Best UX Design Practices for B2B Websites

The importance of having great User Experience (UX) design in B2B websites cannot be underestimated. UX design has a significant impact upon customer satisfaction levels and interactions through your website. The benefits of having good UX design in B2B websites include:

• Raising conversion rates - by making the user journey more streamlined with CTAs and form optimisation, you can raise conversion rates by guiding visitors to the actions you want them to do.
• Improving user engagement - good UX design encourages visitors to stay on the website for longer, interact more and make it easy to find what they are looking for.
• Growing brand perception - a website with great UX design gives a better impression of your brand, and is a reflection of your commitment to providing excellent customer service and valuable solutions to the visitors.
• Increases customer retention - by having a website which meets the customer's requirements, and specifically targets the pain points B2B customers have, you can ensure your site provides quick access to information and personalised content to each visitor.
• Boosts customer satisfaction - when the customer's needs are met through clear communication, the procurement process can be streamlined, which grows customer satisfaction levels and positive word of mouth referrals.
• Improved lead generation - with improved UX design because you understand what the user's needs and wants are, you can create targeted experiences to help the visitor engage more with your brand.

UX Design Best Practices for B2B Websites

To ensure your B2B website visitors have a great experience, you need to have a look at and make some changes where necessary. Here are some of the best practices for UX B2B websites:

• Avoid overcomplicating the website design - keep your website theme or design simple and instinctive to use. 
• Keep focused on your customer - make sure that your website gives your customer the information they want. 
• Provide more information and less selling - you don't need to promote to B2B customers because they are already interested in making a purchase. 
• Keep your content relevant, clear and concise - B2B customers want clear and specific content without any fluff. For example, for each product you sell, you should display the same type of information at the same place on the page. For instance, minimum order quantities, wholesale and RRP and sizing. 
• Check your website on a variety of devices - while it is reasonable to think that most orders will be made in office via PC, there will be times where salespeople need access to your website to place orders out in the field. This means your website should be easy to use and navigate on a variety of devices. 
• Keep to one goal per landing page - keeping to one goal per page helps keep things clear for users to understand and follow. For instance, you stick with one thing, so on page you have a CTA to sign up for a wholesale account.
• Ensure website navigation is easy - ideally you want your website navigation to be almost instinctive, so the customer can quickly identify where the information they want will be and can get to it quickly. 
• Allow breadcrumbs for ease of navigation - breadcrumbs help a visitor see which 'layer' they are at on a website and this can be used to help navigate back to other layers. For example Home-Shoes-Sports Shoes-Kids
• Ensure page layout remains consistent throughout your site - while every website page has its differences, try to keep as much as possible the main menu and information in the same places for ease of use. 
• Make it easy for customers to contact you with forms and clear contact details - it is essential that your customers have easy and multiple ways to contact you. You could have a form in the footer of every page, links to your contact page or phone details present.

Your website is only one of the factors a customer will use in deciding whether to build a relationship with your company or not. There are quite a few challenges to work through also, and reading our article on identifying and solving B2B challenges is your next step.