Webshop UX audit for higher conversion and more income

The UX audit is a diagnostic procedure that helps detect errors in the appearance and operation of webshops and online stores, thus ensuring higher conversion.

If you have a webshop that you spent a lot of money on developing and promoting, you most likely have many visitors every day. But if you feel that very few of these visitors will become customers, then it is possible that there are minor or major errors in the appearance and operation of the webshop that degrade the conversion. This is usually the point where you need a webshop ux audit.

What is a webshop UX audit?

The UX audit is a diagnostic procedure that points out problematic parts of webshops that degrade the user experience. A bad user experience results in frustrated, annoyed visitors who leave the site and spend their money elsewhere.

During the UX audit, we apply procedures that help uncover problems. At the end of the audit, you will receive an action plan that tells you where and what kind of changes are needed on the site in order to perform better.

Benefits of a UX audit

The UX audit examines the webshop from the user's point of view and reveals the risk factors that may cause problems and discomfort for visitors.

Companies that invest in UX will achieve lower conversion costs, as they will have more customers from the same number of visitors and achieve higher customer satisfaction. According to a Forrester Research study, every HUF 1,000 invested in UX generates HUF 100,000 in revenue.

If you are specifically interested in the UX audit of websites and company websites instead of webshops, we have a separate article for that.

What areas do we examine during the UX audit?

• Loading speed: how quickly, in how many seconds, the page loads.
• Navigation: inspection of the home page, main menu, drop-down menus, product category pages, and mobile menu navigation. Product categorization logic. Appearance of header and footer.
• Design: logo, use of colors and consistent web image.
• Images and text: the quality and uniqueness of the visual elements and texts of the webshop
• Credibility and trust-building elements: existence and design of elements for building credibility and trust, as well as increasing engagement.
• Readability: segmentation, formatting and readability of the texts on the webshop. Typography
• Responsiveness: the design and user experience of the site on desktop, tablet and mobile. The mobile menu. The operation of the navigation, product listing, a product page, the search engine, the shopping cart and the purchase process on desktop, tablet and mobile.
• Call to action: use of call-to-action elements in the webshop. The appearance, wording and operation of CTAs.
• Product category pages: the design and logic of the product listing, the quality of the different layouts, the filtering and row arrangement options and the operation of pagination, the display of thumbnail images, the operation of the product comparison function.
• Product pages: the design and user experience of pages displaying a product. Display of images and product information, management of product variants, possibility to add to cart, display of related products. Show user ratings. the design and user experience of pages displaying a product. Display of images and product information, management of product variants, possibility to add to cart, display of related products. Show user ratings.
• Cart: appearance and operation of the webshop cart. Product deletion, quantity modification.
• Registration and login: steps, operation of the registration and login process, error messages, appearance of forms.
• Order process: how it works, what steps the payment process consists of. Entering, correcting, deleting data, error messages, appearance and operation of form fields. Management of delivery and payment options.
• Search engine operation: testing the operation of the search engine on the site. What kind of information can be searched for, how the search engine works, what kind of automatic completion it has, what the list of results looks like.

Who needs a webshop UX audit and when?

Ideally, a UX designer (team) accompanies the webshop design process, which is a guarantee that the site entering the market does not contain critical parts from the point of view of user experience.

Based on our experience, however, it is not yet typical for UX specialists to be involved in the development of webshops, so a UX audit is usually necessary when the site has been operating for some time, the management feels that there are problems with it, it is not performing as expected, but I don't know exactly what is causing the problems. In such cases, an external auditor comes in handy, who can assess the situation with an independent eye, detect deficiencies and make suggestions for their correction.

A UX audit is also required in the following cases:

• for webshop owners and operators who want to assess the performance of their site from a UX point of view and compare it with competitors
• for those who want to check the graphic plans from a UX point of view during a webshop redesign, even before the programming takes place, so that any problems that may arise can be corrected in a time- and cost-saving way
• for webshops who want to audit the UX performance of their site with an independent eye in order to be sure that the developments are moving in the right direction

Important questions to ask during a webshop UX audit

1. Are there purposeless design elements in the webshop?
2. Is the most important content at or near the top of the page?
3. Do the calls to action (Call To Actions) stand out from their environment and are they easily visible? The design of conversion-increasing tools is appropriate.
4. Are the category and product images of good quality and consistent?
5. Does the webshop have a unique product and category description or was it just copied from the manufacturer's website?
6. Is the payment and delivery information as well as the warranty clearly visible?
7. Is the search bar in a clearly visible location and does it work well?
8. There is a sufficient quantity and quality of trust-building elements in the webshop,
9. Is the checkout process clear, are the steps marked?
10. Does the page load quickly? Are there no load blocking elements?
11. Are the textual contents of the website well structured and easy to read?

What is needed to perform a webshop UX audit?

In the simplest case, we need the availability of the webshop, i.e. the domain name, so that we can view it in a browser. During a more complex screening, we also need...

• to the reach of direct competitors
• to access Google Analytics
• access to Google Search Console
• optional access to HotJar heatmap analysis software (if available)

If you don't have these tools installed yet, that's no problem, we can help.

What is the final result of the UX audit?

The final result of the UX audit of the webshop is a PDF report of at least 15 pages, which describes all the problems and shortcomings found one by one, indicates their location in the webshop with a screenshot, then makes suggestions for their improvement and also presents 1-2 case studies, which highlights that the how competitors solved the given situation.

How long does the UX audit take and how much does it cost?

We have two webshop UX audit packages:

• Quick audit: goes through the 7 areas listed in the article and reveals the problems encountered there in a detailed report. The deadline for preparation is 3-5 days.
• Extended audit: in addition to the quick audit, it also includes Google Analytics and Google Search Console and heat map analysis. The deadline for preparation is 2-3 weeks.