Most businesses are now turning to e-commerce to reach out to their customers and take online marketing opportunities without boundaries, even On-demand services like laundry mobile applications, and others are also getting digitalized. But at the same time, an increasing number of e-commerce stores have made it highly competitive for marketers. Since most buyers now access web stores through their mobile screens or through mobile apps, mobile commerce has taken over traditional e-commerce.
Mobile commerce apps cannot stand the competition without providing a smooth and frictionless user experience. First of all, need to design their apps right with an attractive and engaging user interface. Here we are going to provide some of the time-tested tips to design UI for e-commerce mobile apps.
Smooth and Frictionless UI
A mobile commerce app should do everything to help visitors start browsing the products, find their needs, and make purchases as easy as possible. This requires a smooth and frictionless user interface. A mobile app development company considers the design constraints applicable to a smaller device compared to the website built for desktop users. This is why putting limited content, and on-screen elements for every app screen is so important. This will reduce the clutter and help customers find what they need more easily.
Maintain the Thumb Rule of Mobile UI Design
There is a thumb rule of mobile UI design, and it is nothing but keeping all the important buttons and clickable items closer to the thumb area of the user when he holds the phone single-handedly. Since most users, these days hold their handheld device in one hand and scroll or navigate by using the thumb movement, keeping important links and buttons within the thumb zone can help them take more actions.
Now let’s spare a few words on what is the thumb zone for a user. Well, since most users hold phones in their right hand while scrolling with their right-hand thumb, the usual thumb zone stretches from the lower right corner to the middle of the screen. Since most people are restless while seeing something on a mobile screen, you need to make things more accessible for them by keeping things closer to their finger reach.
Reduce the Signup and Checkout Process to A Minimum
Most users dislike long drawn signup and checkout process comprising multiple pages and too many steps. This aversion to going through multiple steps becomes doubled when they need to do the same on a mobile screen. This is why it is incredibly important for mobile commerce stores to keep the signup and checkout process minimum.
For user signup, always allow users to shop and browse as a guest without providing any information apart from the needful at the checkout. Allow users to sign up with their social or google credentials for faster signup. For the usual signup process, limit the form fields to a maximum of two. When users provide information, offer them to store their information for future use to save time and hassle.
Maintain a Clear Structure with 3 Click Rule
For a mobile commerce store, the most important thing is to keep the steps and actions minimum for buying any product from the store. There is a rule called three tap rule that helps users to buy any product by just tapping or clicking three times. This allows shoppers to buy products from the store with minimum efforts.
To apply this principle, structure your store in an order with Categories followed by Sub-categories and lastly Products. Apart from this structure, you can use tags as well for putting products into different categories.
Provide Appropriate Filters and a Search Function
Most e-commerce shoppers are restless, and they hate browsing hundreds of products for a particular color shade with a particular fabric and a size. Instead of putting the labor for scrolling down or going through pages, they will leave and find elsewhere. This is where a detailed filter option and a search function help.
When using filters, make sure they can easily use multiple filters and find what they need within seconds. Make sure the search field is visible on the screen and can be located easily. Use auto-suggestion and auto spell corrector for a search to reduce pain for the users.
Give a Solid Boost to Visual Assets
In e-commerce stores, people hate to read a text, and they mostly judge products by their images. Hence, it is the on-screen visuals that are going to influence the buyers most. Ensure that the product images are of high quality and instantly provide a clear idea about the product. Provide multiple images of a product captured from different angles and include closeup images where you need to provide a feel of the surface or texture. Allow optimum zooming to see the products bigger and closer on screen.
Further, to supplement your product images with something livelier and more convincing, you can provide a small video showcasing the features, advantages, and benefits of the products in real-life contexts.
An Intelligent Recommendation Algorithm is a Must
Though it is particularly not related to the user interface but more part of the user experience attributes, it is a key aspect of any successful mobile web store. Your mobile commerce store must utilize AI through a third-party API to build a powerful recommendation engine that can constantly recommend customers products they are more likely to buy. AI-based recommendations based on earlier searches and purchases help to keep customers engaged and making business conversions.
Conclusion
Mobile e-commerce is already thriving in competition and popularity. But still, large market opportunities remain untapped as most businesses still have no mobile footprint. So, if you shape things right for your mobile commerce store, you are more likely to find success earlier.
