The studies have shown that around 45% to 50% of the website visitors leave the web page due to incomplete information or lack of a clear value proposition or brand message. And almost 35% to 40% of the website visitors leave a web page due to confusing navigation and complex menus. These figures are huge, if a user is not getting what they are looking for they will simply quit and start looking up for another service provider. This is applicable across all industries, however, for fashion and beauty (F&B) business sector the aesthetics and visuals are a considerably more important. That is why a customer centric web design for fashion and beauty industry should not only focus on the usability and user convenience but it should also be able to present the brand in a visually appealing manner. A customer centric web design is tend to sustain more visitors than traditional web designs, which means there are more chances of conversion and sales. For a fashion and beauty (F&B) business it is a bit more harder to create a customer centric web design, that is why we are writing this blog to provide our audience a roadmap and plan to prepare a sale-oriented and customer centric web design.

Understand Your Audience

For any web design or digital campaign it is extremely important that a business understand its audience. For fashion and beauty (F&B) businesses it is important to understand what your visitors will be looking for on your website. The web design should be able to convey the right message. All the information should be provided that are needed to convince them and not only that but it is very important to provide address all the queries your visitors might have. It is not only just considering your targeted demographic, but the businesses should have to think from a customer’s prospective. If a visitor is failed to get the desired information they will immediately leave and most probably even if your website is appearing in the search result they might not click it. The first impression of any web design is crucial.

When it comes to fashion and beauty (F&B) businesses not all purchase decisions are made out of pure necessity, in fact most of the time if customers are buying a product or availing a service mostly it is due to the brand, loyalty, value and image. The web design should be able to convey value proposition and brand message. This will help improving first impression and it will also increase brand engagements. The fashion and beauty (F&B) businesses need to portray a very vibrant and proactive image of their brand. This requires a lot of information and content both textual and multimedia. A customer centric web design should be capable of presenting all these ingredients in a very simple to understand and appealing manner. All fashion and beauty (F&B) businesses have their own very unique image and brand value, which they use to market themselves. A web design could be a great tool to doing so.

Design Extraordinary Homepage

The homepage of any website is the main page and usually that page receive around 70% of the total traffic. The homepage is a very critical part of a web design. It contains basic information of all products and services, value proposition and your brand message. Consider homepage as a reception of your actual business. It should provide all the basic details and information that a visitor might be needing to initiate a business transaction. Studies have shown that a user take only a fraction of a second to establish a brand image in their subconscious mind while looking at the homepage of a website. That is why the homepage is the most important part of any web design. It also dictates the entire design theme of the website, the top header section, the color schemes, the footer and a lot many other details remain same throughout the entire website and its internal pages. In addition to that the homepage is a gateway to the entire website it should provide links to the internal pages and allow the user to navigate through the entire content of the website.

There are several different design trends which can provide you the much needed competitive advantage and can be very helpful for the fashion and beauty (F&B) businesses to attract more prospects. Here are a few most popular web design trends for the fashion and beauty (F&B) businesses:

Large Hero Image

For any business website the web design starts with a header, which contains the logo of the brand, menu & navigation, contact details and links for the social media accounts. Just below that header the area is called hero image. It is not necessarily an image all the time, it could be a video or an auto-rotating image/video slider or it can be a single image or a video only. Whatever you use just make sure that this will be the very first thing your visitors will gaze upon. It should be captivating, appealing, and it should increase their curiosity. The rest of the page is pretty much standard with content widget, boxes or sections describing important topics. These widgets and sections could be linked to the internal pages as well to improve navigation and to provide detailed information about the subject. It doesn’t matter if you are offering fashion and beauty (F&B) services or if you are selling products or even both, the important thing is that you should provide clear and straightforward information about what you do at the homepage. The hero image area should be used to feature the most important things only.

Minimalist Web Design

The minimalistic web design approach is very suitable for simplifying the customer journey and to boost online sales and conversions. In the minimalist web design the homepage is designed to offer highly focused information. Each screen or section of the homepage is dedicated to a particular subject and with the use of white spaces the textual and the graphical content is highlighted. It keep user engaged in the subject and completely eliminate the distractions. Hence the user remains highly focused and the chances of online sales or conversion are increased. The minimalist web designs are good at increasing user engagements and let your prospects absorb all the information about a certain subject without getting distracted by other topics or scrolling or images or any other detail. That is why the chances of conversion are increased and the users tend to spend more time on such web designs as they will first learn about one topic then they will move to next and so on, so they spend more time on such web designs which is good for getting more conversions and sales.

