You might have conquered the tall task of building an online marketplace platform. What next? You have to get users to use it, which could be a challenge. Did you know that your application’s UX design can be one of the major reasons for the low number of visitors and transactions on your app? Let us look at some stats that can prove how user experience anchors your online marketplace in the market in the long-term.

• More than 80% of users use the internet on their smartphones.
• Almost 53% of mobile users leave a website within a matter of 3 seconds.
• According to Forbes, only a mere 1% of the users are satisfied with the experience on e-commerce websites.
• A whopping 52% of users said that they would not return to a website having unpleasant aesthetics.
• Only 55% of existing companies are doing UX testing currently.

Well, from the above stats, it is clear that UX design plays a vital role in deciding the success of your online marketplace application. It is said that the first impression is the best impression and obviously, nobody wants to lose a chunk of their users just because of bad design.

Role of UX in marketplace design

When users interact with an application, a good UX design should be able to get a hold on the customer’s happy feelings. It should give a valuable and useful experience to users and the design must also cover other aspects like usability, accessibility, credibility, and aesthetics.

There is no doubt that building an online marketplace solution is a herculean task. However, working on the user experience (UX) can help in many ways. Apart from developing the user journey on your application, a reliable design not only increases customer satisfaction but also offers a seamless experience.

Instead of focusing on building an innovative design, it is always better to improvise on ensuring an intuitive interaction. In other words, an online marketplace design needs to be well-organized and easily navigable for your visitors. So, how can UX design help in solving online marketplace issues? Let’s explore in detail.

By tackling low user engagement

If your marketplace does not contribute to a favorable number of buys and sells, it is high time that it needs to be enhanced. A lack of interest among your users to use your app can be due to the bad user experience they have. Well, there are many possible solutions to this problem especially from the perspective of UX design.

Your users must get a clear picture of your marketplace in the first few seconds of browsing along with an easy and effective customer journey through the marketplace. Here are some points to be kept in mind while resolving this issue.

• Make your application fast, simple and easy-to-use. Ensure that the main goods and services you are offering are visible clearly so that users can make a decision to buy/sell without any hassles.
• Do not clutter your website with a lot of ads and photos. Stick to the point. Keep the home page as simple as possible with vital information arranged in a logical order.
• Create a Customer Journey Map for a high-quality UX. Guide them about what to do next at every stage of the purchase/selling. Understand the experience of your users, identify the problems they face, geographical locations, gender, age group, and the kind of goods/services they need.
• Try to use larger elements that can easily attract users, using apt colors and visual elements. F and Z patterns can help you understand the browsing patterns of users.

By addressing fewer mobile transactions

Did you know that mobile e-commerce will rake in a whopping $3.5 trillion by the year 2021? What’s more interesting is that this will make up for almost 72.9% of the total e-commerce sales.

Of course, mobiles are more convenient than desktops and laptops due to their portability. You would not want to lose a large fraction of your customers because of neglecting mobile commerce. Today, even social media networks like Instagram and Facebook are responsible for many online purchases and sales. So, what can one do to be back in the game?

• Mobile optimization is very necessary for building a rapport with your users and widening your reach. Develop an online marketplace keeping mobile users in mind to increase the conversion rates tremendously.
• Create Progressive Web Apps for your marketplace to get connected with your mobile visitors in a cheaper way. Go for user-friendly mobile designs that are easy to navigate.
• Adding digital wallets like GooglePay, Apple Pay to your online marketplace will make transactions and checkout processes easier for your users.

By building trust for your marketplace solution

The problem with novice entrepreneurs who want to build an online marketplace platform is that they overload their websites with tons of unwanted information. While that may be overwhelming for your customers, they will also lose trust in you. So, make sure that you find the perfect balance between the information given on your platform to win their trust in the least possible time. What else can be done to make your users believe that you have a reliable online marketplace app?

• Always use high-quality images and videos for your products/services. With a well-designed customer journey, give your users as many details about it as possible.
• From the place of manufacture to other details, provide your users with all the data about your marketplace, including basic information and secondary descriptions with the images.
• Provide a system of reviews and ratings to make your platform more trustworthy. Giving new users an idea about the quality of the product, reviews, and ratings will allow them to make an informed decision. For online marketplaces, both the seller rating system and buyer rating section must be there.
• Make the online buying/selling experience secure and risk-free for users with a strong return and refund policy.

In a nutshell

Remember that basic UX principles always work. Keeping the UX design of your marketplace platform simple and easy to navigate will allow your users to find information easily and buy/sell effortlessly.

The main goal of enhancing the UX design of your application is to increase the conversion rate and simplify the user flow on the platform. This will improve the credibility and reliability of your online marketplace solution. All in all, always design with your users in mind and give them what they are looking for.

Have you been planning on developing your own online marketplace platform? Get in touch with our teams of specialists who can guide you with both UX design and application development. All you have to do is drop a line!