Professional web design is not cheap. Don’t expect high-quality sites to be obtainable for free or a rock bottom price. In the UK, the cost can be in the £400 to £900 range. Web designers at https://xist2.com/ offer competitive pricing, but they most certainly cannot provide integrated designs at zero cost.
It takes creativity, knowledge about the latest trends and competent technical skills to come up with great site designs. It’s understandable why designers don’t settle for prices that don’t match the effort and time they spend on a project. But, enough of the emphasis on spending for quality web development services. The discussion here is about the costs of making the wrong web design decisions.
High bounce rates
Bounce rate refers to the ratio of the number of site visitors who leave a site after viewing only one page and the total number of site visitors. Here’s an illustration: if seven out of 10 visitors decide to abandon a site after only seeing the homepage, the bounce rate is 70%. This is considerably higher than the preferable range of 26% to 40%.
High bounce rates mean an inability to attract customers. The reasons for such high bounce rates include but aren’t limited to bad aesthetics, poor navigation, non-intuitive layout and technical problems. It can be interpreted as lost sales due to the listed reasons; something businesses should address as soon as possible.
Unflattering first impressions
For most customers, web design is about the aesthetics and experience. You can’t blame customers for leaving if your online store’s design and UI is reminiscent of the pioneering iteration of HTML. First impressions may not always last, but they determine if a prospective customer becomes an actual buyer.
Avoid losing potential customers by making sure that your ecommerce site leaves a good impression that compels visitors to spend more time and, ultimately, click the ‘Buy’ button. Ensure that your website is in tune with the times, fast-loading, and free from glitches that can ruin the user experience.
Lost regular customers or patrons
Bad design does not only drive new customers away. It can also cause customers to abandon an online store that they frequent. Implementing a website design change, for example, can result in adverse reactions from regular customers.
If you update your online store’s layout, for example, you risk the possibility of alienating many customers who prefer the old interface and processes. They might find the change too radical, so they end up trying other sites. To avoid this, it is advisable to introduce changes gradually. You can also provide customers the option to revert to the old design if they don’t like the upgrades.
The bottom-line
Technically, lost customers are not losses since losses are not based on the number of customers, but the amount of sales they generate. However, it wouldn’t be wrong to treat the inability to attract and retain customers as a loss, an opportunity cost. If only you had made better design choices, you could have decreased bounce rate, increased your customer base and raised your sales. Image:https://pixabay.com/photos/macbook-laptop-ipad-apple-computer-624707/