How UX Determines Ecommerce Revenue

Tracey Wallace explains why a brand redesign can be the difference between success and failure in such a competitive online market.

- Tracey Wallace

Adages become adages because they reflect something fundamental about humankind. The adage doesn’t have to be pretty, often depicting humanity’s more unsavoury traits. The only commonality across adages is that they are accurate (albeit overused). Most of them are to do with our senses and how those senses colour the lens through which we see the world. Sure, we’ve advanced technologically, but our senses still colour our individual perspectives of the world more subconsciously than most of us are comfortable admitting. Touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight; the greatest of which is sight. At least it is when it comes to eCommerce and how much your brand can make online. Yes, this old adage is true.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER

They matter so much in fact that brands who redesign their sites regularly report a 20-30% increase in revenue within three to six months. The industry average for year-on-year revenue growth is less than 25%. You hit even the bottom of that and you’re already well on your way to being one of the fastest-growing brands online. Now, one of the biggest aspects of – and reasons for – a redesign doesn’t actually have much to do with the design itself. Yes, first impressions matter, but on the web we employ our senses far beyond that of sight. Sight mingles with touch in online design. Some examples:

- Does a button do something when I click it?

- Am I going to where I thought I would be sent when I clicked it?

- How fast do I get sent there?

- Is this new page equally as appealing as the last?

Any online consumer wants to get the answers to those questions above in two seconds or less.