Launching an eCommerce store in 2024 takes a few minutes. With just a few clicks, you can start selling your products to a massive audience worldwide.
As much as it is easy to establish an online store, converting a visitor to a customer is not easy. Entrepreneurs often face the dilemma of securing customers and making a sale to them. Despite having excellent products, sellers fail to make a sale to their prospective audiences.
If you are facing the problem of a low conversion rate, and want to optimize it to reach the zenith of success, follow these 16 eCommerce conversion rate optimization strategies
To get more detail on each step keep reading till the end!
16 eCommerce Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies for 2024
- Optimize Your Site Speed
- Improve Your SEO
- Responsive Web Design
- Use High-Quality Pictures And Videos
- Compelling Product Descriptions
- Smooth Navigation
- AI-Powered Smart Site-Search
- Provide Social Proof
- Simplify The Checkout Process
- Follow Up On Abandoned Carts
- Highlight Your Return Or Exchange Policy
- Offer Free Shipping
- Create Urgency
- Use Live Chat Software
- Add Filters To Category Pages
- Be Consistent
1. Optimize Your Site Speed
Do you know how much time you have before the visitor quits waiting for your website to load?
Two seconds, that’s right!
If your website takes longer than 2 seconds to load, 87% of visitors will abandon your website. This lot of visitors will also include people who would’ve become your customers and rewarded you with their credit card details.
Online buyers are impatient. The reason why people resort to shopping online is that it’s time-saving and hassle-free. If you fail to provide a quick shopping experience to your buyers, the essence of shopping online is lost.
Make sure that your website loads quickly for the visitors. The best way to optimize the speed of your website is to compress the code files and images. Moreover, if you have installed some unnecessary plugins, get rid of them. If you have uploaded videos on your website, replace it by embedding it from YouTube or other video streaming channels.
2. Improve Your SEO
SEO strategies, when combined with conversion rate optimization strategies, create a lip-smacking recipe to increase organic traffic and boost eCommerce conversions.
Search engine result pages are the primary source to get a good lot of organic traffic. Hence, it would help boost your SEO to ensure that your websites rank higher on the result pages to drive prospective customers to your eCommerce store.
Use the correct keywords to rank higher. Conduct research to check if you are optimizing your content for the right keywords or not. If you optimize the content with the words that nobody uses to search the business or products, your website will never make it to the top results. To increase your chances of being found by the people, use the keywords and phrases that your targeted audience will use to see you.
3. Responsive Web Design
When was the last time you switched on your laptops or desktop devices to order your favorite goods online?
Seems like quite a long time since the advent of smartphones. People find it more comfortable to order their desired goods through their mobile devices.
In the current year, eCommerce sales from mobile devices are expected to account for 54% of the total online sales. It means more than half of the online buyers will use their mobile devices to shop online.
Websites that are not optimized for various digital devices will suffer a dip in their conversion rates. Do not expect the mobile visitors to zoom in or out, scroll endlessly, or change their screen orientation to explore and shop from your website.
If the websites are not optimized, mobile users will press the back button and head to another website.
Provide your mobile users the same experience as your desktop users. They will reward you by becoming your customers.
4. Use High-Quality Pictures And Videos
Unlike a brick-and-mortar store, online buyers cannot touch the product or try it on. They have to rely on the images and videos provided by the seller to decide whether to buy the product or not.
To tempt your customer to press the buy now button, make sure that you add high-resolution images of your product. Take pictures in good lighting and from different angles to give your customers a better view of the product.
If your product needs a demonstration, embed a video that guides the customer about assembling, using, cleaning, and detaching it.
Remember, the internet is a visual place. Appeal to your audience’s visual senses to lure them into buying the products.
5. Compelling Product Descriptions
A picture can arouse the buying intention of the visitor, but a compelling product copy can seal his buying decision in your favor.
Write down persuasive descriptions for the products you are selling. Try to keep it simple, clear, and concise. Avoid using complex or technical words that will be difficult to understand by the general audience.
Refrain from writing paragraphs describing your products. Your visitors will not bother to read the complete information. They will scan it. Make it easier for them by dividing the details and information into bullet points and subheadings.
6. Smooth Navigation
Your visitors should be easily able to move around your website and explore different products on your website. Failure to provide them with smooth and seamless navigation will make your visitors irritated, and they will leave your website empty-handed.
Your site’s navigation should be simple. Do not get experimental with the navigation menu. Suppose the visitors are unable to comprehend how to go to the product page from the homepage. In that case, they will not waste the next second and head straight to your rival’s store, which provides seamless navigation throughout their website.
7. AI-Powered Smart Site-Search
Adding a site-search option on your main menu can multiply your store’s success.
Did you know that 70% of eCommerce’s search options cannot return the appropriate result for the synonyms entered for a product?
If a person is new to your website, he probably won’t know what labels you use for the products on your website. The search engine should be smart enough to understand what the person is looking for and display him with the relevant results.
The site search option saves a person’s time from exploring different pages to find the product. Ensure that the site-search option is programmed to revert with the results even if a person doesn’t enter the labels, words, or phrases you have set on your store. If the search option fails to display the products to your customers, they will leave without purchasing anything. Your conversion rate will significantly be affected due to the incompetence of your site’s search option.
