Whether you are driving people to your e-commerce site via paid ads, content marketing, or affiliates, every visitor who never completes a purchase is a missed opportunity.
That is why optimizing your website to get more sales is crucial.
An e-commerce conversion occurs when a website visitor takes the desired action. Typically, it is a sale, but it could also represent adding a product to the shopping cart, a wishlist, or signing up for an email newsletter.
The good news is you can increase eCommerce conversion rates and optimize your website for more purchases. Read on to find out how.
Why Conversion Rates Matter in E-Commerce?
Improving e-commerce conversion rates is the most cost-effective way to increase your revenue. In addition, higher conversion rates mean that your website and your products offer more value to your clients and a smoother user experience. Finally, converting more clients gives you a larger audience for remarketing campaigns.
How to Calculate the Conversion Rate
The e-commerce conversion rate formula is fairly simple: divide the number of conversions you receive in a specific period by the total number of people who have visited your landing page or website. Then, multiply the result by 100%.
For example, your site had 15,216 visitors and 2,103 conversions last month. Then, your conversion rate would be: 2,103 / 15,216 * 100% = 13.82%.
The average e-commerce store usually has a conversion rate of around 2-3%. Once you calculate your conversion rate, you may want to compare it to e-commerce conversion rates by industry to see whether your e-commerce site needs a boost.
How to Increase Conversion Rates in E-commerce
Increasing eCommerce conversion rates is a truly multi-faceted task: there are endless opportunities to gain more customers and countless ways to do so. Here are some of them:
- Reverse-Engineer the Customer Journey
Start with the confirmation page and work your way back to the home or landing page. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience: spend the time navigating your website and looking for potential pain points the customers may encounter.
Repeat the exercise regularly to gain new perspectives on the customer journey experience.
- Simplify the Checkout Process
Shortening your conversion funnel process will leave fewer chances for potential customers to leave the site before completing the purchase.
Simplify your checkout process as much as possible and minimize the number of steps required to purchase a product. You can also reduce the number of visible buttons, options, and overall clutter in the cart.
- Go for Simple Design
Aim to make navigation through your website as simple as possible: if your clients can’t quickly find what they need, they will go to a competitor.
Take some time to structure your website correctly and choose a clean page design. It is also important to include eye-catching call-to-action (CTA) buttons, as they hugely impact e-commerce conversion rates.
- Offer Free Shipping
If you offer free shipping with a purchase, customers will be more likely to buy something. You can think of a way to include shipping costs in the price of your products.
- Speed Up Your Website
Online customers are impatient. If they are left waiting for your e-commerce website to load, chances are they will buy a similar product from your competitor instead.
To keep conversion rates high, make sure all the pages of your website load quickly, the pages aren’t too heavy, and the checkout process is easy and quick.
- Recover Abandoned Carts
Website visitors often add items to their cart and then forget or get distracted. Sending them a reminder will help complete the transaction and increase eCommerce conversion rates.
Reach out to the customer via email and remind them to re-visit their cart to complete the purchase. You can also customize the reminder email and include additional discounts for purchasing the products already in the cart.
- Create a Sense of Urgency
Making your customers fear the potential loss will urge them to complete the purchase faster. You can create scarcity by displaying the product inventory or how many people are viewing it at the moment.
- Include High-Quality Images
A detailed, high-quality image will help the customers visualize your product and make the purchasing decision.
Use a professional camera to take some engaging and relevant images of your products. You can also use shadows to add some depth to your images.
- Provide Coupons
Customers want to feel like they are getting a good deal. Adding coupon discounts to your products can make potential customers feel good about purchasing.
- Add Live Chat Support
Website visitors often seek immediate support and resolution. You can integrate a chatbot or a live chat directly on your website. It will provide a memorable positive experience to your visitors when they receive an instant response from your customer service agents.
- Allow for Guest Checkout
Customers often don’t want to register or create an account with your e-commerce store. Some might be buying a gift for a friend without a particular interest in your products, some might want to make a single purchase and move on, and others might not want to receive another newsletter in their email.
Whatever the reason, enabling guest checkout will help keep one-time customers and get them to complete the purchase.
Find and Fix Your Conversion Killers
Of course, it is essential to acknowledge that every single e-commerce business is unique – and so are its customers. That being said, there are numerous reasons why your eCommerce conversion rate may not be as high as it could potentially be, and some proven ways to fix the situation.
It would be best to continuously look for ways to improve your website and backend process. And once you find an issue – take the time to fix it. Over time, making one change every week will make a difference in your e-commerce conversion rates – and your profits.
Author Bio
Eddie Segal is an experienced web analytics specialist and technology writer. He covers finance, cloud computing, agile development, cybersecurity, and deep learning in his writing. Eddie is also a project manager at Best Small Business Loans,
