One of the most important metrics for getting a quick snapshot of whether your ecommerce business is healthy is its conversion rate. But the average conversion rate among U.S. ecommerce stores ranges between 2% and 3%.
By optimizing your ecommerce conversion rate, you can bring in more sales and profit. Usually, a few budget-friendly fixes can boost your conversion rates and give you the resources to expand your ecommerce store.
These 7 tactics can help you boost your ecommerce conversion rate.
Brush up Website Copy
Improving website copy and headlines is one of the best tactics for conversion rate optimization.
- If you already run a PPC campaign, make sure to include the search terms which have the highest conversion rates.
- Check the readability score of your copy, and edit it so that it’s as high as possible.
- Make your text more skimmable by breaking it up into bullets.
- Include all important benefits and features. Although less is usually better, you must provide enough information in product descriptions to excited people to purchase.
Use High-Quality Visuals
Another easy way to make your products more compelling (and thus increase sales) is to use professional-quality pictures on your website:
- Use plenty of lighting and a white background for maximum contrast
- Take photos of your products from ALL angles
- Photograph each color option
- Allow visitors to easily zoom in on the images
- Consider including videos
Make sure to include high-quality imagery on your key pages, as well. That’s because the human brain processes visual information faster than text. So backing up claims with images can help people retain information up to 65% better.
A good example of this is Elemental Labs, which includes compelling imagery on its ingredients page, contrasting their product with competitors. The visuals, headlines and copy complement each other to maximize conversions.
Include Social Proof
Social proof is critical for online stores that can’t rely on in-store impulse purchases. Studies show 70% of buyers read at least four reviews before buying.
If you don’t already allow visitors to leave reviews, you can do this with an addon like TrustPilot. As it’s a third-party app, it’ll ensure that the reviews left are by verified users, as well as that your audience doesn’t have cause to suspect whether they’re genuine.
In addition to reviews, other ways of building social proof are 1) showing off your press coverage and 2) sharing user-generated content add social proof to your website. Mattress manufacturer Zoma does a great job at social proof on its hybrid mattresses product page, showing off high-profile media mentions and customer reviews.
Offer Support
Excellent customer service can make a huge difference in conversions. In fact, 70% of U.S. consumers are willing to spend more money for higher-quality customer service.
Adding a few important features can greatly improve the consumer experience on your website:
- Consider adding on-page support. Both live chat and chatbots help increase conversions.
- Equip all product pages with relevant info. This includes size guides, shopping guides, care instructions, etc.
- Add a FAQ section, either as a separate page or at the end of each of your product pages.
Transparent Labs does an excellent job of offering customer support. In addition to the support window in the bottom right corner of its product pages, each one includes informative descriptions, detailed ingredients lists and a FAQ section along with use instructions.
Develop Trust
One of the best strategies for increasing conversions, is by retaining existing customers and encouraging repeat purchases. A well-executed customer retention strategy can boost profits by as much as 95%. To retain more customers, developing trust is critical.
So how do you make this happen for your ecommerce store? Well, you do it by adding trust elements that’ll boost first conversions. Then you provide exceptional service to ensure your buyers come back. Whether you offer a money-back guarantee, a customer referral program, or combine your on-page efforts with your social media and email marketing strategies, make sure you’re investing in your existing visitors.
To improve conversions based on trust, you can do what GILI Sports did on its paddleboard collections page. Along with details about their satisfaction guarantee, the brand also provides details on their commitment to charity work.
Use Email and Remarketing Tactics
Email marketing and remarketing are two of the highest ROI marketing activities.
If you have the budget for pay-per-click (PPC) ads, remarketing your products to website visitors who haven’t bought it can yield great results. These people have already shown an interest in your offer and a little nudge can lead them towards purchasing.
A more budget-conscious alternative to improving the ecommerce conversion rate is to add cart abandonment emails to your email marketing strategy. It’s a feature available from most email marketing tools, and you’ll find that it’s relatively easy to set up.
A/B Test Essential Features
It isn’t a guarantee that these changes will boost conversion rates (except you should definitely have cart abandonment emails set up). So, it’s a good idea to test whether changes actually improve performance.
To ensure that you can quantify each element’s role in boosting (or discouraging) conversions, only test for a single aspect of your pages at a time. Start with the elements you feel have the greatest impact on sales. Keep in mind that you will need to collect enough data to gauge the effectiveness of the test.
Final Thoughts
These strategies have the potential of boosting your ecommerce conversion rate at a minimal cost. And best of all, by A/B testing each change, you can ensure every adjustment brings in results.
Travis Jamison is co-founder of investing.io