In recent years, the real estate industry has gone through tremendous leaps and bounds ushering us into what is known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution- also known as the Technological Revolution.
The global market has been greatly influenced by the advancements of this new era, highlighted by disruptive technologies and trends such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality (VR,) and robotics are changing the way we live and work.
As people are getting accustomed to these emerging developments, so does the need for businesses to adapt to the demands of the changing times such as the shifting market and consumer behaviours- the real estate market is no exception.
To stay relevant and competitive, businesses are embracing the digital environment including the nuances, subtleties, and unique conditions that influence market forces- in this case, the emergence of digital businesses.
What is digital integration in a business?
Digital integration refers to any practice in business that utilises technology to develop new value in business models, customer relations and experiences, and its organisational capabilities to support its core business operations.
It includes both traditional players and digital brands that are transforming their entities with digital technologies.
The modern relationship between consumer behaviour and technology in real estate digital integration
Digital integration relies on technology to provide improved customer experience, cut costs, and gather data. It takes advantage of technology in adding value to customers. This supports the primary goal of any business to increase sales and drive growth.
As digital businesses embrace digital transformation, it takes into consideration the cultural shifts that occur in the market. It then implements and manages digital services to cater to the needs and demands of the market.
So where do UI and UX come in?
As mentioned before, one of the primary aims of digital businesses is to enhance the customer experience.
This is where UI and UX play crucial roles in the process.
UX or User Experience is defined as the quality of experience of a person as a result of his or her interaction with a device, website, app, or service. Every aspect of such interaction – whether good or bad- contributes to the UX of a product or brand.
On the other hand, UI or User Interface refers to the visual design, layout, or branding that defines a product’s image.
While both UX and UI usually go together, they are not the same. The UX is the interactive part, while UI appeals to the visual aspects.
When both UX and UI work together for good, it delivers amazing results for digital businesses.
The benefits of a successful UX/UI design strategy
There are, in fact, several benefits digital businesses get from a well-crafted UX/UI design to make digital businesses stand out from their competition.
Boosts customer satisfaction
Customer journey is important and a successful UX/UI design can guarantee a smooth customer journey that results in retention and additional conversion.
A study of an e-commerce purchase process of several sites from adding to cart and checkout showed that 69.2% of customers abandon their carts after adding items. The respondents of the study revealed that the design and checkout process are the two common reasons why online shoppers abandon their carts and leave without making a purchase.
The study also found 39 areas for checkout optimisation, which includes removing potential causes of customer frustration, confusion, and anger in the online shopping journey process. When these areas were addressed it drove customers to make a purchase.
It also resulted in increased sales, boosted conversion, and won repeat customers.
Reduces spending for site development, maintenance, and marketing drives
When done properly, issues with products or services can be anticipated even from the multiple design phases, such as UX/UI research, risk assessment, and target market identification.
It could reveal potential obstacles to avoid when creating the product which eliminates the risk factors to prevent future problems that could occur when products and services are launched instead of incurring additional costs to fix the problem after its release to the market.
It also eliminates the problem of re-marketing the product after corrections are made.
Improves return on investment
A study conducted by the global business think-tank Forrester found that every dollar spent on UX/UI Design returns $100 on average.
Companies that invested in UX/UI Design such as Apple, Microsoft, and Virgin have seen amazing results not just in improving their customer service channels, but also found that it was money well spent and increased their market values even more.
Drives better organic traffic in search engines
UX quality is integrated with search engine optimisation (SEO), which is why Google strives to deliver the best search satisfaction for the user, thus contributing to website ranking when compliant with its policies. Google has been analysing user dwell time, which is the number of time users spends reading a page, web navigation behaviour, the success of the user journey, and page navigation patterns. This means that the more user-friendly and well-designed a website is, the more relevant it is for Google.
The formula for success
What all these digital businesses have in common is the UX and UI aspects of their core business operations, which are focused on delivering amazing customer experiences.
Remember that customers are the lifeblood of any business since the dawn of time and even today. Winning their hearts and minds will guarantee real estate businesses with the right formula for success, and that is why UX and UI will always be critically important.