Conversion rates are the bread and butter of eCommerce. Without them, all of your traffic, brand awareness, or social media engagement will amount to, well, not much. That being said, let’s look into 11 effective ways to improve eCommerce conversion rates.
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1. Fix Site Speed Issues
Visitors hate having to wait. Just like they hate waiting in line at a checkout in a physical store, they don’t appreciate waiting for a web page to load. By improving your website speed and resolving any underlying issues, you can significantly increase the chances of your visitors sticking with it, and ultimately converting.
2. Optimize For Mobile
Mobile search has overtaken desktop long ago, and more people browse from their phones with every passing day. So, if your website is not mobile-friendly, and if it doesn’t provide an immaculate experience on a smaller device, you’re probably losing plenty of potential conversions.
Consider the mobile version of your website separately from the desktop version. They don’t have to be the same, but they should both offer a seamless shopping experience.
3. Use Compelling Images
The images you use on an eCommerce website can significantly up your conversion rates. After all, if a potential customer can see what the product actually looks like from various angles, and if they can also see it in action, the chances of them converting will only increase.
Use original images as much as you possibly can, and don’t source them from the internet. Make sure they are of the highest quality you can achieve, and also ensure they load fast on all devices and screen sizes.
Dose of Colors does this well – they show you the actual product, its shades, and an image of the product on a model.
4. Improve Your Copy
Alongside images, a copy makes for the main building blocks of any eCommerce site. The better you can convey value and how a specific product solves a specific issue, the more likely you are to convert someone.
First, consider who you are selling your product to. Ask questions such as:
- What do they need your product for?
- What kind of message would work best for them?
- What kind of language would appeal to them?
Remember that you want to illustrate what a product can do for a customer, as opposed to what you have done to make it great and how much you’ve invested in it.
A Good Company does this incredibly well. They emphasize the benefits and value of the product in question, but they also tell you its story and background, which appeals to their target audience.
5. Improve Your Site Navigation
If people can’t find what they want on your website, they are not very likely to stick around and spend five minutes of their day trying to figure it out.
To make it as easy as possible for them, use navigation that everyone can understand. Clearly label your categories, use breadcrumbs, and make the menu easy to understand.
6. Make It Easy For People To Give You Money
If your checkout process has 17 steps, people are more likely to give up. You want to make it as simple as possible and involve as few steps as is feasible.
Offer multiple payment options, and clearly highlight how safe and reliable they are. Streamline the checkout process – and don’t demand your customers to click through several pages.
7. Send Abandoned Cart Emails
Reminding shoppers that they have left an item in their cart is an excellent way to subtly nudge them towards a conversion. Some brands like to offer an additional discount at this point as well, in order to make that conversion more likely.
However, if you notice a lot of abandoned carts, try asking your customers why they are not completing their purchases. You may have failed to address an important issue (like returns, delivery options, or delivery costs) that might be bleeding conversions.
8. Send Other Emails Too
Abandoned cart emails are not the only kind of email you should be sending out. Converting a customer over a period of time is always better than not converting them at all, so do your best to send them valuable emails they will be interested in.
You can notify shoppers about discounts, announce new arrivals, send specific offers to returning customers, and so on.
Feelunique does this well with their emails – they are not too frequent, but they provide the right amount of incentive to get a shopper to check out their latest offer.
9. Highlight Special Offers
If you are running a special offer, you need to advertise this fact very clearly. This can be anything from a holiday offer, free shipping, a flash sale, and so on.
Try not to use pop-ups for advertising these offers. Most people will just find them annoying and click off without actually taking in the message.
Bay Alarm Medical has highlighted its special offer with a bar at the top of the page. This will certainly draw attention, but it will not be too flashy or come across as pushy.
10. Offer Free Shipping
Free shipping is always an incredible conversion incentive.
It may be too expensive for your business, though, so consider how best to utilize it. You might choose to pair it with seasonal offers or perhaps do a week of free shipping for orders over a certain amount every now and again.
Also, consider the locations where you can offer this free shipping. Try to target either the audiences who already shop the most or audiences who tend to abandon their carts (especially if they state it’s because of high shipping costs). Alternatively, you might try to appeal to an entirely new audience segment.
11. Showcase Social Proof
Social proof is a great way to inspire trust and show your potential customers how other satisfied users have enjoyed your product.
You can do reviews, testimonials, and even utilize user-generated content. Make sure the kind of social proof you go for matches the interests of your audience, and that it is the type of content they would typically find compelling.
Runner’s Athletics, for example, has connected their Instagram feed with their homepage so that their website visitors can feel inspired by others who have put the brand’s sunnies to good use.
Final Thoughts
Consider some of these tactics to improve eCommerce conversion rates when looking to boost the conversions on your eCommerce website.
Note that you don’t have to use all of them at once. Also, some will be more time- and resource-demanding than others. Choose the one that will work best for your website, and track your conversions after you make any change to ensure you have made the right one.
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