You’ve got the perfect product or service, you’ve set up your website, you’ve worked out how you’ll deliver your items, time to sit back, relax and let the sales roll in right?
Or not.
There might be one important thing you’ve forgotten which could hinder your sales as well as cost you money in the long run and that’s website friction.
Friction is a term used in relation to your customers buying journey. Friction refers to the level of difficulty your customers might face when they are browsing through and buying from your website. If it’s too difficult for users to use certain pages or complete the purchase of their item then the more friction your website will have.
If you’re looking to increase sales, improve your bounce rate and make sure your marketing materials aren’t wasted then it’s important that you remove any friction from your website.
Your content is an important aspect of selling online, everything from your copy, your images and even your use of fonts, are kay factors in creating conversions. In order to remove friction, you should remove any images or text which could be deemed as irrelevant, including content which will help your customers in some way.
Your call to action is the most important part of your copy, so it needs to be optimised for conversions. If you get your CTA wrong then it’s likely that you’ll be generating half as many leads as you’d want. Even if your website is perfect, without effective calls to action you could be losing out.
Keep your website simple, if your customers are getting confused then it’s likely that they are leaving your website without buying anything. A confusing website creates huge friction for your website and not only can lead to a decrease in sales but can also result in customers heading for your competitors website instead.
Make your links visible. If your customers can’t see where they’re going or need to go then they aren’t going to go there. Links are a small element which can actually have a huge impact on your conversation rate. Your links need to stand out, be it a colour difference, an underline or a change in font, it’s important your customers know exactly what they should be clicking on.
Keep your style consistent, your website should look consistent at all times. Pay attention to detail and make sure everything matches, make sure you stick to the same colour scheme, use similar if not the same fonts, everything matters. If your customers think that you don’t pay attention to details on your website then visitors might think that you’ll be the same when it comes to your service.
Not only does your website design affect friction, you also need to make sure your checkout process is optimised to get rid of friction in the customer journey. One of the main reasons for shopping cart abandonment is friction so it’s important that you know how to resolve this in order to keep ahead.
Having simple forms allows customers to easily fill out their information without getting confused. Your customers don’t want to spend hours completing the checkout process, they want to input their details and be done, in a matter of minutes, which is what you need to offer.
Having a progress bar at the top of the page allows your customers to know exactly how much more they have to do in order to complete the checkout process. If it feels like it’s taking too long but customers have no indication of how long it takes then it’s likely they’ll leave, abandoning the purchase and heading somewhere else.
Not only should you keep your forms simple in the sense of asking for information but you should also make sure you have no distractions around the checkout pages. Including ads or additional content in the checkout process means your customers can get distracted and may not complete their purchase, before ultimately leaving your website.
Friction hinders your business, if you want to defeat friction then you need to learn exactly what it is and how you can beat it! Learn where your friction points are, create a better customer experience and generate those ever important sales.
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