How Can Next.Js Improve Ux In eCommerce?

Improving User Experience In eCommerce With Next.js

While the number of new tools and technologies available today makes starting your online store even easier than before, the constant changes accompanying them can prove to be just as much of a challenge. Could Next.js eCommerce solutions be an answer to this problem?

Just like in the traditional commerce, web shop owners are encouraged to keep up with the trends to provide their clients with the best experience possible, but what if the never-ending cycle of updates gets too overwhelming? Don’t worry – there’s a solution to that.

In this article, we’ll show you how building an ecommerce store with Next.js can help you improve your shop’s UX.

What Is User Experience?

User experience (UX) encompasses all aspects of a customer’s interaction with your online store, from initial discovery to final purchase. Navigation, page loading speed, clarity of product information, and intuitive design contribute to the UX.

Why Is UX Important In Ecommerce Projects?

User experience has a significant impact on businesses – it can either help them or break them. Improving your UX can lead to increases in many different aspects of your platform, such as Google rankings, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), traffic, page load speed, and many more. This leads to increased conversions, improved customer satisfaction, and ultimately, a thriving online business.

UX Challenges In eCommerce Businesses

Next.js eCommerce - UX Challenges in eCommerce Business

Abandoned Carts: Complicated or lengthy checkouts are one of the main reasons why customers reconsider making a purchase.
Online Visibility: High bounce rates and low time spent on the site, will drive your SEO rankings and organic traffic down.
Performance: Slow loading times and clunky interfaces can frustrate users, causing them to leave the site.
Usability: Badly designed navigation and low usability can cause a drop in traffic on both desktop and mobile.
Customer Support: Providing inefficient support can lead to dissatisfied customers and abandoned purchases.

Many web shops built with popular eCommerce platforms face additional hurdles caused by their limited basic plans:

Template Limitations: Though pre-made templates offer a quick solution for your shop, their customisation options are often limited. Your competitor could get a similar template up and running in moments, making standing out difficult.
Scalability Issues: As your product catalog expands, making sure your site can handle increased traffic and larger inventories are crucial. Basic plans can struggle to keep the page load speeds on the optimal level due to shared resources, and that affects your storefront’s overall performance.
Limited Integrations: Similarly to the design limitations, basic plans often offer limited integrations with apps and webhooks, meaning difficulties in achieving a distinctive and high-performing UX.

Why Build A Custom Web Shop?

For businesses wanting to go above and beyond, custom web shops are a compelling alternative to more standardised eCommerce platforms.

They offer complete control over every single aspect of the site, from design elements to functionalities. Your brand’s identity can be expressed the way you want it to be. Likewise, the customer journey can be fully customised to suit your business goals.

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How Custom Web Shop Can Improve Your UX

Building a custom web shop gives you the opportunity to choose the technology which will complement your business, instead of forcing you to adapt to a platform’s limitations.

Additional ways in which custom shopping platform can improve your user experience include:

SEO Boost: A good UX lends to a more engaged customer base. They’re likely to spend more time browsing your website and find what they need easily. This sends positive signals to search engines and potentially boosts your organic traffic.
Effective Conversion: A user-friendly webshop with a clear and intuitive checkout process makes it easier for customers to complete purchases. As a result, you won’t have to deal with abandoned carts as much anymore.
Customer Loyalty: When shopping becomes a pleasure, not a chore, customers are more likely to return for repeat purchases. A custom shop allows you to tailor the experience to your specific audience, fostering customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Custom storefronts empower you to create a functional and beautiful web shop, which reflects well on your brand and attracts loyal customers.

To help Learn Squared move away from an outdated technology, we’ve build a custom e-commerce web platform to help them stay competitive.

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Building Custom Storefronts With Modern Technologies

What Is Headless eCommerce

Headless e-commerce (CMS) is an approach, which decouples the frontend and backend development, letting you work on both layers separately. This means you can design your store’s frontend however you want and adapt it over time to your evolving needs and users’ expectations.

To learn more about headless e-commerce and its advantages compared to traditional platforms, check out our blog post.

Technologies Compatible With Headless CMS

To leverage this freedom and build a truly custom storefront, consider using modern front-end technologies like Next.js, React.js, and TypeScript. These frameworks offer several benefits:

The decoupled architecture of headless technology allows for independent development of the front-end and back-end, potentially speeding up time to market for new features. All of this leads to faster development.
Modern frameworks enable development of custom storefronts, offering unique user experiences.
APIs simplify front-end development, allowing developers to focus on specific areas eliminating the need for full-stack expertise for basic functionalities.
Headless e-commerce can be more cost-effective in the long run due to its flexibility and scalability, letting you save money on subscription fees for shopping platforms.
Such architecture facilitates integration with a variety of sales channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon, broadening your reach and discoverability.

