eCommerce is an ever-evolving, sophisticated platform, growing increasingly competitive as digitalization spreads and technology advances.
By 2021, there will be 2.14 billion digital buyers worldwide. And to stand out from the crowd and survive the competition, brands are bound to invest in compelling online stores.
But what makes for successful eCommerce development?
It takes more than just developing a website to sell effectively online. To make the most of your eCommerce solution, you need to focus on primary design elements that influence the usability, functionality and user experience of your site.
In this post you will:
- Learn what eCommerce UI is
- Discover the key elements of an effective user interface
- Get familiar with eCommerce UI best practices
- Understand the UI design process
- Find out the benefits of responsive eCommerce design
Table of Contents
What Is An eCommerce UI?
User interface (UI) is the visual aspect of a software or hardware that defines the user's interaction with the application. The convenience of navigation determines the user experience (UX) with a website or app.
It is the element of web design that deals with visual aesthetics, interaction design and layout of a website or app.
UI and UX design are terms that are correlated but they are two separate components of software design and development.
UX designers work on improving users' experience with an app or website by enhancing usability, accessibility and performance of the software. UI designers, on the other hand, work with the look and feel of the digital product.
That said, for e-commerce, UI design is invaluable.
For your online store to succeed in the digital marketplace and make the users stick around long enough to make a purchase, you need to make your interface seamless and straightforward.
eCommerce UI: Key Elements To Consider
In eCommerce, an effective UI design will determine your conversions and sales.
And to create an efficient UI design you should incorporate elements that maximize task efficiency and completion as well as ensure user satisfaction.
Here are some key elements that every business owner should focus on for a successful eCommerce UI:
- Navigational features: Menu, breadcrumbs, search options, image carousels, sliders and pagination
- Informational components: Push notifications, pop-up message boxes, modal windows and progress bars
- Input controls: Radio buttons, toggle, dropdown buttons, text fields and checkboxes
Enhancing the interface of your website will help you provide your consumers with a world-class shopping experience.
If they can easily navigate around your store to find what they need, then they are likely to return for future purchases.
It will ultimately increase your acquisition, conversion and retention rates while lowering your bounce rates.
Top 5 eCommerce UI Best Practices
When it comes to eCommerce development, there are a few web design factors that can make or break your selling strategy.
However, if your audience isn’t very much pleased with your web design, then no matter the quality of your products or services, you won't find success in your business venture.
Here are a few eCommerce UI best practices that you should incorporate to increase your conversions:
1. Invest In Mobile Responsive Design
With smartphones being more convenient and accessible, many people prefer to use their mobile phones for online browsing and shopping.
This is why investing in responsive design should be a top priority.
Your online store should adjust to different screens and sizes so that you can provide your visitors with a satisfactory experience.
A key factor to consider is designing individual product pages in a way that they require minimal zooming or panning out. That way your users can easily and quickly find what they are looking for without bouncing.
2. Make Your Navigation Simple
Navigation is an essential element of eCommerce web design. If your users find it hard to understand how to move around your website, then it is very likely that they will bounce.
This element is also essential for your website SEO. The more concise your movement between your webpages is, the higher probability you will have for domain authority and trust to flow into internal pages.
Pro tip: Visitors should be able to arrive at their desired destination within three clicks.
3. Add Call-To-Action Buttons
For an increased conversion rate, you need to include call-to-actions (CTAs) and make them visible and easy to find.
Your visitors should feel confident about any action they take. And the CTAs will show them the way to their next step.
However, for these to work, you should ensure that they don’t compete with any social buttons or pop-up ads that might drag the visitors' attention away.
They should be distinctly visible with a clear and precise description.
4. Incorporate Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs let users see where they are on the site, ensuring easy navigation between different webpages.
They also help with your website SEO as well since they allow search engines to find and understand all the pages that need to be crawled and ranked.
5. Have Search Filters
Adding search filters will improve your website navigation and make your eCommerce UI more user friendly.
Search filters allow visitors to directly search, select and add items to their virtual shopping cart before moving on to checkout.
The eCommerce UI Design Process
The best way to ensure your eCommerce interface will fit your users is to do your research.
Understanding your audience and your business goals will help you align your web design with your requirements and users' needs.
So, when thinking of your interface design, factor in these steps in your process:
Business Goals
Understanding your business goals will help you list down essential features for your website.
With a clear vision of how your e-store will function you will have a better sense of direction with your web design and development process.
User Analysis
An essential stage of eCommerce development is understanding the needs of the target audience.
Researching your consumer base to learn their shopping habits, preferences and needs, you can easily structure your site layout and ensure the interface meets their expectations.
Information Architecture
No one has the time to understand a complicated interface and look for something that will be conveniently available elsewhere.
Defining clear information architecture will ensure your visitors find what they need effortlessly without having to bounce and head over your competition.
Wireframe Design
Wireframes are quite significant when it comes to eCommerce UI design. They can help visualize how different elements on your website will appear in the final layout.
They will filter out friction points in the user's shopping journey from the time they land on the homepage until they hit checkout.
Prototyping
Prototypes help test out the interface. They are immensely useful in understanding how a user interacts with the pages.
Prototyping for eCommerce UI design helps in testing its usability early in the development process, avoiding costly changes later on.
Testing
Development doesn't end with the launch of the website or app.
Post-launch testing is essential to ensure your eCommerce platform works efficiently. It will allow you to tweak and enhance the user experience gradually.
5 Benefits Of Responsive eCommerce Web Design
Responsiveness is a significant feature to include when thinking of eCommerce UI and web design.
Mobile responsive websites are convenient for users and help you drive more mobile traffic to your site.
Here are some benefits that responsive eCommerce web design carries:
1. Excellent User Experience
Responsive design allows your website to automatically adjust to fit different devices and screen sizes.
It significantly improves the browsing user experience of your website on mobile or tablet. Users can easily search, select and buy what they need on the go, regardless of the device they use.
2. Faster Development And Lower Maintenance Needs
For developers and designers, as well as businesses, designing a mobile-optimized website is more convenient than developing lone mobile apps and desktop websites.
Responsive web design takes less time to develop and requires less maintenance than a separate mobile site.
3. Cost-Effectiveness
The initial cost of designing a responsive website is more than a standard desktop site, but it offers more advantages in the long run.
With lower maintenance and configuration costs, the overall cost ends up less than designing two separate sites for mobile and desktop.
4. Improved Brand Image
Nowadays, the average user demands convenience. If a brand doesn't have a website they can access on any device, regardless of the product or service quality, it will spoil the brand's reputation with potential prospects.
A mobile-optimized website will help you provide great user experience and improve your brand image.
5. Higher Conversion Rates
Responsive web design also helps you boost your conversion rates. When making purchasing decisions or choosing to subscribe to newsletters, being redirected to device-specific pages is inconvenient and may push visitors away.
Designing a single platform that supports all the functions of an eCommerce website improves user experience and lowers bounce rates.
Takeaways On eCommerce UI
I hope this article helped in understanding the importance of UI in eCommerce web design and the key elements to focus on when designing your website.
The next step is to hire an eCommerce developer and take your business online.
With technology advancing each day, eCommerce will continue to grow and expand.
So, find a development firm that fits your needs and join the ever-changing, complex digital marketplace to compete with retail giants on an equal playing field.
