15 Strategies for Enhancing User Experience on E-commerce Platforms
To uncover the secrets of elevating user experience in the digital marketplace, we’ve gathered fifteen invaluable tips from web developers to CEOs. From engaging users for continuous improvement to categorizing products for easy navigation, e-commerce experts share their top strategies for enhancing your platform’s user experience.
- Engage Users for Continuous Improvement
- Personalize With Live Video Interactions
- Streamline the Checkout Process
- Prioritize Function in UI Design
- Optimize for a Mobile-Friendly Experience
- Adopt Amazon’s Intuitive Design Cues
- Enrich Product Pages With Visuals
- Boost Conversion with Faster Load Times
- Implement Clear, Compelling CTAs
- Instill Confidence with Trust Signals
- Leverage Reviews for Credibility
- Minimize Steps and Reduce Friction
- Ensure Form Inputs Are Saved
- Enhance Product Pages for Higher Conversion
- Categorize Products for Easy Navigation
Engage Users for Continuous Improvement
My best UX tip applies to all sites. Developers are not users; therefore, you need to communicate with users, test, and analyze how your site is being used. There are so many technical details and human quirks that will be missed at launch, so you need multiple ways to clarify root causes and fix them as they become apparent.
Kevin Larsen
Web Developer, Mediaveien AS
Personalize With Live Video Interactions
In this day and age of live video and webcams, it’s great when an e-commerce business can enhance the user experience with a face-to-face meeting. Whether that be for a personalized shopping experience in the luxury space or providing customer support for perhaps a more pressing matter, this can quickly build trust and provide more clarity for a customer.
In the luxury e-commerce space, this is a great way to build trust with new customers. This is especially true if your product is quite costly, which will ease the buyer when they’re going through the checkout process.
Ryan Clark
CMO, Luxury Branded
Streamline the Checkout Process
A user-friendly, streamlined checkout process is an effective way for eCommerce businesses to improve user experience. Long and complicated checkouts often result in frustrated users and abandoned carts.
Opt for a streamlined one-page or multi-step checkout, ensuring that form fields are clear and concise. Keep your customers in the loop by prominently displaying a progress indicator throughout the checkout journey.
Remember, a smooth and hassle-free checkout is not just about completing a transaction—it’s about creating satisfaction and fostering loyalty, encouraging customers to return for future purchases.
Rajat Chauhan
Digital Marketing Manager, Ace Infoway
Prioritize Function in UI Design
Here’s a simple truth for e-commerce businesses: practical UI trumps beautiful design. Think of it like this—if you give a five-year-old a toy, they’ll choose the one they can play with easily over the one that just looks pretty. That’s how users feel about e-commerce platforms.
At Ammo.com, our design might not win any beauty contests, but our UX metrics are off the charts. Customers love our straightforward, user-friendly layout. It’s all about making it easy for them to browse, compare, research, and buy. This approach is especially effective for tech-related e-commerce stores. However, it might not be the go-to for high-fashion or high-end stores, where the primary function is more about showcasing a unique reality than pushing mainstream sales.
Alex Horsman
Head of Marketing, Ammo.com
Optimize for a Mobile-Friendly Experience
E-commerce businesses can enhance user experience on their platform by implementing a mobile-friendly design. With the increasing use of smartphones for online shopping, a mobile-friendly website is essential for business. This involves designing your website to adjust and function smoothly across different devices with smaller screens.
Website building tools like Squarespace or Wix offer many mobile-responsive templates. A responsive design ensures easy, accessible navigation across your platform, enhancing the shopping experience on mobile devices. Also, an attractive, mobile-friendly website can pair well with marketing initiatives on social media platforms, as users often go directly to e-commerce platforms after viewing an attractive ad.
Overall, prioritizing the mobile experience is essential in modernizing and improving the e-commerce experience in the present day.
Jasper Stoddard
Marketing Coordinator, Achievable
Adopt Amazon’s Intuitive Design Cues
Make your website look more like Amazon. I don’t mean to copy their branding and exact look, but Amazon is the leader in e-commerce, and user expectations are largely based on where they shop most frequently. That means e-commerce businesses need to do everything they can to make their sites as intuitive and easy to use as possible.
The best e-commerce websites make it extraordinarily easy to add items to your cart and purchase them, but they also have lots of useful information below the scroll. A streamlined design that has lots of content available when necessary is the best. It works for the biggest players; it might as well work for your e-commerce site.
Temmo Kinoshita
Co-Founder, Lindenwood Marketing
Enrich Product Pages With Visuals
Investing heavily in enriching the PDPs with materials that allow the customer to get a feel for what it’s like to use the product before they buy it quickly eliminates doubts and allows the customer to confidently add to cart and check out.
Short how-to videos, “see it in action” videos, photo and video reviews, and even taking advantage of UGC—this is super powerful!
For example, buying cosmetics and skincare online is notoriously hard since you can’t see how colors and shades look on your skin. One brand I am a fan of solves this pain wonderfully on their PDPs—they have embedded IG stories from actual users using the product.
