For eCommerce retailers, the website is everything: it is their virtual store, their marketing hub, and their top salesperson. As such, it needs to be performing well in order for them to have a successful online presence. That means that it needs to be properly designed and integrated so that it can effectively attract site visitors and convert them into returning customers. Many retailers struggle to successfully create such a site and end up requiring a redesign. Here, we outline the top 3 factors that trigger retailers to redesign, discussing why these issues arise and why they are so important to fix.
Factor 1: Design
Many online retailers don’t update their website consistently and effectively. Instead, they tend to update sporadically and make design decisions based on personal preference or hypotheses rather than customer data and metrics. As a result, they often end up with a site that is outdated, misdirected, or unattractive to the modern site visitor.
While something like design and aesthetics could seem trivial to many, it is an extremely crucial part of having a successful website. Why? Think about it: if site visitors are confused by a site’s organization or put off by a design element like an off-brand color scheme, they will likely leave the site and take their business to a place that feels more “up their alley.” For a retailer’s website to attract the right visitors and drive conversions, then, it has to be well-organized, aesthetically pleasing and interesting to prospective customers— which means that design elements like the color scheme, product page organization and photography have to be consistently effective and modern.
Factor 2: Technology
Oftentimes, eCommerce retailers are handicapped by the technological limitations of their current website, and they need to update it in order to turn their site into the tool that it is supposed to be. Specifically, retailers should always update their server and their automation as their company grows and technology improves. Why? Letting these things become out-of-date can lead to a slew of consequences — both immediate and long-term — that can seriously impact a company’s overall growth and success.
Specifically, failing to update server technology and automations could negatively impact sales, conversion rates and website security. If, for example, a large company’s website has insufficient automation—meaning that features like inventory or accounting need to be updated manually —it is likely that they will not be able to accurately keep track of their conversions or make any strategic changes to improve sales. Similarly, if they don't update the software on their server, it becomes vulnerable to security breaches that could negatively impact the company’s success.
From the site visitor’s perspective, these issues could also negatively affect their customer experience by affecting factors like page load speed and page responsiveness. It's simple: if a retailer’s pages are unresponsive, incompatible with mobile devices, or take too long to load, site visitors will be much less likely to stay on the site and convert into returning customers. A site’s technology, then, must be consistently up-to-date if retailers want to avoid these issues down the road.
SEE ALSO: Top 5 Considerations for Creating a Successful eCommerce Website
Factor 3: Marketing and Content Performance
To have a successful online presence, eCommerce retailers need to ensure that their site content and marketing efforts are optimized to increase conversion rates and average order value. High-performing marketing and interesting content are absolutely crucial to a website’s success. The common concern, though, is that oftentimes the content on eCommerce sites does not effectively target their audience or attract new visitors. Why? There are many possibilities: maybe it doesn’t utilize language that their buyer personas can relate to, or perhaps it is in a format that their site visitors find difficult to digest. To get to the bottom of the issue and optimize this content, retailers must analyze their metrics on elements like keywords, calls-to-action, product descriptions, blogging efforts, and emails. If they find that this content is not performing as it should —and that site visitors are bouncing or failing to purchase —they need to rewrite and redesign until every piece of content that they produce works to drive conversions and turn site visitors into returning customers.
So, what's the hold-up?
Most of the time, retailers are hesitant address these problems at all, and they put it off until their site is largely ineffective and an extensive overhaul is necessary. Why? Traditional web redesign strikes fear into eCommerce retailers due to the fact that it requires that they invest a large amount of time, resources, and money without knowing if the resulting site will be profitable or worth the effort. Like any painful experience, then, it is put off as long as possible. Utilizing the growth-driven design tactics that we've outlined here and redesigning on an ongoing basis solves this problem, ensuring that their their store and salesperson constantly drives conversions and attracts returning customers.
