Want to increase your ecommerce store’s sales? Improve your webshop’s conversion rate. It’s the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on your site. For example, if your webshop has 1,000 viewers and 50 of them make a purchase, that’s a 5% conversion rate. Use it to evaluate your website’s call to action (CTA) and gain insights into your customers. Discover how to optimize your conversion rate for happier customers and a happier you.
Getting familiar with ecommerce conversion rates
“Conversions” refer to the desired actions taken by people on your website, such as making a purchase or completing a contact form.
Your conversion rate measures the effectiveness of all the CTAs on your website in achieving your goals. These goals may include customers buying products or services, visitors subscribing to your newsletter, or reaching out to customer service. A higher conversion rate for your ecommerce site indicates a greater likelihood of generating sales, as it signifies that your desired call to action is successfully leading to product or service purchases.
Your conversion rate serves as a valuable gauge of the effectiveness of your brand and marketing strategy. It varies across different ecommerce sites due to various factors that influence it:
- Brand recognition
- Diverse target audiences
- Marketing strategy employed
- Pricing strategy
- Website usability
By carefully considering and optimizing these factors, you can improve your conversion rate and achieve better results for your e-commerce site.
What are micro and macro conversions?
Consider two types of conversions: micro and macro. Micro conversions involve small user tasks like browsing or adding items to the cart. Macro conversions are significant actions like making a purchase or completing the desired call to action. Monitoring both helps understand user behavior and optimize your website for overall conversion success.
Micro conversions pave the way for macro transactions, influencing your overall conversion rate. It’s not just about driving purchases on your online store. When users successfully complete micro conversions, they’re more inclined to complete macro conversions. Conversely, if users face challenges with smaller tasks like adding items to the shopping cart, it hampers the number of completed purchases. Additionally, conversions can come from email newsletters and social media campaigns.
To maximize conversions, focus on your ecommerce site’s objectives. What actions do you want visitors to take? Consider the following goals:
- Explore product offerings
- Add items to the cart
- Sign up for newsletters
- Engage with social media campaigns
- Complete purchases
By aligning your website and marketing strategies with these objectives, you can optimize conversions and achieve greater success for your e-commerce business.
Creating a new account. Downloading instructions and materials. Completing a contact form. Subscribing to an email newsletter or service. Contacting your ecommerce store or support.
These are common objectives for ecommerce shoppers. By addressing your users’ needs and facilitating the achievement of their goals, you can increase your conversion rate.
How to measure your ecommerce conversion rate
Conversion rate is determined by the number of visitors who take action compared to the total users. Tools like Google Analytics and Matomo measure and provide data to analyze and improve conversion rates for ecommerce.
Understanding conversion rate optimization (CRO)
You probably don’t need to worry about it too much. A rising conversion rate is a clear sign that your business is doing well. If you observe spikes or increases, it could be due to sales events like summer savings or even challenging economic conditions.
If your conversion rate is dropping or stagnant, investigate the reasons behind it. Low conversion rates indicate users leaving or not taking desired actions. Possible causes include high prices, usability issues, or unclear CTAs. A low rate may also stem from weak branding or poor design.
A high conversion rate brings new audiences, returning customers, brand loyalty, SEO visibility, and increased sales. If your rate is rising, great job! If not, don’t worry. We’ll share tips to increase it.
Insights on how to boost your ecommerce conversion rate
Let’s delve into a scenario that highlights the significant impact of conversion rate on your business. Meet Jamie, an entrepreneur running a webshop specializing in handmade jewelry like bracelets, necklaces, and rings. Lately, Jamie has been experiencing poor sales and a low conversion rate. But how can Jamie turn things around? We’ll use Jamie’s situation to illustrate various effective strategies for boosting ecommerce conversion rates.
1. Pay attention to your SEO
Is your ecommerce store easily discoverable on search engines? If not, users will struggle to find your brand’s website through organic search.
While some low-production ecommerce brands may prefer to maintain an exclusive reputation by avoiding mainstream culture, most businesses aim to reach wider audiences and benefit from increased visibility.
If your brand aligns with Jamie’s jewelry shop and you aim to reach more customers and expand your business, consider the following strategies. Jamie focused on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by analyzing her site analytics and incorporating relevant keywords such as jewelry, apparel, and trendy. She also streamlined her website’s content, resulting in increased traffic and sales.
While optimizing your website, don’t forget to review your content for grammar, spelling, and readability. Ensure that your product images and videos are clear and of high quality. Consistency and quality of content play a crucial role in SEO and usability, both of which strongly impact conversion rates.
