Fix These 8 Major Online Shopping Pet Peeves To Boost Sales

Key takeaways:

• Poor layout, hidden costs, and slow speed are a few online shopping problems that annoy many customers.
• Making sure your website performs well is important since it builds your customer’s first impression of your business.
• You can create a customer-friendly experience by fixing website layout, pricing transparency, and site speed.

Over 3 billion people shop online. Is your eCommerce site giving them the shopping experience they deserve? Issues like slow load times, poor user interface, or unexpected fees aren’t annoyances; they’re common online shopping pet peeves that directly affect your bottom line. Fortunately, these things are fixable.

In this article, we’ll walk through eight annoying things to avoid for your online store. You’ll also learn actionable solutions for each pet peeve, so you know the next steps to take and eventually, drive your sales to new heights.

1. Poor design

First impressions matter. Research from Clutch shows that 38% of people pay attention to a website’s overall layout and navigation, and 42% will leave if they find it hard to use.

For eCommerce sites, a confusing menu is one of the top offenders. When you don’t organize your menus or you have unclear subcategories, visitors will struggle to find what they need and may leave out of frustration.

How to improve your website design

You don’t need a full rebuild to improve your site’s design; small, thoughtful changes can go a long way. Here’s how to make your site easier and more intuitive to navigate:

• Organize products or services into broad, intuitive categories to ensure a clear menu structure.
• Position your menu consistently on every page for easy navigation.
• Prioritize a mobile-friendly design since most online shopping now happens on smartphones.
• Add visual cues like dropdown menus or hover effects to highlight key areas.
• Add a search bar to facilitate direct navigation.

Building or improving your eCommerce website

If you’re still in the process of building your eCommerce website, consider using an intuitive website builder like Network Solutions’ Website Builder.

As a trusted provider of online solutions for over four decades now, we offer professionally designed templates, built-in navigation tools, and mobile-friendly layouts, making it easier to create a sleek and functional site.

If building or improving your site feels overwhelming, consider using a professional website design service. Experts can help you create a clean, responsive design tailored to your brand and optimized for user experience, helping you avoid common layout pitfalls.

2. Not mobile-friendly

Speaking of design, if your site doesn’t work well on mobile, you’re likely losing customers.

Today, most online shopping happens on the phone. With 1.65 billion people shop online using their mobile devices, this highlights the importance of mobile responsiveness. And here’s the kicker: 60% of shoppers say they’ll leave a website that isn’t mobile-friendly.

How to make your site mobile-friendly

If you’re using a website builder or CMS, choose a theme that automatically adapts to different screen sizes. Fortunately, many website builders right now, like Network Solutions, offer responsive templates. This takes the guesswork out of mobile design and helping business owners with no coding experience.

3. Slow loading speed

Waiting for a page to load can be frustrating, especially when everyone’s on the go. So, if your site takes too long to load, visitors often leave before they even see what you offer. In fact, 5% of users say that if a site takes more than three seconds to load, they’ll abandon it. Imagine thousands of clicks to your web page, but all of them experience a slow loading speed from your site; those missed opportunities add up fast.

How to improve website speed

Here are some proven ways to speed up your site’s load time:

• Compress large images while keeping their quality.
• Remove unnecessary plugins that don’t contribute to your site’s functionality.
• Choose a fast, reliable hosting provider to handle traffic efficiently.
• Test your site regularly, with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights.

Want a faster site? Consider a web hosting service with speed and uptime you can actually count on.

4. Poor search functionality

A weak site search functionality, one with no filters or advanced options, can frustrate customers. In fact, 68% of customers say a poor search experience would prevent them from returning to a website. So, if you offer more than one service, it’s best to give your prospects the tools to narrow down their search results.

How to improve your site search

To improve your site’s search functionality, consider the following:

• Enable advanced filtering options so users can refine results by category, price, or other relevant attributes.
• Implement a unified search index so the search engine can pull any data from a single source, making query responses faster.
• Add features like autocomplete and query suggestions so customers find what they’re looking for without the need to type everything.

5. Unclear pricing

Shoppers today care about fair and transparent pricing. They want brands to be upfront about pricing structures, including fees, and to be honest about sustainability and value.

This is why unexpected extra costs are now one of many reasons for cart abandonment. In a recent study, 16% of shoppers said they left before completing their purchase because they couldn’t see the final total cost upfront, or because the total was higher than expected.

How to keep costs transparent

To avoid unexpected costs, you can consider doing the following:

• Display taxes, shipping fees, and other charges clearly early in the checkout process.
• Offer a cost calculator or shipping estimator to help customers anticipate costs.
• Highlight discounts and show customers how much they save after applying deals or coupons.
• Clearly communicate any additional fees, such as customs duties, packaging costs, or service charges.

6.  Requiring account creation to complete an order

While many sites still require shoppers to create an account to complete a purchase, it’s actually one of many online shopping problems that customers find annoying. In fact, 24% of online shoppers abandon their carts when forced to register before checkout.

Many eCommerce businesses use this strategy to collect customer data and build an email list for future marketing. While it may have worked before, modern shoppers value speed and convenience. Adding unnecessary steps during checkout interrupts the buying momentum, which increases the risk of losing the sale.

How to reduce abandonment by removing account barriers

Checkout should feel effortless instead of demanding. Here’s how you can make the shopping process seamless while still encouraging customers to sign up:

• Offer a guest checkout option
• Push the account creation after purchase
• Simplify the registration with social logins via Google, Apple, or Facebook

7. High shipping costs

High shipping costs are a major factor in lost sales, with 40% of online shoppers abandoning their carts because of shipping fees.

For customers, free shipping is beyond a perk; it’s also a deciding factor in buying products. For business owners, it can feel like a direct hit to profit margins. But here’s the good news: you don’t have to offer free shipping on every product, every day. Instead, try strategic approaches that allow you to maintain your margins while still offering customers an appealing deal.

Take Amazon, for example. They set a minimum purchase threshold for certain items to qualify for free shipping. This strategy encourages customers to add more to their cart, helping increase average order value while keeping shipping costs manageable.

How to make shipping fees work for you and your customers

• Set a free-shipping threshold to encourage larger orders.
• Highlight free shipping in your marketing to attract customers.
• Be transparent about shipping costs early in the checkout process to avoid surprises.

8. Complicated checkout process

A checkout process that’s too long or hard to navigate can make completing a purchase feel like hard work. If the flow requires too many steps or fields, shoppers may get frustrated and leave before finishing their order. Data shows that 18% of shoppers leave the checkout process because it’s too complicated.

How to fix your checkout process

• Keep forms short and easy to complete.
• Make the “Checkout” button the most visible element on the page.
• Remove distractions like newsletter pop-ups or social media links, that interrupt the checkout flow.
• Give shoppers a clear path to either continue shopping or proceed to checkout.

Turn your website into a sales-boosting tool

Your website is often the first impression your customers have of your business; make it count. By addressing common issues like poor design, unclear pricing, and slow loading speeds, you can create a smooth, customer-friendly experience. The good news? These eCommerce pet peeves are fixable. The sooner you take action, the sooner your customers will enjoy your site.

Ready to build or improve your site? With over decades of experience and wide range of tools, Network Solutions can help you create a website that customers will love.

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