7 E-Commerce UI Design Best Practices for Your Website

By Joe Dawson

If you're running an e-commerce website, you may believe that producing the finest possible product is all that matters. That's true to an extent, but it ignores a universal truth. When it comes to impressing consumers, user experience (UX) is pivotal. John Norman, psychologist and usability consultant, is credited as the person who first coined the phrase “user experience” and it refers to the feeling users experience when using a product, application, system, or service.

User interface, or UI, is a subject that is often discussed, but equally frequently misunderstood. The needs and expectations of an e-commerce website vary from those of a traditional data resource. This guide will discuss how the interface of your e-commerce site can delight any customer.

7 e-commerce UI design fundamentals

1. Know your audience

Arguably the most critical element of user experience is providing customers with what they want. To build these expectations into the user interface of your website, you need to know your target audience inside out.

E-commerce customers value feeling understood by a vendor. If you can demonstrate this empathy, you're more likely to attract initial conversions and repeat business. Conduct in-depth market research of your typical customers. Things to consider include:

• What is the average age of your audience?
• What do your consumers value most from an online vendor?
• What experience do users seek from a transaction (including packaging of the delivery and communication from the seller)?
• What would encourage users to shop online with greater frequency?

Compare these findings with analytics from your site, and you'll build a helpful picture of the people that use your website. Tailor UX to these responses, and you'll find that customers will be happy to return.

2. Use consistent branding

Never neglect your business branding when developing your e-commerce website's UI design. In fact, this should be among the first things that you consider.

Build every page of your website around your corporate identity, ensuring consistency in the color palette, logo placement, and page layout. By keeping your branding front and center in the mind of users, any product purchased on your site will be intrinsically linked to your business.

3. Combine images with text

A big part of user interface when designing an e-commerce site is striking the ideal balance between images and text. A popular adage claims that a picture is worth a thousand words, and well-placed, optimized images will undoubtedly capture a user's attention. Images, however, must be paired with detailed descriptions of what your product or service has to offer.

When it comes to text, make it as interesting and imaginative as your images. Use a distinctive (albeit readable) font and carefully consider your word count. You will want to provide enough data to answer any questions a user may have before committing to a purchase, but not too much information that could intimidate browsers.

4. Be unique and catch the eye of your users

A simple but essential rule here: ensure that your e-commerce UI design is unique. If you want consumers to return to your site after making a purchase, you'll need to ensure that your site is memorable. Branding will help with this, but you can still add further customized flourishes. Something as simple as UX microcopy may do the trick—a pop-up that says "nice choice!" when somebody adds something to their basket. Whatever you do needs to walk the fine line between eye-catching and intrusive. Get it right, however, and you'll enjoy multiple rewards.

5. Keep things simple for consumers

The power of simplicity is often overlooked when designing an e-commerce website. While it's important to stand apart from your competitors, too many bells and whistles in your interface can backfire. Convenience is possibly the most significant selling point of online shopping, and 97% of users abandon a basket if they find a purchase is too inconvenient for them to conclude.

Keep this number in mind when designing your e-commerce website's UI design. Incorporate a search function for users who are in a hurry and ensure that navigation links on your site are clearly labeled. For example, if you sell unisex clothing, make it simple for a user to locate menswear or women's wear, then subdivide your categories further.

There's a golden rule at play here: the faster a user can find what they are looking for, the likelier they are to make an impulse buy. Keep e-shopping simple by allowing users to locate goods with ease and offering minimal hurdles in their path to checking out.

6. Offer guest checkout

A study by Baymard Institute found that 26% of people abandoned their shopping carts because the site wanted them to create an account. You can improve sales on your site by offering a guest checkout function. Many e-commerce sites that embraced this and seen cart abandonment rates greatly improve as a result. Used correctly, guest checkout can be an indispensable part of any user interface design.

The advantages of guest checkout for users are clear. It encourages an immediate conclusion to a transaction and ensures consumers do not need to share any personal data. Guest checkout has one flaw for an e-commerce site—it denies you the opportunity to harvest first-party data. However, you are exchanging a potential lead for a guaranteed sale. While it's important to consider the future, don't sacrifice income in the present to do so.

7. Upsell with care

Finally, consider how you upsell on your e-commerce site. A well-placed and appropriately timed CTA (call-to-action) may bolster your bottom line. Equally, though, coming across as too pushy may deter consumers and lead to an abandoned transaction.

Save your upselling for when a customer is at the checkout point—and even then, only attempt this technique if it would be considered strictly beneficial. If you're selling a lamp, reminding customers that they would benefit from spare bulbs makes sense.

You may even get away with this on a clothing site—suggesting a pair of shoes that would immaculately match a dress or suit. Do not continually bombard the user with offers, though. This will alienate your audience, as they'll quickly think that you see them purely as a walking, talking credit card.

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