It’s nice to make sure your ecommerce shop is pretty. It’s even better when it’s easy to navigate. But the real test is whether or not the casual visitors are turning into actual customers. What’s your conversion rate? How can you improve it?
Let’s take a look at some of the top ways to improve ecommerce conversion rates. You don’t have to implement them all at once, but you should definitely see which ones you’ve tried and which ones you need to try next.
Commitment? What commitment?
Your users do not want to do cartwheels and memorize magic spells to complete a purchase. They may not even know if they’re ready to commit to a long-term relationship with you. As much as you would LOVE to get all of their personal details for your database and mailing lists, make registration either optional or super simple. By simple, we mean, don’t ask them too many questions. The more fields you require, the fewer people will sign up or purchase. In fact, allowing a user to complete a purchase as a guest without signing up will bring in more sales. Trust us…or trust this research or this one that shows a 14% cart abandonment rate when no guest checkout option is available.
You’re not Amazon.com just yet so you’ve still got to “court” your potential customers. As you grow and your brand becomes more established, you’ll be able to force registrations. Until then, don’t worry…you’ll have plenty of opportunities to reel them in as a registered user once they’ve purchased from you and seen that they can’t live without you.
Perks, perks and more perks.
Everyone loves free stuff! Especially folks on the internet, where access to free stuff is at an all-time high. Offer your shoppers free shipping because93% of them say it’s the biggest motivator to buy more online and they’ll actually spend 30% more if you’ll ship it for free. Or, hey, throw in a free gift for first time or repeat customers. Randomly send thank you notes or a token of your appreciation! Hey…if YOU don’t do it, someone else will.
Show them the way…
Bells and whistles work in almost every other place but an ecommerce shop. Don’t distract your visitors with too many menus or choices. If you have a large selection, improve your filtering options so they’re more focused. Have several steps in your checkout? Use breadcrumbs or percentage windows so your users know how much more they need to complete before it’s a done deal. Basically, at every step of the entire shopping process, you should be guiding your customers to the next step. Make sure they get there.
Got coupons?
Ok so we told you to offer free stuff. You can also offer discount coupons. People love getting a discount…it makes them feel like they’re getting the best deal. BUT…at checkout, research has found that 27% of people who abandoned their carts did so “to look for a coupon.” Another study found a whopping 90% drop in conversion rates when a field to enter a coupon code was added to the checkout process.
You know what that means? If someone SEES that they’ve missed out on a discount, they’re going to leave their cart and go look for one. One way to avoid this is to include the coupon field only for shoppers who arrive to your site from a controlled source where you can provide that code…like an email announcement or an ad.
Build trust
When people have a positive or a negative shopping experience, they will want to share it. Give them that outlet. We wrote a blog post recently aboutmaximizing online reviews…well, here’s another way to leverage them. If you offer a platform for reviews within your shop, visitors can then stay IN your shop while researching the products they want, and you’ll have the added benefit of being able to control and monitor the conversations that are happening there. Got an unsatisfactory product review? Look at it as an opportunity…you can respond right there in public! Showing that you are available to provide prompt and appropriate service will make potential customers feel good about purchasing from you AND you’ll hopefully mend the relationship with the customer that left the comment, which could lead to future purchases. Be transparent. Be available. Show your customers that you care.
If it’s broken, FIX IT!
Missing images? Broken links? These are huge turn-offs when someone is visiting your shop. If they can’t see what they’re trying to purchase and they can’t access what they want to see, then they will most certainly go elsewhere. There are a variety of tools out there, including Shoppimon, to help you keep an eye on your shop and alert you to bugs or bumps that may be frustrating and turning away your customers.
With the right tools, these kinds of glitches are easily detected and fixed so your business up-time is…all the time. Go ahead and check it out for yourself. Run a quick report now (it’s free), or sign up (also free!) for the service and a full report.
In a nutshell…
There are many ways to convert “visitors” into “customers” and we’ve highlighted a few of them here. What are some of the tactics YOU’VE put into practice and found to be profitable?
