The principal goal of an eCommerce site is to successfully lead customers down the sales funnel. After all, a great product is only a good start. If an eCommerce site is full of snags and impediments, converting even willing buyers will be a challenging task.
Thankfully, the process to increase eCommerce conversion is simple, focusing on relevant product discovery and effortless purchase flow. All it takes is a smoothly designed site, creating a stellar user experience.
So, whether you are a business owner brainstorming your site design for the first time, or a developer assisting in the production, follow these seven tips to increase your eCommerce conversion rate. Then, stand back, and watch your sales boom!
1. Immediately Distinguish Value Proposition
First things first: make a good impression with your new visitors. Your value proposition tells guests why you stand out among the competition. It lets potential buyers know why they should do business with you, and what benefits they will receive in return.
In order to increase the conversion rate on your eCommerce site, you want to showcase this information as soon as possible. As a result, casual visitors will form a positive opinion of your site and be more likely to turn into customers. Unfortunately, many companies bury this essential information in confusing imagery, meaningless phrases, or even hide it too far down on their main page, if they include it at all.
To highlight your value proposition, utilize clear, legible text for a short, yet catchy headline or phrase. Then, follow it up with subtext, showcasing your outstanding features. You can also choose to highlight special incentives or discounts, too.
2. Utilize Effective Visual Hierarchy
The organization of content on an eCommerce site directly impacts it's usability. Without an obvious site flow, the user's eyes could easily skip over important information. However, visual hierarchy, when implemented most successfully, leads the user to prioritized information, showing them how to navigate the site. It helps optimize the design and can take users exactly where you want them to go.
One of the simplest ways to elevate the visual hierarchy of a site is to implement a highly-organized site design. Couple this with the human instinct to be drawn towards larger objects, by showcasing important items in large, bold text. This is especially beneficial in highlighting special products or sales.
Showing your users exactly where to go on the site is a great way to funnel them further down the sales process and convert the visit to a purchase.
3. Easy Navigation Leads To Customer Conversion
If a shopper cannot quickly and easily move through a site, they won't stay on it for long. And, if they aren't on your site, they are likely going to your competitors. Avoid low conversion rates by focusing on easy and effective navigation practices.
One area of which to give special focus is the organization of content. Less is more when it comes to clickable options. Too many choices are often overwhelming for a user and can deter them from shopping further. Instead, decide carefully on category topics. Then, divide those topics into subcategories, if necessary.
Eliminate customer confusion by reducing the number of clicks required to get to a destination. This can be achieved by grouping similar pages under a single navigational item or combining similar topics onto one page. If you discern a specific topic, item, or page is most important to your customers, consider featuring it prominently on the site for straightforward discovery.
If you need some inspiration, visit a few major eCommerce sites of your liking, and take particular notice of the navigational design. Or, feel free to contact our expert designers for some help in this regard.
4. Give Customers What They Want (Even If They Don't Know What That Is)
In any shopping experience, there are two types of customers: those who come to the store with a specific product in mind, and those who meander in, just browsing for something to catch their eye. To covert both of these shoppers to customers, you must cater your eCommerce site design to each of them.
The easier shopper is the one who knows what they want. For motivated customers like this, you want to offer an effortless search experience. First, implement a search bar, placing it in a highly visible location. Next, make sure your products and/or services are organized with keyword-rich product titles and descriptions. Offering your shopper an easy way to find what they want pulls them further down the sales funnel, bringing you one step closer to increasing your conversion rate.
To help convert a shopper who may just be browsing on your site, offer the use of relevant product filters. This creates a more distinct focus on products that meet the visitor's preference or need criteria. Popular filter options include those such as size, brand, price, material, color, recency, or rating. Just make sure that your product filters are appropriately placed and easily accessible; otherwise, they may just add clutter or be of no benefit to your customer.
5. Personalize For Relevant Customer Experience
Recently, cyber-privacy and security have been topics of extensive discussion. However, interestingly enough, studies show that 73% of consumers prefer shopping with companies that provide a more connected shopping experience through the use of personal data. In fact, shoppers are disengaged by irrelevant products and information having nothing to do with their interests.
Utilize personalization methods to reengage your visitors and convert them into paying customers. One way to do so is to offer recommendations based on prior searches or purchases. You can also promote products often purchased with a certain item in their cart, helping to accent the product or increase its usefulness.
For new customers, you can suggest recommendations based on their customer profile, like age, gender, and location. Suggesting items they might like is an intuitive and helpful way to interest a shopper.
6. Create A Trusting Relationship With Your Customer
Due to the prevalence of cybercrime and the level of anonymity the internet provides, customers are constantly worried about being scammed, hacked, or cheated. If a potential buyer doesn't feel that your eCommerce site is completely credible, they will find a similar product elsewhere.
To create trust, you need to humanize your brand, showing visitors that your site is legitimate and honest. You can increase your eCommerce conversion rate by implementing the following practices, ensuring a trustworthy environment for your shoppers:
- Display positive reviews, ratings, feedback, or testimonials from past customers.
- Show an updated number of successful sales made on your site.
- Share features of your company in news articles, other credible websites, or press.
- Highlight photos or videos of you and your staff.
7. Establish An Effortless Check-Out Process
Once a customer has found your site, searched their way through the pages, and decided to purchase a product, the last thing you want to happen is cart abandonment. Studies show that almost 70% of eCommerce products end up left in their carts - without being purchased.
However, avoiding this "so close, yet, so far" feeling is easy. Create a check-out process on your eCommerce site that is simple and clean. Begin by removing any distractions from the checkout page that encourage your customers to leave their cart. This may include navigational bars and menus.
Also, keep the checkout page neat and organized, perhaps adding a progress bar to indicate where in the checkout process the customer is. This helps keep the buyer focused on the goal of completing the purchase.
Allowing customers to check out as a guest can increase your conversion rate as well. Some buyers are deterred from a site that forces them to sign up for a membership or register with the company. Avoid steering customers away by offering a "guest" option. And, you never know: they might love your product so much they come back and register later on.
Increase Your eCommerce Conversion Rate With These Simple Tips
Not every site visitor is going to complete a purchase. However, after implementing these seven tips, you will be able to more effectively direct your customers down the sales funnel. Easily showing shoppers what they need, where they can get it, and why they need it from you is simple.
All that's left to do is sit back and watch your conversation rate soar.
