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When Is a Good Time to Redesign Your Online Store?

At one point or another, redesigning your website will be necessary. Maybe you’ve just started out, but your website doesn’t perform as well as you would have expected.

Or maybe you’ve been running your online store for a while now and you’ve noticed that your website is beginning to look outdated.

But how do you actually know when it’s time to redesign your website? Well, here are some tell-tale signs you need to look out for.

1. You’re Experiencing Low Conversion Rates 

Having as much traffic on your website as possible is always a good thing. However, if that traffic doesn’t convert into sales, it’s pretty much pointless, especially if you’re running an online store.

After all, your main goal is to generate sales, right? That means you need to do more than just increase traffic. You need to make sure you’re reaching your target audience, so that the traffic you get actually leads to conversions.

If you find yourself in a situation where plenty of people are visiting your site but a small portion of them actually generate revenue, it might be time to consider a redesign.

Now, there are plenty of reasons that might cause your site to have low conversion rates, such as a bad overall design, poor call to actions and more.

To help you find out what’s exactly causing the issue, consider consulting with a web design company.

2. Your Pages Load Slowly

If your website is taking too long to load, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers. A study conducted by Google found that 53% of users will abandon a page if it hasn’t loaded within the first three seconds.

With each extra second of loading time, the number of users who leave the page will increase exponentially. For example, a website that takes six seconds to load will have an abandonment rate that’s 106% higher compared to a website that takes one second to load.

So, how do you know if your page is not fast enough? Simply check Google’s Page Speed Insights and you’ll find out. This tool will also give you suggestions on how to improve your website’s loading speed.

Some of the best ways to improve loading speed include reducing image size, enabling browser caching and deleting unnecessary plugins.

3. Your Website Is Not Mobile-Friendly 

Just over 50% of all web traffic is generated through mobile devices. By the end of this year, mobile eCommerce sales are expected to be worth around $3.56 trillion.

In other words, mobile devices have a major influence on the eCommerce industry. So, if your website is not mobile-friendly, now it might be time to take action.

Opting for a responsive website may be your best choice here. This allows you to offer a consistent user experience regardless of the device visitors use when they enter your site.

4. Your Website Doesn’t Align With Your Brand 

Web design is not all about making your web page look attractive, but also about making sure it’s intuitive and easy to use and that it aligns your brand.

Think of your website as being the first impression people are going to get about your brand and what you have to offer.

In other words, the goal of your website should not only be to sell products but to also instantly let people know who you are as a brand, what you offer and how you can help visitors.

With that being said, if you find that your website does not align with who you are as a brand, you might need to consider consulting with companies that offer brand identity services.

5. You’re Seeing A High Cart Abandonment Rate 

Another sign which indicates that your website might be in need of a redesign is that of high cart abandonment rates. Now, one of the most common causes of this issue is the length of the checkout process.

If the checkout process is too long or complicated, chances are that visitors will just give up abandon their cart without making a purchase.

In fact, around 26% of shoppers reported that they have abandoned their carts solely because of this reason. So, make sure that the design of your website is focused on having a checkout process that is as brief as possible.

Another reason which might explain why your online store has a high cart abandonment rate is that of shipping costs. 63% of shoppers abandon their carts because of unexpected shipping costs.

This typically happens at the final stage of the checkout process, where users get to see their grand total, including shipping costs, which were never mentioned before.

This puts shoppers in a state of shock since the amount of money they have to pay is higher than they originally anticipated. Therefore, they end up leaving your site, without ever completing the checkout.

So, in order to work your way around this problem, simply be transparent. Let users know about the shipping costs right from the start.

6. Your Website Is Difficult To Navigate

The navigation within your website needs to be on point, especially if you’re running an online store. When browsing your site, visitors want to find the products they’re looking for quickly.

And for that, you’ll need to incorporate internal search features, offer search suggestions, include specific product categories and more. If your website lacks some of these features, it might be time for a redesign.

7. Your Images Are Poor Quality 

When running an online store, the image quality of the products you showcase has to be top-notch.

When shopping online, customers can’t physically interact with your products. Yet, they still want to take a good look at what you’re offering, before making a decision.

With that being said, you need to have multiple high-quality images for each product you sell. Showcase your products from all angles, so you can give potential customers a better idea of how the products will look in person.

You can also make the images re-sizeable, giving people the ability to zoom in and have a closer look. Or maybe even let them rotate the products so you can make the shopping experience closer to that of a brick and mortar store.

Poor image quality can instantly drive people away from your site. So, if you think that your images are not up to standards, it’s time for a revamp.

8. Your Products Are Poorly Described

Speaking of showcasing your products, their description matters as well. By vaguely describing your products, people will most likely have second thoughts before making a decision.

Product descriptions need to be short and to the point, but also engaging and packed with information in order to help customers get a better idea of what you’re selling.

Final Words

These tell-tale signs help indicate that your website might be ready for a redesign. Remember to keep an eye on your site’s conversion rate, loading speed and cart abandonment rate.

Also, a major part of web traffic is being generated by mobile devices, so your website needs to be mobile-friendly. It should also perfectly align with your brand.

Regarding products, images need to be of the highest quality and showcase what you’re selling from multiple angles. Make sure that your product descriptions are engaging and filled with relevant information.

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