Over the last couple of years, ecommerce became an incredibly important component of the global economy. Sure, it took an outbreak of COVID-19 to truly push this promising idea into the mainstream and encourage wider demographics to make a click, but when people finally started buying online there was no going back.
These days, digital sales account for 19.1% of all retail sales in the world which is a number that can’t be easily ignored. What you should do instead is to try to carve yourself a part of this incredibly lucrative market segment.
How to do that, though? Well, making the buying process more interactive and making the online purchases more immersive for people who are still inexperienced or on the fence does seem like a good way to start. Let us take a look at a couple of tips that should help you along the way.
The perks of creating an interactive and engaging user experience
But, before we proceed to the very tips let’s quickly see why we, above all other things, decided to with making the UX more effective and interactive. To answer that we will quickly go through some of the benefits you will reap by implementing these ideas:
- Less time spent on complicated procedures gives people more time to explore the website
- Interactive content increases the average time spent on the website
- Interactive experiences build loyal, returning audience
- Interactive touch-points help you collect information of interest
Essentially, making your website experience simple and immersive, keeps the people clicking and providing you with valuable data, while at the same time preventing them from exploring other sites. We say it’s well worth the try.
Make product descriptions fun to read
Now, let’s see what we can do to create an experience that will be more immersive. Well, you can start by making the product descriptions actually informative and fun to read. Adding engaging visual content and some dose of emotional storytelling can only push these ideas even further.
Sure, people will like to know about the specs of some products, but they will also like to know how this product improves their lives. Providing answers to such questions should be one of your priorities.
Use 3D models to showcase the product
An image is capable of speaking a thousand words, right? Well, just imagine how many words you will be able to convey by offering your website visitors an interactive 3D model viewer and allowing them to play with products and explore them on their own terms.
This simple upgrade, along with integration with Magento, can change how people perceive your items and how much time they spend on your platform. And every minute spent exploring the products on your ecommerce store is a minute less for your direct competition.
Leverage simple tools like chatbots
Adding a level of interactivity to your online store doesn’t require excessive upgrades. You will be able to go a great length even by using simple tools like chatbot and interactive Q&A queries.
Even when they are not equipped with full AI and Machine Learning capabilities, these friendly tools are more than capable of answering simple questions, helping people in getting around the website, and even upselling and promoting your products. And all these things are performed in real-time, 24/7.
Engage people with short quizzes and questionnaires
Personality quizzes and similar ways of learning more about your visitors offer two-fold benefits. First, they are inherently appealing and addictive so very few people will say no to prompts like ‘What is your ideal phone brand’ or ‘Discover which type of bike is the best for you’.
On the other hand, the sellers can use these voluntary questionnaires to learn volumes of useful info about their clients and actually deliver on the promises they made in the prompt. So, both sides end up getting what they need.
Use video content to provide additional info
Of course, people shouldn’t be forced to watch endless videos to get basic info about the products you are selling. But, things like unboxing videos, use case scenarios, how-to’s, and 360-degree videos are a great way to give people who want to learn more additional content to explore.
Approaching each product with such a level of commitment can effectively make your online store a go-to place for people who want to get quality product info and dramatically increase the authority of your brand.
Add depth to your store with optional content
Speaking of increasing your industry authority, product videos are not the only way to raise the profile of your brand. Writing articles about the state of your industry and ongoing trends, giving your audience free instructions and tips, and providing popular pieces like ‘Top X lists’ can turn your store from a place where people simply buy to the place where they come to spend their free time and learn.
As long as this content doesn’t go in the way of the buying experience you can only excel with it and make your website more user friendly. Well, we hope you will find the tips we have you above useful and eventually decide to add some level of interactivity to your ecommerce store. Sure, we can all agree that the core buying experience should always be kept simple and streamlined.
But, if you don’t give your audience a good reason to keep coming back to your website and explore it in greater depth, you will get very few of these purchases. Do your best then to improve the user experience and give people something to play with even when they don’t intend to make a purchase.