Marketers have understood and applied psychological tricks to influence buyers and increase visibility of their products and services since the early 1980s. Today every marketing strategy includes psychological analysis of their target customers, in order to influence their decision making process and establish a certain level of emotional connectivity.
The right color combinations along with proper representation of products, for example, has the potential to significantly improve emotional engagement, in a manner that normally is normally easier to carry out in a face-to-face interaction.
Modifications to designs that were one used in publicly displayable banner ads are now being implemented on web pages to increase sales and user interaction, in another example of psychologically-influenced adaptive strategies. The influence of psychological factors on consumers’ buying behavior has even more-or-less standardized e-commerce web sites to adopt a unified sales and checkout process that minimizes cart abandonment and maximizes sales.
Today user interface design plays a vital role in nearly every consumer-oriented application. A functional UI design that leads to an active user experience and interaction with the application is highly useful in e-commerce-based apps and websites. The varied types of devices demand a unified approach to user interface that is responsive and functional across all screen sizes.
User expectation and familiarity to a web page design are crucial to make the potential customers feel comfortable. Furthermore, relevant information and product detail that build trust among the customers are other crucial factors that determine online sales.
A web page design that is familiar and has all the necessary information about the products and services could significantly impact the decision making process of the potential buyer. Primarily due to these factor, a collection of basic ingredients that are always expected by users in every shopping cart have emerged.
What do consumers expect?
Consumers have become used to a certain way of shopping online and thus they have consciously or subconsciously identified some integral design aspects of every e-commerce website that helps them determine the good from the bad. Although numerous researches have shown varied set of requirements for an ideal shopping cart, the below described ingredients are common among all of them.
- Product Description: The most important part of every shopping cart is the product description page. This provides detailed information about the product, the seller, reviews, ratings, and other related relevant information. It is the most viewed part of every shopping cart CMS. Therefore, clear and distinct representations of all details are highly necessary for building confidence about the product and start the sales process.
- Buttons: Some important buttons that have become standard across shopping carts are : Add to Cart, Remove from Cart, Checkout, Continue Shopping, View Cart, etc. These buttons facilitate easier modification and browsing across the site and help the customer select or remove additional products or services and checkout easily without any confusion. All of these buttons must be prominently visible and should be designed in contrast to the product description page to enable easier access.
- Checkout Process: The final but the most important ingredient in finalizing the sale is the checkout process. A step-by-step design or a one page design is commonly used in major shopping cart CMS’s to ease the checkout process. Product comparison or recommended products that could be purchased along with the customer’s selected ones can also be suggested on the page but should not be more prominent than the portion of the page carrying out the checkout process.
- Payment Gateway and Final Confirmation: To receive payment, build trust and confirm the order, the payment gateway and the final confirmation on the webpage are very important. An additional email or text that confirms the placed order also adds to the whole trust building process.
Color and Structural Impact
Color theory demonstrates the impact that various colors have on human psychology. Certain colors evoke natural emotions toward products and determine user experience. Therefore, the cultural environment of the potential buyers should always be considered before designing any consumer-oriented interface. The structures of the elements on the page also evoke reactions from the users. For example, even when utilizing a simple color scheme–take this page for example–colors outside of the primary color scheme are utilized throughout the page to suggest functions separate from that offered by the page itself.
Imagine finding a big red Buy Now button, the moment you land on an e-commerce page. Obviously, the site would seem like a promotional site and most users would be scared away. Most sites use banner ads and pop up ads that are always annoying when shopping for a product. Thus structural elements and colors should be consistent throughout the site and should allow a seamless flow of information and usability during the selection and checkout process.
Conclusion
Design has always influenced sales. Every commercial ad and banner that we see in our daily life, forms an opinion about the brand and product displayed in it. This is the age of presentation. Therefore, even the worse products sell if they are intelligently designed. Shopping carts function similarly to live salesmen and thus every bit of information and their design on the page is crucial to build the necessary trust among the audience to buy or discard the product.