Ecommerce Conversion Rate – The 17 Most Effective Ways To Increase Your Conversion Rate
The trend of online shopping is more than ever. A Mintel research highlights that more than 69% of US-based internet users shop online at least once a month. Despite the popularity of online shopping trends, the ecommerce conversion rate for stores is noticeably low. The average ecommerce rate hovers around 1%-2%. The biggest reason why the average conversion rate is too low is that the competition in the ecommerce space is also colossal. Did you know your website is just a micro-segment of a cluster of 47-billion websites currently working in the digital world? Out of those 47-billion websites, roughly 1.3-million sites represent ecommerce stores. The bitter reality is only 650k out of those 1.3-billion earn up to 1-million from online sales. The bottom line is if you want to shine, you need to outperform your competitors. Before we reveal some of our tried-and-tested hacks to improve ecommerce conversion rate, it’s crucial to understand the definition of conversion rate and how you can calculate it before creating your CRO strategy. What Is The Conversion Rate? Simply put, a conversion rate is the ratio of visitors you get on your website that converts. While conversions are usually interpreted in terms of monetary rewards or sales only, the fact is different types of conversions can impact your business success. For instance,
When a visitor fills up a contact us form on your website
Buy something from your store
Sign up for a newsletter or email
Creates an account on your website
Calling your business
Engage with your site in one way or the other In a nutshell, a conversion ratio is a measurable action that encourages a prospect to proceed and make a purchase. How To Calculate Conversion Rate?
Calculating the ecommerce conversion rate doesn’t require any rocket science. Divide the total number of conversions you get in a specified period with the number of total visitors who visited your website and multiply it by 100. Easy enough, right? Now that you know a little about conversion rate, it’s time to unveil 17-effective ways to increase your conversion rate. Ecommerce Conversion Rate – The 17 Most Effective Ways To Increase Your Conversion Rate 1.CreateAFastWebsite It takes your website visitors 2-seconds to hit the back button and go to your competitor’s websites. Research back this claim by stating that more than 53% of visitors lose their interest if your site takes longer than 2-seconds to load. Website speed is critical. Even a delay of 1-second may cost you up to a 7% of reduction in your conversions. Sounds like a big deal? It surely is. So what can you do to ensure you’re not leaving money on the table because of slow site speed? Determine Your Site’s Baseline Speed There are many online tools, such as Google PageSpeed, that you can use to test your website’s baseline speed. Invest In A Premium Hosting Plan
Invest in the best hosting plan so that your customers can enjoy fast speed. Optimize Videos And Images The next important step is to ensure that visuals on your website aren’t killing your site speed. Optimize your images and videos for both mobile and web experience. Again, there are many tools available for this purpose. Check out reviews online and pick a solution that fits your budget and needs. 2.FocusOnTheBestUXDesign You may have the best products in the world, but all of your efforts will go down the drain if you fail to showcase them the right way. Your goal is to create a website that is both visually appealing and persuasive. Do not clutter everything on your home page. Create separate landing pages for each product, making it easier for your visitors to find out their desired products without unnecessarily scrolling down the page. Make sure you keep the overall look of your website consistent with your brand tone and voice. 3.ImplementTheBestSEOAndCROPractices Gone are the days when SEO was only used to drive traffic. Today, you can blend your SEO and CRO best practices to improve both conversions and traffic. But combining both these technical elements isn’t always easy. Creating a perfect balance between these two tactics requires a foolproof strategy you can implement to get the best of both worlds. You have to change three things when optimizing your ecommerce strategy for SEO and CRO – onpage SEO, content, and user data. There are many keyword research tools available online that you can use for on-page SEO purposes, including Google Keyword Planner, Moz, and more. Similarly, Google Analytics can be used to ensure all your marketing efforts are targeted towards improving conversions and sales. 4.Personalize,Personalize,Personalize Many studies reveal that modern customers prefer engaging with a brand that invests its resources in knowing more about its target audience. That goes without saying that when a brand knows more about the customer’s preferences, it can offer more personalized solutions. There are two ways you can personalize your buyer’s experience – providing personalized and valuedriven content and providing pathways for the buyers to take. The process begins by conducting thorough market research. After knowing about your buyer’s interests, you can seek help from different paid and free tools available online to tailor your customer’s journey. 5.ChooseAMobile-ResponsiveSiteDesign
