The structure of your website navigation can be a very important factor in conversions, sales, and bounce rates. If someone’s looking at your website and they can’t figure out where to go when they’re on your landing page, or they can’t navigate around the site with ease, they’ll just go to a different website. Without your website navigation, your customers won’t be able to find your subscription information, your products, or your informational blog.

In order to have a great e-commerce website navigation that can boost your sales, make sure you have clear and hierarchical navigation that directs your visitors to where they want to go. No matter where a person lands on your website, that page should allow them to navigate somewhere else easily and clearly. Website navigation should convince your clients to look through your website and pique their curiosity with offers and a clear path through your content.

Reduce how many clicks it takes

E-commerce navigation that works should lead customers to what they want without trouble or getting lost and should allow them to get to the right product page quickly and efficiently. There are a few different approaches to take here and it depends on the customer and what they’re looking for. If they land on your website and already know what they want, then your site search should be able to direct them to the right place quickly, if it’s well done and returns the right results.

However, with this in mind, Thomas Wong, a digital marketer at Essayroo and State Of Writing adds that “the users that head straight to the search bar are in the minority, however, so you need to keep in mind that most will go to the navigation menu and look for what they want by category.”

Remember the site is for the user

Everything about the website should be designed with the user experience in mind first and foremost and not just what’s simpler to design or makes the backend easier to manage. Every step of the e-commerce web design from the product images you use to the contact form you have has to be created with the user in mind. This is what will ensure that your customers are loyal and repeat buyers.

We recommend that you get a second opinion on your website’s user experience by asking a friend to look it over, or hiring someone to test it out, giving you feedback on usability, ease of navigation, visual appeal, and their satisfaction with the site as a whole.

Keep the design simple

The highest-ranked websites in terms of visual appeal and ease of navigation are always the more minimalist websites. Sally Fields, a marketing manager at Academized.com and OXEssays.com explains that “if you want your e-commerce website to tap into this so that you can increase conversions, consider simplifying your design and going back to basics. To do this, remove any unnecessary information and use a minimalistic theme, making full use of white space.”

Optimize for all devices

The majority of web browsing happens from a mobile device and this will only increase with time as more and more people use their smartphone over their PC for everyday use. The biggest mistake you can make is not having a mobile-optimized website, because you will lose over half of your potential client base. If you have a responsive layout your website will adapt to any type of device that is being used to access it so you don’t need to re-do your whole website for every type of device. Be sure to test it out in multiple formats so you can make sure that it looks the way you want it to.

Some additional tips that are easy to implement are to make sure all your key elements on your mobile site can be accessed easily with the thumb, e.g. not in a top corner as a small button. Try to keep everything accessible in three taps or less on the mobile device. Keep your sign up and checkout times short so your customers don’t lose interest and be consistent throughout your platforms. With these tips, and your focus on minimalism and navigation, your site is sure to be more user-friendly and your sales will improve.

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