5 Tactics to Increase Your Ecommerce Conversion Rate
Many ecommerce business owners make the same mistake, believing that developing an amazing product and investing in unique website design is enough to increase conversions. Unfortunately, it is not that easy. Conversions don’t happen overnight. No matter if you want to generate more leads, boost newsletter signups, or maximize sales, you need to optimize your website for conversions.
Want to learn more about increasing ecommerce conversion rates? Keep reading.
Prove that You Care about your Customers’ Online Security
With the rise of online frauds, online customers are deeply concerned about the security of their data. Research says that 17% of lost sales are caused by security concerns. Before entering their credit card information, they will want to know that they are buying from a legitimate online store that cares about their safety and meets industry standards.
For starters, switch from HTTP to HTTPs. Apart from being a minor ranking factor, SSL certificates also build trust with online users. Google Chrome now labels all websites with HTTPS are labeled as “safe,” while those still using HTTP are marked as “unsafe.” This warning may discourage many customers from buying from you, so install SSL site-wide.
Next, add trust badges to your checkout pages, product pages, or individual landing pages. These could be cybersecurity badges, accepted payment badges, safe checkout badges, or money-back guarantee badges. You should also highlight your industry certifications and qualifications to build trust with prospective customers.
Leverage Social Proof
In psychology, social proof is a phenomenon where an individual conforms to the opinions or actions of the masses. As such, social proof is a powerful ecommerce marketing tactic.
There are many ways to use social proof to enhance online sales. You could use a conversion rate optimization tool to show real-time conversion data. You could show how many people are viewing your website pages or products, how many sales you have scored over the last week or month, who has recently signed up for your free trials, etc. The real-time information will show up in a small popup and you can tailor its shape, color, messaging, and position to your website’s specific needs.
You should also show your customers’ ratings and reviews. Almost 90% of customers believe online reviews as much as their friends’ recommendations. Therefore, encourage customers to rate and review your products or write testimonials. To inspire them to share opinions of your brand, don’t ignore negative reviews. Address them promptly and focus on solving customers’ problems. You could also offer free shipping, discounts, or freebies to customers that write reviews.
Finally, share user-generated content, as it impacts the purchasing decisions of 79% of your customers. UGC builds trust with them and shows that people with similar preferences and needs are already buying from you. One of the best ways to encourage customers to share user-generated content is to host massive photo contests.
Improve Product Pages
When purchasing online, customers cannot touch your products, test them, or put them on. Precisely because of that, they rely on your descriptions and photos of your products.
To gain their trust and convert them, use visual content. Invest in high-quality photography. Take product photos from multiple angles and offer close-up shots so visitors can zoom in your product. You could also use 360-degree snapshots to take your product photos to the next level. Apart from photos, you could also use video content. Explainer videos, unboxing videos, instructional videos, and so forth, will engage your customers and build stronger relationships with them.
Now, investing in awesome visual content is only half the job done. The other half is writing killer product descriptions. Instead of spamming them with exact-match keywords to boost your rankings, write organic and helpful product descriptions that will show the benefits of your products and inspire customers to make purchases faster.
Keep your Site Easy to Navigate
Too complex navigation is one of the major reasons why customers ditch their shopping carts. Simplify your website architecture to make it easier for your customers to find your products and make purchases.
For example, you should keep your navigation menu simple. Overly complex menus may confuse visitors and prevent them from finding the right product. Keep your most prominent product categories and subcategories and choose informative labels for them.
Remember that many customers already know what they want to buy. Shorten their shopping life-cycle by offering a search box and letting them find the desired product faster.
You should also use chatbots to improve customer service and increase website search functionalities. With the rise of mobile technologies, many customers don’t want to waste time browsing through your website. They turn to chatbots that ask them straightforward questions and provide them with personalized product recommendations in real-time.
Finally, add filters to your category pages to help customers drill down to the right products. Choose filters that are relevant to your customers, such as product price, manufacturer, availability, characteristics, etc.
Optimize the Checkout Process
If your checkout process is overly complicated or long, you may lose customers. There are many ways to minimize the shopping cart abandonment rate and some of them are:
- Let customers make purchases as guests.
- Simplify your checkout forms, optimize them for mobile, and keep them easy-to-understand.
- Keep your call-to-action buttons and Add to Cart buttons prominent on your website.
- Offer multiple payment gateways to improve user experiences.
- Always show a shopping cart icon.
Over to You
Testing and tweaking your website continuously to improve conversion rates is immensely important. You need to walk in your customers’ shoes, know their preferences, and determine how you will inspire them to convert once you get them in.
In 2020, ecommerce marketing is highly customer-centric, so focus on improving their experiences on every level. While there are numerous tactics to apply, those I mentioned above go far beyond boosting one-off sales. They will help you position yourself as an industry leader, increase customers’ satisfaction with your brand, and encourage brand loyalty.
Author Bio:
My name is Raul and I am editor in chief at Technivorz blog. I have a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing. Please take a minute to connect with me on Twitter and Facebook.
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