Is your ecommerce website converting as many visitors as it could be? Online shoppers are becoming savvier about the purchasing process, but they’re also more impatient and have more options than ever before—so if your site doesn’t convert them, your competitors probably will.
What is an ecommerce shopping cart conversion rate?
According to Klipfolio, an ecommerce shopping cart conversion rate is used to identify how many orders are completed by your customers as compared to the total number of shopping carts that are initiated by potential customers.
It can be measured through this formula:
(visitors who placed an order/total number of visitors who started a shopping cart) x 100
What is the average conversion rate for ecommerce sites?
The average conversion rates for ecommerce sites are between 2.5-3%. However, the average ecommerce conversion rates can vary according to your goals, website, and even your audience. To properly set your ecommerce conversion rate benchmarks, you’ll have to take note of your target audience’s interests first so you can give it to them. Once you see a consistent or the same conversion rate, you can set this as your conversion rate benchmark.
Ecommerce conversion rate optimization helps you identify the key points that help attract users to your website, what makes them leave, and what makes them perform a desired action on your website (e.g., clicking a call-to-action button that directs them to a landing page, signing up for a service or product, downloading an ebook, etc.). Use this to your advantage and you’ll see a drastic change in your conversion rates. What can help you with this process is the use of analytics tools.
The formula for getting your website’s conversion rate is:
(number of conversions/total number of visitors) x 100
Tips on Increasing Your eCommerce Conversion Rates
To help you out, here are five steps to improving your average ecommerce conversion rate:
Create trust with shoppers.
A professional-looking website that reinforces your business brand reassures customers that you are up-to-date and a “real business.” If your ecommerce site still looks like it’s 1999, it might be time for a redesign!
Related: Steps to create an eCommerce website.
Of course, promoting your online data security is also crucial to creating trust. Make sure your online store meets security standards and that your SSL certificates are prominently displayed, along with any other certifications, especially on the checkout pages. Post links to your privacy and security policies where they’re easy to see. This creates the impression that they can shop confidently on your website knowing that their sensitive information is safe and secure.
Share shipping costs upfront.
Online shoppers often want to know the costs and taxes before they check out, so make it easy to find this information. You can even use shopping cart software that shows estimated shipping and taxes during the process of loading the cart. During actual checkout, the costs should be easy to see with the default shipping option checked. If you offer free shipping, it’s helpful to display it here as well.
Drive them down the funnel.
Once customers have loaded up an online shopping cart, make it simple and intuitive for them to check out. Basically, you want to streamline the checkout process as much as possible so they don’t change their minds. Five pages or steps is about the maximum you should use for a checkout process—three is even better. At the top of each checkout page, show progress bars that indicate what step the shopper is in, so they get a sense of direction. Use color, white space, and buttons effectively so it’s easy for even online shopping novices to figure out what to do next.
Provide details without distraction.
To keep the checkout process pages from looking cluttered, use hyperlinks and popup windows to display detailed information such as shipping policy, return policy, guarantees, or other things customers might want to know during checkout. This way, they can access the information if needed, but it won’t slow them down if they don’t need it. Providing live chat software or a phone assistance option during checkout can also help prevent lost sales.
When it comes to shipping policies, return policies, and other guarantees, they should be written in plain language so that it’s easy for the customers to understand. These processes should be easy for them to follow because otherwise, they wouldn’t proceed with the purchase.
Don’t leave them hanging
Most customers like to see a “review” page before they place their final order, so they know exactly what they’re purchasing and what the costs will be. The review page should summarize the order, with a large, easy-to-see “place order” button on the page.
After the order is placed, shoppers should get a confirmation page that includes order details, a confirmation number, and information about what will happen next (“Watch for a confirmation email from us,” etc.) Last but not least, keep them in the loop by sending emails when their package has been shipped and including tracking information so they can watch for the delivery.
Aside from the five steps mentioned above, here are other steps that you can take note of:
Use an analytics tool to track performance
Google Analytics and Glassbox are just some of the analytics tools that you can use to track your ecommerce business’ performance. For instance, Google Analytics has a cart-to-detail rate that shows the percentage of people who added your products to the cart after viewing your product pages. This can give you an insight into how your products resonate with your target audience.
Glassbox, on the other hand, has a feature called a visitor session replay which allows you to record a customer interacting with your website, especially on your landing page. Although this can be a privacy issue, the website owner has the option to exclude Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from the tool itself. This is an important note to consider since it’s off-putting for customers to know that their privacy is somehow invaded.
