The importance of being visually appealing in e-commerce

First impression — that’s scary. Something that you will never be able to change, especially on the Internet. The Internet never forgets, am I right?

In the jungle of online shopping, we get lots of first impressions, even multiple on the same day. Why do they matter? Why is it so important to invest in aesthetic web design? The answer is obvious — to increase profit. But the big question is — how to leave the best possible first impression to consumers in 2019 and make them buy something?

The two aspects I have shortly analyzed below should give you an insight:

Visual appearance

Online shopping or visiting your physical store — it’s all about the looks. When trying to understand consumers try to think as a consumer yourself — imagine that you want to buy a particular pair of pants that you showroomed (showrooming — the practice of visiting a shop or shops in order to examine a product before buying it online at a lower price) the other day. You come across 2 online stores, one with minimalistic and clean design and the other one where it all looks like from the early ’00s. However, in the 1st website, the pants cost 10$ more. What happens next is obvious — you buy from the pretty website and you pay 10$ more.

Yes, it’s that simple. Pretty people and pretty websites will always be the first choice. If we look at the data: 93% of the consumers consider visual appearance to be the key deciding factor in whether or not they make the purchase. Also, 52% of shoppers abandon the sites and never return because they dislike the overall aesthetics. And as I mentioned in the beginning, first impression matters — 42% of e-commerce consumers base their overall opinion of a site on its design alone.

If you are feeling '00s vibes when entering your online store, it’s a must to contact an e-commerce agency that can design and knows what UI/UX is!

Video displays (if you want to be more than just pretty)

By having an online store, you also have an opportunity to tell a story in multiple ways. Video displays go hand in hand with visual appearance, and if you are interested to implement one in your website, you will need to contact an e-commerce agency again.

It’s tricky with video displays and animations — since the digital world is taking over the real one, a lot of people claim to be some kind of video creators and animators. Another problem here: the video/animation after being put on the website doesn’t look as pretty as it did alone. In my opinion, that’s a strong argument to reach out to an agency with professional video creators.

But after all, why this aspect is that important? Since I love numbers, the study says that replacing the image with a video on the landing page increases conversion by 12.62%. What shocked me the most: 73% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product or service if they can watch a video explaining it beforehand. Also, 58% of consumers assume that companies that produce videos are more trustworthy.

If you are willing to have a chat on the topic discussed above or you are interested to make your website more visually appealing, feel free to contact me to marta@magebit.com or the email listed below.