Many ecommerce websites have a conversion rate of less than 2%. This indicates that if you have 10 million visitors to your site in a month, 9.8 million of them will not convert.
Why are such poor results considered acceptable?
The good news is that you can achieve more and increase your bottom line by implementing efficient ecommerce conversion rate optimization (CRO). There is no one-size-fits-all solution for raising your conversion rate. Rather, it necessitates a concerted effort across all facets of your company and website, including branding, SEO, technological architecture, product pages, and the checkout experience.
Important Points
- An ecommerce conversion rate is commonly defined as the percentage of website visitors who purchased something from your ecommerce website during a specified time period.
- It's critical to maintain track of your conversion rates so you can track performance over time and adjust for ever-increasing returns.
- This post offers 41 various approaches for effective ecommerce conversion rate optimization, ranging from branding to SEO and the checkout experience.
Furthermore, the types of testing you run to continuously improve SEO play a crucial influence in the overall performance of your site. Conversion rate optimization for ecommerce websites may amplify results like this even more with the appropriate approach:
However, when you dig deeper, you'll discover that there are more conversion points on your site that you should be tracking aside from sales. A high number of micro-conversions indicate a favourable experience or buyer intent. It is therefore critical to guarantee that these conversion rates are high in order to generate high rates of purchase.
- Adding a product to the shopping basket is a common micro-conversion prior to a purchase on an ecommerce website.
- Adding a product to a wish list.
- I'm subscribing to the mailing list.
- I'm informing a pal.
- Obtaining a piece of content (e.g., lookbook)
- Social media sharing.
- Or any other useful KPI.
How to Calculate Conversion Rates in Ecommerce
It's simple to assess your conversion rate regardless of which ecommerce platform you use—Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento. You can divide the number of purchases by the number of site visits, or you can divide the number of converting shoppers by the number of unique site visitors.
When it comes to micro-conversions, the pattern is similar. It may be the number of new mailing list sign-ups or persons adding to a wish list against site visitors, for example.
You may replace site visitors with social followers for something like social media sharing.
It's critical to keep track of your conversion rates so you can track performance over time and adjust for ever-increasing ecommerce returns.
To that end, here are 41 essential ecommerce conversion optimization pointers.
Conversion rate optimization in ecommerce
What is the value of ecommerce marketing if you cannot convert website traffic into paying customers?
However, as beneficial as CRO is, it is not as simple as a quick website revamp. It necessitates in-depth examination, frequent tweaking, and continuous iteration. You must integrate your ecommerce marketing plan, which includes SEO, email marketing, remarketing, and social media.
Branding Branding is an important aspect of ecommerce marketing since it communicates trust and consistency to users.
1. Maintain a professional website.
If you want to increase conversions, first work on building your brand before implementing ecommerce conversion rate optimization on your site. A strong brand is the foundation of any successful ecommerce business, and it automatically leads to more conversions, sales, and repeat purchases.
2. Make it evident that they are in the correct spot right away.
When visitors arrive at your site, make it clear to them whether they are in the right location or not. Give customers clear visual and messaging indicators so they can decide if your ecommerce business is suited for them. For example, if you offer running gear, is your target audience serious runners (e.g., Fleet Feet) or fashion and style enthusiasts (e.g., Finish Line)?
3. Specify your worth in percentages
Make certain that you have a clear positioning and distinctiveness, fundamental principles, and accurate messaging. Visually, ensure that you have a distinct look and feel that appeals to your target audience by using easily identifiable colours, fonts, and visual elements.
It's possible that, like Fleet Feet, it's all about performance. Fleet Foot's claim to fame is the ability to fit each unique customer in-store using 3D scanning technology to take precise measurements of your feet as part of the fitting procedure. The biomechanics of your foot are next assessed, while a scanner collects 12 data points — length, width, arch height, and so on — for specific shoe and insole recommendations.
Contrast that with Finish Line, which is all about offering you the latest shoes, technology, and trends. The frequent use of the term "kicks" and significant promotion of new sneaker releases suit the emphasis on shoes as a fashion statement.
4. Develop a distinct tone and voice
A brand should not only have a distinct visual appearance and feel, but it should also have a distinct voice. Is your voice unique? Is your tone of speech consistent with the personification of your brand? Make certain that the tone is consistent.
Contrast the brand voices of Fleet Feet with Finish Line.
- "Fleet Feet understands running... To outfit runners with the best shoes, apparel, and gear, we combine our four decades of experience with data-driven insights from modern technologies."
- "We exist at the crossroads of ideas — where performance meets style." Where tradition meets technology. "Where the streets meet fashion."
5. Showcase good product reviews.
Product reviews are essential for ecommerce site conversion rate optimization. According to Robert Cialdini's book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, social proof is one of the most successful methods of influencing someone's decision making.
