How to Increase the Conversion Rate on Your eCommerce Site

Getting traffic to your site is a good goal, but that traffic doesn’t do much good if you don’t figure out how to increase your conversion rate, eCommerce-wise. A strong conversion rate equals strong sales and allows you to invest in further outreach to grow your business month after month. You’ll get a better return on your investment than if you don’t pay attention to conversions and just hope for the best.

In a nutshell, a conversion is anytime a visitor completes the action you want them to take. This might mean purchasing an item or it can be as simple as signing up for your email list. You define what a conversion means to you.

Knowing how to increase conversion rates for eCommerce isn’t as simple as you’d think. There are many factors that come into play. Here are eight things you can do today to begin increasing the conversion rates on your eCommerce site:

1. Show the Product From All Angles

If you want to know how to increase conversion rates for eCommerce, then look at the images on your site. Do the images clearly showcase the products or services you’re trying to sell? Your images should be highly relevant and should show the product from all angles — not just one. Make sure the photos are high-resolution but still optimized to load quickly.

2. Improve Product Copy

Product descriptions are some of the most important features of your eCommerce store. Imagine that you’re a customer just landing on your page. You know nothing about the product and your only clues are reviews, the product description and any images on the site. If you don’t completely fulfill your customers’ needs to fully understand the product before making a purchase, you risk them bouncing away from your site.

First, look at the actual words used to describe the product. Are they strong, concrete words? Next, look at the way those words are presented. Can short points be broken down better with bullet points? Remember that today’s busy consumer is likely to scan through pages on your site and wants content that is easy to digest.

3. Segment Emails

There are many reasons to segment your customers into specific mailing lists so you can send them highly targeted email campaigns. Studies show that segmented emails have a 14.31 percent higher open rate.

How this works best with an eCommerce site is to funnel traffic to specific landing pages via a series of choices, or to have a popup after visitors browse for a specific type of product. The conversion comes first when they sign up for your mailing list. You then convert them again by sending emails targeted at their interests, leading them to purchase something from your site.

4. Follow Up on Abandoned Carts

Around 69 percent of online shopping carts get abandoned, negating any potential conversions. However, one way to snag more sales is to follow up on those abandoned carts. For example, email the person and offer them free shipping or have a popup if they make a move to exit before checkout. The popup could offer them a discount or another incentive to complete their purchase right now.

You’re much more likely to sell something to a person already on your site than one who leaves and possibly heads to a competitor’s site.

5. Add Product Videos

Product videos increase conversions by as much as 113 percent, depending on the category and the video itself. With today’s advanced smartphone cameras, it’s easier than ever for amateurs to shoot short videos showing their product in action. Your PR department head should be fairly skilled at shooting photos and videos, so put them in charge of adding product videos to your eCommerce store.

6. Offer Free Shipping

In one study, 93 percent of consumers said that free shipping makes them more likely to complete a purchase. In order to qualify for free shipping, it has to be worth your while, so look at where your profitability lies. You may want to institute a policy of free shipping for sales over $50, for example.

Another idea is to offer free shipping for specific events. If you sell sports products, you could offer free shipping when your favorite team wins or during playoffs. If you sell seasonal products, offer free shipping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Offer what makes sense and still allows you to turn a profit while attracting new customers.

7. Allow Customization

Allow your customers to customize a product just for them. When they are allowed to customize, it creates a sense of ownership that makes them want to follow through with the purchase process. After they spend time building a custom item, they don’t want to abandon all that work.

8. Offer Live Chat

You can build trust and transparency with your customers by listing contact information and policies in a clear way and making them easy to find. Offer a live chat so users can get instant answers to any questions they might have. This alone helps them make those impulse purchases, versus sending an email and then waiting 24 hours for a response. The more time that comes between when they add an item to the shopping cart and make the decision to buy, the greater the chance they’ll walk away from the transaction.

However, if you plan to offer live chat or any other type of instant customer service, make sure those who operate it are completely trained and fully understand your policies and procedures. Providing consumers with poor information is worse than no information at all.

Increasing Conversion Rate

Getting more conversions isn’t the result of a one-time effort. Instead, you should continuously improve your eCommerce site, getting more and more conversions with each change. Make sure you conduct thorough split testing for each change and see what works and what doesn’t work for your target audience. With time, you’ll make more sales or get more subscribers than ever before and your business will continue to thrive.