Low barriers to entry to open eCommerce stores have increased competition when it comes to conversion rates. Regardless of whether you are a new eCommerce store or have years of experience in maintaining your online presence, you still need to work on increasing your conversion rate. Don’t we all want higher conversion rates for better ROI? I can see you nodding along, of course, you do. The strategies you implement for conversion rate optimisation play an integral part in deciding your online position.
Improving your conversion funnels or landing pages is crucial to converting more site visitors. Understanding user behaviour on your site content can help you identify the elements that need improvement. If you run a clothing store, are you giving enough information to your visitors? Is there a size guide available? This type of information can make or break your success in the eCommerce space – therefore damaging your conversion rate.
Even if your website traffic is in the millions, your website’s conversion rate may still be lower than the average conversion rate. Isn’t that a little…Scary? This could mean that your sales funnel is performing poorly.
Well, no one wants that to happen, so let’s find a way to fight back against a shoddy conversion rate and set your site up for success.
Understanding the reasons behind low conversion rates
In April 2022, Littledata recorded an average conversion rate of 1.3% after surveying 3,574 stores. The landing pages on your online store have a significant impact on your conversion rate as there is a good chance that your target audience is unable to find exactly what they’re looking for. Don’t entrap your customers in a maze of unnecessary information. Let’s be honest, customers hate that.
We all shop online, don’t we? Whether it’s a late-night purchase on Amazon or shopping around for the best price on a new TV, as customers ourselves, we should start to understand what we do and don’t want to see and experience in an online store.
Psssst! It looks like you need a hand, grab our FREE download on optimising your store for sales!
If your incoming traffic is high but lacks a reasonable conversion rate due to a high bounce rate, I’m afraid there’s work to be done on your landing pages. One way to identify the poor-performing elements is using Google analytics. Here are some common problems in page elements:
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Navigation: (Potential) paying customers may find it hard to find what they’re looking for on your online store, causing them to leave (sorry).
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Filtering and sorting:
Without proper filtering and sorting, your visitors might feel overwhelmed by the variety of products your online store sells. Get those products into proper categories that are easy to identify! -
Search: If your search system dishes out results that don’t match what your website visitors are looking for, they’re gonna get pretty annoyed, fast. Tagging your products can help to make them easy to search for.
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Other probable causes for low conversion rates include the following:
Competitors advertise on your website
This may seem hard to believe, but your competitors can advertise on your website to divert your customers and traffic. Adware pops up on the website and displays competitor ads or spam promotions on your website without your knowledge.
You should consider using adware shields to stop unauthorised ads on your online store because tracking one page is not really enough. Isn’t this amazing that you can categorise, predict and remove these ads before they start hijacking your potential customers? My best advice? Get yourself an adware shield, just incase.
Discounts or offers are not easily accessible
Since most online shoppers always look for the best deals, online stores must be both competitive in their pricing (to some extent) and potentially offer discounts/offers to increase their conversion rate. If you feel you’re getting low conversions, there is a good chance it’s unclear how to use a promo code or discount.
A great way to build your mailing list is to offer a % discount or free shipping upon signing up! But it’s important to make it clear where to enter this type of code.
The best way to make discounts visible is through a promotional banner on your home page. You can also design a static banner across all critical pages like checkout or exit-intent popup.
Also Read: How to create buyer personas
Your product pages need more interactivity
If an online store business owner still feels that product pages only need high-quality product images to convert customers, I’m sorry, but that’s about to change!
Compelling sales copy and an interactive landing page are needed to capture your potential customers. This may mean investing in a 360-degree view of your products to increase your conversion rate. Since your customers can view every angle of the product, they can easily decide to go through your conversion funnel. Woohoo, more sales!
Lack of brand trust among shoppers
Since the number of online stores has increased, shoppers now have numerous options for making purchases. However, this move has also induced scepticism as they don’t trust every ‘new’ (to them) brand immediately. The need for genuineness validation has increased as people do not believe everything they read on the internet. Well, who does? With so many online stores faking reviews, never delivering items and lacking customer service, trust is incredibly important – especially to new customers.
You need to add more social proof from social media to your online store to gain trust. You can add testimonials, reviews, and encourage visitors to review your products. Customers find trust in your brand via other customer reviews, so don’t be afraid to set up an email automation to follow up after a purchase and encourage reviews.
This will work to increase conversion rate and help you achieve those kickass conversion goals. Furthermore, adding logos from other sites they can read reviews about your business on can help you build trust with new visitors.
