As a business owner, it is easy to compare yourself to your competitors, including how their success compares to yours. And if you are struggling to reach your business goals, it can feel impossible to get back on the right track.
But what if achieving those goals is simpler than you think?
Maintaining a high conversion rate is essential to your eCommerce success. Sure, you may have desirable products, but if your website does not encourage your customers to buy—and make it easy for them—you are missing out on some serious profits.
First, it is crucial to understand what conversions are concerning your business. A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors on your website that take a desired action. Typically, it is a purchase, sign-up, or download.
Conversions are essential to the success of any eCommerce business. If you are not conversion-focused, you are just treading water. You need to be constantly looking for ways to increase conversion rates. The good news? Even minor improvements can majorly impact your overall sales.
7 Simple Strategies
Knowing something needs to change is only half the battle. It can seem impossible to know where to start to begin seeing improvements in conversion rates. Below is a list of seven simple strategies you can use to optimize your eCommerce website and boost conversions.
1: Include Social Proof
Our first conversion strategy is one you have most likely seen during your own online shopping sessions. Social proof builds trust with your customers and eases their skepticism before they ever add a product to their cart. The two most common elements used on eCommerce websites that provide social proof are trust badges and customer reviews.
Trust Badges
Trust badges can sometimes make all the difference in a customer’s decision to make a purchase. Including different icons such as accepted payment methods, money-back guarantees and free shipping all have the potential to increase your conversion rate.
The location of these icons also matters. Experiment with different placements and combinations to determine which is most beneficial for your business.
Reviews
Customer reviews are another great way to implement social proof into your website. Include a range of reviews on your product pages. Reviews with pictures give the customer a chance to see the product in the real world, aside from the product images you provide.
2: Engagement Tracking
Using a heatmap tool to track customer engagement across your site is another valuable strategy to take advantage of. Taking note of which pages your customers seem to lose interest in can give you the insight you need to make the necessary changes. Remember, that does not mean you should change the entire page. Minor adjustments can be just as effective.
3: Increase Accessibility
Increasing the accessibility of your site can be done in a couple of ways. Most of this boils down to what works for your audience. Maybe integrating your shop into social media platforms like Instagram to make the purchasing process more versatile could prove beneficial.
In addition, a live customer chat feature could help answer any questions customers may have before heading to checkout.
4: Understand Buyer Behavior & Preference
Your customers are fundamental to your success. If you do not understand your audience’s behavior and preferences, it will be impossible to update your site accordingly.
Know Your Audience
Boosting conversions starts with connecting with your customers. If you are not clear on what your customers want and need, your conversion rate will suffer. Your eCommerce site should guide buyers from the homepage to checkout seamlessly without interruptions.
In this case, less is more; the least number of steps, the better.
Do not Limit Your Customers
Another limiting factor in your customer’s buying journey could be how they are permitted to purchase on your site. It is crucial to avoid limiting your customers. Include as many payment options as possible and include guest checkout if available.
5: Recover Abandoned Carts
Abandoned carts do not have to plague your conversions. Combat them by sending abandoned cart emails to your customer. You can automate these, and even include exclusive discounts to incentivize your customers and encourage them to complete the purchase.
6: Leverage SEO
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, could be just what your site needs. Research the keywords or phrases your target audience searches for that have high search volume but low competition. Using this keyword throughout your site will increase organic traffic and potential conversions.
7: Product Descriptions
I am sure we have all purchased something online that was not quite as described—if there was a product description at all. E-Commerce sites live and die by product descriptions. While it is great to gain inspiration from your competitors, mimicking the lack of engaging and informative descriptions will rarely get you far.
Most of the time, global brands can often get away with just a sentence or two. But if you want to stay ahead of the pack, adding descriptions that serve a purpose can only help you.
As you can see, taking charge of your conversions and making the necessary changes does not have to be so daunting. If you are looking for expert help in optimizing your eCommerce website, visit http://www.bobellabrands.com to learn more about how they can help you reach your business goals.