With more and more people using their cellphones to purchase things online, it is critical than ever to create a light-weight and mobile responsive website that delivers the same result for both smartphone and web users. Doing so will help you improve the user experience. Google is also switching to mobile-first indexing, making it unavoidable for businesses to go responsive. It is expected that more than 50% of the market will be captured by mobile ecommerce in the coming years. so any business looking to boost conversions can’t afford to ignore mobile-responsive design. 6.DisplayReviews You know that your products are amazing. Your regular buyers also know they’re getting the best value for money when buying stuff from your store. But your new visitors won’t always take your word for it. Research suggests that 61% of customers go through reviews before they buy anything from a website. Reevo research also reveals that testimonials lead to up to an 18% boost in conversions. To collect reviews, make sure you send a follow-up email after a transaction asking customers to drop their genuine feedback about your products and services. 7.OfferDiscountsAndTime-SensitiveDeals Who doesn’t like free stuff? Of course, we all do. Provide a space on your website where your customers can enter promo codes. Offer generous offers to your regular customers in the form of deals, discounts, and time-sensitive offers that create a sense of urgency and persuade your customers to take immediate action. 8.SimplifyYourCheckoutProcess Present-day customers are busy. They’re not going to spend hours and hours filling up different forms just to complete a simple checkout process. That is why it is critical to keep the number of forms on your website minimal. Almost all prominent brands also offer their buyers an option to checkout from a guest account. Many customers abandon their carts because they don’t want to fill up lengthy forms. 9.GoVisual The Internet has quickly turned into a visual place. The busy customer schedules and unavailability of the tactile buying experience have made it unavoidable for ecommerce businesses to include more images and videos to help buyers know the real benefits of products. If you’re really looking to make an impression on your prospects, include images and videos. You can either add them on your homepage or product pages. 10.ImproveYourCopy Your online store will be doomed from the beginning if you fail to capture your audience’s attention. The content you have on your website will help you achieve this goal.
The key here is to create content that is just right for your prospects and compliments your brand tone and voice. It’s also important to understand that your goal here must be to provide value rather than increasing sales. If done right, a comprehensive content marketing strategy can go a long way. 11.ProvideMultiplePaymentAndDeliveryOptions Are you looking to set your ecommerce business apart from the rest of the competition? Provide your customers with multiple payments and delivery options. You cannot add all the options, of course. But ensure you have choices that are popular among your target audience. Similarly, you must provide your buyers with multiple delivery options based on the money they’re paying for delivery. 12.StartABlog Many successful businesses sell their products through the blog. Having a dedicated blog section on your website full of valuable content and information helps you build a loyal customer base. A blog on your website is your chance to show your potential customers that you hold substantial industry knowledge and you’re willing to help. If you’re highlighting your products on your blog, make sure you keep your language conversational and talk more about product features and benefits instead of luring your buyers to purchase them. Also, spruce up your content with actionable CTAs to encourage your customers to take action. 13.HighlightYourReturnAndRefundPolicy The biggest mistake online sellers make is they hide their return and refund policies. But did you know customers tend to trust brands that are open about their return, refund, and privacy policies? Never copy/paste these legal documents from other websites. Talk to your lawyers and ask about what you should or shouldn’t add to your business’s legal documentation. 14.OfferFreeDeliveryIncentive
Customers love the free delivery. That’s why almost all major brands offer a free shipping incentive to their customers. If offering free delivery by default isn’t an option, you can set a minimum spending threshold. Pro tip: You can also offer a free delivery option on all your products by covering its cost in the product price. 15.ImplementUpsellsAndDown-Sells Upselling and cross-selling are proven ways to boost your AOV and conversions. Let’s suppose you run a women’s fashion boutique online. A prospect navigates to your shop looking to buy a new outfit. She selected a pleated skirt, and her browsing history also shows that she clicked on some pages having matching accessories. 16.SendFollow-UpEmails Email marketing has come a long way in recent years. It’s an effective medium that enables businesses to follow up with their customers without breaking their banks. There are many ways you can use email marketing to your advantage. For instance, you can send your buyers a welcome email when they register with your website. You can also use it to keep your customers informed about the latest deals and discounts. Last but not least, you can send a follow-up cart abandonment email to customers who have abandoned their carts for some unknown reason. 17.OptimizeYourWebsiteForSocialMedia Having a social media presence can be an effective way to reach out to more customers. One of the best ways to increase conversions is to let your customers buy things using your social media business pages. Social media also enables your buyers to interact with each other and share opinions. You can either handle your social media pages on your own or can also hire an SMM manager to perform this role on your behalf.