Regardless of how attractive and well-designed your website is, it may seem like […]
Converting online store visitors into buyers is a major concern for online retailers. However, new research shows that many online retailers are failing to put enough effort into ecommerce conversion optimization. Research shows that online businesses spend most of their marketing budget on attracting visitors to their website. Only 5% of their marketing budget goes to conversion optimization.
When we take these findings into consideration, it makes sense why 35% of online businesses report having a conversion rate of 1% or lower. Whatever the circumstances, whether they are focused on new products or markets, don’t have enough experience or something else, the fact remains that online store owners don’t invest enough in conversion optimization.
Whatever the reason for neglecting ecommerce conversion optimization, online store owners can find a way to take care of this issue. They can hire professional web developers who understand the expectations of customers and can help increase their ecommerce conversion rates.
Sometimes, very simple changes to your website design can bring about large changes in conversion rates. Whether you optimize your ecommerce website design by yourself or you decide to hire professionals, there are some simple conversion optimization tips you can try.
When it comes to online shopping, a consumer’s buying decision starts to form during the first three seconds of their visit. In these three seconds, the visitors on your ecommerce website should easily tell what it is that you sell. They should also feel safe in trusting their credit cards with you.
Keep your website design clean and professional, with lots of large, high-quality images. A cluttered design distracts shoppers from viewing and buying your products. Clean your pages from any unnecessary distractions that can turn a visitor’s attention away from the decision to buy. You should also put trust marks and information about your company.
Dedicating an entire “About us” page will help you increase a shopper’s level of trust and interest in your story. In fact, people love reading stories. Tell yours in an interesting manner and give interested visitors the opportunity to read it.
With today’s amount of competition in the world of eCommerce, the concept of “risk removal” is crucial. Make sure your website copy communicates some policies or features that address the customer's pain points. This should include clear and detailed return policies, a low price guarantee, and shipping costs.
63% of shoppers check return policies before deciding to make a purchase. 44% of shopping carts are abandoned because of high shipping costs. But 22% of people abandon shopping carts because shipping costs were listed too late in the process.
Don’t let your customers feel fooled by sales tricks. Use a shopping cart that will calculate taxes and shipping right at the “add to cart” option, so your shoppers will know the final price before they even proceed to checkout.
When people visit e-Commerce websites, they expect to go through the website content effortlessly. Keep your navigation paths well organized and keep the products under the right product category.
If you have a lot of categories, fly-out menus can be a good solution for you. They give shoppers the opportunity to access any category page at any time, and keep your pages from getting cluttered. You need to make practicality a priority if you want to increase your ecommerce conversion rates.
Studies estimate that approximately 50 percent of potential sales are lost because users can’t find information about things that they are looking for. If you want to avoid this being a reason for low conversion rates, make sure to have clear phrasing in navigation menus and avoid jargon. Assume your visitors know nothing about your industry and try to help them find what they need.
When it comes to ecommerce conversion optimization, a search box is an imperative feature. Over 20% of online visitors prefer using a search feature to access products that match their needs.
Sometimes, search can return more results than expected. It can also return the wrong results if visitors don’t use the optimal keywords. This is why the use of predictive search is a great way to make sure customers find what they want straight away.
An auto-complete function within the search box provides the closest matches as customers are typing in their keyword. The search suggestions should allow visitors to correct their search if results don’t match. You can also try to directly link customers to the matching products without the need for loading the search results page.
As soon as your customers get a results page, give them an option to sort products by price, reviews, best sellers, and release date. You should also provide an option to adjust the number of items listed per page and let visitors narrow down the number of items displayed by selecting specific features.
Visitors often avoid clicking on individual items for additional details on a separate page. Some do it because of the lack of time while hunting down the products they are looking for, and others do it because of personal preferences.
You can significantly improve everyone's shopping experience by adding a pop-up quick preview feature to your category and search pages. The preview should range from a simply larger version of the product image, to a more complex view that loads product details. For any item that gives an option for selecting a size or color, include images for all the different combinations.
Make sure you always use high quality images, with the product on a clear background or in use by models. Since customers can’t touch the product when buying online, try to help them feel the benefits of your product through good product images.
Using videos can also increase customer satisfaction. They show products in action, so they are far more effective in setting customer expectations than a combination of photos with text-based descriptions. Research shows that adding product videos can increase conversions by 6-30 percent. Just be sure to optimize the videos before loading, so you won’t increase page size and loading times.
Mobile web-traffic is constantly increasing and you have to provide visitors with the same experience, regardless of the device they are using. In 2014, there were over 125 major devices with different resolutions.
Make sure that your website looks perfect on any type of mobile device. Try to ensure that your site has at least four different versions for varying screen sizes, so all your website visitors can use it flawlessly. A full 48% of mobile internet users say that if they visit a business site that doesn't work well on their mobile device, they take it as an indication that the business simply doesn't care.
