What Makes a Successful Customer Journey?

It’s no secret that a customer’s journey through your website must be seamless for a successful sale. We talk to two experts, Kenneth Sytian, CEO of Sytian Production and Megan Dennis to find out what elements are needed for this success.

Posted 4 years ago by Tatiana Dudin

E-commerce is more than just setting up an online shop – it requires web development, SEO, marketing and good design. All these elements boost sales and increase conversion rates. If you fear your website design is holding you back, then these 10 tips from our experts can transform your online store from “Meh” to amazing!

Kenneth’s tips

1. High-Quality Media

According to Marketing expert Neil Patel, “The inability to deliver a tactile experience is one of the biggest challenges for e-commerce merchants.”

It’s important to use high-quality images and videos to showcase your products. Here are a few ways to leverage visual media to boost your e-commerce sales:

●      Use a zoom function on your product images so buyers can also examine its details and texture.

●      Use 360-degree view to showcase various aspects of your product, much like when a buyer holds and examine it in a retail store.

●      Don’t use stock photos, and remember that putting a pretty face on a product image is not enough.

●      Your product videos should be long enough to provide useful information, yet short enough that it won’t bore your customers.

●      Leverage videos for product comparisons, demos, and how-tos.

2. Responsive Design

In Google Analytics data from June to September 2017, more than 40% of online transactions were made on mobile devices!

Make sure that your online shop uses a mobile responsive theme and design. It allows your customers to search for and buy your products even while they are on-the-go.

As Amada Maurois puts it:

“Responsive web design stands as a unique solution, able to offer a standardized online shopping experience to all consumers, regardless of the screen size and OS on their mobile device.”

3. Simple Check-Out Process

Another important key to a successful e-commerce business is a simple and streamlined checkout process. Buyers tend to abandon their cart when it’s cumbersome to purchase a product from an online shop.

John Solomon shares some tips on how you can optimize your checkout process:

1. Make it easy for your customers to add or remove products on their shopping cart
2. Avoid design elements that can disrupt the checkout process
3. Include a visual progress indicator

4. Rule of Thirds

Mary Stribley of Canva describes the Rule of Thirds as dividing your design into three rows and three columns. After that, you place your focal points onto where the vertical and horizontal lines meet.

This design rule allows you to position and frame important elements on your e-commerce site. Using a 3 x 3 grid to practice the Rule of Thirds can help you understand where to align your focal points logically, as well as add motion and interest on your design.

Megan’s Tips

1. Whitespace

Whitespace is the emptiness that lies between all the elements of your website design.

You may have come across websites with colorful or video backgrounds and it grabs the visitors’ attention, but at what cost?

Such backgrounds distract visitors from the content you want them to consume. This can be accomplished by using negative space instead. Better use of negative space would be to place sign up and call-to-action buttons.

2. Typography

Typography is an important part of the customer journey and its effectiveness can be determined by several factors.

● Large fonts – consumers have faster-reading speed as the font size increases.

● Words that stand out – Consumers, especially people aged 40+ prefer text on a blank or neutral colored background rather busy or texture background.

● Good spacing – this makes a text easier to read and helps improves a person’s reading comprehension.

No one actually reads all the content that’s available on a website. To save customers’ time, mention the most important information with bold typography. Be sure of your message hierarchy when communicating and remember that the words on your site have power.

3. Video Content

Video content can do wonders for your website. According to a study by Insivia, adding a product video on your landing page can increase conversions by 80%!

Effectively showcase your product or service through videos and increase the time users spend on your site. This extra time could increase traffic and supplement sales in the long run. According to Moovly, you’re 53 times more likely show up first on Google if you have a video embedded on your website.

4. Social Media Links

Social media platforms help businesses reach their target audience and build trust with shoppers. With the help of shares and tweets, information about your business is easily disseminated in the online world. This highly visual environment is a great way to showcase your products and tell your brand’s story.

This simple approach is one of the most effective promotion methods. Make sure you use social-media buttons under all webpages. Posting regularly on your social media pages shows consumers you are an active and engaged brand. Learn more about imagery in social media here.

The Last Word

These are just a few of the many other ways that the online shopping experience can be optimized and improved. Remember that customers look for speed, easy navigation, and value. Give them all three and convert them into loyal customers that return again and again. Check out our task catalogue for small but powerful ways to improve your customers’ journey.