7 Tips to Optimise e-Commerce Conversion Rates

The ultimate goal of every e-commerce store is for users to take action on your site that converts them to actual customers. The action can include completing a purchase, signing up for a trial or downloading an app. The conversion rate shows the percentages of visitors who are taking the desired action on your site. Conversions are an essential metric for an e-commerce store business because they help determine how well your website is optimised to attract customers. A lower conversion rate could generally be caused by a slow page load speed, irrelevant product copy or long sign-in processes, among others.

There are several other e-commerce businesses whose goals are just the same as yours; getting more visitors and leads for their products. To compete in this digital world, your business must stand out! 

If your e-commerce website is not meeting your business goals, here are some of the e-commerce conversion tactics that can improve your conversion rate.

1. Improve Your Site’s Loading Time

One of the most essential SEO strategies is having a fast responding website. A website that keeps users waiting for it to load leads to an increase in the bounce rate. For a website to deliver great user experience, it needs to be responsive to web requests. A slow-loading website can cause prospective customers to lose interest in your business and further reduce the chances of your business’ web visibility on search engines.

You can modify your website’s load speed by minimising HTTP requests, optimizing image size and format, removing unused scripts, optimizing caching, and reducing cookie size.

Having a responsive website can boost your conversion rates because customers spend more time interacting with your products.

Read on how we enhanced a website’s load speed through image optimization

2. Payment Options

Provide users with a range of payment options to increase your sales opportunities. Options like e-wallets, coupons, cash on delivery, and many other options can work as good payment methods but you need to choose a few payment gateways like credit cards, debit cards, Paypal, etc. to facilitate customers with secure product payments.

You can integrate several plugins on your website to offer a variety of uninterrupted payment methods to your customers

3. Search Options and Filters

To make your e-commerce store UX seamless, you need to optimize your products with the keywords to help users find products easily. Categorising the product pages can also do wonders in getting the right products displayed on the right page and for the right keyword. You can also filter and sort aspects of a product such as a price range, brand, size and colour.

Hassle-free searching attracts customers to stay on your site longer browsing your products and eventually take an action such as buying, thereby increasing your conversion rate

4. Easy Login and Account Creation

Provide users with the option to sign in with just one click by using their social media accounts. Cut down on a lengthy login process by helping users log in through the same process they used when creating their account. 

Making users create accounts is useful in creating a strong customer base. It also helps you communicate directly through sending emails, SMS, or push notifications on their registered email ids and phone numbers.

5. Great Product Copy

Personalised and engaging product copy can significantly improve your conversion rate. If you don’t have the expertise within your organisation, you can outsource a professional copywriter to write product descriptions that focus on a product’s benefits instead of just outlining its features. You need to also make sure that other relevant information such as return and refund policy and frequently asked questions are clear.

The right and of course, true copy about a product paints a powerful visual image that convinces customers to shop from your site. Apart from providing information about a product, good copy is also useful for SEO purposes.

6. Video integration

Videos display the feel of a product in a way that images alone cannot show. They are also useful in answering questions that users can have about a product. If you sell a product that’s all about the experience, adding a demo video to its description page is a great way to improve your conversion rate. While a video can be placed anywhere you think users click and get attracted, it’s important to focus on the aspects of a specific product that customers are most likely to care about.

If the product has a specific function, show it operating so that users can visualise it. You can also show the product in and out of its packaging so that users get an idea of what to expect if they buy it. Ensure that you also address the key aspects of a product such as design, usability, or durability, in each product video.

7. Simplify the Checkout Process

 According to Statista Research Department, 88.05 percent of online shopping orders were abandoned in March 2020. Cart abandonment is so common in e-commerce and is something you should be prepared to deal with. It might not be possible to eliminate cart abandonment entirely but simplifying the check out process can significantly lower your cart abandonment rate.

To make the process of checking out easy, the Digital Marketing Institute recommended the following:

  • Allow users to return to your e-commerce website to check out without having to re-add their items.
  • If users register for your website before checking out, retain their information and pre-fill it into your checkout form automatically.
  • Give examples for every form field, particularly addresses and other fields where users often make mistakes
  • Don’t require customers to register in order to check out
  • Even with careful optimization, it’s impossible to completely eliminate cart 

Additionally, you can add checkout progress indicators that show a progress bar indicating how far or close they are from completing the checkout process

These are among the strategies that you can use to optimise the conversion rates on your e-commerce store. You cannot implement all of them at once but you can start by taking minor initiatives. Conversion rate optimization is a process, you have to put significant efforts to achieve the desired results.

Is your e-commerce store working as it should? If no, then it needs changes and we can help. Talk to us today!