The e-commerce conversion rate is the key to the success of any business. It is an indicator that allows you to evaluate the number of users who perform an action compared to the total number of visitors. In e-commerce, this action can be the purchase of a product or the download of a catalog for example. But how to know if you have a good conversion rate? Indeed, you should start to worry if this rate is below 2%. The average conversion rate is between 2% and 5% and an excellent conversion rate can go up to 20%. So what can you do if your e-commerce rate is not advantageous? How to increase the conversion rate? Discover 14 tips in this article.
1. Test and analyze the performance and relevance of your content
To test the content of your e-commerce site, you must start by carefully writing your content. Then, your content should be subjected to the rigors of split testing. Called A/B testing, split testing is actually a marketing technique through which you will test the best version of your e-commerce site content.
As an online merchant, you need to offer your customers and visitors a unique user experience through quality content. This is how you can make your e-commerce more efficient and increase your conversion rate.
In addition, take care to choose the right words to create an emotional connection with your customers and visitors. This will motivate them to take action and buy. For example, use trigger words that will create excitement and urgency.
2. Increase the loading speed on your e-commerce site to boost conversions
If your e-commerce site is too slow, consumers will abandon their shopping carts very quickly. So, it is essential to reduce the loading time. A Google study revealed that when your website takes more than three seconds to load, 53% of your visitors lose interest. And this is quite understandable, don't you think? When this happens, your sales and user experience are negatively affected. Your goal should be to get as many of your visitors as possible to make a purchase, in order to turn them into customers.
As a result:
- Consider evaluating the speed of your e-commerce site using Google PageSpeed, Pingdom or GT Metrix ;
- remove the plug-ins that do not add anything to your online store;
- choose a good quality web hosting;
- optimize the videos and images you add to your online store;
- do not overload your site with links.
3. Bring fluidity and ergonomics to the navigation on your e-commerce site
One of the factors that greatly affects the user experience and conversion on an e-commerce site is the navigation. Therefore, you must ensure that the navigation on your e-commerce site is fluid and ergonomic. While allowing visitors toeasily access your different products or items.
You should know that today there is a large number of competent web developers and web design agencies. The e-commerce sites on the web are often created by professionals. Therefore, the competition on the e-commerce market is tough. Your online store must be impeccable. To make the navigation on your e-commerce site more ergonomic:
- Important information must be clear, visible, accurate and easily accessible. Visitors should be able to find answers to their concerns at a glance;
- classify your products and categories in a logical and intuitive order;
- Install a search engine on your site, which will allow visitors to easily access information and products;
- Set up a breadcrumb trail that will help users find their way around easily during their searches.
4. Ensure the attractiveness and quality of the product sheets
Remember that in e-commerce, the element that ultimately encourages potential customers to purchase is the " quality of product sheets ". Yes, they may seem trivial, but the product sheets are contents that inform the consumer about the characteristics and advantages that make a product unique. More concretely, it is the image you give of the product that will create a sense of urgency in the customer and the impression that he will miss out on something if he does not act.
Whether it is the visual or the content of the texts, the product sheets must be impeccable and well worked. The price and the important properties of the site must be visible. In addition, the descriptive text must allow the user to project himself with the product and your titles must catch on.
Finally, pay attention to the quality of the videos and images. The photos must be original and captivating in order to make visitors want to make a purchase.
5. Improve the payment tunnel
Figures show that a large number of visitors do not complete their purchase when they reach the payment page. In e-commerce, this abandonment has a negative impact on the turnover. In order to do this, you need to work efficiently onoptimizing the checkout process and reducing abandoned shopping carts. This is the only way to improve the conversion rate of your e-commerce.
So, at the checkout stage, there are some initiatives you can put in place to stop customers from being scared away. These will include:
- to make the payment page more attractive (design and efficiency) to offer a nice user experience;
- Minimize the number of fields to be filled out. Don't ask visitors for more information than they need. Stick to the necessary information (payment information, contact information, product requirements, shipping details);
- to regularly check your payment pages on the different browsers and devices in order to quickly detect technical problems and correct them if necessary;
- Enter a telephone number that the customer can contact;
- for visitors who do not wish to register, to allow them to make purchases as guests. In fact, most visitors do not want to create an account before making their purchases.
6. Offer several payment methods
In order to reassure your visitors and increase your conversion rate at the same time, it is essential to offer customers several payment methods. This will show that your company really cares about its visitors and customers. Furthermore, don't lose sight of the fact that payment is the most crucial part of the buying process. Every detail has to be taken into account.
Adapt to your customers' needs and offer Stripe, PayPal, bank transfers, etc. By supporting multiple payment methods, you will significantly reduce the risk of customers not proceeding to payment. On your homepage you can already clearly display the payment methods you accept. This will make your customers even happier.
7. Reassure your visitors by adding social proof
You know, in order for your visitors to want to trust you, you need to provide them with the reasons to do so. You have to show them that your services and products have already been very beneficial to many people. And there's nothing better than social proof.
Social proof is actually a concept that translates into people copying the behavior of other people. It is a psychological and social phenomenon that you can use to influence your visitors.