8. Provide Social Proof
People do not throw away their money on every product or website they come across while surfing the internet. They make sure that the website they visit and explore is not a scam and provides excellent products.
The best way to win the trust of your new visitors is by strategically displaying the customers’ testimonials and reviews. Encourage your customers to leave feedback on your eCommerce store.
92% of people read testimonials and reviews before purchasing from a website. When visitors see that people are happy to use your products and it solves their problems, they quicken up to add products into their carts.
To make it more effective, you can display the logos of the companies that are your customers. When people see the trademarks of famous brands as your customers, they will not hesitate to buy from you. Similarly, you can mention the number of customers that you have. You must have seen descriptions like “Serving 20,000 customers since 2018.” It makes a person believe that you’re a professional brand that sells excellent products.
9. Simplify The Checkout Process
If your customers have added products in their car and reached the checkout phase, do not irritate or upset them, or else they will ditch their carts and exit the website.
Your checkout process should be short, simple, and quick.
Do not ask your customers to fill in lengthy forms that ask for irrelevant information which is not connected to the order placement and shipment.
Show the checkout progress of your customers. It keeps them patient during the entire process and instills the sense of reaching towards the end. Moreover, do not ask your customers to create an account for checking out. Instead of the whole registration thing, provide the option of guest checkout.
Do not provide any reason to your customer to change his mind about buying the products. Once you have successfully driven him to the checkout stage, ensure that he leaves after sharing his credit card details. Provide him with multiple channels of payment. Let him select the one he is most comfortable using. A seamless checkout process will boost eCommerce conversions.
10. Follow Up On Abandoned Carts
Do you know that the average rate of cart abandonment is between 69%-74.52%?
There are numerous reasons why consumers abandon their carts and leave the website empty-handed. If you observe an increased rate of cart abandonment in your store, check the culprits on your website responsible for it.
It could be the flawed structure of your website, long and tiring checkout process, or additional costs added to the customer’s bill.
Rectify the issues that contribute to cart abandonment, and reach out to customers who abandoned their carts. Send them an email and remind them about the products that caught their eye and offer a discount code to them to return to the website and place their orders.
Another successful trick is to run retargeted ads to capture the attention of the people who were interested in your product.
11. Highlight Your Return Or Exchange Policy
To make your customers comfortable to shop from your website, place your return and exchange policies on the homepage, or create a separate page for it.
In an online store, people cannot try on things before buying them. Sometimes, the buyers purchase the product, and upon receiving it, they realize that the product is not fit for their use. Offer an easy exchange facility to your customers. Be clear and upfront about your policies to avoid raising any issues at the time of exchange or return.
Customers feel more at ease buying from a website that offers easy returns or exchange.
12. Offer Free Shipping
The word FREE is a magnet to attract potential and existing customers. By offering free shipping to your customers, they will be happy to order the goods from your website as they won’t have to pay the shipping charges.
If waiving off the shipping charges is not a feasible option for you, set a cost after which your customers can enjoy free shipping. For instance, you can provide free delivery on shopping above $250.
It will improve the eCommerce conversion rate of your business.
13. Create Urgency
Scarcity is a powerful motivator for your customers to shop from your website. Creating a sense of emergency, displaying the items left in the stock, and offering limited-time offers can make your customers hurry up and add products to their carts.
Using the words,
- limited time offer
- special edition
- ending stock, etc.,
can help create urgency and help the customer to make up their mind about purchasing the goods quickly.
14. Use Live Chat Software
If a guest has come to your website, do not leave him alone. Help him explore your store, solve his queries, and guide him about the product by integrating a live chat software on your website.
The live chat feature can quickly answer your customer’s queries and doubts. With this software, you can provide a little push to your visitors to become your customers.
15. Add Filters To Category Pages
Providing the option to filter the products according to size, color, price, material, popularity, etc. can help the customers find the right products.
Create filters on your product and categories pages for your customers - research the different questions raised by the customer to create the relevant filters.
For instance, if the buyer aims to purchase the items that are of blue color, create a color filter on the product page and display the blue colored products to your consumer.
16. Be Consistent
Make sure that you stay consistent with your efforts to boost eCommerce conversion. Keep a vigilant eye on your website and the users’ behavior.
Work consistently to provide a fantastic shopping experience to your customers. Treat your customers well on your website and make it easy for them to find the products and place their orders without going through a torturous checkout process.
Moreover, do not forget to provide excellent customer care service to your potential and existing customers. Respond to their queries; if they have any complaints with the product or the service, revert to them with a proper solution to their problems.
Showing the customers that you truly care about them will make them return to you for their future shopping sprees.
Conversion Rate Optimization In A Nutshell
To improve the eCommerce conversion rate, ensure that you apply the above-listed strategies properly to witness an increase in the conversion rates. Track your efforts to check if they are aligned with your goals.
Do not apply all the strategies at once; start by implementing one or two. Do not expect a sharp increase in your conversion rates overnight.
Consistency is the key to be successful in the competitive online world.
Good Luck!
About the Author
Ricky Hayes is the Co-Founder and Head of Marketing at Debutify - free Shopify theme, helping dropshippers build high-converting stores in minutes. He is a passionate entrepreneur running multiple businesses, marketing agencies, and mentoring programs.