User Centric UI/UX

The UI or user interface and the UX or user experience are critical for the success of any web design. No matter what design approach you take the user interface and the user experience will ultimately determine your success. This lead to a completely different trend for fashion and beauty (F&B) sector, now a days businesses are offering different online functionalities through their websites, for that the UI and UX is designed to improve user’s satisfaction. Such designs are not heavily focused on the aesthetics and visuals but are more focused on the functionality and usability. Businesses are integrating latest technologies and tools in their websites to offer interactive features and self-service functionalities which enhance user experience and allow them to avail various services through the website. For example, for a beauty salon, a user might want to book an appointment, or they might want to get the service from a particular staff, and so on. This functionality can be achieved by integrating online appointment booking tools with the website. Similarly there are a lot many other features and functionalities that can be offered to improve user experience and user journey.

Parallax Web Design

The parallax means to create an optical illusion in the web design. In parallax web designs the users see two different objects or layers which are moving on a different pace to mimic in-depth details or 3D like visuals. These days the parallax web designs are gaining popularity, not only the homepage but the internal pages and the landing pages can also be designed with parallax web design approach. The homepage which use parallax web design techniques are more engaging and attractive. The visuals and the effects can keep the user engaged and compel them to scroll further to see what will happen next. The users tend to spend more time on parallax based web designs comparing to traditional web designs. Which let the users to absorb more content and raise the chances of online sales and conversions. When doing parallax the important thing to consider is to not overdo it, or not use very intense animation or heavy graphical elements which will surely make the page heavy. If a web page take too long to load the users usually quit it and move to the next website.

Design Dedicated Internal Pages

Mostly businesses don’t pay much attention to the internal pages, which is very bad for online conversions. It is extremely important that each internal page should be able to serve the purpose for which it is intended to. For example the About page of any website is a company bio, it might contain business’s mission and vision statement and sometimes businesses also provide their management and team’s bio on the About page. When a user is coming from a very captivating Homepage to an internal page, they expect something which they can relate to the homepage. Obviously not all pages can have intensive designing but the internal pages should look part of the homepage. The internal page which is designed for a service or for a product should provide all the details in a very appealing and engaging design. The internal pages should also be able to provide necessary functionalities and links to relevant content. The header and footer navigation is always present at the internal pages, however the internal pages can also be used to feature relevant products/service to further increase user interest. Such web designs are tend to get better response and higher sales.

Improve Customer Journey and Offer Customer Friendly Features

The modern business website is not just a communication channel or a marketing tool in fact it had become a 24/7 service portal, where the users can approach to the businesses at any time as per their needs. The business websites these days are offering information, providing interactive and self-service functionalities, and user friendly features which can significantly enhance user experience and user journey. For a fashion and beauty (F&B) businesses this could be a game changer, such features can provide a much needed competitive advantage and help businesses to distinguish themselves from the crowd. For example as we discussed the appointment booking feature, that is a great feature to start with. Businesses can offer more interactive tools to further enhance customer experience and customer journey. For example, in case of an online appointment booking tool, the business can provide details of the available slots, they can mention busy hours and also least busy times, they can provide option to choose the nearest branch along with the navigation and map tool and so on.

There is no limit for innovation. The modern web design technologies and website programing techniques have advanced enough that a business can link their websites and web portals with their sales tools, CRMs, and any other business tool. The online payment is a great feature to offer at a fashion and beauty (F&B) business website. Businesses can take their complaint center online, they can conduct customer feedback surveys via their websites and a lot more. A customer centric web design can boost the effectiveness of all these features. For fashion and beauty (F&B) businesses if any one of such feature got popular among their audience, it could be a game changer.

