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There's a lot that goes into building a successful ecommerce store. You likely spent hours considering the domain name, logo, color scheme, website theme, and other essentials of branding. These are critical steps to attracting visitors to your page, but it doesn’t end there. You ultimately need conversions.
Getting conversions is one of the biggest challenges for ecommerce store owners. Customers will visit your page based on content marketing, advertisements, and social posts, but if you want them to actually purchase something, there’s a lot more that goes into it.
First thing’s first, know where you’re trying to go. Don’t expect incredibly high conversion rates - they’re low by nature in ecommerce. The average conversion rates for ecommerce stores are between one and four percent. Most have a one percent or fewer conversion rate, and your goal is to get above two percent.
Set a realistic goal. Even if you’re doing everything perfectly, you’re only likely to reach about three percent, and once you’ve hit that goal, plan to raise it slightly or maintain it. Use these five tips to reach whatever goal you set.
1. Improve Calls to Action
When it comes down to it, your calls to action are arguably the largest contributors behind purchasing decisions. Consumers are presented with countless pages of information. Some pages are salesy while others are meant to entertain or inform. Because they have such a huge variety of pages to read on a daily basis, customers often don’t realize what they’re supposed to do with a certain piece unless you tell them.
Consider this example. You own a 100% natural CBD store, and much of your online content revolves around changing the stigma that CBD is the same thing as medical marijuana (which is way off). You’re working on changing that perception while selling products, but if customers aren’t aware that a certain link or button will take them to your product page, you may never close a sale.
That’s what calls to action are for. They tell consumers that when they click it, they’ll be directed to a product page where they can make a purchase. If the button is compelling and the customer is interested, they’ll punch it. If not, they’ll keep scrolling or abandon the page.
A good call to action button is made to stand out. It looks like a clickable button, which consumers can’t help but push. Think about the font, color, wording, positioning, button size, and other factors that will help it stand out from the background. It doesn’t need to flash obnoxiously in the center of the page, but it should be noticeable.
2. Reduce Cart Abandon Rates
Many shoppers will fill their carts with items and then abandon it without following through on the purchase. It’s like they’re window shopping on the internet, and you lose money when these carts are left alone. Finding a way to get these consumers to follow through with their purchase will instantly increase conversion rates.
According to research from Barnyard Institute, the most common cart abandonments occur because of the following reasons:
60% - high extra costs (taxes, fees, shipping, etc).
37% - requirement to create an account
28% - lengthy, complicated checkout process
23% - hidden total order cost
20% - website errors
19% - website security concerns
18% - slow delivery speeds
There were a few more responses, but these were the most common. Offering immediate solutions to these problems can significantly reduce abandonments.
For example, you might increase the cost of your goods slightly and offer free shipping. It’s the surprise fees that customers don’t like, not the initial prices. Offering pop-up coupons when customers try to click out of the cart might also help.
3. Improve Photo Quality
One of your jobs as a new business owner is to lower your overhead costs. Oftentimes, this leads to a sacrifice in quality. Your website might be a clear reflection of that, and you’re losing business as a result.
If customers are drawn to your website because you have fantastic blog content, a great social media presence, and highly effective advertisements, you’ll increase website traffic. However, your conversions will suffer if the photography quality is lacking.
Good product photos sell. Avoid using stock images from the manufacturer’s website. Post only high-quality photos with your signature background or with the product being used in context. A little editing goes a long way as well.
4. Make Checkout Easier
There’s a reason that sites like Amazon now offer one-click checkout. Buyers don’t want to take the extra steps if they don’t have to, and they’ll even pay more for easier checkout.
As Barnyard Institute research identified, many consumers are turned off by websites that have a long, complicated checkout process and that require them to make an account. They don’t want to take extra steps to make a purchase, and when there’s plenty of competition out there, they don’t have to.
Always offer guest checkout options. People don’t like commitment when they’re encountering your website for the first or second time. They might want to make an account eventually, but it’s simply too much to ask from a first-time customer.
When possible, allow them to sign-up using Facebook or Google. Most customers will already have these accounts, and it just takes one click to set it up. This simplifies the account-creation process for both customers and store owners.
5. Take Advantage of Tools
If you haven’t shopped for digital tools to track, monitor, and ultimately increase your conversion rates, it’s no wonder you haven’t seen an increase. There are literally hundreds of tools that are directly designed to benefit your conversions and thousands more that will indirectly boost them.
Some of the best tools include:
The list could go on and on. Of course, not all of these tools will be right for your business strategies, but you can research several and begin using them for greater overall conversions now and in the future.
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