Chris Christoff — January 31, 2019 — January 31, 2019
When you run an eCommerce store, it’s important to make sure you’re doing everything you can to impress visitors and keep existing customers happy. There are endless options for consumers to choose from, so when they pick your store to make a purchase from, that means you’ve done something right.
But what if your eCommerce optimization strategy needs a boost? Perhaps your sales aren’t as high as you predicted or customers are complaining about the user experience (UX) your shop provides them with. Whatever the case may be, you need to identify where shoppers encounter the most struggles and how you can push these out of the way.
If you’re looking to boost your eCommerce conversion rates, here are three tips to get started.
1. Earn the customer’s trust
Before your eCommerce store can produce any conversions, it has to reel in your consumers by gaining their trust. If people feel they can’t count on what you’re producing and selling, you’ll never reach the amount of success you want. Show visitors you’re willing to give them what they need so they feel comfortable and safe purchasing from your company.
With big retailers like Amazon offering fast, free shipping, consumers expect their shipping costs to be relatively low or not exist at all. In their 2018 study, Statista found that 63 percent of digital shoppers abandon their shopping carts because shipping costs are too high. If you can’t get rid of the cost entirely, find ways to lower them significantly. Talk to your vendors and shipping companies about what can be done to lower this cost.
There are many things you can do to your eCommerce store to earn consumers’ trust:
- Use secure checkout processes to make your visitors feel safe buying from you.
- Provide a privacy policy and use security badges demonstrating your site is secure to process payments.
- Showcase reviews of your products so visitors can see what your current consumer base thinks about your brand and its quality.
- Provide a return policy in case customers aren’t satisfied as 53 percent keep unwanted items to avoid the hassle of returning them.
- Give them tracking information so they can keep up with the status of their order.
2. Use high-quality visual content
Being an eCommerce store, of course, you’re going to need visual content to show visitors what your products look like. But how useful is it when it comes to producing conversions?
Your product images should be detailed, large, and have the ability to zoom in and out to get a better look. Skinner Inc., an auctioning company, ran an A/B split test to determine whether image size truly matters for consumers when making a purchase. When they enlarged their images by 28 percent, it increased their conversions by 63 percent.
Clothing company River Island shows multiple photos of the same product and offers zooming features for a closer look.
Always use high-quality images that aren’t pixelated or grainy and offer a true look at what the product is like in person. You’ll frustrate and lose customers if what you show them online is nothing like what they receive in the mail, so the more shots and angles you have of your products, the better.
3. Improve the UX
It’s simple: make the user experience as simple as possible for visitors, and you’ll end up with higher conversions. Why? Because visitors want their digital shopping experience to be seamless, quick, and easy. Otherwise, they might as well go to a brick and mortar store or buy from a similar eCommerce shop.
Think of how you can improve your store’s UX. How can you make their experience easier and simpler? How can you quicken the process and relieve their most annoying pain points while shopping?
Here are a few ideas:
- Shorten any forms visitors have to fill out as much as you can.
- Simplify the checkout process by offering multiple payment options.
- Boost your site’s speed and performance by decreasing lag and loading times.
- Use Google Analytics to see where bounce rates and cart abandonment are high so you can create an improved conversion strategy.
- Use straightforward, big CTA buttons that tell customers where to check out, view products, add to cart, and more. Use A/B testing to see which variables work best.
Over to you
Revamping your eCommerce conversion strategy could seriously improve your business and boost sales. It’s important to always keep your customers in mind when thinking of ways to boost your conversion rates because that’s where your revenue lies. Think about how you can make your visitors’ lives easier and earn their trust so they’re inclined to buy from you. Give them a realistic idea of what your products are like in real life by providing them with great visuals. Finally, improve the UX so they don’t run into problems when purchasing.
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