The best front-end framework for your project depends on specific needs and developer expertise, but we recommend Next js as the perfect solution.

What Is Next.js?

Next.js by Vercel is a React framework that empowers developers to build performant web applications and blazingly fast static websites. As React is a JavaScript library, used for web apps, it gives Next js an edge in terms of web development.

Thanks to the reliability of this powerful framework, it has been the choice for many e-commerce companies across the world, including Doordash, Afterpay and Carrefour.

To learn more, read our article What Is Next.js

Pros And Cons Of Next.js

In order to truly understand the capabilities of this framework, let’s have a look at its pros and cons:

Main Advantages Of Next.Js For Building Custom Web Shops:

Performance Improvement: Next.js supports Server Side Rendering (SSR), allowing for rendering pages faster, and Static Site Generation (SSG), which pre-renders pages at build time, expediting development time.

SEO-Friendly: SSR and SSG contribute to better SEO by letting search engines easily index the site’s content. As a result, achieving higher rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) becomes much easier.

Scalability: Next.js provides a flexible and modular architecture that makes it easier to scale your webshop as your business grows. Its API endpoints handle server-side logic, building future-proof and efficient applications.

Developer Experience: Thanks to the Hot Reloading function, developers can see changes in real-time without needing to refresh the entire page. The CSS and Sass support simplify the styling process, while built-in TypeScript improves the code quality.

Customisation and Flexibility: Unlike traditional CMS platforms, Next.js allows you to create whatever front end your store might need, enabling a unique layout and engaging user experiences. It easily integrates with headless CMSs, making it easy to configure content management.

Security: Automatic HTTPS and security headers, help to protect your web shop from common vulnerabilities.

Community and Ecosystem: Next js’ active community provides a great knowledge repository and numerous resources including support, step-by-step guides, and plugins. This can accelerate development and troubleshooting, making for a balanced ecosystem.

Multichannel Support: Apps made with Next js can be adjusted to suit desktop and mobile users to help them get a similar experience across all devices.

Future-Proof Technology: Access to the latest features and regular maintenance make this framework a perfect tool to stay at the top. It’s constantly evolving to fit the needs of its user base and support the latest web standards and technologies.

Drawbacks Of Next.Js

Lack of Built-in State Management: Additional libraries like Redux or MobX are needed for more complex state management.

Development Team Considerations: Complex projects may benefit from having an experienced developer on the team.

Popular Headless E-Commerce Platforms Working With Next js

Integrating headless CMS solutions with Next.js is an effective way to build dynamic and high-performance eCommerce websites. Here are some of the top eCommerce platforms using such models that work seamlessly with Next.js.

Shopify

Shopify is a widely-used hosted platform that offers extensive options like product, order, and customer management. It allows seamless integration with Next.js applications, providing a strong backend for dynamic storefronts.

Sanity

Known for its real-time collaboration and flexible content model, Sanity is a headless CMS that, when paired with Next.js, facilitates the creation of rich, dynamic eCommerce experiences. Its customisable content structures and real-time editing capabilities make it a powerful choice for online stores.

Strapi

Strapi is an open-source CMS ideal for managing content in your Next.js eCommerce store. It features a user-friendly interface and a flexible API, which makes working with Next.js straightforward and efficient.

Saleor

Offering a highly customisable, and scalable solution, Saleor is an open-source eCommerce platform built with Python, Django, and GraphQL, and uses Next.js for its storefront. Its GraphQL API, comprehensive admin dashboard, and multi-channel support are designed for efficient store management.

Summary of Next.js eCommerce Benefits

Next.js addresses many common challenges faced by web shops, such as slow page load times, poor SEO performance, and limited customization options. By leveraging its capabilities for SSG, server-side rendering, and dynamic routing, webshop owners can create highly performant and responsive websites that cater to the needs of modern consumers.

Its focus on security and scalability ensures that your online store can grow and adapt to increasing demands without compromising performance. The ability to design a custom web shop with Next.js lets you craft unique and engaging shopping experiences, boosting customer satisfaction, loyalty, and SEO.

By integrating Next.js into your e-commerce strategy, you can provide a superior user experience, enhance your site’s performance, and secure a strong position in the competitive online marketplace.

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