As a Shopify, BigCommerce, or Wix store owner, one thing you should be obsessing over is your shop’s conversion rate.
But you may be asking, how do you increase your conversion rate?
You are in luck, this post was written to show you just how to do that.
As a bonus, we got two Shopify experts, Sarah, eCommerce Agency owner and co-founder of the online sustainable marketplace, ShopHamont and Shannon, founder of Shopify Experts Agency The Ecomm Guys, to over a few simple things that you can do to increase your conversion rate, no matter the size or age of your online store.
Before your begin to increase your conversion rate, you have to make sure that you understand what a conversion rate is so check and create realistic goals for your business.
You need to set a goal for your website
You’ll only be able to evaluate the effectiveness of your website when you can compare how often the goal you set is met.
Your goal should be a measurable action of some sort, such as signing up for something, purchasing something, clicking something or ordering something.
Here is an excellent example of a goal
"My goal is to increase my Shopify store conversion rate from 2% to 5% in 3 months."
If that is your goal, how do you go about getting people to complete the actions that will increase your conversion rates and improve your website’s effectiveness?
Let’s go over some things you can do right now to increase your conversion rate:
- Improve your site's load time
- Ensure your site is mobile optimized
- Use A/B Split Testing
- Get Clear on Your Value
- Write Clear Copy
- Set Up a Sales Funnel
- Improve Your Product Page
- Increase Brand Trust
8 Ways to Increase Your Conversion Rate
1. Improve your site's load time
According to Shannon, one of the first areas he looks at when improving a client's conversion rate is their site's load speed!
From what he has seen, "improving a store's load time by as little as half a second can double, or even triple conversions, depending on their starting point.
Four of the easiest ways for merchants to ensure their store is loading quickly are
- using a light/fast Shopify theme
- compressing images across the site
- limiting their use of video
- removing any unused apps or plugins
2. Ensure your site is mobile optimized
To follow up with site improvements, Shannon wants store owners like you to remember that "over 50% of website traffic globally is from mobile, so without a mobile-optimized site, you're throwing away advertising dollars and destroying any hope of a great conversion rate.
The majority of Shopify themes available are mobile-optimized, but if your store is custom, ensure that it's responsive and provides an easy shopping experience for visitors across all devices."
3. Use A/B Split Testing
A/B Split testing is a technique you can implement to increase your conversion rate.
For example, if you have two headlines you think will work for your page and can't decide on which to use, you could run an A/B test to see which one works better.
How do you do this?
Simply create two alternative versions of your page (page A and page B), and use an A/B testing software which directs 50% of the incoming traffic to page A and 50% to page B.
After a little while, you can evaluate which page was more successful in getting conversions. The winner will become your new headline! A/B split testing also works with gift offers, colour schemes, and hero images.
You should try to have at least one A/B test running at any given time. With markets and trends and consumer tastes changing so fast, you need to ensure you’re keeping up to date by continuously testing new ideas and strategies so that your website stays fresh and relevant.
4. Get Clear on Your Value
If you want to increase your conversion rate, your value proposition will be your most important factor.
You need to let the people visiting your website what’s in it for them AND why they should buy from you.
Crafting a good value proposition requires you to reflect on what is unique about your company, products and services. You need to refine your value proposition into a single sentence.
Don’t forget; you can use A/B testing to see how your value proposition resonates with your potential customers!
When crafting a value proposition, make sure that you focus on the value and benefit you bring to your customer’s life.
5. Write Clear Copy
Working with several stores, Shannon has discovered that "stores with little to no real descriptions of products (or even worse, descriptions that are copy-pasted from a dropship supplier).
Writing clear, compelling product descriptions that speak to the pain point your product/service solves will improve conversion rates dramatically.
Focus on the benefits of your product, vs its features!"
6. Set up a Sales Funnel
Sometimes, your conversions are killed by you asking for the sale too fast.
That is why you need a funnel. In many cases, you need to slow down and build a sales funnel to build trust, develop relationships and prove your expertise.
For example, this blog post is part of our sales funnel! The longer your relationship with a visitor, the more likely they are to buy from you.
You can build trust online by offering your visitors something of value like a gift or printable pdf or show the results of your product in advance.
Make sure that you are getting your customer’s contact information so you can continue to talk to them and bring them closer to the point of purchase to see an increase in your conversion rates over the long term.
Create Follow up drip campaigns
“While follow up drip campaigns don't impact cold traffic conversion rates directly, they are a fantastic way to increase overall revenue, create engagement for your product offerings, and are by far the most cost-effective form of marketing,” says Shannon.
Setting up simple flows using a tool like Klaviyo will allow you to re-market to people who abandon their cart, register for your newsletter, or perform other actions across your store.
