It goes without saying how high conversion rates are significant for a prosperous ecommerce enterprise. Conversion rates are calculated by assessing what percentage of website visitors become actual buyers. Considering that customers are the backbone of any business, this metric can assist in evaluating your marketing strategies and enables you to detect possible flaws in your system.

High user traffic in ecommerce could be seen at first as a great indicator for business success. However if the prospects are not converting a closer look into the marketing strategies and overall operation of your web store is necessary. High conversion means higher sales which is key for a profitable and consolidated venture.

What can be done to drive customer conversion and ensure the health of your business? Here we have compiled a list of 6 tips to improve your conversion rates and raise your online sales.

How to Increase Customer Conversion Rates

1. Know your customer

As we mentioned, conversion is all about turning a website visitor into a paying customer. Therefore, learning who are your customers and who are the ones not willing to commit to your business through measuring ecommerce metrics can be very helpful.  Being well informed about your customers profile and behavior allows you to optimize your marketing strategies and target prospects that are more likely to become paying customers.

By setting the right ecommerce KPIs, analytics tools allow you to do that by detailing thoroughly who is your audience, what they seek, where they learn about your products and services and has the ability to address the gaps in your management thus ensuring sharper and better directed actions to build loyalty, increase customer acquisition and retention rates. In addition, knowing your customer’s behavior allows for targeted marketing, to reach your greater market through strategies that suit them, effectively convert prospects and build loyalty.

2. Invest in user experience and credibility

It is remarkable how the quality of an ecommerce platform can make or break business. Some key elements for customers seeking services and products online are usability, credibility and the possibility of quickly checking out. Accordingly, any element or lack of in your platform that threaten these significant points can shut down the possibility of conversion.

A well designed platform allows for your customers to quickly locate what they are seeking, to obtain further info on specific products easily and to conclude a purchase with the least bureaucracy possible. Other than that it provides all the information about your company that demonstrate that you are a serious (and real) company, displaying a secure website certificate, providing a customer service outlet and further info on your company; all of which translates into credibility.

3. Improve your store

Some aspects you can implement in your platform that have been shown to be significant for customers’ decision to make a purchase:

High quality product pictures

When people shop online they want to be sure of what they are getting. With assistance of high quality, varied angle and zoomable pictures, customers will likely feel stronger that the product you offer caters to their needs. Therefore don’t be cheap regarding the display of products as it can be a major part for clients going ahead and being converted. Additionally you can offer videos or 360° view of products.

Detailed and accurate product descriptions

As well as pictures of a product many customers turn to the product description to learn more about a specific product. Be sure to include measurements, materials, colors, sizes and consider including a chart comparing sizes, if that can be applied.

Short forms and easy checkout

A lengthy and complex checkout process can kill sales and result in your prospect ruling out your ecommerce for future purchases. People seek ecommerce precisely for the convenience, and thus your platform and checkout system should be as stress-free as possible. It is essential that after all the hassle that goes into getting a customer into your website and providing a desired item that you don’t discourage your prospect – invest in short forms and quick checkouts.

Be transparent and careful with your shipping fee

A significant deal-breaker in online shopping is the shipping fee. Many prospects who are more than willing to spend money on products you offer will reconsider making the purchase when faced with the shipping and handling costs. Strategically, for your business you should display the shipping cost clearly from the start and ponder on keeping your fees to a minimum, since it has been shown that this is a major reason that leads prospects and customers to abandon the sale.

Assure your customer

As we mentioned previously people shopping online will rely on pictures and descriptions to make a purchase. However, even if your ecommerce is making great use of these artifices it very likely that customers will still have doubts and questions, so be sure to make contact info – phone and email readily avaliable and also consider adding an online chat tool if that suits your system. Moreover be upfront about return and cancellation policies, gift options and recurrent customers’ fears and worries when shopping online. A customer that has a sense of what is to be expected is more likely to be converted

Value your website’s search engine

If you work with a wide range of products you might want to consider enabling filters as it allows for your customer to select the variables they value most and tailor the search according to their wants and needs. Other than being very helpful it diminishes customer frustration, for instance when shopping for shoes, browsing pages and pages and not finding their size – customers are likely to exit your site. Whereas, a happy prospect will likely be converted.

By addressing the above mentioned aspects you’ll likely see a decrease in abandoned checkouts and higher conversion rates.

Be on top of your SEO strategies

It is essential for any online business to be easily found through search engines, to acquire new customers – prospects – acutely interested in what your ecommerce can offer.  In order for this goal to be reached effectively some key elements should be considered particularly regarding technical SEO strategies for ecommerce businesses and content.

Technically, SEO relates to how effectively search engines can explore your website and deliver the desired and precise content. Areas that need be considered are content, crawl, indexation, structure and hierarchy, speed and adaptability to mobile access. Paying special attention and managing your SEO strategies can greatly increase the chance of prospects interested in your products and services becoming customers.

Build customer loyalty

Building customer loyalty, although not linked to acquiring new customers is important for an ecommerce to keep a steady flow of recurrent buys and make the best out of email marketing. Some ecommerce giants have mastered this approach through diverse methods. Amazon, for instance, primes on targeted email marketing and encouraging re-purchases, which actually accounts for a significant share in their revenue – up to 66% of sales come from existing customers.

Moreover, benefits can be offered to clients who have abandoned items in their online shopping carts, and clients who have not made purchases for a while. Either discounts, store credit or free shipping can encourage an existing customer who has been just browsing your ecommerce to close the deal, thus driving conversion rates.

Make use of limited-time offers

This works for both converted customers and prospects that come across your page and can encounter the desirable deals. Introducing limited-time offer benefits finely directed to the customers’ or prospects’ preferences (making use of analytics tools) can lead to positive outcomes and drive customer conversion. This strategy allows for encouraging a customer to make a repurchase and converting customers on impulse that also get in your mailing list.

Test your interface

Usability is a key factor. Testing allows for you to detect user preferences, thus what works and what doesn’t work well within your ecommerce interface. For instance A/B testing is a method that provides visitors at random with platforms with different settings -despite providing the same tools and features- in order to study user interaction. This might show that one approach enables a higher conversion than another – it might be difficult in locating the desired product or information or a design-related matter (one setting is more appealing than another) and so on.

Optimize your marketing

A key in managing businesses is putting your money to good use with the right online marketing strategy. This means to invest in what has been shown to work and drop the fruitless investments – this is particularly important when considering your marketing department. Be sure to test: what delivers, what drives customers into your website, when is your traffic greater, what type of special offers result in greater conversion and so on. Exploiting these aspects will surely be helpful in defining strategies for acquiring lookalike customers, highlighting a trending product and driving conversions.

This might interest you: Facebook Ads for Ecommerce: How to Create the Perfect Campaign

In conclusion

We hope that you can implement the mentioned strategies in order to improve your business, obtain higher sales and convert more. What is important for many of the mentioned tips is to understand and evaluate your ecommerce, to see where it is at and where it could go, addressing faults and gaps in the system. Following the steps as a checklist – making sure you have all your bases covered – you will likely see a jump in conversion rates and overall business success.

And, if you are considering expanding to new markets in order to increase your sales even more, download our e-book with insightful advice on global expansion:

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