Ever since companies started operating online, websites became the core of their business. Nowadays, websites present the face of those companies and are essential for determining business success. Each time technology makes a breakthrough, customers’ needs, expectations and demands go up a notch. If a business website doesn't meet new standards, customers simply abandon it and move elsewhere. That's why website design plays a vital role in business success just like with a shopify website.
Today, website design essentially comes down to user experience (UX). The quality of UX is determined by website’s quality of visual content and its functionality. For each aspect of functionality, such as usability, speed, responsiveness and user-friendliness, customers have certain expectations. Failing to meet those expectations results in loss of customers, which ultimately affects the bottom line. Here are a few ways website design can have an impact on the success of your business.
Loading time
Many business owners measure success by measuring their bottom line. If you think that website design can't affect your bottom line, you're in for a surprise. Loading time speed is one of the website design aspects customers pay close attention to. If your pages take longer than expected to load, your customers will leave your website - sometimes for good.
As a matter of fact, 47% of consumers expect a website page to load within 2 seconds, while 40% will abandon the website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. So, how does loading time affect your bottom line? In truth, even a single second delay in page loading decreases the customer satisfaction by 16% and can decrease conversion rate by 7%. Let's put that in numbers for better understanding. If you have $100,000 income from your website per day, then that one-second delay will cost you $2.5 million in lost sales annually or $7,000 daily.
Mobile optimization
Mobile traffic surpassed desktop traffic, meaning that consumers are more comfortable browsing using their mobile devices. It also means that your customers expect from your website to be mobile friendly because if it's not, they'll find another website to do business on. Mobile-friendliness is a big part of your website design and understanding that mobile users also have certain expectation is key to optimizing your website to support mobile users the best way possible.
For instance, mobile users expect fast loading speed and a responsive design that will match their mobile device. In fact, 64% of mobile users expect a web page to load in less than 4 seconds. Also, 79% of mobile users who encounter a website with bad responsive design, slow loading speed or poor optimization, will never do business on that website again. In addition, 44% of online consumers will share their bad experience with a website with their friends and family.
Visual representation
The quality of visual content on your website is one of the essential aspects of its design. People have a tendency to judge your website based on its visual design and are willing to abandon it if it's not visually appealing. When designing your website to attract attention based on visuals, you must have your audience in mid primarily. This is especially true when designing landing pages because they're the first thing every visitor sees when they land on your website.
That's why you must carefully choose which colors to pick to inspire specific emotions, what fonts to use for your messages and where to place a call to action buttons (CTA) in order to encourage visitors to explore further. Moreover, you must further construct the visual hierarchy of your website to help visitors navigate around and easily find what they're looking for. If you have difficulties finding a creative solution for your brand’s website, you should consult with an expert branding and web design companies that can provide the necessary experience. You can easily check the reviews of many of these companies on a research and review platform such as 2Easy, for example.
Offering additional information
Visual hierarchy and functionality are crucial parts of any good website design, but people also look for one more thing, and that's information. If your website is visually appealing and its functionality matches the expectations but has no essential information about your business, products or services, people will hesitate to make purchases and may even abandon the website. The main reason is that people like to do research and familiarize themselves with the company before they decide to buy.
After all, you'd want to know with whom you're dealing with before you give them money, wouldn't you? Failing to provide such information, leaves a structural weakness in your web design. If you give people in-depth information about your business, including links to social media pages, guides for products and services and even including testimonials from previous happy customers, you'll show credibility and help people become less distrustful toward you in general. As a matter of fact, 63% of first-time visitors are more likely to trust a website if it contains user reviews and customer testimonials.
Website design has become a vital factor in determining business success. People look at websites as a true representation of the company's capabilities and if they can't find what they're looking for on your website, they'll find it on somebody else's. The success of a business heavily depends on its ability to attract and retain customers, while customer satisfaction is determined by the web design and user experience.
