Today, many online stores fail to drive traffic and conversions, but it is not because of the ineffectiveness of their SEO strategy. In fact, the online store UI and UX design has become the primary reason behind the low conversion and revenue.
If your ecommerce UI is not simple, intuitive, and efficient, users will find it difficult to interact with your online store.
As a general principle, the user interface of any ecommerce is directly related to the user experience. Ecommerce brands that provide and guarantee an optimal user interface for their customers, create a competitive edge for themselves in today’s marketplace.
In addition, the UI that brands offer to their audiences significantly influences the perception and opinions that site visitors form about the online store and the business itself.
For that reason, understanding the importance of the visual appearance of an ecommerce store is key in order to understand the direct relation between visual errors and ROI.
Understanding the relationship between Visual errors and ROI
In order to understand the impact in-depth, let’s dive into some real examples of a poor ROI performance due to visual errors.
#1 Content not loaded correctly on a product page
Implications for ROI: This error discourages the user from taking further action. As a result of certain product information not being available, the sale is likely lost, as he or she is unable to make an informed decision or progress further in the purchase.
#2 Problem: Broken web formatting
Implications for ROI: In this example, the formatting of the website is broken, causing the header text to be partially hidden from view. As a result, the user is likely to doubt the site’s credibility, and turn to a competing online retailer that can offer a better purchase experience.
#3 Problem: Page loading error
Implications for ROI: A page loading error is a common problem found in web browsing. It is a visual error that not only impacts the appearance of the site, but also interrupts the customer’s journey of the site. A conversion path is blocked, thus having severe consequences to the online retailer’s ROI.
#4 Problem: Unexpected session expiration
Implications for ROI: The user is interrupted from completing a secure payment process due to an unexpected session expiration. This error interferes with the customer journey, and will likely lead to frustration, cart abandonment, and an unsuccessful sales conversion for the business.
Why is automated visual testing the way to go?
Visual testing is an emerging field in ecommerce innovation that helps businesses deliver a consistent and optimal visual experience to their online customers. Automated visual testing tools allow you to easily monitor your site’s UI, to be notified whenever changes appear, and to take immediate action based on real-time analysis.
Prior to automated visual testing tools, visual validation was often performed manually by web developers themselves. In recent times, QA teams have started incorporating visual regression testing into their test plans, but only to a limited degree.
With the manual method, testers would manually interact on each page of an ecommerce site and inspect for visual errors. Evidently this is a time-intensive process, not only due to the number of visual elements that need to be scanned, but also because of the different operating systems, browser dimensions, screen orientations and device configurations involved. Manual testing regularly poses a concern of priority and resources for a lot of organizations.
The reality is that visual bugs inevitably happen for any online store of any size, and in almost every case, negatively impacts revenue.
Valido, Automated Ecommerce Testing Built for Ecommerce
Valido is the pioneer visual and ecommerce testing platform for ecommerce which addresses the challenges faced by most visual testing solutions.
What sets Valido apart is the flexibility it offers online businesses to create personalized tests for important ecommerce functionalities, such as catalog navigation, login, user registration, checkout, keyword search, and more.
Not only does Valido allow testing across various device, browser and screen sizes, it also takes into consideration the testing needs for multi-country ecommerce sites. Its ability to test websites in different geographical locations allows quick detection of unintentional UI errors that may occur during campaign executions or catalog changes for multiple markets.
Get started with our free trial to discover the full benefits of Valido!
