Get More Conversions: A UX Optimization Checklist

An “INTO Insider” look at how to audit your website

DID YOU KNOW:

• 88% of users are less likely to return to a website after a bad user experience.
• 13% of customers will tell 15 or more people about their bad experiences. 72% will tell 6 or more people about good experiences.
• Only 1 out of 26 customers complain when they are unsatisfied, the rest churn without saying anything. The absence of negative feedback isn’t a sign of satisfaction. 91% of unsatisfied customers who don’t complain simply leave.
• Mobile users are 5 times more likely to abandon a task if the website isn’t optimized for mobile.
• If a website needs more than 3 seconds to load, 40% of the people leave the website.

In today’s world, having a best-in-class user experience is key for any company that wants to maximize its conversion rates.

Every company would acknowledge that there are opportunities for its UX to improve. Even Amazon realizes that there is no such thing as UX perfection as customer needs, values, and behaviors are constantly evolving. The internet behemoth sees UX as an iterative process — consistently auditing its current experience and rolling out new improvements that increase customer satisfaction and conversion rates.

Photo by Igor Miske on Unsplash

How would you rate your website experience? Is it overly complicated? Confusing and unintuitive? Not converting well enough?

At INTO, we recommend that eCommerce companies regularly audit their user experiences so that they — like Amazon — can understand where they’re delighting customers, where they’re missing the mark, and where they have opportunities to deliver an even better experience.

The INTO team typically conducts these audits for our customers — but we wanted to give eCommerce retailers everywhere an “INTO Insider” look behind the curtain.

Based on our experience, here’s UX AUDIT CHECKLIST that every eCommerce retailer should use when evaluating their site (desktop and mobile) experiences.

THE “INTO INSIDER” UX AUDIT CHECKLIST

1. Clearly Communicate Your Value Proposition: A value proposition is a sentence or a paragraph that promotes the value of your products or services. Every strong value proposition should have these three qualities: explain how your company (or a particular product) solves a customer’s problems, describe what specific benefits that your product will deliver, and explain why a site visitor should purchase from you instead of a competitor. Companies should find ways to reinforce the key points of their value proposition throughout their site — and across the customer experience — from the homepage to the About Us, to product pages.
2. Build Customer Confidence: It’s critical for eCommerce retailers to build customer confidence throughout their online experience. This can be done using tools like customer reviews and trust badges. Even having an intuitively designed site with well-executed elements — like an About Us page, high-quality images, clear contact information, and fast loading times — will go a long way towards bolstering customer confidence.
3. Create Content that Connects: For eCommerce retailers today, it often isn’t enough to just sell products. Retailers need to solve problems. It’s the retailer’s job to convince prospective customers that they have the solution that the customer is looking for, and can beat the competition. After identifying its value proposition, a retailer must then write application-specific copy that customers will also need in order to be confident in their purchase decision. This content can be featured in blog posts, FAQs, and even in important policies (e.g., shipping, warranty, returns).
4. Optimize the Live Chat: Having a Chat function is the eCommerce equivalent of a helpful in-store representative. A live chat has the power to create credibility by humanizing your eCommerce store, increase customer satisfaction by answering small questions quickly and saving time, and drive higher conversions by answering questions before they become doubts.
5. Use High-Quality Product Images and Videos: Research shows that offering multiple product views and other alternative images can boost web sales by up to 58%. And, in 25% of eCommerce returns, customers cite, “Product not as I was expecting” as the main reason for returning. 57% of customers have more confidence after watching a product video online prior to purchase and are therefore less likely to return that product. (Source: Hubspot, 2017). The best practice is to use high-resolution imagery that is zoomable and placed above the fold. Using multiple photos clicked from different angles gives visitors even greater insight and confidence.
6. Optimize Search and Filter Functionality: Site search plays a critical role in driving sales and delivering positive user experiences, as they filter products based on user queries. Site searches and filters have the power to quickly and relevantly connect customers to their needs by helping them find the right product. Google search has conditioned people about what to expect from a search box. Therefore, the better the site search experience that a company offers, the more time and money shoppers will spend on the site. Of course, the inverse is also true.
7. Find Ways to Decrease Abandonment: High rates of cart abandonment can be a sign of a cumbersome and complicated user experience. The average checkout has, on average, 5.42 steps and 14.88 form fields. Customers dislike giving out more information than they absolutely must either because it is time-consuming or they are concerned about information security. Here are the types of information that buyers prefer not to release in a form: Phone number (58%), address data (53%), role/title (21%), last name (20%), company (18%), email (16%) and first name (11%). To decrease cart abandonment, streamline your forms, visually reinforce that sensitive information is secure, don’t ask for unnecessary information, and allow guest checkout.
8. Improve Page Load Time: Page speed has a significant impact on a site visitor’s satisfaction and conversion rates. Slow load times create friction in the buying experience. If a customer can’t get a page to load — or doesn’t want to wait — they will abandon the effort and move on to the next search result. To speed up your page, here’s a few basic recommendations: remove unused Javascript, eliminate render-blocking resources, reduce initial server response time, remove unused CSS, and avoid excessive DOM size.

Click here to download this checklist in PDF format to share with your team!