
When you provide good UX, not only do you improve the conversion rate of your website and ensure that you’re making the most of the traffic you’ve worked hard to drive to your website, but you’re also helping to build brand loyalty (usually with the help of a branding agency Manchester based). When someone has a good experience on your website, it subconsciously builds trust and will likely improve your returning customer rate moving forward. We’re here to introduce two main elements, payment methods and navigation, to help make the most of the traffic you’re driving to your website.
Payment Methods
Firstly, it’s absolutely essential that you put thought into the payment methods you’re offering. Even if you offer three different payment methods, something as simple as not having the one that is someone’s preference can put a user off purchasing. So, you should offer as many as possible, including immediate purchase options like Apple Pay and PayPal, buy now, pay later options and then also the more traditional methods of entering card details.
By covering all bases, you negate the risk of someone bouncing off the website simply because they haven’t found what they’re looking for. For example, if the only option is for a user to manually enter their card details, you’re highly likely to find your conversion rate decrease. This is because, with the likes of Apple Pay, people are less likely to carry their card with them, so if they don’t have easy access to their card details if they’re on-the-go or away from home, they’ll either forget to purchase or will be put off. Equally, the time taken for someone to manually enter their details could cause them to get distracted and move away from the purchase.
Also, security is a big thing when it comes to payment methods. If the only option is to manually enter card details, and you don’t accept payments through the larger providers, again, this can be a cause for concern and could lead to someone questioning the legitimacy of the business. So, accepting payments through well-known providers can help to reduce the risk of someone questioning whether your business is legitimate, again, innately building trust.
Focus on your payment methods, and not only do you increase conversions, but you also improve customer satisfaction, reduce abandoned carts and improve customer loyalty. You may be able to implement them yourselves or work with your web development agency Manchester to perfect this. When a user can see that you’re going out of your way to make life easier for them by tailoring the experience to their shopping habits, whether it’s conscious or not, it gives you a competitive advantage.
Navigation
Time and thought should be put into your navigation. Navigation is all about ensuring that a user can work their way round the website easily, not find any roadblocks and easily complete the goal they want to complete. Some things that can disturb good navigation are too many pop ups, navigation menus that are too large and overwhelming, not having a search function or generally providing too many different options or paths to complete an action. Instead, you should focus on keeping things simple for the user.
A good tool to utilise in order to identify where your navigation might be lacking is heat mapping software. This usability testing method can easily be downloaded and tracks how users navigate your website, providing a visual representation of where users gravitate towards, areas they aren’t as keen on and also where users are dropping off. It can provide such valuable information about user experience as a whole, as well as specifically in terms of navigation.
Putting time into reviewing your navigation across all areas of your website is important. It won’t necessarily take a long time either but can make a huge difference when you make a few tweaks to your website and navigation.