UX: then and now | A COVID Upgrade

Websites have been advocates of the brands from the past 15 years. Since then, they have evolved from one-pagers to now, e-commerce. Who would have thought you can sell and buy online! As they have become indispensable for businesses, every element has become important from a user experience perspective. Is it easy for the user, is it pleasing the eye? Will it bring the user back?

Undeniably, ways of the world have changed during COVID. Now we see heavy traffic on websites for online purchases, that means e-commerce is on the rise, now more than ever. This implies that a lot depends on how you market and present yourself if you have an e-commerce platform.

Before the new normal, the fight was over physical experience. The way people can assess and make a decision in a physical store, it was a challenge to have the same online. So the e-commerce focused on parameters like:

1. Value proposition: How do you place your product and what feelings does it invoke?
2. Filters: Is it fairly easy to find what the user is looking for via filters? Or are they mindlessly scrolling the web?
3. Avoid bounce rate: Do you not want recurring consumers? What exactly are you doing to keep them hooked?
4. Testimonials: Are you leveraging from all those good consumer reviews? Or simply sitting on them?

While these factors played an important role, now there are different challenges and checkpoints that you must keep in mind while developing or upgrading your e-commerce website.

1. Simply your return policy

Major fear people have buying online is that what if the desired product isn’t what they desired and they wish to return? The hassle to go through wait time on the customer support line and fatigue of writing complaint emails are an add on. But during the pandemic, already distressed users won’t go for a brand that has an unstructured or “difficult” return policy system in place.

Opting for direct and easy to find return policy links would be great. It would put consumers under less stress and the ease will make them come back again and again. You will be their autopilot shopping site!

2. Enable Non-Product Search

Let’s just assume that even after making the return policy page fairly accessible to the consumer, they were not able to find it. In that scenario, enabling non-product searches can be very helpful to new users of the digital age, who will find it more cohesive to your use and buy from your website.

3. Stretch delivery time for out of stock products (non-essentials)

The demand is heavily falling on e-commerce websites and even the consumer is impatient since the movement is restricted and they are left with no option but to buy online. There, stretching the delivery time would be a win-win because either way deliveries are delayed due to inter-state lockdowns.

4. Don’t hide the shipping cost!

Consumers don’t want to be kept in the dark until the checkout page says that the 500 rupee worth item turns 700 after adding all costs. If estimated shipping cost is mentioned in the product page itself, then chances are consumers will make up their mind in advance and then only go ahead with the purchase.

5. Delivery date over Shipping Speed

You have to give it to Amazon, they are doing it right. If you order a product, they let you see what all dates can the product be delivered considering the shipping service, meaning whether you are a prime user or not. Using something similar again will be like playing the ball in the consumer court, giving a definite timeline and peace of mind.

Everybody is trying to get into the rhythm of New Normal and as difficult and exciting it can be, these little changes can bring more comfort, ease and familiarity for people who are new to the digital space and for the old ones, a sense of trust that they can always rely on online shopping!