Other analytics tools also contain a heat mapping tool, where you can see the actions of the users who have visited your ecommerce store. You can see where they clicked, what they scrolled through, what they’ve paid attention to, etc. They’re exactly like weather reports; they contain red, orange, yellow, green, and blue colors that represent the intensity of the interactions of your site visitors.
Most analytics tools have a free version that you can try out. But if you want to unlock other features, then you may want to subscribe to their paid version. Aside from the perks mentioned above, analytics tools also help you figure out your site’s bounce rate, click-through rate, site visits, and more.
You have the freedom to use more than one analytics tool to maximize your marketing efforts. This will help your website have a higher conversion rate.
Provide a guest checkout option.
Some ecommerce websites don’t provide a guest checkout option. This can be a hassle for customers who want to make a quick purchase, but can’t do so because an account should be created first. This translates to lost sales because most customers don’t have the time to create one. Provide convenience to them by providing a guest checkout option.
Ecommerce businesses should adopt a guest checkout option because no matter how willing the customers are to complete their purchases, they wouldn’t bother if they’ll have to go through the inconvenience of creating an account. This seamless shopping experience will lead to a good conversion rate.
Provide multiple payment and shipping options
Providing multiple payment and shipping options for your customers allows them to choose the option that is the most convenient for them. Doing so helps increase your online store conversion rate and minimizes shopping cart abandonment.
Otherwise, your customers are more likely to discontinue their purchases.
Make it mobile-friendly
People nowadays are mostly on their phones. That’s why websites nowadays are optimized for both desktop and mobile devices. This is to provide them convenience no matter what type of device they’re on. If your website is not optimized for mobile devices, then you’re missing out.
Send an abandoned cart email for abandoned carts
Abandoned cart emails nudge the customers to complete their purchases online. This contains the pictures of the products in their cart, their prices, related products, and a call-to-action that directs the customers to their carts. You can also offer a discount to motivate them to complete the purchase.
Provide social proof
Social proof is a powerful tool to push your website visitors to purchase what you’re selling. This can be customer reviews, ratings, or any other social proof that cites a previous customer’s experience with your product. What makes these reviews convincing is that these are unfiltered, first-hand experiences of the previous customers who have purchased them. Future customers will know what to expect once they purchase the product themselves.
Leverage upselling and cross-selling
Upselling is a sales technique where you persuade a customer to purchase more expensive items in hopes of earning more revenue. For example, a customer wants to purchase a computer monitor. What you do is entice them to purchase the whole computer set instead.
On the other hand, cross-selling is another sales technique where you persuade a customer to purchase complementary products. For example, your customer wants to purchase a phone. What you do is sell a protective casing as well to complement their phone purchase.
However, you should make sure that you don’t come off as pushy because your customers might be pressured and will leave your ecommerce store without buying. And as an online store owner, this is the last thing you want to happen because it will affect your brand’s reputation.
You can upsell or cross-sell online by providing personalized recommendations to your customers. You can do this with your customer data at hand.
If your goal is to have increased conversion, ethical and friendly selling is the key.
Take advantage of email marketing
Email marketing is crucial in keeping your customers in the loop of what products you’re currently offering at the moment, notifying them of special offers and discounts, and more. Because usually, after a customer has purchased from your online store, they don’t buy again. The goal is to entice them to buy another product from your store so they eventually become one of your loyal customers. Email marketing is now popular with both brick-and-mortar and ecommerce stores.
Make sure that you segment your email list so you can send a personalized email to your subscribers. You don’t want to send the same email to hundreds of your email recipients. This won’t win you any conversions, and it just shows how you don’t value the interests of your target audience.
Improve customer touchpoints
Another way to get a good ecommerce conversion rate is to improve your customer touchpoints. These can be your website, customer service, brick-and-mortar store, social media sites, and email. These mediums can be your perfect opportunity to get in touch with your customers and how you can make their entire journey smooth and easy.
Increase your ecommerce conversion rates
Increasing your ecommerce store’s conversion rate doesn’t happen overnight. Instead, it’s an ongoing effort of optimizing your website so that it can provide the things that your target audience needs. You might wobble, but you’ll surely gain your balance once you’ve learned the ropes of running your ecommerce site. With the tips mentioned above, we’d like to recommend Web.com’s online store solution where you can build a fully functional ecommerce website. You can optimize your landing pages, sell products, accept payments, and more.
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