Adobe Commerce is a beast of an ecommerce platform. With tons of services, features and options at your fingertips, it can be difficult to feel like you’ve cracked the code on user experience (UX).
The conversation around UX has fundamentally shifted from the design studio to the boardroom. It’s no longer a subjective "nice-to-have" but a core business strategy with a quantifiable return for those who get it right.
In this guide, we'll outline eleven strategic ways to enhance your ecommerce site's UX. From mobile optimization to AI-driven features, you can deliver the best possible shopping experience for your customers on Adobe Commerce-based stores.
11 Adobe Commerce User Experience Enhancement Tips
Here are eleven ways merchants on Adobe Commerce can improve ecommerce UX.
1. Focus on Mobile Optimization
Smartphones generate 78% of retail site traffic and two-thirds of all online orders globally. If your ecommerce site isn’t optimized for mobile traffic, you might as well just start burning your money. Use a mobile-first/responsive design approach so your site looks and works great on all screen sizes, and regularly test it with Google's mobile-friendly test and PageSpeed Insights.
Optimize images and enable caching/CDN (Adobe Commerce includes the Fastly CDN) to improve load times. Ensure all buttons, content, and fonts are large enough to be visible on smaller screens. Remove or adjust intrusive pop-ups that can bother visitors.
2. Optimize Calls-to-Action (CTA)
Good CTAs boost conversions when they are clear and compelling. Use bold, action-oriented text, such as "Add to Cart" or "Buy Now," on buttons, and design them to stand out against the rest of your store’s look and feel.
Place primary CTAs above the fold on product pages and ensure they remain visible as users scroll. One way to achieve this is to make them “sticky” on the page, so users don’t need to scroll back up to add a product to their cart. This is extra important on mobile layouts, where everything is smaller and less is visible on the page.
Minimizing steps in the checkout funnel (guest checkout, auto-fill forms) further improves the UX, while testing and iterating should also be a must. Perform A/B tests on CTA text, colour, and placement. For example, test if "Add to Bag" vs. "Add to Cart" affects clicks. Use Adobe Commerce’s Page Builder or Experience Manager to update and test different CTA options.
3. Ensure Easy Navigation for Product Discovery
It’s important to keep in mind that a huge part of a customer experience is making it fun and easy to browse your products. You should strive to turn window shoppers into repeat customers whenever possible. If shoppers can’t easily find products, they’ll leave, especially on sites with large catalogues. Your store’s navigation should be intuitive, allowing users to browse or search easily.
Implement filters on category pages (by size, colour, price, etc.), so customers can quickly narrow results. Adobe Commerce also features built-in layered navigation. Configure it to include the attributes most important to your shoppers.
Use breadcrumb trails and clear category labels so users always know where they are and can easily backtrack. This reduces frustration and encourages deeper exploration of your catalogue.
4. Implement Live Search for Instant Results
One Adobe Commerce-exclusive feature we love is Live Search. This feature provides real-time, AI-powered search results to customers as they type in the search bar. The ability for someone to be able to quickly find what they need greatly improves UX, even more so when it feels like the store you’re shopping at is reading your mind.
Not only can Live Search autocomplete queries and deliver relevant product suggestions based on user data, but it also handles typos and synonyms, ensuring that a misspelled brand name or a search for a “tee shirt” instead of a “t-shirt” still gets customers where they want to go.
Review Live Search’s analytics to see popular search terms and zero-result queries, then adjust your product data or search settings to continually improve findability.
5. Leverage Personalized Product Recommendations
Similar to Live Search is Product Recommendations, another AI-powered Adobe feature that can significantly enhance the user experience and increase sales. Product Recommendations displays relevant items on product pages to help customers discover new items.
Adobe’s Sensei AI analyzes browsing and purchase history to automatically surface products each shopper is likely to be interested in. You can then use recommendation units on the homepage (e.g. Trending Now or Recommended For You) to personalize the shopping journey from the start. In the cart or checkout, show complementary add-ons (“You might also like…”) to increase cart size.
6. Offer Wishlist and “Save for Later” Options
No matter how much money and work you put into ecommerce conversion optimization, it would be silly to ignore the fact that not every visitor is ready to buy on the spot. Providing a wishlist or save-for-later feature enhances the user experience by allowing users to bookmark products for future consideration.
Not only does enabling Adobe’s wishlist feature help remove purchase pressure, but it also provides a gentle incentive for anonymous visitors to register for an account with you to save items for later and sign up for newsletters/back-in-stock notifications.
Use wishlist data for re-engagement. If items in a customer’s wishlist go on sale or stock is running low, send an automated email alert to prompt a revisit. This is a user-friendly way to encourage customers to return and complete their purchase.
7. Solicit Customer Feedback and Actually Listen
One way to improve ecommerce UX on your Adobe Store is to solicit feedback from your customers to identify areas of improvement. Customer reviews are great for products, but you should also ask for feedback on other aspects of your ecommerce store as well.
