Your Digital Shopfront: Why It Matters More Than Ever
- Yorb Ltd
- Oct 24
- 5 min read
Updated: Dec 1
Just ten years ago, if you asked any business owner where their front door was—the one they expected their customers to come through—nine out of ten would have pointed to a real door in a bricks-and-mortar building.
But if you asked those same people that question today, they’d likely all point to a URL. And rightly so.
The Shift to Online Shopping
According to NZ Post, Kiwi shoppers spent over $6.09 billion online last year. The only year we collectively spent more online was in 2021 during the COVID lockdown era. Unfortunately, last year also saw the number of online transactions from offshore retailers like Temu grow at a faster rate than local transactions (16% vs. 12%). Consumers are focused on stretching their budgets further.
The worrying news is that if you’re a traditional retailer, you’re now not only up against your local competitors but also the mega online resellers who can more easily undercut your pricing.
For those offering local services—from real estate agents to accountancy services to restaurants—the choices available to potential customers have grown. They can see all accountants within a 10km radius and every restaurant offering Uber Eats delivery. This means they are empowered with options and will choose based on how good your online shopfront looks and how well it works.
If your digital shopfront is looking shabby, bland, or underperforming, you’re self-sabotaging your ability to compete.
In this blog, we’ll touch on some things you need to prioritize when investing in a new website design and build.
Speed: The Key to User Experience
In their 2024 article on Top Website Statistics, Forbes stated, “In today’s digital age, having a well-performing website is crucial for businesses, and addressing this issue is essential for success in the competitive online landscape.” We couldn’t agree more. But what degree of performance makes for a good website experience?
Speed Matters: 47% of Visitors Find a 2-Second Wait Too Long
Your website's loading speed is critical. Google reports that a 3-second loading time will drive away most people. Nearly half of users won’t wait longer than two seconds for a website to load. The upshot? If your website isn’t loading quickly (on desktop or mobile), expect to lose potential customers and sales.
Speed Readers: Visitors Spend 5.59 Seconds on Your Content
You read that right—5.59 seconds. Most people scan websites rather than read them. Only 28% of the text is read. This means your most important information must be easy for your reader to spot and absorb. If it’s too complex, too long, or hard to read, you’ve lost your chance to make a great first impression.
Speed Leavers: 61% of Visitors Move On if They Don’t Find What They Need in 5 Seconds
Ouch. 61% of website users expect to find what they are looking for within five seconds of landing on a website. If you’re not offering a user-friendly experience, 40% will head to another site without a second thought. There are very few second chances; 88% of online users won’t return to your site if they had a bad experience.
First Impressions Matter
While it might sound like something your mother would say, it’s a truism that’s hard to dismiss.
First Thoughts: 94% of First Impressions Are Driven by Your Website Design
What does that include? Designs that are too complex, busy, and lacking in navigation aids, boring designs, bad use of colour, not enough introductory content, small print, or too much text can all detract from user experience. In effect, the judge starts before the browsing!
Design matters to the point that 38% of users won’t engage with your website if it’s poorly designed.
First Look: Most Visitors Judge Your Credibility Based on Your Website
According to Forbes, almost half (48%) of website visitors say the number one way they decide on the credibility of a business is determined by web design. Perception is everything. You have little chance once someone makes a fast decision and backs away.
Functionality Figures: The Importance of Smooth Operation
How your website works counts. It can be a simple, beautiful, almost minimalist design—but user expectations are that it will work smoothly and seamlessly.
Menus Matter: Visitors Spend Around 6.44 Seconds Checking Out Your Main Menu
When website visitors spend about 6.44 seconds looking at your main navigation menu, it tells you exactly how important it is to have an easy-to-use and accessible form of site navigation. The faster a visitor can find what they are looking for, the happier they are.
Keeping It Simple: Don’t Turn Your Forms into Roadblocks
Nothing kills a visitor or buyer’s enthusiasm faster than a form that demands too much. But how much is too much?
Every year since 2012, Baymard Institute has captured shopping cart abandonment figures. For 2025, it’s 70.22%. Eighteen percent of those intending to make a purchase walked away because the checkout process was too long and complicated. Baymard’s usability testing shows that an ideal checkout flow should have just 7-8 form fields. Yet, their benchmark database revealed that the average US site had 14.88 form fields.
Active Accessibility: Good for Visitors, Good for Business
An estimated 17% of people living in New Zealand households were identified as disabled in 2023—a total of 851,000 people. Add ageing baby boomers with low vision or reduced motor skills, and accessible design stops looking like a compliance chore. It starts resembling an untapped market segment and a sensible business strategy.
Accessible sites typically load faster, rank higher on search engines, and carry a lower legal risk. While web-accessibility lawsuits are less common here than in the US, the Human Rights Act (1993) and the proposed Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill both point toward stricter expectations. This includes implementing semantic HTML, sufficient colour contrast, alt text for images, and keyboard-friendly navigation as preemptive and cost-effective insurance policies.
Takeaways: What You Need to Know
Today’s digital natives want to complete as much of their buying cycle without having to pick up the phone or even send an email. This means presenting a flawless first impression followed by a seamless customer experience.
If your current site looks outdated or is clunky and slow, now’s a good time to set up expectations of what good looks like. Here are just some of the ‘must-haves’:
A good web design is visually appealing, user-friendly, and easy to navigate, with clear calls to action and well-placed, high-quality visuals.
It has straightforward top-level menus, persistent search bars, and breadcrumb trails. These may be small design choices, but they make a giant impact on engagement metrics and, eventually, revenue.
It focuses on fast page loads, consistent typography, and mobile responsiveness. These all directly correlate with conversion rates.
It curtails those eform extravaganzas and doesn’t demand more information from your visitor than they’re prepared to share. (Baymard says that stripping out non-essential fields can improve completion rates by 35%! Who knew?)
What’s Next?
Your physical shopfront may close at 6 p.m., but your digital one never sleeps.
Make sure it greets every visitor with ease of navigation, accessibility, and a friction-free experience that modern customers expect. Because the competition is only a back-button away—and they might just have figured out how to keep that door wide open.
Ready to modernise your digital storefront? Contact us for an obligation-free chat about how Yorb can help you engage website visitors, generate more leads, drive website traffic, and grow online.
