In this video, Bo from the WebFX Internet Marketing team will explain how to increase your ecommerce conversion rate and leverage the traffic your website already gets.

Transcript:

Do you sell stuff online? Do you want to learn how to sell even more of your stuff online by using the audience you already have?

Three words: Ecommerce conversion optimization. That’s what the next several minutes are about.

If you’re watching this video, I assume you’ve:

• Set up an ecommerce website
• Uploaded all of your products
• Gave your products titles and descriptions
• Separated your products into category pages

Your job isn’t done after you’ve put everything online, though.

Purchases and conversions don’t immediately follow after you create great content and a functioning website. You need to optimize your website for conversions to see more sales rolling in.

Whether you’re an SMB owner looking to improve your ecommerce conversions or a marketing manager striving to do the same, I’ll walk you through what ecommerce conversion optimization is and how you can get started and take your business on the path to success.

What is an ecommerce conversion rate?

If you aren’t familiar with the term “conversion,” you’re probably confused since I used that word a lot in the last section. Basically, a conversion can describe any desired action taken by your customers. So, in the case of your ecommerce website, this may be a purchase.

Other common conversions include a user adding a product to their cart or wishlist, signups for emails or newsletters, shares to social media — or, really, any other key performance indicator (KPI) that your company finds valuable.

Ecommerce conversion rate measures the percentage of ecommerce site visitors that perform your desired action. You calculate this by dividing your total conversions by the total number of visitors to your website. To get a percentage, you would just multiply that number by 100.

You can also use the WebFX conversion rate calculator to get a hassle-free answer.

By completing this calculation, you’ll be able to figure out which pages on your website get people interacting with your business, and which pages are having the opposite effect.

What is a good ecommerce conversion rate?

On average, ecommerce conversion rates can be around 1.84%, with some variation, of course. Although this number may seem small, it can lead to significant sources of revenue for your business—especially if you take action to increase it.

Speaking of how to increase your ecommerce conversion rate, we have some of our tips and tricks coming up next.

9 ecommerce conversion rate optimization tips

As I’ve said, the beauty of ecommerce conversion optimization is that by trying out different tactics on your website, you can turn more of the people who are already there into leads and customers. They’re already interested enough to be on your website, so you need to give them a nudge in the right direction.

You may have noticed I said “trying out different tactics,” a.k.a. testing. The basis of conversion rate optimization for any industry is A/B testing. So when you want to make changes to your website, it’s best to compare the performance of your original page to the newly optimized one. Whichever page does better stays.

You can learn more about A/B testing by watching our video on the topic. Okay, let me just step off of my soapbox and get to the tips you’ve so patiently waited for.

1. Track accurate data

In order to improve conversion rates, you’ll need to gain an understanding of where your business currently stands. This will require setting up a Google Analytics account if you don’t already have one and inputting the conversions you would like to track, such as online purchases or cart additions.

GA will also help your business understand how visitors find your site, how long they stay on your site, where they are from, what browser and devices they typically use, as well as how many users eventually convert.

Also, three really great tools for learning how people interact with your website are Hotjar, Google Optimize, and Userlytics.

Hotjar gives you access to heatmaps and recordings of user sessions on your website, so you have a visual representation of how people behave on your pages.

Google Optimize is an A/B testing tool that splits your site visitors into groups to view different versions of your pages. You can compare which performs better over a set time period.

Think of Userlytics as a very large online focus group where you can give people certain tasks and have them leave feedback about your website.

All of this information is important for understanding how you can tailor your ecommerce conversion rate optimization to your website users’ needs.

2. Use high-quality images and videos

Show off what you got by offering users top-notch images and videos of the items you sell.

People can’t exactly interact with your products (or witness you performing your services) while sitting at home. Your website should give them a window into what they’ll see when their order arrives.

Whether this is a close-up of wall decorations or an explainer video walking users through your power washing services, you’ll be able to give website visitors a better understanding of your company’s value through multimedia.

3. Give detailed product descriptions

Again, users cannot see items in person when shopping online. Give them all of the specific information that you can to help them make an informed decision.

If you don’t, your product descriptions will be too vague to entice a user to buy, leading to fewer website conversions.

4. Clearly state your unique selling propositions (USPs)

What makes your business, product or service stand out from your competitors? Why should a user purchase from you? Make these USPs clear to your user – they may just be the deciding factor for them to purchase your product or service.

Add USPs to your product descriptions, page headings, or buttons. Get creative and try different options until you find the ones that work.

5. Let customers know your ecommerce store is safe

Although online shopping continues to rise in popularity, some people may be wary about the potential lack of data security with online stores.

Reassure your customers that their data is secure by displaying data security badges (if you have them) or even visual cues for secure credit card payment options that your ecommerce store offers.

6. Test your ecommerce checkout experience

When you want users to convert, you need to ensure that your checkout process is seamless, quick, and simple to navigate.

Clear directions, auto-fill options, multiple payment options are a few of the great features to employ in your checkout process.

Another great feature to test out is progress bars. Help users identify where they are in the checkout process by using progress bars. These items will help guide shoppers through checkout and provide a better holistic experience for them on your website.

7. Make sure your “add to cart” and “checkout” buttons stand out

Don’t make users search for how they can add an item to their cart or start the checkout process.

Ensure that these buttons stand out on your page, whether it be in size, color, font, or all three. You can even adjust the button’s positioning to a more prominent location.

Something as simple as the text you use with your cart button can make a big difference to your ecommerce conversions. If people don’t respond to “Add to cart,” or “Check out,” spice it up with a phrase like “Buy my items,” or “I’m ready to buy.” It can’t hurt to run a test! You can always go back to the original design if the test doesn’t go as planned.

8. Let customers checkout as guests

Sometimes, users don’t want to log in to check out, and why should you force them to?

You’ll already have their email and name when they checkout, so there’s no urgent reason for them to log into their account or create a new one. It’s just another step in the process that can turn people away and right to your competitors’ sites.

9. Reach out to users who abandoned their carts

Don’t let an abandoned cart go unnoticed. Reach out to these users and remarket to them via email to further nurture the potential lead for your online store.

Let them know that they forgot something and that they don’t want to miss out on any deals or promotions you’re currently running.

You can take these remarketing emails a step further by offering a coupon, such as 10 percent off a user’s cart, to further entice them to complete their purchase.

If you aren’t finished learning about ecommerce conversion optimization, we’ve got plenty of videos on our channel you’ll want to check out. Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss anything.

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See you next time!