Running an e-commerce store can come with many different challenges. One of the most prevalent issues is managing your digital storefront. A high-functioning website can help funnel traffic to your pages and increase sales. A low-quality site will have the opposite effect.
In this article, we’re going to discuss signs that your BigCommerce store needs a redesign. Whether you’re just starting in the world of e-commerce or want to build a bigger audience, here are the stages when your e-commerce store needs a redesign
One of the most common reasons for customers to bounce away from your e-commerce store is that pages are loading slowly. The best way to sell your products is to have plenty of photos of them. However, if these images are high-resolution, they could be creating a lag whenever someone wants to see an item. Cut the size down and make sure they are at 72-pixel resolution.
These days, more and more shoppers are buying products on their phones. In fact, in 2019, more people did online holiday shopping on a mobile device than on a computer. That trend is only going to continue upward, so your store has to keep up with demand.
Fortunately, BigCommerce makes it easy to optimize your site for smaller screens. However, you should follow these tips to ensure that your customers are getting the best experience.
– Adjust Your Images – You don’t need full-size pictures when a user is looking at a product on the phone. So, either your photos should be small enough to load on both screens, or you should have different options for each situation.
– Test Your Site’s Functionality – The best way to be sure your store is mobile-optimized is to use it as a customer would. If you notice any layout issues – such as buttons being too small – you can adjust them accordingly. We also recommend loading your site on multiple phones if possible since there is no universal size.
Although online shopping has become the new normal for most consumers, it’s still subject to trends. Some items will be in hot demand, while others might fizzle out for a while. Also, the time of year can affect how many visitors you get. However, while there can be an ebb and flow to your site traffic, a steady decline likely indicates that your customers are not satisfied.
While the specific causes for a significant dip can vary, here are some ways to identify the root of the problem:
-A/B Testing – This process is when you build two sets of similar pages with different layouts. By sending half of your traffic to each one, you can see which page has the most engagement. When A/B testing, be sure to focus on incremental changes. If you do too much at once, it’s hard to tell which adjustment had the most impact.
-Cut Underselling Products – In most cases, the secret to success with an e-commerce store is to focus on a niche. Corporate giants like Amazon and Wal-Mart already sell everything, so spreading your inventory too thin can be a problem. Instead, look at your current sales charts and remove anything that doesn’t sell. This way, it will streamline the shopping process, and customers can find what they want that much easier.
At first, it may seem counterintuitive to redesign your BigCommerce site when sales are up. However, reaching a significant milestone (i.e., $100,000) can be an excellent sign to update your store. Fortunately, it will be easier to do this because you have so much customer data at your disposal.
Even if your site is optimized and handling the traffic well, it’s still a good idea to focus on the elements we mentioned above. By continuously refining your storefront, you can make it much simpler for customers to buy. Good enough is never good enough – strive for perfection.
One of the most common reasons for customer churn is a slow or complicated checkout system. In many cases, new visitors don’t want to fill all of their info to buy a product. That being said, over-simplifying can also create problems. A/B testing can work well here to help you figure out which elements to keep and which to ditch.
If you need assistance in optimizing your BigCommerce store, we can help. We understand the challenges that e-commerce sites face, and we can deliver better results for you and your customers. Call us today to find out more.
Mike Patel is the Founder and CEO of ioVista, a leading digital commerce agency specializing in eCommerce solutions. With a strong background in business and technology, Mike Patel has been at the forefront of driving digital transformations for businesses. He has successfully navigated the ever-changing landscape of eCommerce, helping companies leverage the power of online platforms to grow their brand, increase revenues, and optimize their digital presence. Under his leadership, ioVista has become a trusted partner with major technology companies: Adobe/Magento, Google, BigCommerce, Shopify, and Yahoo. He is dedicated to staying ahead of industry trends, adopting cutting-edge technologies, and continuously improving strategies to provide clients with a competitive edge. Mike’s commitment to excellence and client satisfaction is evident in every project ioVista undertakes.
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We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
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Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to
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