Ecommerce is a huge industry. In fact, the global ecommerce market is worth over $1 trillion! But as with any business, it can be tough to survive in an overcrowded marketplace. The key to success for any ecommerce site is conversion rate optimization (CRO). In this article, we discuss 12 ways that you can boost your conversion rates and increase sales on your website.
What is Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization?
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) in ecommerce refers to the process of increasing the percentage of visitors to an online store who complete a purchase. (some CRO services are geared toward micro conversions though, like getting newsletter signups)
This can be achieved through a variety of methods, such as improving the overall user experience, streamlining the checkout process, or offering incentives to complete purchases.
CRO is an important strategy for ecommerce businesses because even a small increase in conversion rate can have a significant impact on revenue. By optimizing your conversion rate, you can potentially increase profits without having to spend more money on advertising or other marketing efforts to bring in new traffic.
How Do You Measure Your Ecommerce Conversion Rate?
To measure the conversion rate of your ecommerce store, you can use our CRO Calculator or the following formula:
Conversion rate = Number of conversions / Number of visitors * 100
To calculate the conversion rate, you first need to determine the number of conversions and the number of visitors to your site. A conversion occurs when a visitor to your site performs a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for your newsletter. The number of conversions can be tracked using tools like Google Analytics. For ecommerce stores, we often see people use pixel tracking through Triple Whale or Wicked Reports for better ad attribution to their conversions.
Once you have the number of conversions and visitors, you can plug these numbers into the formula above to calculate your conversion rate. For example, if your store had 100 visitors and 23 of them purchased something, your conversion rate would be 23%.
It’s important to track your conversion rate over time and compare it to industry benchmarks to see how your store is performing. We often see our ecommerce clients recalculating their conversion rates after three days of test data, which simply isn’t enough unless you have extreme levels of traffic.
By continuously optimizing and improving your conversion rate, you can increase the profitability of your online business!
Ecommerce Conversion Rate Benchmarks
Conversion rates can vary significantly depending on a variety of factors, such as the industry, the product / service being sold, and the quality of the website where the sale is taking place.
Here are some benchmarks that can serve as a general guide:
- The average conversion rate for ecommerce websites is 2-3%.
- The top 25% of ecommerce websites have a conversion rate of 4.3% or higher.
- The top 10% of ecommerce websites have a conversion rate of 6.3% or higher.
It’s important to note that these are just estimated averages. Every business is different, and it’s important to focus on continuously improving your own conversion rate rather than trying to target a specific benchmark. Rather than setting goals of a specific conversion rate, why not focus instead on simply making an increase, regardless of size?
Additionally, it’s important to track your conversion rate over time and compare it to your own historical data to see how your store is performing and to identify areas for improvement.
12 Ways to Improve Your Ecommerce Conversion Rate
1.) Use high-resolution images in your product listings
Using the best images is important for any site, but it’s especially important for ecommerce. Use high-resolution images in your product listings and make sure that they’re the right size before uploading them to your website. This will ensure that your product images look as sharp and clear on the screen as they do in real life.
It’s also important that the images are responsive, meaning that the images automatically resize to fit the screen. With most of your customers using mobile devices, it’s important that the images look just as good as they do on your desktop.
2.) Offer free shipping or expedited delivery
Offering free shipping is an easy way to make potential customers more likely to buy. In fact, it has become so common that customers are conditioned to expect free shipping when making their purchases.
Giving free delivery to your customers could be the key weapon you need in your arsenal to become the go-to brand in your niche and build a solid base of customers remain loyal.
3.) Create a return policy
Make sure you have an excellent return policy so buyers feel confident about shopping with you. This increases shopping satisfaction and reduces buyer remorse (which can lead to lost sales). You should leave a link to the returns policy on multiple pages so that customers can easily find out how to return products.
4.) Offer answers to common questions
Make sure you have a clear contact page, so shoppers can get in touch with customer service if they need assistance. Include the hours of operation and any other important details about your team for customers’ convenience!
Include a customer service chat so if shoppers need assistance, they can get in touch with you and not have to go through the trouble of emailing. This increases shopping satisfaction because it makes customers feel like their concerns are important even after they’ve already purchased something!
5.) Improve your site load times
Site load time is extremely important for any company, but it’s especially critical if you run an ecommerce website. If your site takes too long to load or visitors get a “server not found” message when visiting the page, then they’ll be inclined to leave and go elsewhere.
To ensure that this doesn’t happen, optimize images on your website by lowering their file size or converting them into vector graphics (such as PDFs). You should also remove unnecessary plugins from your website code in order to avoid slowing down the loading speed of pages.
