{"id":60298,"date":"2021-09-09T20:00:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T14:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vwo.com\/blog\/?p=60298"},"modified":"2025-05-05T13:29:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T07:59:12","slug":"7-ecommerce-homepage-best-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vwo.com\/blog\/7-ecommerce-homepage-best-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"7 eCommerce Homepage Best Practices to Boost User Experience On Your Website"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

User experience (UX) is a gauge of how people feel when they interact and engage with your brand through your website, products, and customer support. It\u2019s one of the most critical aspects of eCommerce operations because it can significantly influence the buying decisions of your online customers. Their decisions and actions as they navigate through your website can affect your conversion rates<\/a>, and ultimately, your bottom line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download Free: Improve Conversions In 60 Days Guide<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As an eCommerce store owner, you need to make sure your store\u2019s website user experience is at its peak\u2014and one place we see user experience being neglected the most in eCommerce? The homepage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

eCommerce brands can put in the work to optimize product pages, category pages, and even checkout processes. But if your homepage is one of the first touchpoints your customer has with your brand, it makes sense to optimize your homepage for the best customer experience that drives more sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Feature<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And how important customer experience has become indeed. We\u2019re also not only referring to the new shopping habits of consumers as we enter a post-pandemic world, where almost 29% of surveyed participants claim that in the future they prefer to do more shopping online<\/a>, but only visiting sites that deliver great experiences. But we also mean even Google is doubling down on the importance of user experience and how it affects your overall rankings on search. Its newest 2021 update<\/a> urges users to consider core web vitals and a host of other factors that elevate a user\u2019s experience on your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help you create a better user experience for your site visitors, here are 7 eCommerce homepage best practices that you might want to implement in your business.<\/p>\n\n\n

1. Design your website for mobile-first<\/h2>\n\n\n

With 7.1 billion mobile users worldwide<\/a>, more and more people are doing online transactions using their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Mobile users are not only searching online, but also performing various mobile eCommerce transactions like shopping, paying bills, and booking tickets. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Forecast
Forecast number of mobile users worldwide from 2020 to 2025 in billions
Image source: Statista<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

With the rise of mobile eCommerce, it has become necessary for eCommerce websites to follow a mobile-first approach in web development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mobile-first approach means designing a website<\/a> for smaller screens first and then working up towards larger screens. Part of the approach is to have a responsive design, which enables on-site elements to automatically adjust and rearrange themselves to fit the screens of different devices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this approach, the content of the website is displayed in a way that\u2019s comfortable for the users. It removes the need to perform operations like zooming, panning, resizing, or scrolling when users browse through the website. It contributes to the website user experience positively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Alex Williams of Hosting Data<\/a>, \u201cA responsive site is of prime importance as people nowadays are mostly doing their shopping on their mobile devices. It won\u2019t be surprising if one day we realize that we do most or all of our shopping using our phones in the future. So future-proof your eCommerce store as early as now and check if everything operates right on mobile.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

2. Optimize your homepage loading speed<\/h2>\n\n\n

Page loading speed refers to how quickly your content loads when a user visits a specific page of your website. It\u2019s one of the factors that determine how long a site visitor stays on your website. A slow loading time will turn most people off and go somewhere else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how fast should the homepage loading speed be? It turns out, site users will not wait for more than 3 seconds for an eCommerce page to load. A slow loading time is a contributing factor to page abandonment and kills conversions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to research done by Google<\/a>, as page load time goes from 1 to 6 seconds, the probability of the user abandoning the site (bounce) increases 106%. It\u2019s safe to say, a slow homepage loading speed is a dealbreaker for many site visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Googles
Google\u2019s research shows us why optimizing your page load time is crucial in this day and age.
Image source: Think with Google<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

If the user experience takes a hit, it can have a negative effect on sales for an eCommerce site. The opportunity to engage site visitors and make sales vanishes when they abandon the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To speed up your homepage<\/a>, here are some best practices you may want to keep in mind and implement right away:<\/p>\n\n\n\n