Blog

Table of contents

• Building a User-Centric E-commerce Strategy
  • What is a User-Centric Approach?
  • Why is a User-Centric Approach Important for E-commerce?
  • How to Implement a User-Centric Approach for Your E-commerce Website?
    • Define your target audience
    • Understand their needs and pain points
    • Map out their user journey
    • Guide your design decisions
  • Conclusion

E-commerce is a booming industry, with global sales expected to reach $6.5 trillion by 2023. However, not all e-commerce businesses are successful. In fact, according to a study by Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate is 69.57%, meaning that most online shoppers leave without completing a purchase.

Why is this happening? One of the main reasons is that many e-commerce websites are not designed with the user in mind. They are either too complex, too slow, too cluttered, or too generic to meet the needs and expectations of their target audience.

Luckily, there is a way to overcome this challenge and create a more engaging and profitable e-commerce website. It is called a user-centric approach, and it involves defining your target audience, understanding their needs and pain points, and mapping out a user journey to guide your design decisions.

What is a User-Centric Approach?

A user-centric approach is a design philosophy that puts the user at the center of everything. It means that you design your website not based on your own preferences, assumptions, or opinions, but based on the actual needs, goals, behaviors, and feedback of your users.

A user-centric approach is also known as user-centered design (UCD) or user experience (UX) design. UX design is the process of creating products or services that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users.

It involves researching, testing, and iterating on your design solutions to ensure that they are usable, accessible, and desirable for your users.

A user-centric approach is not only beneficial for your users, but also for your business. By designing a website that meets your users’ needs and expectations, you can increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. You can also improve your conversion rates, reduce bounce rates, and boost your sales and revenue

Why is a User-Centric Approach Important for E-commerce?

A user-centric approach is especially important for e-commerce websites, because online shopping is a highly competitive and dynamic environment. Users have many options to choose from, and they can easily switch to another website if they are not satisfied with yours. Therefore, you need to provide a seamless, enjoyable, and memorable shopping experience to stand out from the crowd and persuade your users to buy from you.

A user-centric approach can help you achieve this by:

• Increasing your relevance: By defining your target audience and understanding their needs and pain points, you can create a website that offers the right products, features, and content for your users. You can also personalize your website to match your users’ preferences, behaviors, and contexts, and make them feel valued and understood.

• Improving your usability: By mapping out your user journey and testing your design solutions, you can create a website that is easy to use, navigate, and understand for your users. You can also eliminate any friction, confusion, or frustration that might prevent your users from completing their tasks and goals.

• Enhancing your desirability: By applying the principles of visual design, copywriting, and branding, you can create a website that is attractive, engaging, and trustworthy for your users. You can also evoke positive emotions, associations, and impressions that influence your users’ decisions and actions.

How to Implement a User-Centric Approach for Your E-commerce Website?

Implementing a user-centric approach for your e-commerce website is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process that requires constant research, testing, and improvement. However, a good place to start is to follow these four steps:

1. Define your target audience

The first step is to define your target audience, or the group of people who are most likely to buy from you. You need to know who they are, what they want, and how they behave online.

To do this, you can use various methods, such as:

• Market research: This involves collecting and analyzing data about your industry, competitors, and customers. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Google Trends, and SimilarWeb to get insights into your market size, trends, opportunities, and threats.

• User research: This involves gathering and understanding information about your users’ needs, goals, motivations, and pain points. You can use tools like surveys, interviews, focus groups, and user testing to get feedback from your users or potential users.

• Persona creation: This involves creating fictional characters that represent your ideal users. You can use tools like Xtensio, HubSpot, or Userforge to create personas that include demographic, psychographic, and behavioral details about your users.

By defining your target audience, you can create a more focused and relevant website that caters to their specific needs and expectations.

2. Understand their needs and pain points

The second step is to understand your users’ needs and pain points, or the problems and challenges that they face when shopping online. You need to know what they are looking for, what they are struggling with, and what they are hoping to achieve.

To do this, you can use various methods, such as:

• User interviews: This involves asking your users open-ended questions about their online shopping experiences, preferences, and opinions. You can use tools like Zoom, Skype, or Google Meet to conduct user interviews remotely or in person.

• User surveys: This involves asking your users multiple-choice or rating questions about their online shopping behaviors, attitudes, and satisfaction. You can use tools like SurveyMonkey, Typeform, or Google Forms to create and distribute user surveys online or offline.

• User testing: This involves observing your users as they interact with your website or a prototype of your website. You can use tools like UserTesting, Lookback, or Hotjar to record and analyze your users’ actions, reactions, and feedback.

By understanding your users’ needs and pain points, you can create a more usable and accessible website that solves their problems and helps them achieve their goals.

3. Map out their user journey

The third step is to map out your users’ user journey, or the sequence of steps and interactions that they take from the moment they land on your website until they complete a purchase. You need to know what they do, what they see, what they feel, and what they think at each stage of their journey.

To do this, you can use various methods, such as:

• User journey mapping: This involves creating a visual representation of your users’ user journey, highlighting their actions, thoughts, emotions, and pain points. You can use tools like Miro, Lucidchart, or Smaply to create user journey maps that include touchpoints, channels, and opportunities for improvement.

• User flow diagramming: This involves creating a schematic representation of your users’ user journey, showing the logical flow of your website’s pages, features, and functions. You can use tools like Sketch, Figma, or Balsamiq to create user flow diagrams that include screens, elements, and transitions.

• User story writing: This involves creating a textual representation of your users’ user journey, describing their needs, goals, and scenarios. You can use tools like Trello, Jira, or Asana to create user stories that include roles, actions, and outcomes.

By mapping out your users’ user journey, you can create a more engaging and enjoyable website that provides a smooth and consistent shopping experience.

4. Guide your design decisions

The fourth and final step is to guide your design decisions based on your user research, user journey mapping, and user testing. You need to use the insights and feedback that you have gathered to create a website that meets your users’ needs and expectations.

To do this, you can use various methods, such as:

• Wireframing: This involves creating a low-fidelity prototype of your website, showing the layout, structure, and functionality of your website’s pages. You can use tools like Adobe XD, InVision, or Framer to create wireframes that include placeholders, labels, and buttons.

• Mockuping: This involves creating a high-fidelity prototype of your website, showing the appearance, style, and content of your website’s pages. You can use tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, or Canva to create mockups that include colors, fonts, images, and text.

• Prototyping: This involves creating an interactive prototype of your website, showing the behavior, interaction, and feedback of your website’s pages. You can use tools like Webflow, Bubble, or Wix to create prototypes that include animations, transitions, and effects.

By guiding your design decisions, you can create a more attractive and trustworthy website that delivers a meaningful and relevant shopping experience.

Conclusion

A user-centric approach is a design philosophy that puts the user at the center of everything. It involves defining your target audience, understanding their needs and pain points, and mapping out a user journey to guide your design decisions.

A user-centric approach is important for e-commerce websites, because it can help you increase your relevance, improve your usability, and enhance your desirability. It can also help you increase your customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention, as well as your conversion rates, sales, and revenue.

To implement a user-centric approach for your e-commerce website, you can follow these four steps:

• Define your target audience
• Understand their needs and pain points
• Map out their user journey
• Guide your design decisions

By following these steps, you can create a user-centric e-commerce website that provides a phenomenal shopping experience for your users.