Aspects of Web Design That Impact Your Online Sales

There is no denying the importance of having a website that looks amazing.

However, if you believe that having a visually stunning site will make visitors stick around for hours, buy everything you have to offer, and become your loyal customer, then you have another thing coming.

A website that looks great visually indeed makes an excellent first impression on visitors. After all, Internet users are human beings who are attracted to beauty in all its forms. Once they lay eyes on a beautifully designed site, they will definitely check it out.

Still, whether visitors stay and look around your site long enough to buy what you have to offer will largely depend on their experience while doing so, not on how it looks.

What we’re saying here is that having a website that is high on visual appeal is no guarantee that people will spend some time exploring it.

A website must provide the best user experience or UX first, and its web design is instrumental in making that happen. Yes, that same web design that’s responsible for your site’s aesthetics in the first place also figures prominently in boosting a site’s UX.

Aside from making websites eye-catching, web design also plays a critical role in ensuring they are as functional as users would expect. By implementing the best web design practices, web designers are at the forefront of making the user experience better for everyone. The better UX brought on by effective web design, the better your chances of improving online conversions and sales.

How you manage some aspects of your site’s web design can spell the difference between the success or failure of your business.

Site Navigation

Have you ever found yourself getting lost inside a grocery store due to confusing signs, not knowing where certain items you need are?

That is exactly how users feel when they try to explore a website with a less-than-organized navigational structure. The menu labels are pretty generic, the CTAs call-to-action (CTA) buttons are nowhere to be found, and there are simply too many items in your navigation.

If your website has this level of navigation, you must do what you can to improve it. You wouldn’t want visitors accessing your website only to see them leave after just a few seconds—bye-bye, sales—because your navigation is lousy.

You can start by making sure your call-to-action (CTA) buttons are visible by putting them somewhere prominent. Organize your categories as well and make them more descriptive. Clickable and easy-to-spot navigation elements will also help make navigation more convenient for your visitors. It also won’t hurt to do some internal linking.

Mobile-Friendliness

The number of smartphone users worldwide has already reached three billion. Why many websites are still not mobile-friendly remains a mystery.

If you’re running an ecommerce website and it’s still not mobile-friendly, here’s something to think about: 8 out of 10 Americans are online shoppers, and 51% used a phone to buy stuff over the Internet.

Being mobile-friendly is crucial to achieving your sales goals. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, your pages are not going to look well on mobile devices. Mobile users aren’t likely to waste their time checking out your offerings if they have to keep pinching and spreading the screen or tapping on all-too tiny buttons the entire time.

Mobile-friendly sites won’t need users to do that because their pages render excellently on smartphones and tablets. Consider responsive web design if you want to improve your site’s mobile-friendliness.

Page Load Speed

One thing that webmasters typically keep an eye on is the “bounce rate,” which refers to the percentage of visitors who enter, then immediately drop their site and move on to another. The higher the bounce rate, the worse it is for them.

One of the many factors that have a direct impact on bounce rate is page load speed.

According to Google, the slower the page load time gets, the higher the probability of visitors bouncing. A page load time of 1-3 seconds, for example, means a 32% increase in the probability of bounce. If a page takes up to 5 seconds to load, the probability jumps to 90%, and so on.

Everybody seems to be in a hurry these days, especially mobile users, who are more naturally inclined to be always on the go.

If you’re running an ecommerce site and don’t want your bounce and cart abandonment rates soaring, it would be in your best interest to speed things up.

There are several web design tweaks you can make to boost your page load speed. You can reduce image sizes, for one. Going easy on the graphics, custom fonts, and other cumbersome elements will also help. The same goes for converting your site into AMP, or accelerated mobile pages.

Checkout Process

People want high page load speeds. The need for speed also happens to apply to the checkout process of ecommerce websites.

The thing is, many ecommerce websites still make their customers jump through a lot of hoops before they can complete their purchase.

If your ecommerce website’s checkout process is too long and complicated, the more likely it is for online shoppers to abandon their carts.

To reduce the chances of that happening, you might want to keep things streamlined through web design. Take out the multi-step checkouts and create a one-page popup checkout page instead.

As long as they don’t have to spend any more time than they should on your website, your customers will have no problem spending more money on your offerings. Simplify your checkout process now and give your customers the best UX.

Web design may just be one of the many factors that can impact your online sales, but the role it plays is quite substantial.

If your website is facing any or all of the web design issues mentioned above, don’t waste time making the necessary changes. Get your web designer working on them to boost the user experience—and your online sales figures.