Starting your own ecommerce website is easier than it’s ever been. Almost anyone can build their own online store and start selling products. But there’s a lot that goes into determining whether your online business will succeed or not.

One of the most important factors for an ecommerce site’s success is UX. UX, or user experience, encapsulates everything your shoppers experience while visiting your store. From the text on your homepage, to the email validating a purchase, it’s all part of the experience.

If you’re looking to close deals, you’ll probably want to give your customers a positive experience. Bad UX leads customers to leave your store without buying anything, while good UX can have a huge impact on your conversion rate.

Common Ecommerce UX Issues

Some of the main reasons people leave ecommerce websites without making a purchase have to do with UX. These are the most likely culprits lowering your conversion rate:

1. Cart abandonment

Shoppers abandoning their carts is one of the biggest issues ecommerce businesses face. In fact, a whopping 70% of all carts are abandoned. That amounts to a huge loss of revenue.

There are a few reasons people abandon their carts without completing the transaction. Some carts are abandoned due to technical issues, such as slow loading and processing times. Others are left on account of unclear shipping information. And some are the result of a tedious, multi-page sign up form. 

As they tie in to so many factors, you can gain a lot of insight into your online store’s UX by tracking your cart abandonment rates.

2. Long loading times

No one wants to wait around for product images to load or for transactions to be completed. And these days, why should they?

Page and image loading times can really kill your customers’ experience, driving them to other ecommerce sites.

The higher loading speed implies that customers have to wait to access the content. Fast loading speed is an e-commerce website’s best UX signal. It shows the commitment that as an entrepreneur, you care about the browsing experience of the visitors and you pay keen attention to how easily they can browse the site.

Since loading speed is a ranking factor of search engine optimization, improving for it would yield a solid performance hike in SEO.

That being said, fixing your loading times can be tricky, but there are lots of things you can do to improve your site’s performance. Some of the most simple actions include compressing images and reducing unnecessary redirects, just to name a couple.

Fixing your loading times can be tricky, but there are lots of things you can do to improve your site’s performance. Some of the most simple actions include compressing images and reducing unnecessary redirects, just to name a couple.

3. Signing up for an account

Requiring your customers to create an account in order to complete their purchase makes things way more complicated than they need to be. It’s no surprise that signing up is one of the biggest reasons people abandon their carts.

This is partially because it takes time to fill out a sign up form. But it’s also due to all the information required. People are hesitant to give over information, especially if they’re a first time customer.

By requiring people to have an account on your website, you’re alienating casual shoppers. They may just opt to buy from your competitors, where the product they want is just a few clicks away.

4. Unclear information 

In order to make the decision to purchase from your store, your customers will need quite a bit of information.

Providing the relevant info helps people put their trust in your business. It shows you care, and work hard to provide a stress-free shopping experience.

Shoppers want to instantly find out if items are out of stock, how much shipping would cost, what discounts you offer, etc. Without being able to communicate in real time, like in a physical store, you’ll need the text in your store to be as clear as it can be.

But you definitely don’t want to have a bunch of information presented at the top of every single page, that would hardly provide a good experience. Rather, you should figure out what is relevant where, and when. 

For example, product pages should clearly present options like sizes and colors, as well as availability, and your checkout page should be clear about shipping locations, durations and rates.

5. Website errors

Errors have a huge impact on your customers’ shopping experience. Things like dead links or missing product pages really ruin the user experience, and may cause shoppers to give up on purchasing from your store.

But this can get even worse. Imagine an error occurring while processing a transaction. That wouldn’t just be a nuisance, but an actual cause for panic for a paying customer.

To make sure these things don’t happen, you should routinely test your website to make sure everything works as expected. It’s also a good idea to go over your site and ensure all your links are working, especially if you have a large site with lots of pages.

6. Mobile incompatibility

Being able to navigate, shop and checkout on a mobile device is extremely important, as mobile sales are expected to account for over half of all ecommerce in 2021. 

Online stores that aren’t compatible with mobile devices are at a huge disadvantage. Not only will they lose customers, but it may also hurt their reputation. 

In 2021, there’s no excuse for having an online store struggle to perform on mobile platforms.

3 Principles to Improve Your Ecommerce UX

To sum things up, there are 3 principles you should keep an eye on, to make sure your online store’s UX is up to par:

• Clear communication

Use clear language and make sure your shoppers get all the information they need to make an informed decision. 

Ensure people know exactly what they’re getting, when, how, and at what cost. 

• Easy navigation

Imagine walking into a store and nothing is labeled. That’s what it’s like to navigate a poorly-built online store. 

So make sure all of your pages are categorized, interlinked and displayed properly.

• Quick checkout

Complicated and long checkouts frustrate people, and frustrated shoppers often don’t complete the transaction. 

Make sure your checkout process is simple and quick, with as few steps as possible. Of course you’ll need billing and shipping information, but keep your forms minimal and focused into one or two pages.