What kind of first impression does your ecommerce store make on visitors?
You may not realise it, but people are making snap judgements about your business within a few seconds of arriving on your website. Whether these judgements are positive or negative depends on a number of factors – many of which can be linked directly back to web design.
In this post, we’ll take a closer at the problems business owners with outdated ecommerce stores encounter on a regular basis, and explain why keeping your site up to date is more important now than ever before.
Unresponsive and mobile-unfriendly
Smartphones and tablets have transformed the way we shop. Long gone are the days when people reached for the Yellow Pages to find a local business or tradesman. Today, most people simply reach for their mobiles instead.
Unfortunately, having an online presence in the form of a company website doesn’t mean that your online battle is over. If your website is outdated, it probably isn’t responsive. Responsive websites are mobile-friendly. This means that they will adapt to suit a range of screen sizes and will display properly on mobile devices.
Having a mobile-friendly website is a must if you want to capitalise on the growth of online shopping and browsing. Try visiting your business website on your mobile phone. How does it look? If you have to zoom in and out top read the copy, or the images are too big, your website isn’t mobile friendly.
This is a big turn-off for users. Sites that are hard to navigate have much higher bounce rates (people who arrive on your site and leave very quickly) and much lower conversion rates as a result. Update your website to make it mobile-friendly and you could see sales and enquiries increase dramatically. It could impact on your search engine rankings too.
Slow load times
How long does your business website take to load? Generally, if your website takes longer than 3-5 seconds to load it is too slow and you are probably losing customers as a result. Why? There are plenty of much faster and more responsive websites out there, and nobody wants to waste their time staring at their screen as it loads.
If your site is slow to load it’s not the end of the world. There are plenty of things you can do to try to speed it up, including making sure updates have been taken care of and that files have been compressed properly.
Of course, it’s not always possible to speed up an outdated website. You may need to consider a complete web design instead. An experienced web designer should be able to advise you on the best course of action for your site. However, if your existing website is more than five years old it may be time for a complete overhaul. According to kissmetrics.com, 40% of people abandon a website if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds.
Sales are dropping
Have you seen web traffic to your site drop in the last quarter? It’s not unusual for websites to see a drop in traffic or enquiries from time to time, it’s just the nature of business. However, if you’ve seen a steady drop and there’s no sign of things improving, it’s probably time to take a closer look at your website.
Many factors can affect web traffic. However, if your website’s content is outdated and your layout is awkward and hard to navigate, it’s well worth addressing these issues before you panic and rush to spend more on advertising and promotion. First impressions count online, so make sure you’re putting your best business foot forward and greet visitors to your site with a fresh layout and engaging content.
Helping B2B and B2C companies increase sales online
At Fluid Digital we create intuitive Magento ecommerce websites that both brands and customers love. If your website is outdated and in need of an overhaul, get in touch today and begin your brand’s transformation.