Simplify Customer Journey

For any online or offline interaction the customer journey is a key to customer satisfaction. Consider when a customer or prospect is landing on your website or its homepage they know nothing, they are confused and they don’t know how to proceed further in the customer journey. A customer centric web design takes them through the steps of the customer journey and guide them at each step. For example the first step is to acquire information. A web design can provide all the needed information while maintaining an optimum level of customer engagement and guide them through the next step. The next step could be a CTA or call to action. The CTA is very important for any business website. A customer centric web design use CTA at all strategic points and present it in a highly visible manner which makes it easier to spot and increase its click through rate. The CTA could be a call button or contact form or email newsletter subscription or online purchase process or appointment booking, it depends on the business model and its needs. If the web design is not capable of guiding the customers through the steps of their customer journey, the prospects will end up confused and clueless. In such situation they will immediately leave. So, simplifying the customer journey with the web design is crucial to boost sales and conversions.

Build Trust and Add Credibility to the Brand

The most important aspect of online conversions and sales is building trust and adding credibility to the brand. If a user find a website which doesn’t look professional they will not going to trust it and in addition to that it will also harm your brand reputation. For a fashion and beauty (F&B) business a customer centric web design not only offer a variety of trust signals but it also add credibility to the brand. For a large number of your website visitors, your website would be the very first interaction with your brand. It is important that they perceive a professional and trust worthy impression of the brand by visiting its website. A customer centric web design provide all the necessary ingredients to establish trust and to improve brand reputation. The customer reviews, feedbacks and testimonials are a great tool to increase trust. Placing them in a right place could make a difference. Moreover adding business partner’s logos, security features, terms and conditions pages, FAQs and such details are very helpful in increasing website user’s trust. Similarly the social media integration and social proofs are also a great tool to build trust. Adding photos and proofs of your service/products will help establishing trust and will definitely increase your website conversions and sales. A customer centric web design use these trust signals on strategic locations to make them more visible and effective.

Improve Mobile Experience

The smartphones and internet penetration in UAE is almost 99%. That is staggering. People do more searches from their mobile comparing to the traditional computers and laptops. People tend to spend hours on their mobile phone while surfing the web or engaging in social media. Earlier businesses had to create two websites, one for the desktop/laptop and one for the mobiles. Now a days when the smartphones have become very powerful and the internet is also very fast, that old trend died away. The website designing and development technologies have also advanced a lot. Now a days, there is no need of a separate website, in fact the main website can be made responsive. The responsive web designs or mobile friendly web designs are the web designs which have capability to detect the device and screen size from which they are being opened, hence they can rearrange their design elements in a way that the website fits perfectly well on the smartphones and smaller screens as well. The responsive web designs significantly enhance mobile experience. A good mobile experience not only increase the chances of sales and conversions but it also increase user’s trust and add credibility to the brand value which translates into sales and conversions.

Read More: How the e-Commerce Businesses can Grow in 2022

Conclusion

A customer centric web design boosts sales and conversion, add value to the brand credibility and establish trust. For fashion and beauty (F&B) businesses a customer centric design approach could be game changer. In Dubai and all around the UAE the completion is very high, the customers have too many options at their disposal, and usually the purchase decision is not due to a need. In fact most of the time for fashion and beauty (F&B) transactions the decision is influenced by the brand loyalty, brand image, and value. Hence it is harder to convince prospects. A customer centric web design approach help businesses to enhance customer experience and customer journey which results in higher sales and also help improving brand reputation. In this blog we have listed all important aspects of designing a customer centric web design for fashion and beauty (F&B) businesses. If you want to learn more about the topic or want us to help you making your website customer centric, please feel free to write a comment in the comment box below or contact us through our Contact Us page and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this blog: How Corporate Sector can enhance their Brand Image with a Business Web Design?

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Businesses can depend on their digital strategy. I am not saying that the traditional marketing is dead, it is still important and relevant. But the digital has become extremely popular at a very rapid pace, so much so that most of the businesses have been left behind. Things are changing now, the year 2020 was a major trend shift for both the customers and the businesses. Businesses in Dubai and all across the UAE in fact in the entire world are actively seeking ways to improve their online strategy and to be more active in the digital domains. For any online or digital strategy the website is always a center point, whoever is reaching out to a business via online, either by paid advertisements or by organic means, they will eventually end up on your website. Several surveys and researches have shown that the customers who learned about a businesses from any conventional marketing channel still prefer to visit their website first before visiting them physically. Here in UAE almost 99% of the population have access to the internet either via smartphones or via computers/laptops. This have completely changed the entire market dynamics.