In addition, there’s a short video by the brand’s founder popping up, talking about the product’s value proposition. This makes the product page rich in information and visual representation to the point where the customer doesn’t need to contact support or go to try the product in-store. Everything simply leads them to add to cart.
Aleksandra Velkova
SaaS Customer Success Manager, Lootly
Boost Conversion with Faster Load Times
Prioritizing speed is crucial for enhancing user experience in e-commerce. Visitors might overlook minor image quality issues or a typo, but slow-loading pages are often unforgivable.
With Fortador, built on Webflow, we discovered that Fastly is an effective solution to boost site speed. After implementing Fastly, our website pages now load in under 0.8 seconds. This change significantly improved our user experience, as reflected in our conversion rates, which soared by at least 7% within a month post-implementation. Speed is key in e-commerce; a swift, seamless site keeps customers happy and boosts sales.
Lev Tretyakov
CEO and Sales Director, Fortador
Implement Clear, Compelling CTAs
By implementing a clear Call to Action (CTA), a distinct CTA button eliminates user frustration that can occur from spending minutes searching for how to purchase a liked product. A compelling CTA button should measure at least 44 pixels tall, with a font size of 16 pixels for readability, and be set against a high-contrast background with ample white space—at least 20 pixels—to stand out without competing elements nearby.
On the Dozy website, we apply this principle by having a prominent “Add to Cart” button, which stands out and guides users smoothly through the purchasing process. Visitors don’t get annoyed and complete their purchases quickly.
David Owen
Founder, Dozy
Instill Confidence with Trust Signals
Incorporate trust signals, such as security badges, customer testimonials, and social proof. These elements instill confidence in users and contribute to a positive perception of your brand. Especially for the payment for your products, having a security badge and positive payment feedback from past customers can encourage new customers.
Social proof, as reviews and ratings, can ease concerns and encourage users to make a purchase. In a competitive e-commerce landscape, trust signals and social proof can also differentiate your brand from others. When customers see that your brand is trusted by others, it sets you apart as a reliable choice.
Mark Baldwin
Founder, Baldwin Digital
Leverage Reviews for Credibility
Prove your product does what you say it does using UGC or third-party credibility.
Visitors to your website need to be confident that they are making a great decision before purchasing. Reviews and third-party credibility can help secure that confidence.
If you’re featured in notable publications, add their logos to your website. Incorporate journo reviews or user reviews within your content and on your website pages. Placing these reviews on product pages is strategic; when someone is on the verge of making a purchase, a review or evidence of success with your product can provide the reassurance a customer seeks.
Reviews are utilized across our site, and we highlight mini-use cases on bottom-funnel landing pages that are designed to convert.
The aim is to enhance the customer experience in a manner that builds trust and aids the customer in their decision-making process regarding our products.
Megan Vardhan
Digital Manager, Skinician
Minimize Steps and Reduce Friction
A simple checkout process is just as vital for an e-commerce business as it is for a retail company. In my opinion, streamlining the checkout process to minimize steps and reduce friction ensures that your customers are much more satisfied with their overall experience.
Look into implementing a guest checkout option, offer multiple payment methods, and display a progress indicator to keep users informed about the checkout stages.
Renan Ferreira
Head of Communications and Director of Sales, RealCraft
Ensure Form Inputs Are Saved
Make sure your fields save inputs. There are few things more frustrating than filling out a ton of information, clicking next, having the page crash, and then having to enter your information again. This leads to an unbelievable number of abandoned cart items, so I would prioritize making this part of your user experience as seamless as possible.
Kate Kandefer
CEO, SEOwind
Enhance Product Pages for Higher Conversion
One of the most impactful ways e-commerce businesses can improve user experience is by optimizing their product pages. This includes high-quality images shot from multiple angles, detailed titles and descriptions, specs, size guides, and customer reviews. Providing ample product information builds trust and confidence in potential buyers.
At my company, we A/B tested enhanced product pages against our old minimalist versions and saw conversion rates increase by over 20%. The richer content helped customers visualize and evaluate products more effectively. Investing in content that engages potential buyers, answers their questions, and instills confidence is crucial. Well-designed product pages convert window shoppers into paying customers through an informative and interactive experience.
Ankit Prakash
Founder, Sprout24
Categorize Products for Easy Navigation
Clear product categorization ensures a smooth user flow throughout the platform. By categorizing products accurately and logically, users can easily find what they are looking for without unnecessary hassle or confusion.
While some argue that having numerous categories can cater to different user preferences, it often leads to confusion and frustration. By adopting a more straightforward approach, businesses can ensure a positive user experience for a wider range of customers.
Use simple and commonly understood terminology for product categories. Avoid jargon or industry-specific terms that may confuse users. For instance, rather than using technical terms like “Video Cameras,” opt for more user-friendly terms such as “Camcorders” or “Recording Devices.”
Moreover, categorization should start with broader categories and progressively narrow them down. For instance, on a clothing e-commerce platform, the hierarchy could be “Men’s > Tops > T-shirts” rather than “T-shirts > Men’s > Tops.”
Roy Lam
CEO and Co-Founder, GeniusHub Digital Marketing
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