Your website may be one of the first places potential customers interact with your business.
They might find it through Google, click through from social media, receive the link from a friend, or visit after seeing one of your advertisements. Whatever brings them there, your website has an important job: it needs to help people understand your business, trust what you offer, and take the next step.
For a service business, that next step might be submitting an enquiry, requesting a quote, booking a consultation, or making a phone call.
For an ecommerce website, it may mean viewing a product, adding it to the cart, and completing a purchase.
A website can look attractive and still fail to generate results. Small design and usability problems can create uncertainty, frustrate visitors, and quietly send potential customers to a competitor.
Here are 10 common website design mistakes that could be costing your New Zealand business enquiries and ecommerce sales.
1. Your homepage does not immediately explain what you do
When someone lands on your website, they should quickly understand:
- What your business offers
- Who your product or service is for
- What makes your business worth considering
- What they should do next
A vague headline such as “Welcome to our website” does not give visitors a reason to stay.
Your homepage should communicate your value clearly. A Christchurch builder might lead with the type of projects they specialise in. An Auckland accounting firm might identify the businesses it supports. An ecommerce website should quickly show what it sells and why customers should choose its products.
Avoid making people search through several pages before they understand your offer.
How to improve it: Use a clear headline, a short supporting statement and one prominent call to action near the top of the page.
2. Your navigation is confusing
Visitors should not have to work hard to find important information.
Complicated menus, unclear page names and too many navigation options can make your website feel overwhelming. If a potential customer cannot easily locate your services, pricing, portfolio or contact details, they may leave without enquiring.
Navigation is especially important for an ecommerce website. Customers should be able to browse product categories, use filters, search for specific items and return to their cart without getting lost.
Creative menu labels may look interesting, but clarity is usually more valuable. “Our Capabilities” might sound sophisticated, but “Services” is often easier to understand.
How to improve it: Keep your main navigation simple, use familiar page names and organise information around what customers are most likely to need.
3. The website does not work properly on mobile
Many customers will experience your website on a mobile phone before they ever view it on a desktop computer.
A website that looks polished on a large screen may still be difficult to use on mobile. Text might be too small, buttons may sit too close together, images could be cropped incorrectly, or forms may be difficult to complete.
For an ecommerce website, a poor mobile experience can make product browsing and checkout particularly frustrating.
Mobile design also matters for search visibility. Google uses the mobile version of a website’s content for indexing and ranking, making a strong mobile experience an important part of modern website design.
How to improve it: Test every important page on different screen sizes. Check your menus, buttons, forms, product filters, shopping cart and checkout process on an actual phone—not only inside a desktop preview.
4. Your pages load too slowly
Large images, unnecessary animations, outdated plugins and poorly optimised code can make a website slow.
Visitors may arrive ready to enquire but lose patience while waiting for the page to appear. On an ecommerce website, slow product pages can make browsing feel like a chore and create unnecessary hesitation before checkout.
Google’s Core Web Vitals include measures for loading performance, responsiveness and visual stability. Its guidance considers a Largest Contentful Paint—the time taken for the main page content to appear—of 2.5 seconds or less to be a good user experience.
The goal is not simply to chase a perfect performance score. It is to create a website that feels quick, stable and easy to use.
How to improve it: Compress large images, remove unnecessary scripts, review plugins, use modern image formats and test important pages with PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse.
5. The design looks outdated or inconsistent
Customers often use visual quality as one signal when deciding whether a business feels credible.
If your website looks old, unfinished or disconnected from the rest of your branding, visitors may wonder whether the information is still current. This can happen even when the business itself provides an excellent service.
Inconsistent design may include:
- Different fonts on every page
- Random colours
- Low-quality images
- Mismatched button styles
- An outdated logo
- Uneven spacing
- Pages that look as though they belong to different businesses
For ecommerce websites, inconsistent product photography and page layouts can also make the store feel less established.
How to improve it: Create a consistent visual system covering typography, colours, buttons, icons, photography, spacing and page layouts. Your website should feel connected to your logo, social media, advertising and other marketing materials.
6. The content is difficult to read
Visitors rarely read every word on a website. They usually scan the page looking for information that relates to their needs.
Large walls of text, long paragraphs, weak headings and poor contrast can make useful content difficult to understand. Visitors may miss important details simply because the page is visually tiring.