Customer reviews are one of the most important types of social proof in the world of ecommerce. Make a point of asking for feedback from your consumers after they make a purchase or if you spot them making a favourable mention on social media. You can't tell people what to say, but if you're convinced that you have satisfied consumers, you can urge them to leave more evaluations.
6. Build trust Positive product reviews are a kind of trust-building with your target audience.
Aside from reviews, search for additional strategies to develop trust with your site users, such as:
- Include testimonials if possible.
- Provide examples of case studies
- Provide free returns and explain shipping fees clearly.
- Provide a satisfaction guarantee.
- Tell us how many customers you have.
- Mention how many physical stores you have.
- Create a comprehensive FAQ page.
- Make it obvious from the start which payment options you accept, such as PayPal or Apple Pay.
- A link to a privacy statement
- Include a phone number so people can call if they have any questions.
- Showcase satisfied consumers.
- Showcase security icons such as SiteLock, GeoTrust, or Sucuri.
- Contribute to issues that are important to your target audience.
Trust is an important aspect in increasing conversions. According to Groove, testimonials can boost conversions by up to 15%. As a result, include plenty of social evidence on your product pages.
7 Using Voice of the Customer, you can improve the user experience.
All successful ecommerce websites must provide a great user experience, regardless of their distinction, voice, or sources of trust. Collect feedback from customers to learn what they like and dislike. To reveal their digital body language and optimise the experience, use Google analytics or specialist behavioural analysis software (see below).
And don't just collect information. Make a concerted effort to develop a Voice of the Customer (VoC) plan to scale input and achieve change.
Ecommerce SEO
8. Optimize your site for organic search (SEO)
One of the most cost-effective ways to enhance qualified internet traffic throughout the funnel is through search engine optimization (SEO) of your ecommerce website. With Amazon encroaching on more businesses, having a strong organic presence in Google is critical to keeping a healthy pipeline to your website.
To get unrivalled results, the ideal ecommerce SEO approach blends website structure, technical SEO, keyword research, content planning, on-page optimization, and link building with an exceptional user experience.
9. Align pages with their intended purpose
When optimising for search engines, make sure your pages are aligned with the searcher's goal. Whereas one audience member might be looking for a specific product, another might be looking for ways to care for their product. If you want qualified traffic that leads to a satisfying experience, you must focus on your audience's purpose at the moment of their search.
10. Create a taxonomy for your website.
Your website's architecture is similar to an org chart in that it communicates hierarchy as well as the relationships between distinct pages. Because it organises and prioritises your content for search engines, website architecture is an essential component of an efficient ecommerce SEO strategy. Create a website taxonomy that is as straightforward and flat as feasible in order to reduce the number of clicks required to reach your product pages as quickly as possible. This architecture must also be effectively reinforced through clever internal connectivity.
11. Improve your category pages
Many of your site visitors will go straight to category pages to find the products they're looking for. Because people frequently search in Google for broad categories rather than specific brands or items ("yoga tops" vs "athleta yoga crop tank"), ecommerce category sites represent a significant potential to fill the top of the funnel with new visitors who may not be familiar with your brand.
12. Use ecommerce content marketing to your advantage.
Product pages target more particular keywords, so there's a good chance you'll obtain traffic from conversion-ready visitors who know exactly what they want. Too many online businesses, however, overlook valuable top and middle of funnel possibilities to improve brand awareness. There are numerous ecommerce content marketing examples you can use to inspire your audience while they are still in the consideration stage of the funnel.
Technical aspects
13. Make your site's navigation simple to utilise.
Technical aspects of your online store also play a part in ecommerce conversion rate optimization. To begin, make it simple for them to find what they came for. Your site navigation should be simple, with a logical, layered hierarchy that extends all the way down to the product level.
Athleta does an excellent job with this. The website has a top navigation system with product categories such as:
- Tops
- Bottoms
- Swimsuits, Rompers, and Bras
- Jackets
- Shoes and accessories
There is a list of subcategories within each of these categories. Under Tops, for example, you'll find: All Tops
- Sweaters and wraps
- Tanks
- Shirts with Short and Long Sleeves
- Cover Your Assets (CYA)
- Tops for Support
- Tops that are long-lasting
- Streamlined Design
- New Markdowns at Athleta Girl
Furthermore,
- There is a Tops Essentials Guide.
- There's also a section for everything new.
- You can also search by activity, such as running and training, yoga, hiking and exploring, tennis and golf, and many others.
- Another link directs visitors to things for sale, and another to the brand's community area.
14. Make sure your page loads quickly.
Page speed is important. This is true for both SEO and user experience. Google has long said that page load time is a ranking factor in organic search results.
