UX is often thought of in terms of digital design elements. Even the abbreviation sounds like something that only programmers can do within wireframes and interfaces. But user experience design is actually one of the driving forces of revenue, particularly when it comes to sales. In fact, a customer’s experience while interacting with a website, mobile app or other digital space has a direct correlation with sales conversions—or a lack thereof.
Using UX to boost sales numbers goes beyond basics such as loading speeds, mobile responsiveness and streamlined navigation, however. You’ll also have to focus on aspects of user experience design that are often overlooked.
Google Mobile Usability Scoring
Good UX design starts before a user ever sets a digital foot on your site or app. Google and other search engines continue to prioritize consumer-centric results, so user design elements are imperative to your search engine optimization initiatives. There’s no exact blueprint to follow, but the general criteria include:
- Page loading times under three seconds
- Simple navigation
- Short forms and limited data entry
- Limited scrolling
Attaining the ideal mobile site can be easier if you take some of the same ideas into account when designing the desktop version of your site. That way, you lose fewer, if any, features or functionality in the transition.
Content Versus Design
Some designers may disagree, but the best UX supports the content of the site, not the other way around. Knowing what you want to say to customers should always come before how you want those words to look. Appearance is, of course, important to customers, but your ability to illustrate your value proposition and convince customers that you not only understand their needs but can meet them is ultimately more important. In short, form must follow function.
Simplicity Over Complexity
This notion goes for the design aspect of UX as well, though. The best UX design makes digital spaces purpose-built and simple. This is especially true when it comes to sales. Customers simply don’t want to interact with cluttered, visually distracting websites that make them scan dozens of buttons, frames, images, icons and fonts to get to what they want. Poor design can also hurt your company’s credibility and make customers less willing to do business with you. Simple designs incorporate the most important information higher in the “visual hierarchy” of a page to catch a visitor’s eye and then provide concise supporting elements.
A landing page for an event planner, for instance, may feature a parallax image depicting an expertly designed tablescape in the foreground of an event that draws visitors into the background scene as they scroll.This would then be followed by a few sentences about their services and a call to action. Alternatively, the page may contain a slider that goes through each service and includes calls to action (CTAs) on each slide. All of these items shouldn’t be used together, however.
The Right Choices
Much of the need for simplicity comes from humans’ inability to process information effectively when distracted. In sales, this can lead to confusion and confusion can cause prospects to bail in favor of companies with a neater, more streamlined approach.
This most apparent when it comes to pricing options. A product or service with 10 different choices will likely leave customers feeling flustered as they attempt to discern the differences between the options, how each fits their needs and what features they can go without to fit their budget.
At the same time, customers hate to feel pigeonholed into a purchase. Giving them at least a few choices can make them feel more in control and confident about their purchase. The “Goldilocks” technique works well for this purpose. This method usually provides prospects with three choices: an inexpensive base option with minimal functionality, a high-priced version with an overabundance of bells and whistles, and a mid-range alternative to both that gives just the right amount of functionality at a more reasonable price point.
At the End of the Sale
There are few things worse than shopping cart abandonment. Businesses miss out on trillions of dollars in revenue every year from this phenomenon, and the reasons are varied. Many are related to UX including:
- Unclear payment options or instructions
- Inability to easily make changes to a cart
- Slow loading speeds
- Website errors
These items can kill a sale at the last minute, wasting the resources that the sales and marketing teams have devoted to attaining the customer.
UX’s impact on sales success can’t be denied. Even the best sales professionals will have a hard time closing deals if your website and app capabilities can’t back them up. Staying competitive today and into the future will rely on crafting user experiences that reflect today’s customer-centric environment.
References:
https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/visual-perception-and-website-design/
http://perspectivityintl.com/information-overload-sales-sabotage/
https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2017/price-cart-abandonment-ecommerce/
