Enhancing user engagement at retail websites
Data is mounting that suggests ecommerce is quickly establishing itself as a cornerstone of the broader retail market. Merchants looking to maximize their brand's reach need to own and operate a retail website.
However, simply owning a website isn't enough anymore. Online shoppers have been buying things through the web for a while now and they have little patience for obtuse and outdated websites. If an ecommerce site is difficult to use or feels antiquated, they will likely continue shopping elsewhere.
Fortunately, designing a compelling retail website doesn't take hundreds of thousands of dollars (although it certainly can, if merchants want something cutting-edge). Cactus Commerce recently offered some advice to help merchants enhance the usability of their websites. The key is looking at how customers view a website and designing it based on how they would use it.
"Natural eye movement goes from the upper left to the lower right corner of the screen. The upper right and bottom left areas typically receive less attention unless they include graphical elements that will attract the eye," the news source notes. "Take advantage of this pattern to help guide your visitors into your site: follow web conventions and display your logo in the top left corner; put your navigation across the top, clearly defined and organized."
Another stumbling point is consistency. As people browse websites, they look for an easy-to-understand structure – margins, aligned elements and uniform elements are important to achieving an intuitive ecommerce site. For example, if your front page features multiple items, they should all be the same size and arranged in a grid-like pattern. Misaligned images of various sizes catch consumers' eyes, but also distract them from other parts of the webpage, such as the "check-out" button.
Color selection is likewise a crucial consideration. Studies have shown that consumers frequently identify brands by color. But that doesn't necessarily mean websites should be all the same hue. Rather, color should be used to draw attention to specific parts of the site – for example, a red "buy now" button would stand out on an otherwise white or grey website.
"Being smart doesn’t mean spending tons of money on redesigning every element of your site. Instead, retailers are finding that consistent, incremental improvements help to significantly improve site performance," Cactus Commerce concludes.
According to Forrester Research, ecommerce will generate more than $320 billion worth of sales in 2016 and account for approximately 10 percent of the retail revenues. Merchants need to be prepared and create an easy-to-use ecommerce website.