Google said in May 2020 that it will launch a new signal that blends Web Vitals with existing site experience signals to provide a more holistic picture of the quality of a visitor's experience on a page. Google Core Web Vitals will concentrate on page loading experience, interactivity, and visual stability of page content measurements. Google has not announced a date by which the Core Web Vitals will become an official organic ranking indicator in its algorithm at the time of writing. Google, on the other hand, has verified that the change will take place sometime in 2021.
15. Ensure a high level of security is implemented.
Begin with HTTPS and SSL to provide a safe purchasing environment for your website visitors. Implement firewalls based on the principle of least privilege on the infrastructure side, where firewalls enable only approved apps, protocols, and services required to meet business needs. Scan all infrastructure, servers, databases, and apps for vulnerabilities. Arrange for an impartial business to perform periodic external penetration testing on your computing environment. Make that your data centre environment is SSAE-18-compliant at least once a year.
16. Double-check that there are no broken links.
Broken links generate a variety of SEO issues, including spent crawl money, lost link value, and a poor user experience. Scan for dead links on a regular basis and either update or eliminate them.
17. Host the website on a dependable infrastructure with no downtime.
Whether you host domestically or via a third party, be sure your infrastructure is enterprise quality and has little downtime. Use a service like Pingdom, Uptime, or Uptrends to monitor the uptime of your website.
18. Make certain that your website is mobile-friendly.
One of the most cost-effective ways to send qualified traffic through the funnel to your ecommerce website is through search engine optimization. With Amazon encroaching on more businesses, having a strong organic presence in Google is critical to keeping a healthy pipeline to your website.
The most effective ecommerce SEO approach incorporates website structure, keyword research, technical SEO, SEO copywriting, on-page optimization, and off-page optimization. However, in order to achieve unrivalled outcomes, it is equally critical to create an outstanding user experience.
19. Create a helpful 404 page that redirects users back to your website.
With their 404 pages, many firms miss out on the opportunity to capture site visitors and lower bounce rates. Instead, they are frequently uninspiring error messages that feel like a dead end.
The 404 page of one multibillion-dollar retailer simply states:
404 Error Page Could Not Be Found
The page you're searching for no longer exists.
Return to the home page
This is, of course, tedious and ineffective.
Show some personality instead. Make the encounter memorable by providing many possibilities for them to find what they are looking for. Make a potentially unpleasant situation into a wonderful surprise.
Product details
20. Include product descriptions that are helpful.
Instead of a yawn-inducing product description that will make your site visitors' eyes glaze over, include a descriptive description that adds personality while informing them about the goods.
Do you require motivation?
Visit the product pages of The J. Peterman Company. You will not be let down.
21. Make use of high-quality photographs.
Humans are visual beings, with half of the brain's neurons dedicated to vision. To that aim, making the shopping experience more visual aids in increasing ecommerce conversion rates and guiding customers through the conversion funnel.
Online shoppers cannot touch, hold, or try on the things they view through ecommerce. As a result, the inclusion of high-quality photographs is critical. The images aid in the sale and, as a result, increase the conversion rate.
22. Make it possible for site visitors to zoom in on product photos.
Build in the ability for site visitors to zoom in on product photos to boost conversion rates even further. As a result, the experience is more akin to an in-person transaction. Because the user can inspect the product more attentively, they will feel more educated. They are also better able to recognise the quality of the product, increasing the likelihood of a sale.
23. Make use of high-quality films
Including product videos on your product pages, like photos, serves to inform the buyer and guide them to a purchase. Videos have the extra benefit of being more experiential for the viewer, allowing you to employ video to elicit an emotional response from the customer precisely when they are contemplating your product.
Because people are now accustomed to seeing video everywhere they look on the internet, video is becoming an expectation for some purchases. Use video as another ecommerce conversion rate improvement strategy.
On the Williams-Sonoma website, you can see the power of video in the following Breville Barista Pro Espresso Machine video:
24. Write in a style that reflects the brand's particular identity.
A distinct brand personality allows you to connect more intimately with your target audience, which aids in increasing ecommerce sales conversions. Look no further than Nike for a brand that continuously crushes it when it comes to a distinct personality.
Nike is a badass. The brand is unyielding. It's also empowering.
Consider the following recent campaign:
SPORT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO STOP.
You are an athlete if you have a body. And we're never alone as athletes. Sport brings us together.
It fortifies us. This keeps us going. Whatever happens, we will always come back stronger as a group. Sport is unstoppable. Because you won't be able to stop us.
Checkout
25. Make sure your "Add to Cart" and "Checkout" buttons are visible.
If you want them to make a purchase, they will need to add an item to their shopping cart and checkout at some point. Don't be afraid to ask. Display huge, visible buttons to encourage customers to buy. Use a colour that contrasts with the rest of the page to make the buttons stand out.