Readable website content should include clear headings, shorter paragraphs, descriptive labels and enough spacing between sections. Text and buttons should also have sufficient contrast against their backgrounds.
Accessibility should be considered throughout the design process. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines cover areas such as text alternatives, keyboard navigation, contrast, understandable content and functionality across different devices.
How to improve it: Break content into logical sections, use descriptive headings, avoid unnecessarily small text and make sure important information is not communicated through colour alone.
7. Your calls to action are weak or difficult to find
A visitor may understand your service and trust your business but still leave because the next step is unclear.
Calls to action tell people what to do. Examples include:
- Request a quote
- Book a consultation
- View our work
- Call our team
- Shop the collection
- Add to cart
- Start your order
Buttons such as “Learn More” can be useful, but they are not always specific enough. A clearer button often gives the visitor more confidence about what will happen after they click.
Your main call to action should also appear in more than one location. Someone who reaches the bottom of a service page should not have to scroll back to the top to make an enquiry.
How to improve it: Choose one primary action for each page. Make the button easy to see, use specific wording and repeat it naturally after important sections.
8. There is not enough evidence that customers can trust you
A website should not expect visitors to accept every claim without evidence.
Statements such as “We provide excellent service” or “We are the best in New Zealand” are less convincing when they are not supported by real examples.
Trust can be strengthened through:
- Customer testimonials
- Reviews
- Case studies
- Project photographs
- Client logos
- Team information
- Professional accreditations
- Clear contact details
- Guarantees or service policies
- Secure payment information
An ecommerce website should also make its delivery, returns, privacy and contact information easy to find. New Zealand Consumer Protection advises online shoppers to check who they are buying from, and its guidance states that websites and online retailers must publish a privacy policy.
Avoid false scarcity, misleading discounts or unclear pricing. New Zealand’s Fair Trading Act protects consumers from misleading pricing, advertising and claims.
How to improve it: Replace generic promises with specific proof. Show real work, real customers and clear information about how your business operates.
9. Your ecommerce product pages do not answer buying questions
A product page is more than a photograph and an “Add to Cart” button.
Because customers cannot physically inspect a product online, the page needs to provide enough information for them to make a confident decision.
Weak ecommerce product pages often have:
- Low-quality or limited product images
- Very short descriptions
- Missing measurements or specifications
- Unclear stock availability
- No sizing information
- Hidden delivery costs
- No returns information
- No customer reviews
- Confusing product options
Good product pages explain both the product’s features and why those features matter. They show the item from useful angles, answer common questions and make available options easy to select.
The page should also make the price and currency clear, particularly when selling to New Zealand customers. Consumer Protection NZ specifically recommends checking currency when shopping online.
How to improve it: Review your product pages from the customer’s perspective. Ask what someone would need to know before purchasing and make that information easy to find.
10. Your enquiry form or ecommerce checkout creates too much friction
The final step should be one of the easiest parts of the customer journey.
Long enquiry forms can discourage people who are only beginning to explore their options. Asking for unnecessary information before a customer has spoken with you creates extra effort and can feel intrusive.
The same issue applies to an ecommerce website. A confusing checkout, unexpected delivery costs, unclear errors or too many compulsory steps can cause customers to reconsider their purchase.
Common problems include:
- Asking for too many details
- Requiring customers to create an account
- Not showing progress through checkout
- Hiding delivery costs until the end
- Providing unclear error messages
- Using forms that are difficult to complete on mobile
- Failing to confirm that an enquiry or order was received
How to improve it: Ask only for information you genuinely need. Use clear labels, make error messages helpful, show delivery information early and provide a clear confirmation after submission or payment.
Is your website helping customers take the next step?
A successful website does more than make your business look professional.
It should help visitors find information, understand your value, trust your business and take action with confidence. For an ecommerce website, it should make the journey from product discovery to checkout feel simple and reassuring.
You may not need to rebuild everything from the ground up. Improving your messaging, navigation, mobile experience, page speed, calls to action or product pages could already make a meaningful difference.
The first step is identifying where visitors may be getting confused, distracted or frustrated.
At Lucid, we help New Zealand businesses create clear, professional websites and ecommerce experiences that support their brand and business goals.
Is your website ready to turn more visitors into customers? Talk to Lucid about designing a website that looks professional, communicates clearly and makes it easier for people to enquire or buy.
