4 reasons to redesign your ecommerce website.

Higher conversion rate.

One of the best ways to achieve a higher conversion rate is to refresh your website to appeal to your customers. The more convincing your website design is, the more likely your customers will decide to purchase.

It's cheaper in the long run.

Instead of spending money on short-term fixes or patchwork, a complete redesign allows you to get it right from the start. Take the time to review your current website and look for opportunities to improve your website's user experience and overall usability.

More returning customers.

Keeping your site technically sound should be a priority when online consumers are less likely to return to a website after a bad experience. Customers who visit your website and have a pleasant experience are more likely to return. And it doesn't just apply to the desktop version of your site. The mobile version of your website should be as good (or even better) as the desktop version. To prioritize the mobile version is called the mobile-first approach, and we'll explain more about that later in this blog post.

Get a better ranking on Google.

Redesigning your website is a perfect opportunity to optimize the site's performance with relevant keywords. Make sure that the content on your website matches what users are looking for and what they can find when they arrive at your webshop. If you have search engine optimization (SEO) in mind in your redesign, you will see a boost in your website's Google rankings. To do this, you should incorporate good SEO practices on the page.

Your website is not user-friendly and uses older technology.

When your website feels heavy, and it takes forever for customers to load pages, this can very well be a sign of outdated technology, which goes hand in hand with poor usability. Additionally, working with an older and outdated content management system (CMS) can mean technical complications and management limitations that will affect SEO, UX, and, ultimately, conversion rates. Updating your CMS can improve website functionality, security, and overall performance. Updating your CMS, especially a switch to a headless and customized system, can give you increased control of your website and make it much easier to innovate. When you use a headless approach, you ensure complete flexibility in your solution when you want to replace or implement new best-of-breed systems, apps and channels.

You can read more about e-commerce strategy and technology here.

Your website is not mobile-friendly.

Most of us make purchases on the go via mobile devices, and customers will never scroll down a non-mobile-friendly website – let alone attempt to make a purchase. According to Statista, over 60% of e-commerce traffic comes from mobile devices and generates approximately 60% of online shopping orders. For this reason, Google has been talking about the mobile-first approach for years and has even started rewarding mobile-first websites with higher search rankings. Overall, a mobile-first design means designing and thus prioritizing the website's mobile version first and then designing the desktop website. This approach allows you to create a more minimal and streamlined user experience. Also, it prevents you from sorting out elements that only cater to mobile users (for example, a section that doesn't look good on mobile). With a mobile-first design, the user experience is consistent from device to device. As an added benefit, it becomes easier for your users to share your website on their social platforms. Furthermore, ongoing optimizations become easier to manage when the experience is unified across devices.

Your website is not up-to-date.

Trends in website design are constantly changing, so keeping your design up to date requires a lot of effort. If your website is out-of-date, it gives the customers the impression that your business is too. Thus, to redesign your website's appearance, you must continuously familiarize yourself with trends and the expectations of your target group. Do you know what your customers want?

We constantly use visual cues to orientate ourselves – both online and in real life. Something as simple as a green or red colour can tell us if we can cross the street. But online, these signals are more complex because they correlate with changing trends. Therefore, using older visual cues can be disorienting or challenging for your users. But how can you know how your users react to different visual cues? The answer is user feedback and User Experience design, where you test your website and design it based on the user's experience. With this approach to design, you ensure a user-friendly and appealing experience for your customers.

Your branding is incoherent.

Let's say you're updating your company's branding - you're no longer using your original logo; you've changed the font and chosen new colours. You've updated your brand identity on social media, but when your customers visit your website, they don't see your new look. This incoherence not only gives the impression that your site is not maintained, but it is also confusing. Customers may be unsure if they are in the right place and then bounce. A coherent brand identity is vital for your customers to trust your business and is thus a decisive factor in whether they complete a purchase.

Going through a redesign can be daunting, especially if it's been a while since your website last had a refresh. But the benefits of revamping your website can significantly impact your overall brand, your users' experience, your search engine ranking and thus your revenue - and it's all worth it. Although redesigning a website requires an investment, we are sure it will be more cost-effective in the end. Good maintenance and a visually appealing, well-functioning and engaging website will show your customers that you want to give them the best possible user experience.