Google have announced that, from October, there will be two new triggers for Chrome’s ‘Not Secure’ warning. Here’s what you need to know, and how to make sure your website isn’t affected.
It’s exhibition season. Are you showing off to new customers? Deciding to exhibit is one thing. Making people notice you is another. How do you make them stop?
We all need to be where our customers are. That’s online and offline. It’s at exhibitions and events. It’s selling via ecommerce and persuading, face-to-face. Peak season is coming. Get ready to get busy.
Are you planning any outdoor events this summer? Get maximum exposure for your brand with low-cost outdoor displays. Our 52-page Outdoor Display Ideas Look Book has loads of ideas for this year’s summer season. Get your free copy now!
What is User Experience and why should I care?
UI/UX has become a bit of a buzzword online lately. But user experience doesn’t apply solely to online. Far from it, UI/UX originates from the real world around us.
UX stands for User Experience, another term for customer experience really. Only ‘user’ is broader, as ‘customer’ implies the user has bought something (or is at least there to browse/buy).
“User experience” encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.
It is everything! When making a purchase from a bricks and mortar store, it’s:
- Advertising
- How easy it was to find the store
- Traffic and parking
- The shop
- Friendly, helpful staff
- Product range
- How easy it was to find what you wanted
- Pricing
- Product advice
- Queues at the checkout
- Whether the box fits in the car
- How easy the product was to assemble
- How easy the product was to use
- Aftersales service
We could go on.
In that sense, it’s a lot like branding. Some people think a brand is just a logo. But it’s much more than that.
Redefining online sales
In 1999, Zappos founder Tony Hsieh tackled the seemingly impossible – selling shoes online. After all, 20 years ago the preference was to try shoes on for size. Who is going to buy them online?
But now Zappos are one of the largest online shoe retailers in the world. How? By providing an etail experience that rivalled the traditional retail experience. They already had some advantages:
- A far larger range of footwear then your average store.
- The convenience shopping from home brings vs going into town.
By defining a whole new level of customer service (the stories of just how far they will go to make a customer happy are legendary), and offering a remarkable approach to returns (unlimited free delivery AND returns), they really changed the game.
So there’s a big difference between ‘User Experience’ as a whole and improving someone’s experience while on your website. Having said that, it’s a fundamental part that’s increasingly becoming one of the most important parts of the cycle.
So here is some website advice to help you get some quick UX wins on the board.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy
Everyone will tell you the site needs to be simple, and easy to use. That’s a given.
But this becomes even more important when your customer is using their phone. Mobile commerce now accounts for 36% of UK retail sales. And more people than ever are making bookings and reservations while on the go.
So the first thing to address when tackling ‘is it easy to use?’ is the mobile experience.
If the text is too small to read, the buttons and links too fiddly to click, then this needs to be fixed. If you have to pinch and zoom to find your way around then count yourself out.
A responsive website will reflow and resize the content so your happy shopper can thumb through the steps. No hassle, fuss or bother.
“Did you find everything you were looking for today?”
It should be easy to find what you’re looking for. That applies whether it’s the product you pine for or the data you desire.
Just like a good SEO strategy, your user experience journey starts by focusing on the needs of the user.
Giving the customers what they want is a pretty good idea in business, full stop. But how do you know what they want from your website? You can start in four very simple ways.
- Asking your customers
- Seeing what questions you receive from the website
- Checking user flow in analytics
- Studying search data with search analytics report
Combining this knowledge will give you great insights into user intent.
- Why are people visiting your website?
- What are they hoping to find?
- What are they looking to do?
This will not only enable you to deliver the right kind of content, but will also help you map out the journey through the website. ‘Findability’ isn’t just a search box, it’s about guided exploration.
Like VIP guests arriving on a Hawaiian island, visitors should be gently guided so that they can flow seamlessly through each phase. Flower necklaces, effortless check in, let us take your bags, there’s the watersports guy, cocktails at the bar.
Ecommerce experience tips
Following on from findability, almost equally as important in terms of ecommerce is getting customers over the line. Here are five easy ecommerce tips to help improve this aspect of the online customer experience.
1. Transparent Delivery Charges
When you’re in the supermarket with a basket of groceries, you don’t tend to pop it down on the floor and walk out. That would be a bit bonkers. But people do this online. All the time.
And the #1 reason for cart abandonment? Adding extra costs at checkout.
Be as transparent about your delivery charges as possible. If you offer free delivery over £xx then place this message site wide in a prominent position.
Getting this right will encourage people to actually spend more with you, rather than dropping their basket. Learn more about how to set out your online store.
2. Click & Collect
Customers like to know an item is in stock before leaving home. They also don’t like to wait (or pay) for delivery. This explains why Click & Collect has become so popular.
Across all major retailers, over half are already offering Click & Collect, with many more planning to add it this year.
According to Internet Retailing magazine, more than 60% of Click & Collect shoppers go on to purchase further products during item collection.
3. Wishlist
Life’s not always black and white. The reason someone might remove an item from their basket could be down to a number of things. Often, it’s not a cold hearted change of mind, but instead it’s just not the right time.
By offering the ability to save the item, or add to wishlist, you provide an alternative that’s mutually beneficial.
You make it easier for the customer to return and buy the item at a later date. (This is also an acceptable reason to ask that they make an account). You also create a more casual browsing experience as wishlists subconsciously require less commitment than an ‘add to basket’ action.