6.) Consider using A/B split tests
Split testing is a powerful way to improve your conversion rate. Split-testing allows you to see which version of a design or content works better for customers and leads them to convert more often.
Conducting an A/B split test can be as simple as changing the button color on your website from green to red, but it’s important that both versions are tested in order not to skew results based off of personal preference.
7.) Include customer reviews of your products
Customer reviews are an important part of any shopping experience. In fact, customer reviews have become so ubiquitous that shoppers will often ignore products with less than five stars on Amazon.
Including customer reviews is a great way to build trust and show your customers why they should buy from you instead of one of your competitors. Reviews also give the potential buyer more information about what they’re buying which leads them to make better decisions when making purchases online.
8.) Send an abandoned shopping cart reminder
When shoppers add items to their carts but then leave without checking out, it’s considered an abandoned cart. The best way to deal with these lost sales is by sending a shopping cart reminder email that includes all the products in the shopper’s cart. This encourages them to come back and complete their order before someone else purchases those items.
9.) Offer free returns
On orders above a certain dollar amount or offer guaranteed exchange policies to make it easier for them to buy from your store without worrying that their purchase might not be right for them. This increased shopping satisfaction, which will reduce buyer remorse (which can also lead to lost sales!)
You can also combat lost sales by using these strategies to generate new leads!
10.) Offer discounts or coupons
Be sure to offer discounts or coupons on products for shoppers who sign up for your email list, which will boost the number of people on your mailing list. This also helps to increase shopping satisfaction and reduce buyer’s remorse (more about that in tip #11!)
11.) Add video testimonials from satisfied buyers
To show off how much they enjoyed using your product, be sure to add video testimonials from previous satisfied buyers. This increases customer engagement with the site too! Include social proof by showing reviews left by other customers so potential customers don’t feel nervous buying online because they might be worried no one else has tried this before, but it turns out lots have–and loved what they bought!
12.) Use infographics
An infographic is an illustration that represents information, data or knowledge through graphic visual representations such as charts, graphs, maps and diagrams like the one below! They can be a great way to break up text-heavy posts because they are easier for people to process visually than just reading words on their screen. Plus this will give your blog some added “umph” with imagery while still being super informative!
How Should Ecommerce Websites Perform SEO?
1.) Setup
The first thing to do is prepare the tracking. Google analytics has been a go-to for years when it comes to conversions and monitoring page visits – however, they’re not your only option! There’s also Crazy Egg (great for split testing), Hotjar, Clicktale…the list goes on.
2.) Audit
Next, you can conduct a site audit to determine the biggest obstacles that could be preventing your users from converting. One great technique for figuring out which parts of your site users find unappealing or frustrating is by looking at their exit points. Google Analytics has a metric called the exit rate. You can calculate this by going to Behavior > Site Content and looking at your page’s exit rates.
3.) Get testing
It’s time to A/B test your CRO updates. Create two different versions of the page and show each version to a randomized group of people who land on your website. For example, you may use a green CTA button on one version and an orange CTA button on another.
Use analytics to track the performance of each version. If one converts better than another, keep it, and then move onto the next test. By the end of your testing, you should have a series of ‘test winners’ live on your website, which should do wonders for increasing the conversion rate.
Is it Possible for CRO Changes to Result in Decreased Revenue?
Yes! A lot of times when we make changes like moving items around on the page or changing copywriting, our conversions may drop off before they go back up again. This happens because you are testing different things at once, so some might work while others don’t. However, all these tests help us learn what really works best, which means more profit in the long run.
Ecommerce CRO Best Practices
It’s important to think about your customers’ perspectives when deciding what you want to be tested. Remember that when people come to your website, they probably have a specific goal in mind. Consider how you can make it as easy for them as possible to accomplish their goals and move on with life!
To create the best user experience possible, you need to keep in mind potential obstacles that may arise while people are completing their goals. Common barriers include:
Effort – People are less likely to convert when there is more effort and time involved. Removing steps from the process will increase your conversion rates, so it’s worth considering how many you can remove!
Not relevant – What’s the point of your page if it doesn’t lead to what people need? The users will quickly be turned off by a site that’s not helpful.
Confusing design – Avoid making your website too overwhelming. Make sure there is a clear path for users to follow and use simple designs that are easy on the eyes.
Final Thoughts on CRO for Ecommerce Websites
In conclusion, there are many ways you can improve your ecommerce conversion rate within a digital marketing campaign. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution and the best way to know what will work for you is by experimenting with different strategies–you’ll never know what will work unless you try it!
If you’re stuck and you want to increase the amount of conversions your site has, check out our post on how you can increase your conversions for your ecommerce site!