A lot of eCommerce site owners think that if a person is browsing their online store, then they are probably looking for a particular product and are ready to convert. While that may be true in some cases, it’s not really so easy for eCommerce stores to convert visitors into customers.
There are many reasons why a visitor leaves without buying even after they find the product they were looking for. Maybe your load time was too high or your eCommerce store was too difficult to navigate or the checkout process was too lengthy and complicated.
That’s why conversion rate optimisation is so important for eCommerce stores. Sure, getting qualified traffic to your online store is essential, but if you are not able to convert that traffic into customers, then you are not reaching your goals.
In this article, our CRO experts are going to talk about the importance of improving your conversion rate and give you a few tips on how to use CRO to boost your sales.
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What Is Conversion Rate Optimisation and Why Is It Important for Your eCommerce Store
Conversion rate optimisation is the process of increasing the percentage of visitors who take the desired action when visiting your eCommerce store. CRO can help you understand how your visitors are navigating your website, what actions they are taking, and what is stopping them from converting.
So, why it’s CRO important?
You’re probably spending a lot of time, effort, and resources every month to generate traffic to your eCommerce store. Conversion rate optimisation ensures that you will get more customers from the same amount of traffic.
Let’s imagine that you have a 2% conversion rate. That means that out of every 100 visitors, two will buy your products. If you increase your conversion rate to 10%, then you will get ten customers out of every 100 visitors. That’s a significant difference without having to invest more resources into driving more traffic.
By improving your conversion rate, you will enjoy other benefits too, such as:
- Decreasing your customer acquisition costs. When you don’t have to invest that much anymore in paid advertising to bring traffic to your eCommerce store, then some of your costs will go down.
- Save money that you can invest in perfecting your products and growing your business.
- Understand what your audience wants and how you can get them to convert.
- Improve the shopping experience. Unlike a brick-and-mortar store, where shoppers can look and examine the product, an online store doesn’t offer the same freedom. So, you need to ensure that your potential customers understand your products’ features and benefits. CRO can help you with that too.
Keep in mind that you need to consider all your conversion goals if you want to see a significant increase in conversions. You probably have a primary conversion goal, such as selling your products (these are also called macro-conversions,) but multiple micro-conversions too – small steps that potential customers might take before converting into a customer, such as making an account, adding a product to a cart, and so on. You need to focus on all of them to ensure a stellar user experience that will convince your target audience to convert.
CRO Tips to Boost Your eCommerce Sales
Here are some of the best ways of improving your conversion rate.
Make Visitors Feel Safe When Browsing Your Online Store
Before you begin focusing on CRO tips like writing engaging product descriptions and using high-quality images, you first need to ensure that your prospects feel safe while browsing your online store and see you as a legitimate business.
There are various ways you can make your website more secure:
- Enable HTTPS on your eCommerce store. It will tell visitors that your site is secured and make it more probable for the search engines to rank your online store.
- Include a safe checkout badge from payment processors like Visa, Mastercard, or PayPal. That’s especially important since 19% of shoppers claim they will not give their credit card information if they think a website is not secure.
- Include social proof. We will discuss this a bit later, but it’s worth mentioning that social proof helps visitors trust your store better.
Know Who Your Audience Is and Make It About Them
A lot of eCommerce stores focus on highlighting their products. And, that’s a good strategy as it enables your customers to grasp the core functions and benefits of your product and decide if that’s what they need. But, some of the best eCommerce stores out there focus on their customers and telling a story that addresses their pain points. And, that’s an excellent strategy too, and here’s why.
Most online stores will have detailed product descriptions, but not that many will tell them how the product will help them solve their problems. But, to achieve that, you need to have an in-depth understanding of your target audience, their pain points, and goals. You should also tell them how your products can help them solve that problem and achieve their goals.
Help Visitors Visualise Your Products
As we’ve mentioned above, visitors can’t examine your products as they do in a brick and mortar store. They can’t touch it, feel its texture, look at it from different angles or try it. That’s why it’s important to help them visualise the product as better as possible so they can envision themselves wearing or using it. For instance, you can display your products from different angles to help potential customers get a better idea of how your products look.
The main idea is to try to provide a shopping experience that is as similar as possible to walking in a brick-and-mortar store and looking at different items.
User Explainer Videos
You don’t need to include videos if you are selling regular running shoes. But, if your online store sells ski boots, then a how-to video can help you increase conversions. You can create different videos that target different problems potential customers might encounter while looking for ski boots, such as explaining the lingo, how to choose the right size, pros and cons between different brands, and so on.
Write Product Descriptions That Convert
There are a few rules that can help you write product descriptions that sell:
- Know Who Your Audience Is: The first step to writing a product description that converts is to know who your audience is, what problem they are trying to solve, how did they find your eCommerce store, and what features or benefits would they be interested in. Once you have the answers to these questions, you can write product descriptions that will resonate with your target audience.
- Explain the Product Benefits: A detailed but boring list of features will not help you boost your conversions. You also need to show your potential customers how the product can benefit them.
- Tell a Story: A good product description should be relevant, easy to understand, concise, but also tell an engaging story. If you are selling wedding rings, for example, in addition to the type of gem, the cut, and the color of the band, you can also talk about the significance of that particular stone.
- Make Them Easy to Scan: Not everyone will take their time to read your product descriptions at length. So, you need to make them easy to read for scanners. Use bullet points, short paragraphs, white space, and different size fonts.
Place Your CTAs Strategically
Where you place your call to action buttons and their copy can make a significant difference in how many people will convert.
Make your CTA stand out and write a clear copy. That way, your target audience won’t get confused about what they need to do next. As a rule of thumb, use one CTA per product page as multiple calls to action might lead to decision paralysis. You should also ensure that there is plenty of white space around your CTA button and that all the elements of the page point towards it.
A/B Test Your Product Pages
A/B testing is the process of comparing two versions of the same landing page, email or product page to see which one performs better. The basics are quite simple: you show 50% of your target audience variant A of your landing page and the other 50% variant B. The variant that generates the most conversions is the winning one.
You can use A/B testing to test almost every element of your page, from the copy and images to the placement of the CTA or social media buttons.
Include Customer Reviews
Nearly 95% of customers read customer reviews before making a purchase and 88% of them claim that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
The reason online reviews are so effective is because of the bandwagon effect. People are more likely to do something if they see that others are doing it too. So, by including social proof on your product pages, you show your potential customers that others have tried your products and have been satisfied.
Leverage Content Marketing
How can content marketing help you generate more sales for your eCommerce business?
High-quality content can help you establish yourself as an authority in your niche and make prospects trust your expertise more. It can also help you build brand awareness and generate more traffic to your website. Moreover, you can include links to your product pages in your blog posts and create new opportunities for conversions.
Keep an Eye on Your Analytics
Measuring the performance of your online store is crucial in increasing conversions.
Go to Google Analytics and determine the metrics that you need to improve. Maybe you have a high page load time and want to improve it to reduce your bounce rate. Make all the necessary tweaks, such as condensing your images, using subheads to keep people engaged, and adding unique CTAs, and then check your analytics again to see which methods were the most effective.
We Can Help You Boost Your eCommerce Sales
We’ll be honest: you can’t build a success story without hard work. And conversion optimisation really is a lot of work. First, you need to figure out what the problem is and what is the best way to fix it. Then you need to try and test different tactics until you find the ones that can help you generate more conversions.
At Australian Internet Advertising, our experts can help your eCommerce store generate more sales and grow. What makes our approach work so well is that we personalize our strategies and use only the tactics that resonate with your business and will help you grow.
Give us a call now!
