WordPress Tips

Choices, choices. We have an abundance of choices in America. However, simplifying your website will reduce decision fatigue for your customers and make it easier for them to say “yes” to buying your products or services.

Enabling Decision Making Through Clean Web Design

Decision fatigue happens when your website offers your customers an over-abundance of options.

Decision fatigue is an actual problem, and visitors will quickly hop off your website when faced with too many awesome choices. This can damage your conversion rate considerably. Hick’s Law states that with each new option you put before a user, the longer it will take them to process all of their choices.

You do not want that to happen on your website. You want visitors to quickly explore, find exactly what they need, and convert. The longer you delay this, the lower your chances will be to convert them at all.

Or, you might find that too many choices lead visitors to make poor buying decisions.

Sometimes, too many choices leads customers to make poor decisions. This happens when there are too many similar-looking options, or there’s an excess of information and the customer gives up. They know they need to buy something, so they make a hasty purchase just to “get it over with.”

This is bad for business. You end up dealing with returns, refunds, and chargebacks. Plus, you have unsatisfied customers.

Your website already has enough competition to contend with, so why create competition for your visitors’ attention internally?

How Web Developers Can Help Reduce Decision Fatigue

If you or your client want your website to convert, you really need to think about the ways you’re forcing them to stop and wonder: “Which one do I choose?”

Whether your website sells products, services, or content, less is more in relation to decision making. This isn’t about selling many products over your website. Think about Amazon. This is about how you frame every individual decision leading up to conversion.

Clean up the Navigation

With smaller websites and more narrowly-focused businesses, you won’t have to worry about this too much. With big stores, however, the navigation can get you into a lot of trouble if you don’t organize it well.

You want to ensure that your website is set up as an online ordering system. If that’s your main priority, then the navigation should be organized in this manner. Be careful of adding unnecessary menus to promote coupons and specials. If you already have “online promotions,” you don’t need another button for “discover our deals.”

If the data is telling you that the majority of customers come here to shop, give them what they want in a clear and simple fashion. Don’t make them read through other menu labels or click on them to figure out what something labeled “Discover” even means.

Focus on One Promotion at a Time

Promotional offers and discounts are a great way to entice new visitors to take the plunge and for returning visitors to buy again. But just because they can be effective in increasing sales doesn’t mean you can go overboard with it.

For instance:
This is what one large retailer had online at the time of writing. Above the fold, there are promotions for:

“Free shipping on orders over $39”
“Reserve online and free pick-up in store”
“Up to 50% off select Shark vacuums”
“Save $100 on the Artisan Stand Mixer”
“Up to 75% off deals for every home in your room”

And, depending on where you catch the slider, there are rotating offers there as well.

Basically, the first impression they want anyone to have is: “Never pay full price with us!” and “We have so many deals, it’s going to be impossible to decide where to get started!”

Even if the offers your website offers don’t conflict with one another, each one still requires visitors’ attention, which can be a problem. When you offer something special, they’re going to take time to read it and make sure they’re not missing out on anything.

NOYO Web Development has more tips for you to reduce decision fatigue. Check back next week for more, or simply subscribe to our WordPress tips.