In eCommerce, average conversion rates linger somewhere between 1% and 2%.
This figure is indeed very low, but if that’s not enough, consider the pressure marketers feel to get their conversion strategy right knowing that over 380 new websites are launched every minute and 79% of marketing leads do not convert into sales.
Each aspect of your eCommerce business must be optimized for capturing leads and turning them into customers.
In this article, we will look into seven actionable steps for boosting your online store’s conversion rates through optimization of its elements.
Simple and intuitive navigation is the cornerstone of every eCommerce website’s conversion rate optimization tactics.
Your prospects and customers are visiting your website to look for a specific product or want to browse through your catalog. If an overly complex, unstructured navigation confuses them, they will leave for your competitor with better UX.
The more products you offer, the more vital it is that your sitemap and navigational structure are easy to use.
To make your navigation more user-friendly, consider these best practices:
- Organize your product categories in a way that your customers are familiar with.
- Don’t have too many product categories. Instead, organize them into dedicated subcategories.
- Don’t forget to add on-site search engine that would automatically generate result suggestions as your visitors type
- Use breadcrumbs for easier orientation
- Add the most popular links to prominent places on the website as linked banners
- Use call-to-actions to guide visitors directly to conversion pages and pages with discounts
Your website navigation’s purpose is to present your visitors with the most relevant products that align with their search intent.
Deliver Tailored Content
You can provide your visitors with a personalized website experience using:
- Dynamic content
- Clear pathways
Dynamic content tools ensure presenting customized content such as special offers and product recommendations to your shoppers based on their purchase history, age, gender, location, on-site behavior, preferences, and other metrics.
As far as pathways go, you need to consider the types of customers your online store attracts before coming up with pathways for them to choose from. These pathways will direct them to products that are mutually related but do not belong in the same product category.
Every cutting-edge digital agency recommends content personalization as a way of engaging with the target audience on a more meaningful level.
Speed Up Your Website
How fast your eCommerce store loads is vital for attracting potential customers because 79% of online shoppers dissatisfied with website speed won’t buy from the same site again. Today, over 40% of website visitors expect a website to load in three seconds or faster.
Desktop and mobile device page loading speeds depend on a variety of factors, such as your hosting plan, the architecture of the website and its files, multimedia size and more.
Before venturing to improve your website loading times, measure them by using one of many online speed test tools.
After evaluating the report, you will gain insight into frontend and backend elements that are slowing your site down.
To improve your website’s speed, you can:
- Optimize your images for web and reduce their sizes
- Tidy up the excess code in your HTML, PHP, JS and CSS files
- Enable browser caching
- Use a premium hosting plan
- Minimize the use of embedded media
Make Most Of The Above-The-Fold Area
Visitors form a first impression of your website in a matter of seconds. What you place in front of them as soon as they land on your page is vital for their retention.
A persuasive above-the-fold design should combine high-quality images, a unique value proposition, understandable navigation and substantial messaging.
The top section of your home page – or any website page, for that matter – is the most important part. It should be visually appealing and convincing but, above all, it should deliver exactly what the shoppers were looking for when they came to it.
This is where you make a positive first impression upon your visitors, engage them and get their attention.
Be careful not to fall into the trap of wanting to show too much, though: the page above-the-fold shouldn’t be crammed with content as that will divert the visitors. Instead, open with a strong visual and follow through with compelling copy and a CTA. Test your above-the-fold design and adjust it according to your market and target audience.
Add exit-intent popup for cart-abandoners that emphasize scarcity
According to Baymard institute, an average cart abandonment rate is 69,8% and every ecommerce store struggles to reduce that rate.
Cart abandoners are a top priority segment to optimize as they are highly engaged users who got to the bottom of the funnel.
Lots of e-commerce stores offer discounts in exit-intent popups but this tactic may vanish the profit margins and should compete for a budget with remarketing.
As an alternative to discounts, you can emphasize the scarcity of products that users have added to cart in an exit intent pop-up. CRO agency achieved 7% total conversion to transaction uplift with this tactic without any discounts.
Tap Into Social Media Shopping
You don’t have to wait for your prospects to come to your eCommerce store – you can meet them on other digital channels such as social media and entice them to buy from you there.
Facebook and Instagram have rolled out their own shopping platforms that make it possible for marketers to sell their products to target audiences.
Since many users spend most of their time on these social media platforms, eCommerce businesses are making it easier for them to buy products that fall in line with the type of content they are looking at on Instagram and Facebook.
Online shopping industries that rely on the visual presentation can make their Instagram and Facebook profiles shoppable. Creating a seamless user journey from a mere visitor to a customer is a daunting task. But, by providing your shoppers with the option to buy as they browse social media feeds, you save a step or two and bring them much closer to conversion.
Display Buyer Reviews And Social Proof
Social proof like user reviews and client testimonials are a third-party guarantee that your products and the way you conduct business are honest and valid.
They build trust with your existing prospects and customers and, when your prospects read them, they are more likely to convert.
The figures go in social proofs’ favor: 92% of people trust their peer’s recommendations while 70% of them trust a recommendation by someone in their surroundings.
In fact, personalized customer testimonials can boost conversion rates by as much as 25%!
User reviews and client testimonials:
- Persuade your shoppers about your brand integrity and eliminate any doubt or hesitation they may have about you as a brand
- Help your prospects gain trust in your business by finding value in a testimonial that addresses their own pain point
- Act as a reference point for your customers because they can compare their own situation to that of reviewers’
Amplify Your Products With Helpful Content
High-quality, helpful content that solves your visitors’ pain points comes with multiple benefits: it establishes your brand as an industry authority, builds trust with your audience, improves your search engine rankings and boosts chances of conversion.
When it comes to the eCommerce businesses, you can leverage content to enhance your product offering in the following ways:
- Create “Gift” categories to help your customers shop for other people
- Write comprehensive size guides to help shoppers decide on the correct size of apparel products
- Create related blog content and long-form how-to articles that educate your visitors
- Implement video guides and tips
Conclusion
Optimizing your online store for better conversion rates means evaluating your content, navigation, user journey and buyer behavior.
The seven best practices we discussed in this article will ensure that you reach your potential for higher conversions, while also benefiting from better user experience, greater visibility and higher search engine rankings.
eCommerce and business signs in blue glass cubes -DepositPhotos
