10 Signs Your Ecommerce Website Needs An Upgrade

One of the first places you should look at to ensure that you get good results from your e-commerce strategies is your website. Does it capture e-commerce trends? Does it offer your customers a quality experience? Does it generate the results you desire? If not, then you need to upgrade your website. One sure way to find out whether your website is optimized for best results is to regularly examine different elements of your website.
Well, we know that you may not know what to watch out for, so this article will highlight 10 things to look to determine whether your website needs an upgrade.

Conversion Rate Drop

As an e-commerce entrepreneur, one can assume that the purpose of running your site isn’t just to get people to visit your site. Rather, you want them to carry out some desired actions such as making a purchase, signing up for your newsletter or whatever it is you are offering. This is what we call conversion. Now, if you notice that your site visitors have stopped doing the actions you’d like them to do, that means that your site traffic is not converting. As a result, your customer base won’t grow.
The reason for the drop in your conversion is that there’s something about your website that discourages them. So, when you notice a drop in your conversion rate, that’s your cue to examine your website and fix the problem(s).

High Bounce Rate

Your bounce rate is one of the factors that can affect your conversion rate. If your site visitors leave your site almost as soon as they come, it will surely cause your conversion rate to drop. So, make sure you check your bounce rate from time to time.

Some of the things that can cause your site’s visitors to leave your site too quickly and cause your bounce rate to increase are these:
Drab design
Poor content
Slow loading speed
Chaotic design
Undefined message.

Keep in mind that these are not the only possible causes of a high bounce rate. The important thing to do is examine all elements of your website once you notice that your bounce rate has gone up then fix all the possible problems.

Obsolete Design Framework

The internet is always changing, new programming languages, new trends, new tech and more. This is to tell you that your website design also needs to change from time to time to capture new trends and tech. It wouldn’t make sense now to have your website looking like it’s from 2010, that would certainly put visitors off. You have to examine your website every so often to see that your design is not outdated. If there’s any part of your design framework that is outdated, you need to upgrade it.

Not Being Mobile Friendly

The last thing you want for your site in 2020 is to be unfriendly to mobile devices. About 50% of internet users access the internet from their mobile devices — smartphones and tablets. So, you have to cater to them just as you would your customers who access your site from their desktop computers. Making your website mobile-friendly doesn’t stop with your site being mobile-responsive, it has to give your customers seamless experience. Therefore, if your site isn’t fully mobile-friendly, you have to upgrade it.

Lack of Necessary Optimization

One sure way to ensure that your customers get a wonderful experience when they use your website is to optimize every element of your site. Check to see that your checkout is well-optimized to be simple to use. Your product page should be optimised for easy navigation, stress-free purchase and overall make it easy for buyers to find what to buy. Always examine your site so that no part will be without optimization.

Your Website Design Doesn’t Represent Your Brand

Your website is an important part of your brand so it has to represent your brand well. The colors, the logo, fonts, and the general design of your website have to convey the brand identity. For example, it would be out of place if your website’s main colors are black and red if you sell vegan products on your site. There’s nothing wrong with the colors red and black but for a vegan product site, that’s sending the wrong message. So, make sure your website design doesn’t send a wrong message about your brand.

Your Website is Not Unique

There’s hardly a new idea in the e-commerce industry and that’s not a problem. However, it is always a problem when a site is so uninteresting that it looks like thousands of other websites that offer the same service/products. Such websites will not impress visitors and they won’t be memorable. You have to make sure that your website stands out from the rest in your niche, which is why you need to infuse it with your brand identity. But you also have to be creative and unique. Now, take a look at your website, does it look different from the thousands of websites that do what you do? If your answer is no or you’re unsure, then you need to upgrade your website asap.

Poor Navigation

Your website is not an architectural work of art, it is there to serve your customers hence it must be easy for them to navigate. Your web design should be simple and clear such that the navigation is like a walk in the park for visitors. You can use navigation elements such as site search, pagination, categorization and more to ensure that your customers have a smooth experience going from one page to the other on your site. Additionally, your navigation structure should be so simple that visitors will be able to find items easily. Lastly, ensure that you make important details obvious — customer service, shipping, FAQs, return and refund policy, etc. Your customers shouldn’t have to look and look before finding what they need on your site, a good navigation structure will prevent that.