experience before, during and after visiting a website. It's about the emotions your online store triggers in your customers. An excellent user experience makes the user like your product. How you can use usability and user experience to increase your conversion rate and thus generate more sales of your products, we now want to give you some tips along the way.

The design process of a successful UX and Usability

To ensure that your ideas for improved usability and user experience really do improve the conversion rate, you should put the users, i.e. your customers, at the center of every part of the design process. Try to put yourself in that position to decide on different design elements. If you still find it difficult to make such decisions, you can start by looking around other online stores. As a customer, what do you notice there? What do you like and what don't you like? And what catches your attention. Just write down your findings and use them later when you design your online store.

If you already have a functioning online store, this role reversal from online store owner to online store visitor might be especially difficult. This is because you are already biased when it comes to judging the presentation of your online store. So if you're not sure where there's room for improvement, you can involve other people. You can ask people from your circle of acquaintances to take a look at your online store. Ask them to take notes on everything they notice. You can bet that they will come up with completely new insights. The results of your analysis are the basis for an improved conversion rate through UX design and usability optimization.

In addition, you can think about who actually visits your online store and with what intention. Later, these insights will also help you to design the right shop. You should then always ask yourself how your customer can get to their destination as quickly as possible and integrate this into the design.

Usability and UX best practices

Good UX design scores with an attractively designed user interface and compelling functionality that also caters to the target audience. If your customers feel comfortable and comfortable navigating your site, they are more likely to buy one of your products. How exactly you design your online store is up to you, of course. However, we have put together a few ideas that can help you improve your conversion rate.

1. a clear structure of the online shop

In order for your customers to make it to a conversion, i.e. to complete a purchase, your website must be structured in such a way that they can move around intuitively. Keep your online store simple and avoid unnecessary extras. Ask yourself what would be important to you as a customer and leave out everything else. The less functions, texts and elements you include, the more the focus is on the really important things.

2. simple and instinctive navigation

In fact, you don't have to reinvent the wheel for a good user experience and usability. It sometimes brings much more if the design and structure is not complicated. You should keep this in mind especially when it comes to navigation. Here it is important that your customers find their way intuitively. So you should not hide the menu behind an unusual icon. Rather, use an icon that can also be found in most other online stores. This way, your customers will immediately know where to find the menu. The menu should also be sorted accordingly, so that your customer can quickly reach his goal. The faster he finds what he is looking for, the more likely he is to make a conversion. In general, remember that fewer clicks to the goal means that your customer will complete the purchase faster and more likely.

3. help your customers to orient themselves better

You can also incorporate design elements into your online store that make it easier for your customers to find their way around. For example, good headings or meaningful images for the categories of the webshop help. A progress bar within the check-out process also helps your customers immensely. By the way, you should also keep it simple. Your customers don't want to spend a lot of time completing the purchase. So only ask for data that is really needed. Anything else will annoy your customer and may prevent them from getting to the end of the checkout process.

4. a promising search function

Find instead of search: This should be the motto of the search function in your online store. You can make the search function easier to use by providing your own filters that your customers only have to click on. Make sure that every search leads to results. An unfulfilled search is frustrating, so you should avoid it. Customers who don't find what they're looking for on the first try are much more likely to stop visiting your online store. Instead of continuing to browse your store, they'll look for someone else.

5. eye-catching CTA buttons

If you want to draw attention to a certain aspect of your online store, it helps to use eye-catching CTA buttons. CTA stands for Call to Action and means the request to the customer to perform an action. For example, you can highlight the "Buy now" button in your online store with a colored background. Your potential customers will notice a colored button if the rest of the online store is kept neutral. Within the first few moments on a product detail page, your customer will have registered the CTA button. If he then likes the product, he is more likely to click on "Buy now" and complete the purchase. Let's assume you didn't include such a button. Then the customer would first put the product in the shopping cart. In the fewest cases, he then goes directly to the shopping cart to complete the purchase, but perhaps browses a little further. But then a short distraction like a phone call is enough and the shopping process is not completed.

6. optimization of the shopping cart

So that you can move your customers as fast as possible to the purchase, you must take care also times of your Warenkorb. Probably there is still potential for optimization. The shopping process should be intuitive, leave no questions unanswered and only require the most important data. In addition, you should always inform your customers about the current amount in their shopping cart. You can easily do this with the help of a pop-up. This pop-up appears whenever your customer adds a new product to the shopping cart and informs him about the current cart value. After all, you don't want your customer to be surprised by a product that exceeds his or her budget. Because that can also lead to a purchase cancellation.

7. fast loading times

Don't you get impatient when a website takes a remarkably long time to load completely? Once you make this maybe still with, loads the page with each further click again so long, then it is with the patience quickly over. In most cases, long loading times lead to abandonment of the website, which is why you should ensure fast loading times in your online store in any case. Optimize images and graphics, for example, as they are often the reason for long loading times.

8. the choice of colors

Meanwhile, the colors on most websites are limited to black, white, gray and individual accent colors. However, this is not a must in web design, because of course you can use more colors. However, you should keep in mind that colors attract attention. If you use a lot of different colors, your online store might look confusing. Confusion and sensory overload could be the result for your customers. Also, the colors in your online store should be reflected on every single subpage. This ensures a consistent image with recognition value!

9. different fonts

There are no general rules for font selection either. Typically, a maximum of one to two clear, sans-serif fonts are used to optimize readability, especially for smaller scaled and longer texts. However, serif fonts are now also being used more again, but mostly only as headings or embellishments, as it becomes too tiring to read the texts in the long run.

Further advantages of an optimized UX and usability design

In addition to an increase in the conversion rate, an optimized UX and usability design also ensures a better position in the acquisition of new customers. If new visitors to your online store are not yet familiar with the products, the overall package must be convincing. Of course, this also contributes to an increase in the conversion rate. But even beyond that, there are several advantages that you can benefit from if you adapt your user experience. By increasing the visual quality, you build more trust with your customers. In addition, you also save costs. Because with the same number of visitors, you'll make more sales from now on. And this in turn means that you need less money for marketing your online store. You no longer need so many visitors to increase your sales, but instead convert the number of visitors into money that you already receive. That sounds promising, doesn't it?

Conclusion

UX and usability design is all about putting the customer first. If you take our tips into account, your customer will feel more comfortable in your online store and find what they're looking for right away. A smooth shopping experience is much more likely to lead to a sale of a product. So always remember that your online store should be designed as simple as possible. Put emphasis on important elements, but avoid bells and whistles.

If you are now wondering how you can best implement this for you and your online store, then we are happy to help you. EXWE helps you as a software and shopware agency with your relevant and successful UX design. We improve and develop the existing design of your online store or set up an online store from scratch. We structure the web product visually and also take corporate identities into account. You don't have professional images yet? No problem, we will take care of that too! Would you like to learn more about our UX design services? Then give us a call or have a look at our UX service overview.