How to improve conversion rates is every marketer’s top concern.
After focusing on various business strategies like ecommerce content marketing, SEO, paid marketing campaigns, and social media, most ecommerce entrepreneurs expect the conversion rate of their stores to skyrocket.
However, if you're still driving non-converting traffic after applying these strategies, you may be missing out on other helpful ecommerce conversion optimization approaches.
After all, some often-neglected ecommerce conversion hacks work for most businesses, whether your website goal is more orders, link clicks, or sign-ups. If you want to know more about them, keep reading.
Here's what we'll cover:
- Understanding Ecommerce Conversion Rate
- Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization
- Final Thoughts: 7 Ways To Improve Ecommerce Conversion Optimization
Understanding Ecommerce Conversion Rate
Ecommerce conversion rate is the percentage of conversions from an online store. Ecommerce conversion rate optimization (CRO) happens when you achieve a higher conversion rate through website improvements.
Ecommerce conversion optimization helps you earn from traffic way more than you spend. It reduces customer acquisition costs and increases the average order value and customer lifetime value (CLV).
For example, if a website has monthly traffic of 2,000 visitors, and the website conversion rate goes from 10% to 25%, the total number of conversions will go from 200 to 500.
Learning how to improve ecommerce conversion rates is vital for online businesses because the average conversion rate for online store owners is roughly 2%.
To grow your business with effective ecommerce conversion hacks, you have to:
- Identify and track your conversion metrics.
- Highlight areas you need to optimize.
- Take steps for ecommerce conversion optimization.
How to Improve Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization
1. Do A/B testing
2. Create an excellent value proposition
3. Build customer trust
4. Make your website mobile-responsive
5. Offer incentives
6. Improve your website performance
7. Provide an outstanding user experience
You'll find a ton of tactics on how to improve ecommerce conversion rates online. But we've compiled the seven most effective ecommerce conversion optimization techniques for your website.
Here are the seven best ecommerce conversion hacks.
1. Do A/B Testing
You can use A/B testing, also called split testing, to identify which ecommerce conversion hacks you need for your online store. A/B testing lets you run different instances of your website to see which one draws more conversions.
Related reading: WordPress Plugins to Use for A/B Testing Marketing Efforts >>
Through this method, you can quickly learn about your ecommerce conversion optimization needs and find out what interests your website's visitors when they browse your website.
We recommend A/B testing your:
- Webpage designs
- Headlines
- Landing pages
- Content
A/B testing is essential to improving conversion rates because it helps differentiate between your working business strategies and the areas you need to improve.
You should ideally pair your A/B testing with a heat map. That way, you'll know which webpages on your website attract more customers and which webpages need improvement.
2. Create an Excellent Value Proposition
Writing an excellent value proposition is a superb way to improve conversion rates. You should be able to communicate your unique selling proposition (USP) right from your homepage.
Your value proposition should tell potential customers:
- How your brand stands out from competitors.
- How your offer will improve their lives.
- Why they should buy from you.
You can A/B test your USP to see which one resonates the most with your target audience.
3. Build Customer Trust
Customer trust is crucial to improve conversion rates on ecommerce websites.
According to HubSpot, 55% of consumers now have reduced brand trust. Meaning that if you want to increase conversion rates, you need to build trust by getting past their threshold with:
- Social proof apps to create a sense of urgency.
- Testimonials.
- Customer reviews and ratings.
- Top ecommerce website features.
4. Make Your Website Mobile-Responsive
Mobile responsiveness is an ecommerce conversion hack you need to implement right now. It’s an easy way to improve conversion rates of online stores.
In the U.S. alone, mobile ecommerce accounts for $47.8 billion in revenue.
That means you could be losing an influx of conversions if your ecommerce website is not mobile-friendly.
5. Offer Incentives
One of the easiest ways to improve conversion rates is incentivization. When you offer incentives to new and existing buyers, such as:
- Free shipping
- Discount codes
- Gifts
- Purchase rewards
- Percentage off on subsequent purchases
- Free setups
You give way to more ecommerce sales. Incentivization is an ecommerce conversion hack that encourages customer loyalty and conversions.
6. Improve Your Website Performance
Slow ecommerce website loading and crashes will lead to a drastic reduction in ecommerce conversion rates. According to Neil Patel, 47% of consumers expect your website to load within two seconds.
If you have a slow-loading ecommerce store, you will:
- Put off potential customers.
- Get a high bounce rate which will ultimately reduce your SEO ranking.
To boost website speed and improve conversion rates, you can use the following plugins and tools:
- CDN (Content Delivery Network) for quick website content display.
- Traffic surge control tools to improve page speed when there’s high website traffic.
- Caching plugins to boost website speed.
- File compression tools for codes and media files.
7. Provide an Outstanding User Experience
Providing a good user experience is another results-driven way to improve conversion rates. Outdated or old-fashioned ecommerce website designs lead to reduced conversions. Use reliable website setup solutions to create an ecommerce store with page elements like:
- Unique, industry-specific design.
- Easy-to-use UX design.
- Navigation bar.
- Menu bar and footer.
- Clear call to action (CTA buttons).
- Simplified checkout process.
- Multiple payment methods.
- Proactive support tools — live chat, help desks.
FAQs on How to Improve Ecommerce Conversion Rate
What is an Ecommerce Conversion?
An ecommerce conversion is a purchase on your store, and it is measured as a percentage of site visitors who make a purchase from you.
How is Ecommerce Conversion Calculated?
An ecommerce conversion rate is the percentage of all site visitors who make a purchase. The ecommerce conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of site visitors that make a purchase by all site visitors in a given time frame.
What is a Good Conversion Rate for Ecommerce?
A good conversion rate for ecommerce is 2-4%. Globally, the average ecommerce conversion rate is around 3%, but there are optimizations you can do to boost your conversion rate even higher.
What Affects Ecommerce Conversion Rate?
There are many factors that affect ecommerce conversion rate, including site speed, web design, the checkout process, payment options, traffic source, product reviews, pricing, industry, and more. For example, faster stores have higher ecommerce conversion rates because slow sites hurt sales.
What Causes Conversion Rate to Increase?
Conversion rate can increase for many reasons. Common causes of conversion rate increases include checkout improvements to reduce abandoned carts, A/B testing, and driving higher-intent traffic.
How Can Conversion Rates Be Improved?
Here are ten effective ways to improve conversion rates.
- A/B test your site.
- Add popups with enticing offers.
- Streamline checkout
- Provide multiple payment options.
- Make CTA buttons eye catching.
- Use action-oriented copy.
- Add social proof, such as reviews.
- Use descriptive product descriptions.
- Use live chat to answer questions.
- Provide easy return guarantees.
Final Thoughts: How to Improve Ecommerce Conversion Rate
As you can see, there are no secrets about how to improve ecommerce conversion rates for your online store. The process is straightforward, and you can start it by applying the seven ecommerce conversion hacks we gave you, along with tried and true ecommerce website best practices.
Strategies like incentivization, providing a better user experience, and testing instances of your website are practical and efficient tweaks to achieve ecommerce conversion optimization.
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