Keeping your online store always up to date and easy to navigate is one of the main factors that contribute to increasing your conversion rate. Therefore, in addition to thinking about stock renewal, promotions, and pricing, it is also very important to know how to analyze usability and keep your eCommerce layout updated.
To keep your layout up-to-date and easy to navigate, we must use the best practices to analyze usability and market trends as a basis for analyzing interactions between users and online stores.
In this article, we will give you 6 main tips for you to know how to analyze usability, understand more about your online consumer and, thus, develop the best strategies to impact your target audience.
1. Use Tools to Analyze Usability and Metrics
To analyze usability and metrics, it is necessary to first install specific tools for this purpose. On the internet, we can find several tools, the best known are:
- Google Analytics
- Crazy Egg
- Google Optimize
- Mouseflow
A tool to analyze usability should always be used to complement a metrics tool, such as Google Analytics.
Below are listed the main common features in usability analysis tools:
Heatmaps
They present the areas most and least viewed by users, warm tones are generally used for the most accessed areas and cold tones for the least accessed areas of the layout. In addition, it is also possible to see which areas are most clicked and which are the locations on the site where the mouse cursor moves most.
They are excellent resources for understanding what is drawing the user’s attention on a single page.
Screen Recordings
This functionality records in videos the entire visit of a user to his virtual store, showing which pages he accessed, where he clicked, which points he had difficulty, that is, it records the user’s entire purchase journey.
It is a very interesting way to understand which areas of the layout should be maintained and which need to be improved.
In this resource, we can study the user’s behavior during all navigation. Based on a single sample, it is possible to have extremely valuable insights to improve the interface.
Conversion Funnel
This record allows you to analyze the percentage of users who abandon each stage until the purchase is completed. It is important to see which stage has the highest dropout rate and see why. If the majority gives up on the purchase on delivery, it may be because the freight cost and delivery time are not in accordance with the customer’s expectations.
It is recommended then to insert heat maps on these pages and identify patterns of behavior that can be improved.
2. Focus on “Mobile First”
Making your website suitable for access via mobile devices is no longer a differentiator, but essential for your business.
According to a survey carried out by the National Household Sample Survey (Pad) from IBGE, conducted in 2016, it showed that 92.1% of households accessed the internet through a mobile device, while 70.1% of households did so through the desktop medium.
Thus, we can say that mobile devices have consolidated themselves as the main preference for internet access by Brazilians.
It is essential to adopt a new methodology for the creation of virtual stores. We must first think about the layout for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) and then adapt them for the desktop (computers and notebooks).
The main recommendation is to create a layout that is minimalist and clean, to adapt properly to smaller screens.
3. Are your “Call to Action” buttons really getting attention?
In general, the “call to action” buttons – those used to induce the user to take action – should be larger in size, be inappropriate positions, and have striking colors.
In some cases, it is interesting to keep the most important buttons fixed in the layout, following the user’s scrolling.
There is a myth that says that green is the color that converts the most. In fact, the “call to action” buttons must have a color that contrasts with the main color of the layout, to draw more attention from the user.
Thus, the green color is ideal for a layout where the dominant color is red, due to the contrast between these two colors.
In summary, what is taken into consideration primarily for the color of the button is the CONTRAST between the colors.
Note: The contrast should always be with colors that match each other. Therefore, to make this combination of colors it is important to use the color wheel, which was created from several studies on colors.
4. Shopping Day
Knowing the user’s purchase journey is essential to deliver the best experience for each lead and turn them into consumers of your store. But what would that buying journey be?
The journey is the entire path taken by a user, taking into account from the moment before he accesses the store until placing an order.
Generally, consumers use search engines to find what they are looking for. Therefore, it is important to check if your current store has an area for texts focused on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in order to improve the indexing and ranking of your virtual store on search sites, thus increasing organic accesses.
It is important to define areas of the layout to insert these texts. The most common method is to insert texts made by an SEO specialist at the end of the pages, inserting the most searched keywords, previously defined, according to the target audience and segment of your business.
When it comes to how to improve your layout, it is important to remove unnecessary distractions on each page, but also keep in mind that not all users will access your store for the first time through the home page. Therefore, the most relevant information must be kept on all pages.
Make it clear to the user what action they should take on each page, to optimize the user’s purchase journey, decrease their bounce rate and, ultimately, improve their conversion rate.
5. How is your online store loading?
Another relevant point that needs to be checked is the loading time of your website, as this factor is intrinsically related to the conversion rate of your website. To make this measurement, there are several tools on the market:
- Google Page Speed
- Test Web Page
- Pingdom
These tools are extremely easy to use and show which points need to be improved and which are suitable in your online store.
A study by Amazon stated that for every 1 second of delay, conversion rates decrease about 7%. Google recommends that e-commerce load time should be a maximum of 5 seconds. Charging time above 6 seconds is considered reasonable and above 9 is bad.
So remember: the Faster the site, the HIGHER the conversion rate will be! 😉
The main mistakes that shopkeepers make and which affect the loading performance of the online store are:
A) Very heavy banners
Do you know that handsome banner that your designer made? So, always use an image compressor (like CompressNow) before uploading it to your online store to make the total weight of the page lighter. This will help the information to be loaded faster.
B) Exaggerated amount of “product showcase” on the home page
Because it is the gateway to your virtual store, the home should be the fastest page. Thus, we recommend placing only one product carousel and working more with banners that assist in the user’s purchase journey.
To this end, it is interesting to work with banners focused on categories, filters, and best-selling products.
C) Programming errors
Also contributing to the poor performance of the virtual store, the use of any external resources that depend on JavaScript without compression.
Make a periodic “cleaning” in the scripts of your virtual store and leave only what is necessary and strategic for each page.
6. What is your consumer looking for? Question it
Last but not least, it is always interesting to ask your target audience directly what they expect when they access your online store. What are the points he thinks are cool, what needs to be improved, if the freight value is adequate if the promotions encourage him to make a purchase, etc?
This questionnaire can be taken online or in-person and should be done by directing the questions to a select group. The ideal is that you choose people who are within the profile of your target audience.
With the right questions for the right people, you will be able to understand more deeply which subjective aspects you should maintain and which should be improved.
Conclusion: Stay up to date and use statistics to your advantage
It is essential to always be aware of market trends in order not to fall behind your competitors! In addition, it is always interesting to put yourself in the user’s shoes and ask yourself if the layout makes sense if everything is clear, legible, and placed in a way that will arouse your consumer’s desire.