If you have an online store, conversion rate optimization should be one of your top priorities. After all, if people are visiting but not buying, all that time and effort you spent getting them to you has been a waste. So in this article, we’re discussing ways to boost your eCommerce conversion rate. We’ll talk about the crucial role your checkout plays in conversion, as well as ways to improve your overall website design, so it’s more conversion-friendly. You’ll see that a little effort can lead to a large increase in sales!
In a nutshell, it's the process of making small but significant changes to your website so more visitors are encouraged to complete their purchases. It could include anything from streamlining your checkout process to simply changing the colour of your "Add to Cart" button.
Conversion rate optimization is important because conversion rate should be one of the biggest KPIs for any eCommerce business. A higher conversion rate means more sales, and more sales is what every business is looking for.
Like any process, conversion rate optimization takes time and some commitment before you get to the great results. But if you're not constantly working to improve your conversion rate, you're leaving money on the table.
First and foremost, if you're looking to improve your conversion rate you need to track your website analytics. This data will help you to understand what's working and what's not, and it will highlight areas that need some improvement.
There are a number of different analytics tools available. Choosing one that suits your business is key. Google Analytics is a popular and free option, but some paid tools offer more features.
Others to look at include:
Once you have analytics set up, you can start testing different conversion rate optimization techniques.
The first thing to take a close look at is your checkout process. Is it easy for customers to find the "Add to Cart" button? Can they easily see the total cost of their purchase, including shipping and taxes? Are there any unnecessary steps in the checkout process that could be causing friction? The smoother and more streamlined your checkout process is, the fewer customers you’ll lose along the way.
It’s not just your checkout that needs to be streamlined, it's important to make sure your whole website design is user-friendly too. Take a look at your navigation menu. How easy is it for visitors to find what they're looking for? Are your product pages well-organized and easy to understand? Your buyers aren’t going to jump through hoops to get what they want, they’re just going to go elsewhere. If you're not sure how friendly your site is, consider some user testing to get some real feedback.
Speed is another factor that can affect conversion rates. If your website is slow to load, visitors are likely to leave before they even have a chance to buy. Research shows that a delay of just one second can result in a 7% decrease in conversion rates. In fact, nearly half of online shoppers will leave a site if it takes more than three seconds to load.
To ensure your website is fast and reliable, choose a quality provider for your web hosting. The right hosting provider will take care of all the technical and maintenance details for you too, freeing up your time to focus on running your business.
One of the best ways to speed up website load times is to optimise website images. This means reducing the size of your image files without sacrificing quality. There are a number of tools and techniques you can use to achieve this, and the results can be impressive. For example, compressing images with a tool like ImageOptim can reduce file sizes by up to 80%, which can make a huge difference to your page load times.
Many ecommerce websites now offer express checkout options with payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay. This allows customers to securely pay for their purchase with just a few clicks, and it saves the hassle of signing in entering credit card information. It's also more secure than entering information manually.
One of the biggest issues faced by store owners is basket abandonment. One of the best ways around this is with a simple email encouraging customers to finish their purchase. Basket abandoned emails are a great way to recover sales that would otherwise be lost. By showing your customers that you care about their purchase, they’re also an important step to building customer relationships and increasing loyalty
Conversion optimisation is an ongoing process. The small improvements mentioned above can lead to big results, but it’s also important to keep testing different changes to see what works best for your business!
If you're not sure where to start, a good E-commerce Web Design Agency can show you the way. They’ll be able to identify areas that need work and implement the changes on your site so your conversion rate continues to improve.
As a CRO agency we can help you increase your conversion rate get in touch with one of our Conversion Rate Optimisation specialists today and see the positive impact it can have on your business.
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