Widgets — a must for every website

Widgets are a must for every website. Why do you need them and what problems do they solve?

One of the biggest challenges of ecommerce business is to make a potential customer choose your company. However, the statistics are not encouraging: about 70% of visitors leave your site permanently. After all, consumers have a lot of choices and will choose the company that offers them not only a quality product, but also a quality interaction with the brand. According to statistics, 68% of users will become customers of the business that offers convenient communication. There are many tools and methods to do this. And one of the most popular is to add a widget. They have become so popular that it’s hard to imagine a modern website without them. This small application helps to solve many tasks. What are they? Let’s find out…

What is a widget and why is it needed

A widget is anadditional element of a website. It is visually displayed on the screen as an interactive block. It is always in the user’s field of vision.

Widgets on a website page attract attention and help to retain users. This functionality offers online businesses five main opportunities:

1. Persuade site visitors to leave their contacts.
2. Make special offers to a specific audience segment, for example, loyal customers.
3. Recommend products or categories to site visitors.
4. Collect feedback and user data in surveys.
5. Show embedded posts from social networks without going to the site.

What is the difference between a widget and a plugin?

The main difference is that a widget is always visible, but a plugin can disappear and be invisible. That is, a widget is a graphical display of information, and a plugin is a software extension (or system setting).

The most popular types of widgets for the site

Chatbot is an indispensable assistant for business. If the manager does not answer questions in the online chat for a long time, the customer will not want to wait and will go to competitors. The chatbot is available 24/7.

Subscription form is a must-have for online businesses. Such widgets allow you to collect contact details of the subscriber: name, address, phone number, etc. Usually, users are not very willing to share personal information, so the company should motivate people.

Callback Widgets – This functionality helps to contact a potential buyer almost instantly. The user just needs to enter the phone number in the form offered by the system, and the operator will call back in 25-50 seconds.

Pop-up is a window with information about promotions/offers or a call to action. The main task of a pop-up is to make the user interested in the promotion and get their contact details in exchange for discounts/promo codes, etc. If properly configured, the widget can increase website conversion.

How to install the widget

Installing the widget is technically easy. But your task is to install it in such a way that it helps to sell, not scare away users. So:

• Test the placement of the block. The hidden block in the lower right corner – users interacted with it 15% more often than when it was placed in the lower left and on the sides.
• Customize your displays. To make the pop-up less annoying, set up scenarios for displaying the online assistant.
• Don’t forget about mobile traffic. The online consultant should be displayed and function correctly on the adaptive version of the website.

So, widgets are an effective tool for engaging usersof a website and turning them into loyal customers. If you want to improve the performance of your website, you need to approach the selection of widgets and their implementation on the site wisely, not following the fashion and examples of competitors. First, think about whether your target audience needs this functionality. If yes, test, optimize, and test again, look for new formats of communication with users, not limited to the basic settings. This is the only way to get the most out of widgets.