The importance of the first impression

Winning customers' trust starts with the first impression. Trust building starts with the information you share and the social evidence that supports your claims.

We find that shoppers are pickier about the design and layout of the store on their first visit, whether they are looking for items they have never bought or products they are already familiar with. Since your home page is usually a digital welcome pad, it is an important place to build customer trust. 

You should focus on mastering the first impression and providing the next step guidance for the shopper.

When evaluating a home page, shoppers will look for some basic essential elements, but also some good details, which can further tilt the balance towards you - even after the essential elements are in place. In this article, we will separate these two types of elements so that you know what to prioritize.

Must-haves

• Consistent and refined content + the whole website has high-quality photography and error-free copies
• A neat and uncluttered layout (important for North American shoppers)
• Navigation is easy to understand and use on all devices

Optional-haves

• The category names in the navigation are clear and easy to understand (e.g., store, female, male, about, contact, etc.).
• When selling overseas, translated copies and content into the shopper's language  and list prices in local currency.
• The entire store's pages load quickly without errors (shoppers usually only notice performance problems when the page is slow or damaged)

Take Hat Club as an example, which is a company selling mixed brands and franchised hats. One of the store's competitive advantages is its Hat Club membership, a loyalty program that allows customers to get hats at discounted prices. To build trust with shoppers and encourage repeat sales, it needs to let each visitor go beyond the home page, go deep into the website, and introduce a loyalty program as a value-added benefit.

They offer a simple layout, simple navigation, which encourages shoppers to go deep into the site, closer to the purchase.

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【Source text: by report】

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