Imagine walking into one of your favorite stores. You’re expecting a quality visit as always, but this time you find it hard to locate the products you’re most interested in. The customer service associate is sitting behind the counter playing a game on his phone and you can see open boxes with merchandise scattered on the ground, as if the stock person didn’t finish their job.

Conversion rate optimization goes well with the ecommerce world, considering the whole point of having an online shop is to bring in more visitors and convert those people into paying customers.The primary reason people still go to physical shops is because customers don’t have the ability to touch and feel the items they want to buy. This is a huge disadvantage for online retailers.

It’s definitely important to have an online shop built with solid ecommerce software, but only with properly implemented UX elements, your store can close the gap and make customers feel more confident in their purchases.

This ties into the user experience for all ecommerce shops. Let’s take a look at some of the other more important elements for UX in e-commerce:

The First Impression

First impressions are critical for online stores, because it’s so darn easy for customers to click on the “x” and go find another alternative company that sells the same products.

Therefore, your homepage needs focus.  A value proposition is required on that homepage, and it’s wise to share how your company is different from the hundreds of others online. Combined with simplicity and call to action items, your first impression is bound to improve.

Having a System in Place to Bring Users Back

Customers need to be groomed before they start purchasing from your company, so a system is required to bring back abandoned cart users, bounced customers and even those who have paid for items in the past.