4. Easy checkout
As well as appearing credible, it’s essential to make it as easy as possible for your customers to complete their purchase.
Forcing people to fill in boxes with their details in order to buy something is a major conversion killer. Reminiscent of those 80’s department stores that required you to have an account before buying from them. Remember them? No? Exactly!
So one of the most significant improvements you can make is to allow customers to checkout without requiring an account. You can always give them the option to create an account afterwards.
5. Thank you, come again
After the payment has been processed, you should redirect your customers to a page thanking them for their purchase. But don’t stop there, improve the customer experience by providing helpful links such as
- What happens next
- Create an account
- Track my order
- Product recommendations
Or make the most of this opportunity to interact with an engaged customer:
- Make it easy for them to share their recent purchase on social media
- Ask them to review their experience
- Encourage newsletter signup or competition entry
- Offer a limited time voucher on their next purchase
The best websites are never finished
They are living, growing things that need to be continually reviewed, updated and improved. Ask about how our concierge packages can help you to define the ultimate user experiences for your customers.
Foiled stamped flyers create a striking impression – stand out and strengthen your brand credibility.
Nettl.com of Liverpool incorporating printing.com take a thick 400gsm board, apply an ultra smooth luxury matt laminate finish and top it off with metallic gold or silver foil highlights. If you want to make an amazing impression and to stand out with something really special, then our Opuleaf Luxe Foiled Showcards are for you. Contact us today for your free samples.
Local businesses across the country are fighting back against the internet by providing customer experiences that simply cannot be delivered online. Stand out from the crowd and GET OUT there today.
Let office staff get more sunlight to make sure they’re getting enough vitamin D.
The Times recently reported that 91% of indoor workers had insufficient levels. The authors of the study involving 53,000 people suggested sunshine breaks during the working day would help address the issue.
Vitamin D is essential for healthy bones but that’s not all. There’s also a common belief that getting outdoors is beneficial to your overall health and wellbeing.
Ever felt fed up of being stuck indoors? Health experts coined the term ‘nature deficit disorder’ to describe the negative emotions caused by not spending enough time in the great outdoors.
On the flip side, when we do get to enjoy some time outside, feel-good neurons fire our brain that give us little rewards. This reduces stress and helps productivity, focus and creativity.
So what can you do about it?
• Breakout
Outdoor breaks aren’t just for smokers. Encourage staff to use their breaks to get some fresh air. No need to stay put by the percolator. Make drinks to go.
• Dine al fresco
No dinner at the desks please. Create a welcoming and social space for co-workers to catch up over quinoa.
• Work al fresco
Laptops don’t belong on desks. It makes them sad. Set them free. Help them realise their full potential. Shady spots help tackle glare. Sorting the social schedule? Grab a couple of markers and a big sheet of paper and take it outside.
• Meet me outside
Make the boardroom table the picnic table. Take the meetings out of ‘the box’ to get more blue sky thinking. Breakout areas on the lawn are way better for brainstorming than the same four walls.
How can we help?
Encourage workers to spend more time outside by creating the right environment. Check out our range of outdoor furniture by speaking to your local partner, downloading the fabric guide or finding ideas in the Summer Look Book.
You can customise the design with your logo, colours or images to help boost your brand and stay looking sharp.
Combine any mix of deckchairs, bean bags, tables, gazebos, flags and parasols to help stay safe when shade is needed.
Get started by talking to your local partner.
Be a great big brand strawberry. We’re all in business to attract attention and get picked. Right? The trick is making sure it’s us that customers want to pick. Find out how to get picked.
Nettl of Liverpool
On a regular basis here at Nettl of Liverpool, we’re still occasionally asked “what happened to Printing.com?” When you think about it, that’s kind of like asking “Where did Nettl of Liverpool come from?” Well, we’ll tell you!
Our business originally started in Liverpool under the aforementioned name of Printing.com, which was back in 2005 and as a two-person operation. At that time, our business focused solely on printing and design, providing professional material with an emphasis on high quality and eye-catching imagery for businesses of all sizes and sectors.
Based on Dale Street, one of the busiest streets within Liverpool’s business district, Printing.com quickly became a success, and was one of the more recognisable offices that people would see travelling in and out of the city centre over the next few years. However, as the world of technology changed with the growing importance of the internet, we had to change too, and so our evolution entered a key stage in 2015.
That year, we changed our name to Nettl, incorporating the Printing.com title since print and design remained a key part of our business strategy. However, these services were joined by website design and web development, ensuring that we could cater to the many SMEs in and around the region who require a first-class functional website at an affordable price. This would also lend itself into similar web options such as ecommerce and online booking. This was a crucial time for us, as it allowed us to expand beyond our previous reach, as well as encountering new, exciting opportunities.
In February 2016, we added another service in the form of exhibition design, in particular fabric exhibition stands, which allows ambitious companies to make a bigger impact at networking events and business conferences. The increased range of services necessitated the growth of our team of experts, which now includes Peter (managing director), Thomas, Emma and Stephanie. We have now been around for twelve years, remaining at our prominent office on Dale Street, and it’s been a remarkable journey thus far.
So, for those who still ask us “What happened to Printing.com?”, the answer is: we evolved, and we became the larger, busier and more prominent Nettl. We still offer print and design, but we offer many other equally-vital services for businesses too. And whilst it’s been a great ride so far, we’re even more excited about what the future brings, as we look towards the next step in the evolution of Nettl!