26. Make promotional offers.
People are hardwired to appreciate a good deal. It makes them feel unique (and even smart). Special promotions help convert existing customers (because they already like your brand) and can also be utilised to convert new site visitors into loyal brand customers. Furthermore, deals increase the likelihood that buyers will tell their family, friends, or coworkers about your brand, allowing your business to reach new audiences. Of course, special deals are beneficial on your website, and they are especially effective when used strategically with focused landing pages.
27. Make available promo codes
Ecommerce conversion rate optimization entails experimenting with various special offers. For example, over time, attempt several coupon codes, each corresponding to a distinct deal, such as a specified amount off or a percentage discount. Coupon coupons are a convenient approach to test which offers are most appealing to your target audience.
28. Free shipping is available
Customers frequently expect free shipping. If you don't provide it, you may expect to lose some potential clients who will leave your site in search of a free-shipping option. Offer free shipping wherever available, and your conversion rate will rise as a result.
Make the checkout procedure as simple as possible.
29. Make the checkout procedure as simple as possible.
Trillions of dollars in ecommerce products being abandoned in shopping carts each year. It goes without saying, but in order to increase conversions, you must make the checkout experience as frictionless, straightforward, and simple as possible. Even something as easy as informing them of the credit cards you take and the payment methods you offer can make a difference. Any hiccup in the process can result in abandoned carts, which have a direct influence on your sales.
30. Show shopping cart items
Showing shopping cart items at checkout is one way to make the checkout process easier and more seamless for customers. It's a simple thing to do. However, this is a necessary step.
31. Allow guests to check out
Don't make them register! It irritates your site visitors when they are about to make a purchase and then BAM. They've come to a halt because you're attempting to coerce them into registering in order to pay you their money.
Don't be that company. Allow them to check out as guests as many times as they like.
32. Showcase your phone number.
Yes, it's 2020, but some people still prefer their phones. Display your phone number so you don't lose them if they have a query and would want to speak to a live person.
33. To answer questions, use live chat.
Give customers as many ways to interact with your brand and obtain answers to their questions as possible. Provide live chat for people who prefer not to call and do not want the customary email wait.
34. Display a progress bar throughout the checkout process
It's not exactly rocket science, but it's close. When a work is started, people are naturally compelled to finish it. So, use a progress bar to show how far they are in the checkout process, and you'll probably see more of them proceed from checkout page to completion.
35. Time Maintain a clear product return policy.
Set their minds at ease in order to persuade them to make a buy. A clear return policy is one efficient approach to accomplish this. If you also have physical locations, make it clear which regulations apply to online sales, which to in-store purchases, and which to both. Buyers will be far more likely to try things for which they are undecided if they know that free returns are available for a limited time.
36. Recover lost revenues by using cart abandonment software.
Don't let them escape. If a visitor to your site adds things to their basket but does not complete a purchase, utilise shopping cart abandonment software to entice them back in and close the deal. When a consumer is going to abandon their cart, the programme can display pop-ups, or you can send them automatic recovery emails after the fact. Furthermore, you can (and should) A/B test both the pop-ups and the emails, allowing you to continue ecommerce conversion optimization even while in recovery mode.
Testing
37. A/B test your call-to-actions
Testing, testing, testing is the name of the game when it comes to ecommerce conversion rate optimization. Keeping this in mind, we strongly advise you to A/B test the various CTAs on your website. Not only to buy something, but also to subscribe to your email list, download your lookbook, or take advantage of a special deal. Testing two versions of your CTAs will help you uncover precise language that motivates customers to act more consistently.
38. Experiment with your prices.
In the same vein, A/B test your prices. You can test not only the price for a given product, but also the pricing display itself. After all, $29.00 is the same as $29, but each of these pricing displays may yield completely different outcomes.
39. Perform A/B testing on your forms
Any type of conversion form is an often-overlooked area for A/B testing. To test the checkout process, use your ecommerce software package, and for any other type of form, utilise form builder tools such as Formstack or JotForm.
40. Invest in conversion optimization tools.
Increase the effectiveness of your A/B testing by scaling your testing efforts throughout your whole site, regardless of the product or page. One of the most important aspects of ecommerce conversion rate optimization is this. Optimizely, VWO, and AB Tasty are examples of useful software for A/B testing your ecommerce site.
41. Make use of behavioural intelligence software
Use behavioural analytics software such as Decibel, Clicktale, Mouseflow, or FullStory to get a comprehensive snapshot of your visitors' experience on your site. Analyze heatmaps and recordings to reveal their digital body language, identify friction in the purchasing process, and improve their overall experience.