So, to improve your e-commerce site's conversion rate with social proof, start by displaying customer reviews. On all your product pages, display real customer reviews. Whether they are positive or negative. Above all, don't be afraid of negative reviews as long as they are acceptable. Your customers will trust you even more.
On the other hand, also display the average ratings that your products receive. When these average ratings are higher than 4 stars, your conversion rate will increase considerably.
8. Don't neglect the CTA buttons
Call-to-Action (CTA) contribute enormously to the conversion process in e-commerce. They therefore inevitably influence the conversion rate. Usually, they are small questioning or exclamatory sentences that motivate the user to take action. These phrases can be for example: "what are you waiting for?", "don't waste time", "subscribe".
As such, CTA buttons should be captivating and eye-catching. They should be clearly visible, like this. Avoid buttons in bland, sad colors like white or gray. To make it clear to your visitors what they need to do, make them highly visible, through bright colors and the right fonts. We recommend you use call-to-action campaigns to frequently test the important aspects of a good call-to-action. These are content, form, color and position. So don't forget: CTAs in e-commerce have a big impact on the conversion rate.
9. Carefully study the customer journey
What good will such an analysis do you? Well, by doing so, you will be able to define the appropriate ways to recover abandoned shopping carts. When you analyze the customer journey, you are able to see for yourself the experience your customers have when they are on your e-commerce site. By studying this process, you will be able to more effectively improve the relevance and personalization of your services as an online store.
Let's say you've implemented an automated cart abandonment path on your site. Does this initiative improve conversions? Does the data include products that were actually abandoned? These are all questions that a customer journey analysis will help you answer.
In addition, you also have the ability to go into Google Analytics to examine the conversion tunnel. And it's also very useful to retrieve abandoned carts. This way you can optimize the overall visitor journey and increase the conversion rate.
10. Accompany your visitors by adding a live chat
Once again, the act of buying is influenced by trust and assurance. A total of 82% of Internet users stated that they feel more confident and reassured when the e-commerce store offers a live chat feature, accompanied by a consultant. The implementation of live chat will therefore allow you tobe more present for your visitors and customers throughout their process.
Customers who want immediate assistance will benefit from constant and instant support. So the better experience they have, the more they will come back to you and promote your brand. Simply put, a simple message from a chatbot or advisor to help your consumers will dramatically increase your e-commerce conversion rate.
11. Interact with your customers and personalize the customer journey
Your customers must be able to benefit from an efficient customer service. You must always take into account their needs and requirements, in order to respond better to their needs. Because the more your brand develops, the more demanding your customers will be. Hence the need to know them well. And to know your target well, you must humanize the customer relationship and interact with customers regularly.
By interacting with your customers, you will be able to understand their logic and language more. Talk to them via your support channels, your social networks, your blog. For example, you can conduct surveys via email or on your support pages (short surveys) to collect your customers' needs. You can then reward customers who have given you their time. By understanding your customers, you will be able to present them with all the benefits of your offers in the right way. And you can be sure that your conversion rate will increase.
12. Create the emergency effect
To increase the conversion rate of your e-commerce, think about creating a sense of urgency among your customers. In fact, it will be to create in them the fear of missing something or missing a good deal. This technique is called Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). It is a psychological trigger that will increase your conversion rate as well as your sales. To create this feeling in your e-commerce customers:
- display on the product page low inventory levels create a sense of urgency;
- show your visitors the number of users interested in the product in question (the customer will see the value of the product);
- send an alert message by e-mail;
- add a waiting period to the basket.
So try to implement one of his ideas in your e-commerce. But always remember that the goal is to inspire your customers to action while showing kindness.
13. Be clear about return conditions and shipping costs
You are a self-respecting e-commerce company. In fact, you need to be transparent about shipping costs. Don't wait until the customer is at the end of the purchase process before displaying the shipping costs. Be clear and explicit from the start. So whether it's shipping costs or return policy, you need to make all the details and information related to the order clear and concise.
You can therefore create a FAQ page so that customers can find all the answers to the questions they have. But you should always specify the conditions of return and delivery costs on the product pages.
You can also decide to do the deliveries for free. You may be a little skeptical of this idea, but it's a very clever one. First of all, no customer can resist the sweet music of those two words: free shipping. All you have to do is find a way toinclude the shipping costs directly into the product prices.
Most of the time, it's the shipping costs that put customers off finalizing their purchase. For example, you can offer free shipping for lighter and smaller products. For heavier and more expensive products that require more expensive shipping costs, you can offer free shipping on purchases over a certain amount. Be resourceful to increase your e-commerce conversion rate.
14. Build customer trust with trust indicators
References are an excellent indicator of confidence. Business references are more so. That is to say, the brands with which you are in collaboration in the exercise of your activities. You can therefore list all the brands you work with under a banner. By showing your customers that these brands trust you, they will trust you in turn. The notoriety of these companies brings you immediate credibility (or almost).
Increase the conversion rate: in summary
In the end, we will remember that the conversion rate is a key factor that contributes to the success or failure of an e-commerce. The increase of this rate is therefore very advantageous for your activities as an e-commerce company. Make sure you put into practice these 14 points previously discussed.