The most powerful use of these is nurturing customers who have purchased from you before.
Sending out an automated series of emails asking for feedback, checking in on their purchase experience, and showing that your brand cares about their satisfaction, is a powerful way to ensure that they'll purchase again, and tell their friends about their fantastic experience.
7. Improve Your Product Page
Getting your product page right is essential for boosting your conversions.
Here are a few things you can do right away to go from a mediocre conversion rate to an amazing one!
Address Objections On The Product Page
Whenever people get to your website and read your offer, there will be friction. They’ll instinctively have objections to whatever you’re saying.
In-person, you can uncover those hesitations with questions and address their concerns, but it’s much more challenging to do with online customers.
The solution is to preemptively address those objections by addressing all of the possible issues right away. To do this effectively, follow these steps
Step One: List Objections
Create a list of all the possible objections your potential customers may have. Some objections/questions may be:
- How long will the shipping take?
- Does this candle smell good?
- Will it work on curly hair?
- Can this gym equipment fit in my basement?
Step Two: Address Objections on Your Product Page
Add content like curated testimonials or expert recommendations to eliminate or alleviate the concerns you came up with. Be as detailed and thorough as you can when dealing with customer objections.
If you are stuck, reach out to a friend or partner to get their input. They should be able to help you determine if your list is thorough.
If you are feeling fancy, you can use on-site surveys to pinpoint visitor frustrations and get real-time feedback.
Use Quality product images
Shannon says it best, "blurry, out of focus, or generally poor quality product images are a sure way to cause hesitancy during a customer's purchase journey.
If you are dropshipping, try and establish your winning products early on and order them from your supplier yourself and replace them with great quality photos.
Investing in high-quality product photography is a one-time investment that will yield conversion rate dividends for the lifetime of your product."
Make Shipping Free
Who doesn't love free shipping? I know I do!
"One of the biggest conversion rate killers s shipping costs," Shannon says in our interview. "If you can work shipping rates into your product pricing, your customers (and conversion rate) will thank you! If that's not possible, consider including free shipping above a certain cart value, such as free shipping over $50.
The latter strategy will likely decrease overall conversion rate, but can have the added benefit of increasing your average cart value."
8. Increase Brand Trust
Of the four main reasons that someone won’t buy from you (no need, no money, not in a hurry to buy, and no trust), trust is the only element that you can have any real effect on.
In life, you should only focus on the things you can control, so add the trust element on your website to increase your conversion rates!
Here is how you can do it
Build Credibility
- Show that there is a real business behind your site by listing a physical address and easy to find contact information.
- P.S. This is important if you want to run ads too. Some platforms won’t let you run ads if you have no physical address.
- Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.
- Provide third-party support for the information you present.
- Highlight trust badges at checkout.
- Provide comparisons (where useful) and let visitors know why they should buy from you instead of a competitor.
- Remove the perceived risk by offering a guarantee or warranty.
- Highlight any expertise you have in your field by giving the credentials of your team members.
- Hint: You should always have a strong 'About Us Page' to build credibility.
Make Your Web Experience Seamless and Professional
- Make sure your online store looks professional and contains no spelling or grammar errors.
- Make sure your site is intuitively easy to use.
- FYI: Focusing on creating a great user experience will reward you with sales and in search ranking
- Update your site often to keep it fresh and relevant.
- Try and avoid having ads, annoying popups and blinking banners.
Listen to Shannon on this one: "While email collection popups are a fantastic way to remarket to consumers who don't purchase on their first visit, they are intrusive, and quite frankly annoying, if not used correctly.
Ensure your popups are configured to only appear upon exit intent (when a users cursor indicates they are leaving your page).
This will ensure you're not interrupting your visitor's buying experience, and will also ensure you're not offering a discount to a visitor who was going to purchase your items at full price."
Phew! That was a lot.
Sarah reveals that many merchants are ambitious people that also have constraints on their time and resources.
She says she "often see[s] merchants trying to do the uttermost on their site with a brand loyalty program, content marketing strategy and affiliate program.
While those are all great tactics in one way or another, with that comes sacrificing the quality of everything that you are doing.
In general, it is better to do a few things well then do a lot of things decently. While it may seem daunting, you can take a couple of hours out of your week to focus on these simple things, and install some really good Shopify or BigCommerce apps, and you should begin seeing improvement in your conversion rates.
Sarah thinks you should "be concise, diligent and patient with your efforts. When you execute a new tactic, give yourself time to measure the performance and move forward with what you've learnt."
Remember, there is no such thing as a perfect website. There will always be changes and improvements that you have to make to ensure your continued success. Just set goals put in the hard work, and you will see results!