What is a customer centric web design?

The simplest definition of a customer centric web design is a website that is designed and developed to meet and exceed the needs, wants, desires and behavioral responses. According to statistical data almost 45% of the customers leave the website because the website is failed to deliver the right message or right content/information and almost 35% of the customers leave a website due to poor quality design and difficult navigation. If a business starts thinking from the customer’s point of view they will realize that most of the customers don’t care how fancier your office building is or assets or your equipment, all they need is a simple solution to their problem. A customer centric or user centric web design offers a solution to the customer’s problem. Usually businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE never think in this direction that is why I always say the customer centric web design is not just a technical superiority but it is a complete mindset.

Here is how a customer centric web design approach can improve the workflow and online conversion rates:

Customer Centric Web Design: Improve Work Flow

Marketing is not the only part of a businesses that got digitalized, in fact these days businesses have started offering services through digital mediums and online channels. Businesses are focusing on adding value to customer experience by offering them several services and perks of using digital channels such as websites. The rise of dedicated customer portals, online purchasing and digital communication have made the business websites more customer centric and feature oriented. A business website is not only used to build online brand identity or for online brand awareness, but the businesses are offering several features digitalized services via their websites to improve customer journey and customer happiness. Some even took it to one step further by offering certain services and features that are exclusively available on their websites and online channels only. To satisfy your customers with an online interaction it is extremely important that you offer them all what they need in a simple and user friendly fashion. That is when the web design comes in to play.

The latest web designing and development technologies makes it easier to integrate a lot many other enterprise tools and systems to achieve innovative functionalities that can facilitate various business processes and improve the workflow. For example businesses who offer services at premises or via their service centers/branches can integrate appointment booking module with their customer centric website, which enables customers to book an appointment or sign-up for a queue and it relays all the information to the concerned staff and aid in the workflow. The customer registration via website also help aiding with onboarding process. The websites these days allows customer to perform certain functionalities and avail services through the website which were earlier only possible at the service counter. Such features are very useful for the customers and also help the staff and minimize their workload by automating various business processes and by digitalizing various services or service delivery steps. That is how a customer centric website significantly improves the workflow and this also attract more customers. Offering innovative features that add value to user experience and increase their convenience also have very positive impact on sales and conversions.

Customer Centric Web Design: Aligns with Customer Persona

It is extremely important that a customer centric web design aligns with the customer persona. The customer persona is basically an imaginary representation of a customer based on certain situation, your knowledge about the customers, comprehensive research of the market and trends, and analysis of the data gathered about your customers through their previous interactions with your business. Usually businesses only consider the demographic data and their customer persona is mostly based on assumptions which is not always very accurate. Here are some questions that you should ask to yourself before planning the web design:

• What is your customer’s primary need?
• What problems they are facing or what problem do they want to resolve by interacting with your business?
• What information they are seeking and what information you can provide to solve their problem?
• Who is decision maker?
• What factors can influence their decision?
• What can motivate them to convert?

A business should answer these questions form the customer’s point of view. That is how you can align your web design with the customer persona. And if a web design is aligned with the customer persona, it will facilitate them and improve their experience on the website. Which results in higher online conversions.

Customer Centric Web Design:Aligns with Customer Goals

When a business is working on their web design the major and most common mistake they do is the lack of knowledge of the customer goals and their problems. Without understanding the customer goals, a business cannot build solutions in their web design. Usually what businesses do at this point is to make assumption and guesses, and that is not enough. Understanding the customers goals require some efforts and research. The best way is to ask directly to the customers via a customer survey or customer feedback collection program. Consulting with the sales staff and customer support staff can also provide you a better understanding of your customer’s goals and their desires. Here are some examples of customer goals for different businesses:

• For customer service center, a website visitor will be seeking the address, contact, working hours, and a link to book appointment.
• For a hospital, clinic or health facility, the website visitor might be looking to book an appointment or the location, timings, etc.
• For an e-commerce business a website visitor will be interested in purchasing so they would be looking for the buy or purchase button.