2. Be open-minded about your audience
It’s not uncommon to discover that your product or service attracts a broader range of customers than initially anticipated. Jamie, for example, initially targeted fashionable women in their 20s and 30s. However, through customer reviews and social media images, she realized that her jewelry appealed to a wider audience, including teenagers and seniors of all genders.
This highlights the importance of keeping an open mind and being receptive to feedback and customer insights. By embracing this diverse customer base, Jamie can adapt her marketing strategies and tailor her offerings to better serve the unexpected demographics that have shown interest in her jewelry.
To better understand and cater to her new market, Jamie conducted extensive research using focus groups, email surveys, and interviews. This allowed her to identify what appealed to customers and how she could better meet their jewelry needs. Interestingly, one recurring request was for international shipping.
While expanding to new markets can come with additional costs for e-commerce brands, the benefits can outweigh the expenses. Keeping this in mind, Jamie made the decision to offer international shipping to establish a stronger global presence. Within months, she noticed a higher conversion rate and an increase in sales. Consider the possibility of offering international shipping and embrace the opportunity to expand your audience, enabling you to reach a wider customer base.
3. Strengthen your brand identity
Consider the impact of your branding on conversion rate. For example, Jamie’s website had a fun and trendy vibe, initially targeting teenagers and young adults. Surprisingly, it also attracted a significant number of elderly customers, resulting in a higher conversion rate.
Just like individuals, your brand should have its own unique identity. Look at luxury jewelry brand BVLGARI as an example. Their minimalistic web design and high-profile celebrity endorsements create an exclusive and glamorous brand image.
Similarly, Claire’s, a brand targeting kids and tweens, uses cheerful imagery and bright colors to resonate with their audience.
It’s crucial to understand how your audience perceives your brand. Do your language and imagery emotionally connect with them? Are their interactions consistently positive and memorable?
Conducting focus groups with your target audience can provide valuable insights. A strong and authentic brand identity builds consumer trust, offering a reliable and exceptional experience. With the trust of your audience, you can confidently stand out from competitors and be the preferred choice for consumers.
4. Make it easy for the user
User experience is crucial for your website. A seamless and user-friendly design can significantly increase your conversion rate. According to Forrester, a well-designed interface can raise conversion rates by up to 200%, and improved UX design can yield rates up to 400%. Ensure that routine tasks like account creation and checkout are easy for shoppers. If there are obstacles, they may abandon the process.
Jamie conducted usability testing to study how visitors used her website, gathering live feedback from users. Through this process, she gained a better understanding of her customers, identified areas of struggle, and discovered what they enjoyed about her site. One significant finding was that many users found the checkout process on her jewelry store too complex. As a result, she simplified it, leading to more completed transactions.
To achieve a higher conversion rate, consider optimizing the following:
- Make your site responsive to adapt to different devices.
- Implement effortless navigation to enable users to accomplish tasks quickly.
- Provide a robust search function with filters to help users narrow down search results.
- Simplify user tasks, such as sign-up and checkout, to save time and reduce cognitive load.
- Always prioritize your customers’ needs for better engagement and customer satisfaction.
5. Optimize your webshop’s performance
Slow-loading pages lead to user bounce, as we’ve all experienced ourselves. It’s one of the major factors that negatively impact conversion rates. Optimize your website to load quickly, making it accessible for users with slower internet connections and keeping visitors engaged. Additionally, prioritize mobile users by adopting a mobile-first design, considering that more than half of online consumers shop using their mobile devices.
Here are some tips on optimizing your page load times:
- If you use a site manager like Shopify, Webflow, and WordPress, eliminate unnecessary plugins to reduce page load times
- Reduce the number of interactive elements, such as code-heavy interactions and videos
- Remove redundant code
- Use smaller file sizes for images and videos, especially for those with slow internet speeds
6. Offer incentives and rewards
Monitor your brand’s competitors to assess your strengths and areas for improvement, and even gain inspiration from them. Jamie recognized that her prices were slightly higher than her competitors. After reducing them, she observed that maintaining competitive pricing resulted in increased jewelry sales.
Customers value saving money. Jamie leveraged this knowledge by implementing a rewards program based on customer spending. By rewarding customer loyalty through discounts, free shipping, coupons, or rebate programs, you can build relationships and trust, incentivizing customers to return to your store. A rewards program strengthens the bond between new and recurring shoppers and your brand, making it an excellent way to boost your conversion rate.
Jamie implemented various features and incentives on her ecommerce site to boost conversion rates. These included adding a privacy policy section, integrating a chat support platform, creating a loyalty and rewards program, offering free shipping and multiple payment options, and showcasing customer testimonials and social media content. These enhancements improved trust, customer support, competitiveness, and credibility. Implementing similar features and ideas can lead to a significant increase in webshop conversion rates.
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3 months ago |
9 mins
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