What roles do landing pages play?
Landing pages play an essential role in lead conversion; you can use them as an effective tool for converting web visitors into loyal shoppers. A landing page is the first page a visitor reaches after clicking on an advert, and a well-optimised landing page will bring enough traffic to improve your conversion rate. This may be through Google ads, Facebook ads etc.
The landing page needs a strong CTA to capture users’ attention, with the potential to capture their information. This is how you can contact your leads, nurture their interest in your product and get more conversions with minimal cost. Did you know, you only have a few seconds to win your visitor’s attention and interest?
That’s right, so you better make those seconds count.
Also Read: Why your branding is WAY more than your logo
Why is conversion rate optimisation important?
Businesses require conversion rate optimisation for many reasons. If a website is challenging to navigate, visitors will get frustrated with your site and go elsewhere.
As mentioned earlier, conversion rate optimisation is essential because it allows you to maximise your traffic and increase your conversion rate = more sales. If your website has broken links or irrelevant content, your traffic will return to where they came from or visit a competitor’s website. You want to see your potential customers buying from your competitors. Hell no!
Here are some reasons why conversion rate optimisation is integral for your business.
To stand out against the competition
You will come across countless businesses online competing in the market to attract as many customers as possible. Many big giants like Amazon tend to eat your customers in this race. You can’t let that happen.
If your website is not optimised enough to be ahead of the competition, it won’t matter if you offer free shipping or money-back guarantees. Your sales team can even put in extra effort, but if you aim to get ahead and earn those sales, you need to optimise your website and make it user-friendly. Go, be the champion. I believe in you!
Psssst! It looks like you need a hand, grab our FREE download on optimising your store for sales!
Increase consumer attention span
According to data, an average customer spends 10-20 seconds on a web page. But we want more than that, so give them an excuse to shop! If you have a good value proposition, you can make them stay longer, increase their attention to your products and brand and therefore increase conversion rates.
8 Strategies to increase conversion rates
We understand that you know how important it is to increase your conversion rate but are you wondering how to make the magic happen? Research shows plenty of ways to increase conversions, but we will discuss some tried and tested strategies.
We understand that you know how important it is to increase your conversion rate but are you wondering how to make the magic happen? Research shows plenty of ways to increase conversions, but we will discuss some tried and tested strategies.
Make navigation simple and easy
Providing your consumers with the ease to use your website should be your goal as a business owner. Make it easy to not only get around your website, but also find new products through upselling and cross-selling! (Pssst, you can download our FREE guide for optimising your site for sales, here.)
Shopping through social media
Social media is a powerful tool, and many eCommerce businesses use these platforms to help customers reach new products. It also becomes an easy way for mobile users to reach your online store. Instagram Shops is just one example! If you prefer to keep visitors on your website, instead, be sure to optimise your link in bio to direct them accordingly.
Over deliver on value, price and customer service
Clever pricing and tactics like a money-back guarantee and faster delivery time can be lucrative for your potential customers. It’s imperative to be great at customer service, offering support (such as a live chat) and a fast turnaround on email support, which can build customer trust and keep them coming back.
Think about it, if you’ve ever bought something online and had a horrible experience, you’re unlikely to buy from there again!
Personalise your site
Don’t be afraid to get personal with your customers. Once you’ve established a unique brand tone of voice, use it in blog posts, confirmation pages and emails.
Highlight social proof
We have talked about social proof earlier and how it makes all the difference. This is huge when it comes to increasing conversion rates. You will also increase average order value and retention with positive reviews, testimonials, and ratings.
Offer various payment and delivery options
Having multiple options like Apple pay, credit cards, and PayPal, provides an easy shopping experience for paying customers. Be open about payment methods and delivery times.
Offer guest checkouts
Nobody likes being forced to create an online account, when all they want to do is checkout. Offering guest checkouts can increase conversion rates, eliminating the block between customers making a purchase quickly.
No one likes a pushy brand
Your sales copy needs to be effective, but too many CTAs and ads can frustrate customers. So, try to give information healthily. Compelling > pushy.
Ready to optimise your online store?
With the tips above, you’ll be armed with all the tools and strategies you need to optimise your eCommerce website and get earning those juicy, juicy sales!
Need a helping hand? Get in touch with the Suki Marketing team to see how we can help you rocket your brand online.
Or why not grab our FREE download below?
