In recent times there has been a huge buzz about UX, User eXperience. UX can be simply defined as any feeling your users encounter while interacting with your business organization via apps, website or other online channels. It is a combination of both pragmatic (does the site fulfill its purpose?) and hedonistic (the emotional responses it triggers) factors. So every website or app exists to serve a purpose, unless you are here for charity. The purpose always remain as generating revenue!
In a way, your retail app is like you. You have a form and a skeleton similarly your app has an interface and information architecture that lies beneath. It meets people, makes acquaintances, it thrives and lastly it makes money. Who doesn’t like money!
How an awesome app UX design contribute to increasing sales?
According to hardcore calculation and some rocket-science understanding of human psychology of browsing, Jakob Nielsen, a Ph.D. in human–computer interaction, concluded that the amount of business is a multiple of three factors that is unique visitors that visit you online, conversion rate and loyalty rate. The mobile app UX has a direct impact on the conversion rate and the number of loyal users. Though the unique users are the direct results of SEO but even the SEO is indirectly related and affected by the UX.
Revenue = U * C* L
(where U – unique users, C – conversion rate of users and L- Loyal users)
To deliver a great user experience you need to plan first during your retail app UX design and for that definitely a UX designer plays a very vital role. Any intelligent fool can complicate things but it is very difficult to proceed in the reverse direction. So a UX designer has to follow a number of essential steps to target audience and definitely achieve a set of loyal users.
Don’t forget to check: Basics of UX Designing
The five golden rules which any organization should follow to increase sales and enhance brand loyalty are listed below:
- 1. Understand your users: It is very important to have a thorough understanding of the targeted audience to develop a fantastic UX. There are different categories of user: ‘the power shoppers’ who needs a technically and strategically sound user experience, ‘the recreational shoppers’ who hang around and converts only if the experience is alluring and awesome, the ‘repeat shoppers’ who come back to your app time and again due to the friendly and promising user experience. So definitely the UX affects above two factors i.e. the conversion rate and the loyalty rate, which are the two dominant factors to multiply your sales.
- 2. Design-perfect Layout of your App: Your app should definitely have an intuitive design which the users find convenient and at the same time it should give them the feeling of being in a store i.e. it should have high visual quotients. Like
- large display images,
- images from different angles,
- ratings and
- reviews
also facilitate the users and increase the conversion rate. Even the touch and feel of the ‘buy now’ button matters a lot. Because even if the buttons don’t function well, the recreational shoppers tend to lose their interest a lot and will rather shop at your competitors’.
- 3. Making the app UX design of your ‘payment’ page perfect: The payment section is probably the most vital element of your app. It should have the most lucid user experience. It might be in the form of appealing colors or easier navigations or some big changes or few little tweaks, but at the end of the day what really matters is that the users should find it handy, easy and convenient to use. The payment options should have appealing colors or the buttons should have ease of touch anything but it has to be assured that the users should find it handy, easy and convenient to use.It has also been observed that an ‘add to the cart’ button makes a user feel much more comfortable and increases the conversion rate rather than a direct ‘buy now’ button. Hence the most significant factor of increasing the amount of business, i.e. the conversion of the recreational and repeat customers increases indubitably.
- 4. Visualize all the ‘Payments’ steps and don’t overload your contact page: Your customers are the key business stakeholders and they are the ones who drives success and they want cent percent transparency on how their payment will be processed and if it is really secure enough. So it has been studied that the number of steps for completion of transaction should be restricted to three and it should be dynamic and animated so that the user does not find it monotonous to wait. Another ‘mantra’ to increase conversion is keeping the form fields to be filled to minimum, making sure the registered users are never asked for the same information already fed again.
- 5. Lucid Checkout: Apps that have a cumbersome and critical checkout process often tends to be a deal breaker. Mostly the retail apps with good UX have their checkout option or button on the right hand corner. Placing it next to the ‘add to the cart’ option is the most feasible option to expedite the process. It should also give the user save for later option otherwise you might just end up losing a potential customer. Overall, right from signing up to exploring to checking out it should be a pleasant and amazing experience for the users.
On an ending note…
UX focuses on all aspects of the end-users like
- Why they are using it?
- What is the sole purpose behind usage?
- Are the goals achieved? etc.
UX nowadays is an imperative part of your app designing which will definitely contribute in enhancing the factors thereby increasing the sales. It gives us a clearer and sharper picture of the targeted users and thereby helps in proliferating the revenue. When the users feel like that they are being taken care of and they are being attended, it means the UX is doing its job right. Such care from our end to leave a minimal scope of errors in helping them performing various tasks easily will definitely leave a positive impression on them and register a brand value in their minds. Once they have a pleasant experience not only they may become loyal users of your app but can probably recommend your app to others.
How UX helps is by increasing the probability of positively leaving a lasting impression on the users. And if they remember us even when they are gone, is not the job already half-done?
References
http://julysystems.com/retail-app-design-how-ux-can-help-you-increase-sales/
http://provectus.com/blog/news/how-to-increase-your-online-sales-by-20-percent-tips-from-wargaming/
www.sanjay-sarkar.com/2014/08/how-ux-can-increase-traffic-and-sales.html
http://blog.usabilitytools.com/optimize-ux/
Ajeet Singh
