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leverage the sector’s profit potential by offering their products online. These include businesses in the eyewear industry, whose market value of over $161 billion in 2023 is in part due to brands and retailers launching e-commerce websites.

If you also plan to build and design a website for your optical store, it’s worth noting that user experience (UX) plays a pivotal role in e-commerce success and profitability. By prioritizing how potential customers access, navigate, and interact with your business website, you can reduce abandoned shopping carts and boost customer loyalty and satisfaction. Take, for example, how Amazon’s UX is often cited as a case study since it enables customers to check out with confidence, as well as Apple’s success in building its brand identity through intuitive user interfaces.

In adopting this customer-centric approach, you can utilize WordPress as a website builder, thanks to its quick response rate, robust security features, and cost-effectiveness, which is suitable for businesses of all sizes. Moreover, you can refer to the website features deployed by key players in the online eyewear retail segment as real-life examples of how UX can engage and convert your target audience.

Accessible information on the homepage

The homepage is typically the first thing website visitors see when they browse your optical store, making it crucial to make information accessible upon landing. For e-commerce, the landing page must effectively introduce your brand, what you sell, and what sets you apart from competitors. For example, the leading US retailer LensCrafters’ homepage highlights best-sellers, discounted frames, and unique vision care services, such as online eye exam appointments and acceptance of vision insurance plans.

It’s reasonable to assume that most eyewear customers have vision impairments, so ensure that all the essential information is displayed cleanly with legible text. In this case, a previous post about WordPress typography plug-ins explains how text appearance can elevate your website design and boost user experience, while also recommending tools like Clear Google Fonts to help you adjust text styles for your store.

Distinct product categories

Having a broad range of products can contribute to e-commerce success as an optical store, but too many options can also overwhelm customers and lead to abandoned shopping carts. In this case, it helps to have clear and distinct categories for your eyewear offerings, which you can successfully do with the help of the open-source WooCommerce plug-in.

Consider how major retailer Glasses USA helps customers find the right type of eyewear for their vision and lifestyle needs through its intuitive product categorization. When shopping by frame type, users can discover not only full-rim, semi-rimless, and rimless frames but also prescription safety glasses that balance vision correction and protection. They can make more informed purchases by browsing through selections from safety eyewear brands like Wiley X and seeing the available frame colors and lens features.

Live chat for customer service

E-commerce websites are designed to provide comfort and convenience to customers by allowing them to browse through and order products anytime and anywhere. However, there can still be friction in the ordering and checkout process, especially for customers who are not tech-oriented or not used to buying eyewear online.

To address this customer pain point, the luxury brand Armani Exchange has rolled out an artificial intelligence-based chatbot on its website to guide customers when shopping for designer sunglasses, accessories, jewelry, and apparel. The ON chatbot platform provides customer support 24/7, and results from its pilot launch show that it contributed to a three to five times increase in the likelihood of customers making a successful purchase.

Yet again, you can replicate this sales and customer service strategy through live chat plug-ins for WordPress, which range from free and easy-to-install tools to paid plans with scalable features.

If you found this article helpful, check out Age Themes’ blog posts and WordPress themes to grow your e-commerce business successfully and sustainably.

Steve Martin