Getting buyers to your eCommerce is hard enough. But once they’re there, you also have to convince them to buy. However, if you’re making some of these common eCommerce design mistakes , you may be making things a lot harder than they should be.
Let’s get started:
13 common eCommerce design mistakes to avoid
1. Not making your shop compatible with all devices.
Did you know that 60% of searches are initiated on mobile devices? Most shoppers rely on multiple devices to shop. Even if the purchase is not completed on a mobile device, the search and selection can be done on a mobile device, before buying a product in a physical shop. Take note of this and ensure a consistent user experience across multiple devices. This way, you can avoid one of the most common eCommerce design mistakes.
You can use a free tool like: Am I Responsive? to see how your shop looks on different devices:
2. Choosing the wrong theme or plugins
Don’t make the mistake of choosing a theme just because it looks pretty or you like its design. When selecting a theme for your online shop, first list all the features that are important to you and your eCommerce. After that, it’s entirely up to you to choose a ready-made theme with these features built in, opt for a basic theme that you can add custom code to, or even code your theme from scratch.
3. Not following conventional eCommerce design standards.
Yes, “standard” may sound boring. But the problem is that most shoppers have become familiar with a certain format for online shop websites. They look for the shopping cart in the top right corner, contact details in the header or footer, and a zoom option on mouse-over.
Therefore, it is best to stick to familiar layouts and designs so that shoppers do not have to search for buttons to click. From welcome screens to product display and from shopping cart to checkout, the path to sales should be clear, and with minimal friction for the user. One criterion to use is that even a person who does not know the language should be able to shop on your website.
4. Few search, sort or filter options.
Many users who come to your website do not really know what they are looking for. Your product page should be attractive enough to hold their attention. But just being attractive with a huge “Buy” button doesn’t make the sale. Beyond that, you need to help shoppers find what they’re looking for without too much trouble.
You can do this by categorising products and allowing visitors to sort and filter them. A search option can help as well. Other features that can help shoppers decide quickly are comparison tables, frequently asked questions and product reviews.
5. Boring, useless images.
They are images that sell, a picture = a thousand words. Not including high quality photos is one of the biggest design mistakes in most online shops to take into account. You can also include several photos per product to give visitors more details about them.
6. Not showing related products.
You are leaving money on the table with this mistake. If you have a secure customer for a product, it is very likely that they will buy related products and therefore motivating cross-selling is a good idea that can increase your sales.
To display related products in your WooCommerce shop, you can follow these instructions.
7. Not allowing shoppers to add products to a wish list
Sometimes users coming to your site are not ready to buy right away. Allowing them to save items to a wish list gives them the opportunity to come back and buy at a time that is right for them.
If you are using WooCommerce, you can add wishlist functionality with the WooCommerce Wishlist Plugin.
8. Don’t display “social proof” in the form of reviews.
When it comes to improving sales, nothing works like words of praise from customers who have already bought. So be sure to display all positive comments about your business on social media or elsewhere.
Ratings on third-party sites like Yelp and others or user-generated reviews can be displayed here to help buyers make a decision. Don’t forget about negative reviews either, this gives credibility to good reviews.
9. A complicated and time-consuming checkout process.
Long lines at a shop counter can put off many shoppers. Similarly, too many steps or screens to checkout can also be counterproductive.
To ensure a smooth and hassle-free checkout process, it is a good idea to offer multiple payment options, catering to different customer profiles or geographies.
If possible, allow shoppers to make payment on your website. Not all shoppers are comfortable with being redirected to a third party site for payment such as the famous killer 3D secure or paypal.
10. Not inspiring trust with your eCommerce design.
When you want shoppers to share personal information and make a payment on your website, they need to make sure they can trust your shop. Your website should clearly send all the signs of trust: clear logo, SSL secure website, contact details, testimonials, payment options and known payment gateways, and no spam.
11. Unreliable web hosting.
Nothing kills a shopping experience like a slow-loading website. Shoppers expect eCommerce to load faster than ever. And when it comes to making your shop load quickly, your eCommerce hosting plays a very important role.
Unless you are just starting out with your project, avoid cheap shared hosting and opt for a quality VPS or cloud hosting option. You may be interested in this post where we explain how to speed up a WordPress website.
12. Forms with bad user experience.
All those beautiful forms you added to your shop’s website? Did you validate them? Forms that don’t work properly are simply a waste of time and effort.
One way to improve the user experience is to add online validation after users have added their data to the different form fields. Another way that can help is to communicate errors clearly to them.
That way, shoppers can complete forms quickly without the hassle of having to resubmit a form after making a mistake.
13. Not making sure your eCommerce looks good in different web browsers.
Not all visitors use Chrome (although they should). Nor do they update their browsers regularly. Therefore, make sure you test eCommerce in multiple browsers and even in different versions of the same browser. That way, you won’t lose a lot of visitors who are not so Internet savvy.
This is an easy way to test your website in different browsers.
And here ends our list of the biggest eCommerce design mistakes.
Are you making any of these mistakes in your shop? Do you have any questions about how to fix them? We can help you!
