Web design is important.
I am not the first one telling you this.
You have read and heard about it before.
You already know you can make much more money with better design.
And you are probably even bored of the same set of statistics that design advocates throw at you trying to push you to hire a creative design agency.
I understand what you are thinking.
I would have hired a website design agency for UI/UX or front-end design, but…
- We don’t have that much cash to spare.
- We have other things to pay for.
- We are doing just fine without expert design services.
I understand all of that. The inability and the unwillingness to invest in design.
But have you ever wondered…
- What if your website’s subpar design is costing you money?
- What if you are facing actual tangible losses because you chose to save a few bucks on design?
If you haven’t thought about that, it’s time to do it now.
I hate being the bearer of the bad news, but it is happening. You are losing money (lots!) with your bad website design.
Here’s how…
1. Customers leave eCommerce transactions mid-way due to bad design
Will you shop from a store where you don’t feel good?
Would you sit and have a meal at a restaurant where you don’t like the ambiance?
No, right?
Similarly, you cannot expect your customers to shop from your eStore if the user experience is subpar.
Data backs that up. 70% of customers have accepted that they abandon purchases because of a bad user experience.
So while your SEO efforts are making your site findable, your marketing attempts are creating brand awareness, and your content is convincing, all that is going down the drain. Because of bad design. An Ecommerce Design plays a crucial role.
Want to know how much it costs in dollars?
Slow-loading websites cost retailers more than $2B in lost sales. Each year.
And slow website speed is just one manifestation of bad design and poor user experience. Another one could be a bad mobile design. Negative experiences on mobile cut down the chance of a purchase by 62%.
Now, I’ll leave it up to you to extrapolate that data and find the exact amount of sales your business is losing because of bad design.
2. Bad designs push away even your long-time customers.
Churn is a natural process for every business. Even the ‘lifetime’ customers are not actually going to stick to your business forever.
However, what if I told you that your churn rates are higher than your contemporaries because of unprofessional design?
Here’s how I know it is happening.
67% of customers in a survey have gone on record to claim that their reason for churning away from a customer is an ‘unpleasant experience’.
Picture this. A long-time client comes to your website. They trust you. And they expect the meticulous experience you provide offline to continue online.
But your poorly designed website lets them down. The menus don’t work. The navigation is cumbersome. The site speed is painstakingly low. The content isn’t visually appealing. There is an endless list of what would have gone wrong.
The result, however, will always be the same. Bad user experience, which will lead to customer churn.
How much money is that costing your business, you ask?
Exactly as much as it takes you to acquire a customer who churns out before the due course.
Now, you don’t need me to tell you that the figure is huge.
Read More: 10 Common website design mistakes and how to avoid them
3. Your market reputation takes a hit due to poor design
What people say about your business matters. More so if the speaker is someone who has engaged with your business as a customer.
And 62% of customers have said that they do share their bad experiences with others.
Now let’s try to see how it will impact your money-making affairs.
Say your website gets 100 visitors on your website every day. Out of these 100 people, say only 10 of them have a bad user experience. (To be honest, bad website design will be a cause of concern for more than 10 out of 100 website visitors. But for the sake of convenience, let’s continue with 10.)
Statistically speaking 6.2 out of those people will be sharing their bad experiences on your website with others. Again data tells us that people share negative experiences with an average of 15 people.
So, in a day, 15×6, that is 90 people will hear something bad about your business website. Your market reputation is literally at stake.
Such losses often cannot be quantified in the short run.
For example, you reap the benefits of a good market reputation over a long course of time. But saying how much you gained in money terms isn’t precisely possible.
Saying how much you’d lose with bad design isn’t possible either. But if you ask your management accounting team, I am sure they’ll be able to give you some figures. That sum could have easily been saved if you invested in UI/UX design at the right time.
4. Rectifying bad design costs a lot more than getting it right the first time around.
A lot of entrepreneurs are on shoestring budgets. And they feel that it will be fine if they skimp on creative design services now and invest in website redesign later on.
The thought is logical. But often impractical. And almost always a heftier blow on their pockets.
How?
Research shows that web developers spend 50% of their time reworking projects because of poor UX. Typically web developers charge $75 an hour and work for a standard 8 hours a day. If they are spending half of their time, that is 4 hours on rework, it means every day you dish out $200 for work that could have been avoided. Avoided how? With well-planned and timely UX design.
Also, fixing a design error in the post-development phase costs 100X more than it would have cost in the development phase.
Suppose you hire someone to fix design issues (or ensure there are no design issues) in the development phase. And the cost of that job is a mere $10. For the same job, if done post website development, you’ll have to spend $1000.
Stop your losses today
50% of consumers believe that brands should prioritize web design.
You have already seen how bad design is draining the profit from your pocket.
So if your customers, experts, and data tell you to take action, it pays (literally!) to do it.
Stop your losses today. Get your website designed or redesigned by SeekThem’s trusted website designers before it’s too late.
