Almost 47 billion web pages are competing against each other, of which 12 to 24 million are eCommerce websites.
In simple words, these websites are competing against each other to attract the attention of the same bunch of people (who are willing to invest money to buy things online). So how would you make sure you stay at the top of the competition and attract most of the attention?
Sure you need to have some solid eCommerce marketing strategies, but most of them talk about improving traffic, content marketing, SEO, etc. These are no doubt important, but one of the most important things that need to be considered is ‘Conversion Optimization’. Conversion optimization not only focuses on increasing the traffic to your website but also makes sure these visitors turn into customers, thus improving the sales for your eCommerce store.
Reality check – The conversion rate for most eCommerce stores is quite low. Why? This is because most eCommerce websites neglect conversion optimization. This is the reason why you must identify the roadblocks in your conversion funnel and address them immediately. Here are top 5 eCommerce conversion hacks that will increase the ROI and skyrocket your sales:
1. Proper Use of Homepage Images
Images used on the homepage must be able to communicate different product and promotions with the visitors. Instead of using simple image sliders, you can offer better personalization by choosing a static image that connects better with your audience. Along with the image, you need to customize the homepage text to make your website relevant to your visitors.
For instance, Grizzly Zoo improved the engagement (click through rate) from 1.96 percent to 43.03 percent, by replacing the existing slider control with a static image. The modified static banner (which replaced the image slider) allows the visitors to select the pet category that is most relevant to them. Instead of waiting for the most relevant category to appear (in case of an image slider), they can directly move on to the category they like.
Modified Homepage for Grizzly Zoo:
Conversion Rate:
2. Optimize Website Loading Time
A business loses about 25 percent of its online visitors if the website takes more than 4 seconds to load – Kissmetrics
So until and unless your eCommerce business equals the stature of Amazon or eBay, you will be missing out a lot of your website loads slowly. Humans have a very short attention span, so you merely have a few seconds to attract the visitor’s attention. For this you must ensure that the website loads quickly on all devices. Since more and more people are embracing the use of smartphones and other hand held devices, you must also make your eCommerce website mobile friendly.
Using images and videos are crucial to attract attention, but you must compress the files to make sure the website loads quickly. Websites like TinyPNG helps you compress the image files without compromising the quality, thus you can achieve an optimal loading speed for your website.
3. Improve the Trust Factor for Your Website
Improving the credibility of your online business is very important in order to drive traffic to your eCommerce store. Customer testimonials, product reviews and online ratings can help people get a cue about your reputation.
But remember, testimonials or reviews that look fake might actually do more harm than good. Generic or poorly attributed testimonials can turn down visitors. 37Signals, now known as Basecamp, saw a 102.5% increase in the conversion rate by adding a picture of the customer next to the testimonial. You can also consider leveraging testimonials from other sites like Yelp, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. An authentic testimonial from another credible website can do more good than a sketched testimonial on your own site.
Similarly, a few reviews of your products can skyrocket the conversion rates.
Some supporting stats:
- 50 or more reviews per product indicate an increase of 4.6 percent in conversion rates – Reevoo
- 61 percent customers read online reviews before making a purchase decision
- Reviews result in an increase of 18 percent uplift in sales on average (breakup below in image)
4. Simplify Checkout Processes
Lengthy and complicated checkout processes are a complete no-no. Creating easy checkout processes is even more crucial for the mobile audience. By using cross platform log-ins, you can cut down unnecessary steps. Most online stores require their customers to sign up before they can make the payments, but this can turn down customers who don’t have enough time or are not interested to provide personal information.
By allowing the customers to complete the buying cycle without signing up, you can reduce cart abandonment rate considerably. This also cuts out the need to remember complicated user-ids and passwords, so people would be interested to return to your eCommerce store again and again.
5. Include a Strong and Bold Call-to-Action
Including a strong and clear call to action is very important to let your visitors know what you want them to do – download a brochure, buy a product, sign up a newsletter, etc. It is always recommended to add one call-to-action per page to reduce the amount of confusion. Make sure all the landing pages have a relevant call-to-action.
By being clear and transparent about what your visitors are expected to do, you can improve the trust for your online business and improve conversion rate considerably.
Conclusion
To make the most of your investments, it is necessary that you identify the roadblocks in the conversion funnel and fix them instantly. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and take some time to study your website to identify what is missing and what can make the shopping experience even more interesting.
Since you know about the top 5 hacks, you will be in a better position to identify the loopholes, but that does not mean you should follow them blindly. Examine your eCommerce website and check which modifications would affect the sales most positively and then implement the changes.
If you have any other hacks to share, feel free to add them to the comments section!
Image Source: (1, 2, 3, 4)