A customer centric web design solves customer’s problem and offers the most convenient solutions to facilitate the customers. When customers problem are solved, they get what they seek, the conversion rate is raised. It is crucial to think from the customer’s prospective and try to provide the solution of their most obvious problems to ensure higher conversion rate.

Customer Centric Web Design: Simplify Customer Journey

Once a customer reached to a business website, if they find all the requirement information and everything else they needed, the next step is to take them through the customer journey to convert. Obviously in order to simplify the customer journey businesses try to keep the steps at minimum, but this could sometime result in confusion for an ordinary user. So, it is better to think from a new user’s point of view who doesn’t know much about your website or user interface or anything else. Prepare the customer journey while thinking from the customer’s point of view. Assume your visitors would be confused or doesn’t have any clarity of the next step after consuming the content. So, clearly define what the next step would be and how they can move forward. Here are some examples of the next steps of the customer journey that will lead them to the conversion:

• Request a Quotation
• Book An Appointment
• Purchase/Buy Now
• Submit a Registration Form
• Subscribe for the Newsletter
• Download

A customer centric web design always simplifies the customer journey and keep it simple. Most of the time businesses failed to offer a simple user journey, despite the website visitors are convinced by the content they failed to convert due to the complexity or difficulty of the customer journey. That is why a simple and easy customer journey results in more conversions.

Customer Centric Web Design:Offers User Friendly Web Interface

The user interface plays an important role in the performance of any website. The studies have shown that a regular human brain only requires 50 milliseconds to establish a perception of the brand in subconscious. This is unbelievably quick. The eyes can absorb all the colors, patterns and design elements of the web page in less than a second. This makes it very crucial to have a great looking web design with a friendly user interface (UI). One of the major feature that a user friendly web design offers is ease of use. If a user can easily use the web site and navigate to various sections or parts without any trouble, it will not only provide you more chances to convince them with the content but it also keeps the user calm and happy. The customer centric user interface also enables the users to move through the customer journey easily and increase the chances of conversion.

The customer centric user interfaces also provide the users with all the relevant content in a proper flow and sequence so that the user don’t have to wander here and there to search for the required information. It keep the user engagement high and keep them focused on a single objective which increases the chances of conversions.

Customer Centric Web Design: Establish Trust and Increase Conversions

One of the major factor in the online conversions is the trust and reputation of the business. A customer centric website focus a lot on trust signals and features that add to the brand reputation and brand value. Adding customer reviews and customer rating is the most effective way to increase trust. The businesses can add credibility to their products and services with their customer centric website by adding important elements in the design at the appropriate places. Some businesses also add proof of work, their portfolio and the names or logos or details of their business partners in their website. Which is a great way to build trust. However, mostly businesses doesn’t put these things on appropriate places, instead they buried them deep in the inner pages. However a customer centric website puts trust signals at the appropriate touch points and whenever and wherever needed.

For example in case of an online purchase or payment page, the security badges and compatible payment formats are a key to establish trust. Such badges and icons can be added to the footer of the website as well. That is how the trust signals can encourage the website visitors to convert. Similarly all other trust signal such as client testimonials, reviews, sample work, business partners and such details influence user decision and encourage them to convert by building trust and adding credibility to the brand and its products and services.

Conclusion

Businesses are shifting towards customer centric methodologies to ensure a long term sustainable growth. The reason behind customer centric approach is to obtain maximum customer satisfaction. The customer satisfaction is critical for business growth. The happy and satisfied customers are tend to be more loyal with the brand and the loyal customers are also good brand promoters and most likely to stay with the brand for a long term. The customer retention is important to minimize the cost and to maximize the profitability. It is nine to twelve time more expensive to acquire a new customer comparing to the selling to an existing customer. This can have a huge impact on the profitability and growth. The customer centric websites offer features and functionalities that can facilitate the workflow and also help improving online conversions. The customer centric web designs improve customer experience, allow business to increase customer engagement, and with the help of user friendly user interface it encourages the visitors to convert. RSI Concepts is a leading web design Dubai agency, if you want to convert your ordinary website into a customer centric website or if you want to learn more on the subject, feel free to contact us though our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

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