What are the most common mistakes made by e-commerce store owners? Discover 5 UX myths.
User Experience (UX) is a broad approach that generally refers to how customers perceive our online store. The goal of UX is to provide a comfortable shopping experience for users, allowing them to make purchases quickly and easily, and encouraging them to return to our online store. Some e-commerce store owners may not realize the significant impact UX can have on sales, while others may fear that optimising their online store for UX is too costly. As a result, many online stores have common flaws that can negatively affect the user experience. Below, we describe the most frequently encountered UX mistakes.
1. Description on category page above products
In many online stores, right after entering a specific category page, users are presented with a block of text. This text usually contains a description of what users can find in that category. Often, it is relatively long, as it serves not only an informational purpose but is also essential for SEO, with store owners aiming to include a certain number of keywords. As a result, the first thing users see is a wall of text, which they are unlikely to read. This is particularly inconvenient for mobile users who must scroll through the text to reach the product view.
It is recommended to place all textual elements and additional information below the product feed. Remember that changing the location of category descriptions will not negatively affect SEO. However, it will have a positive impact on the user experience. Instead of scrolling through text, users will immediately see the products they want to purchase.
2. Combining the cart and checkout
Undoubtedly, the faster customers can make a purchase, the better. One of the primary goals in an online store is to provide the shortest possible purchase path. Often, for this reason, store owners decide to combine the cart and checkout. This allows customers to enter their personal details and complete the transaction from the cart page. In this case, speed is not the crucial factor. Customers often abandon their purchases when entering their details because the data entry form is unclear or the number of fields to fill out is overwhelming.
Therefore, it is advisable to divide the checkout process into individual steps that inform the user about the order finalisation path. It is also a good practice to hide additional elements that may distract users and cause them to leave the checkout process.
3. Lack of regular updates
The absence of updates in an online store is usually due to a lack of time to take action or a lack of motivation to make changes. Many online store owners believe their stores do not require updates as long as there are no critical errors. It is recommended to perform technical updates at least once every 12 months. This reduces the likelihood of critical issues and downtime in the online store. Regular updates also enhance the security of the online store. Many system updates include security patches.
Graphic updates should not be underestimated either. Minor changes, such as refreshing the color scheme or typography, can make the store look more modern and appealing to customers. Regularly reviewing the website, both visually and technically, is more beneficial than conducting a complete overhaul every few years, which may even involve recreating the store from scratch.
4. Lack of cross-sell or up-sell sections in the cart
This mistake is often related to the issue described in point 2. To shorten the sales path, online store owners may not have a separate cart page. However, this is the last place where we can encourage customers to increase their order value, thanks to sections such as cross-sell or up-sell.
Add sections like "Customers Also Bought" or "Recently Viewed" to encourage customers to make additional purchases in your store.
5. Lack of mobile-responsive graphics
The vast majority of users browse the internet on mobile devices. Unfortunately, many online stores overlook the importance of adapting all content for mobile devices. In many stores, you can find banners in the form of graphics that do not scale properly on different screen sizes. As a result, mobile users, especially those with smaller screens, may have difficulty reading the text on these graphics.
Banners on the homepage are one of the first things customers see. If the graphics are cut off, and the text is too small to read at a glance, it will undoubtedly negatively impact the user's first impression.
As you can see, optimising for UX does not have to be complicated or involve complex programming work. Even minor changes, such as relocating content or adjusting graphics, can have a significant impact on how users perceive your online store. If you want to identify the weakest points of your online store, we encourage you to regularly analyse user behavior, preferably using solutions that record user interactions on the website.
It's the last moment to make changes to your online store before the upcoming sales season. If you want to find out what mistakes you're making in your store and how to fix them, get in touch with us. We're eager to share our experience to help you boost your sales during this critical period.