Tips For Local Businesses: Is Your Website Losing You Customers?

With the UK entering a second lockdown, non-essential stores are being forced to close once again just as the Christmas shopping season begins. It’s now imperative that local businesses have an optimised eCommerce platform that provides a good user experience to avoid losing online Christmas shoppers during the seasonal demand. Read our tips for improving the user experience on your website.

User experience is how customers interact with your website and how easily they are able to: find what they want, browse your site and make a purchase/conversion.

88% of users are less likely to return to a website if they have had a negative user experience.

Here are our hints and tips to make sure your website is offering customers the best user experience.

Is your website mobile-friendly?

It’s no myth that an increasing amount of online shopping is happening on mobiles rather than desktops. In 2019, 41.6% of all UK web traffic came from mobiles and reports suggest that by 2023, mobile eCommerce spending will overtake desktop eCommerce spending.

Therefore businesses must take into consideration their mobile shoppers in equal (if not slightly more) amounts as their desktop shoppers to avoid losing sales due to the website not offering mobile users a good experience. Mobile users are 5 times more likely to leave a website and abandon a purchase if the website isn’t mobile-friendly.

How long does it take for your website to load?

The time it takes for your website to load is crucial for retaining customers. If your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, 40% of users will leave. Improving the load time of your website can increase traffic and potential customers onto your site and provide the first step in a good user experience.

How many steps does it take to complete a purchase/conversion?

Ensuring that your users have a seamless path to browsing your website and making a purchase is crucial to convert users into customers. If your users are clicking through a lot of pages; or your website is lacking information; or the checkout process isn’t smooth, you are risking losing sales because of the user experience.

The best way to see if your customer’s path from landing on your website to making a purchase is to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and go through the process of making a purchase. Keep track of how many clicks you’re making to reach certain pages and products. The less clicks the user has to make, the better. If you see a lot of users are adding products to the cart but not converting, you might need to review your checkout process.

Is your website aesthetically-pleasing?

Great user experience also comes down to great design. Users will be more likely to return and interact with websites that have unique and relevant design work filled with rich content that keeps the audience at the forefront of the site.

The design can also contribute to keeping your website organised and create the best path for users who are just browsing your website, into paying customers.

Custom web designs provide local businesses with the opportunity to have a fully bespoke eCommerce platform that fits seamlessly into their business goals, whilst also keeping their target audience at the heart of the design.

Ready to get started?

If you’re ready to give your customers the ultimate user experience, whether it’s upgrading a current website, or starting fresh, we can work with you to create a bespoke website for your business.

Get in touch today.