Leverage post-purchase surveys or implement an on-page widget to ask questions like, "How easy was it to find what you needed?" or simply ask for a star rating on your online store’s checkout experience to get an idea of the overall sentiment people have regarding their time shopping with you.
Regularly review feedback and site analytics with Adobe Commerce’s built-in reports or Adobe Analytics, if available, to spot common or repeated issues. For example, if multiple users mention difficulty finding a size guide or confusion at checkout, prioritize fixing those UX issues. Let customers know when you implement a popular suggestion, as well, as it can help build goodwill and trust.
8. Ensure a Unified Product Experience with PIM
Consistency across channels and touchpoints is key to good UX. Using a Product Information Management (PIM) system creates a single source of truth for product data, ensuring that customers see accurate, up-to-date information everywhere.
As an Akeneo partner agency, we love recommending this PIM to our clients for its enterprise-grade features and ease-of-use. PIMs help ensure that your product descriptions, specifications, images, and more are centralized and synchronized across all channels, including your online store, social media pages, marketplace pages, and mobile app.
A PIM helps you enrich product listings with additional attributes, translations, and digital assets. Rich, comprehensive product content like size charts, videos, PDFs, high-quality images, etc., improves UX by answering customer questions upfront. It also boosts SEO.
Beyond data consistency, a PIM can ensure the look and feel of your Adobe Commerce store aligns with your other customer touchpoints (emails, social media, etc.). A unified brand experience enhances user trust and helps you stand out across platforms.
9. Build Trust with Transparency and Social Proof
When it comes to ecommerce UX best practices, being transparent with your customers is essential. This, in addition to showcasing social proof, reduces customer uncertainty and makes them comfortable purchasing from your site.
Be upfront about shipping costs, delivery times, return policies, and any guarantees. Link to or display these details in your footer or during checkout. If you offer easy/free returns, say so! Customers will feel more confident in purchasing from you when they have this kind of information.
Provide thorough, honest information on your product pages. Include materials, dimensions, sizing info, and accurate images. If an item fits larger or smaller than usual, mention it. The more transparent you are on product pages, the more informed decisions customers can make, which reduces returns and curbs disappointment.
Next, include social proof wherever possible. Enable product reviews and encourage customers to share their thoughts after purchase. It’s not just about positive reviews, either. Even negative feedback can build credibility.
People can sniff out when products all seem to miraculously have five-star reviews, and you get an opportunity to publicly make things right when it comes to responding to negative reviews.
10. Offer Diverse Payment Options and Easy Checkout
People love options. Whether it’s PayPal and Apple Pay, or pay-in-installment services like Afterpay and Klarna, make it as easy as possible for customers to pay however they prefer. Shoppers are more likely to abandon carts if their preferred payment method isn’t available.
Thankfully, Adobe Commerce offers the ability to add a wide variety of payment options to your ecommerce website’s checkout so that you can reduce cart abandonments and increase conversions.
Next, enable guest checkout so that customers don’t need to be logged in to complete a purchase. You can always invite them to create an account after they complete their order on your Thank You page.
You also want to use as few checkout steps as possible. Adobe Commerce’s default one-page checkout or a well-designed one-step checkout extension can help here. Minimize the form fields and use address auto-complete to save time.
11. Automate Customer Support for Better CX
Even with the most customer-friendly website and checkout flow out there, customers will always need help or have questions. Fast, helpful, and responsive support can help fill in the gaps and enhance the overall customer experience.
One of the easiest ways to do so is to leverage AI and automation in your customer service/CX to automate away up to 60% of repeat customer queries and CS actions. Implement a live chat on your Adobe Commerce store for real-time support. During off-hours or high-volume times, an AI-powered chatbot can handle common queries. For instance, a chatbot can instantly answer "Where's my order?" or provide return policy info, guiding users without waiting.
At Blue Badger, we love getting our Adobe Commerce clients set up with Gorgias, an automated CX and help desk platform that handles the “easy” customer service work and frees up your team to handle more complex questions and VIP customers. This way, customers feel supported at all times.
Store visitors can use your chatbots and help desk for any questions they may have outside of business hours. With these tools handling much of the work, your human agents are easier to reach during the day if needed.
Conclusion
Enhancing UX on your Adobe Commerce store is an ongoing process, but the payoff is a better shopping experience that can boost conversion rates, customer loyalty, and revenue. Start by addressing the fundamentals: mobile optimization, navigation, and clear CTAs. Then implement advanced features such as AI-driven search and recommendations, and back them up with robust product data management and great customer support.
As an Adobe Bronze Solution Partner, Blue Badger specializes in implementing these UX enhancements for ecommerce businesses across a variety of industries. Whether it's integrating a PIM system or deploying AI chatbots, we're here to help you elevate your Adobe Commerce UX. Get in touch with us today to learn more.
