In the world of ecommerce, driving traffic to your site is hugely important, however what happens when a customer lands on your site is of equal importance. Ecommerce site owners must ensure that the visitors that land on their site take action and convert to sales. Here a 10 proven strategies from BFG to boost your ecommerce conversion rates and turn more traffic into paying customers.
1. Simplify the Checkout Process
If the checkout stage on your site isn’t up to scratch, it will act as a deterrent for the potential customers, and you will see your abandoned baskets rise along with conversion rates falling. Keeping the checkout process as simple and easy to use as possible will lead to a better overall experience for visitors on your site. Things like reducing the number of fields a customer must fill out or offering multiple payment options will all act as factors to increase your conversion rate.
2. Use Scarcity and Urgency Tactics
Nobody wants to miss out on a deal or limited items, so creating a sense of urgency motivates customers to convert on your site. Using techniques such as limited-time offers, countdown timers and even showing low-stock alerts will help to increase your customers’ FOMO and therefore increase the conversions within your site.
3. Simplify Navigation
Keeping your navigation simple and well-structured is key to getting your visitors to convert. Like traditional bricks & mortar stores, if the customer can’t find the product in the store or down a specific aisle, they are more than likely going to leave without buying anything. The same logic should be applied to your ecommerce store. Making your site navigation easy to use and products easy to find on your navigation will benefit your conversion rates.
4. A/B Test Regularly
Test, test & test again. By continuously testing changes made on your site you will be able to understand what strategies are working for you and which are hindering your conversion rates. Test different layouts, images, CTAs and even your product descriptions will all effect how well your site converts.
5. Display Customer Reviews and Testimonials
Showing your site’s trustworthiness through customer reviews and testimonials is a great way of influencing customers’ purchase decisions. Products with reviews tend to have a much higher conversion rate. By encouraging your customers to leave reviews and displaying these on your product page you will see your conversion rates rise!
6. Optimise for Mobile
Ensuring your site is mobile-friendly is a necessity for conversion rates. According to SEMRush Blog, in 2023 there were 313% more visits on mobile compared to desktop. Having a responsive design that loads quickly and has simple navigation is key to keeping your mobile users happy on your site. Google reported that 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
7. Personalise the Shopping Experience
Making the shopping experience of your customers more personalised is a great way of grabbing your customers’ attention. Tailoring email marketing, web content etc for your customer’s preferences will help to add value to their experience with your brand. Epsilon found that 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalised experiences.
8. Use High-Quality Images and Videos
Poor quality product imagery can significantly impact how your customer perceives your website which in turn will harm your conversion rate. Making sure to include multiple images from different angles and if possible different styles/colours will lead to more conversions. The more comprehensive your gallery is the more likely this will lead to higher conversion rates.
9. Implement Trust Badges and Security Seals
Making sure that customers trust your site and know their personal and payment information is safe is a key factor for ecommerce sites. Displaying trust badges and symbols such as SSL certificates, payment processor logos and other third-party endorsements will add to your site’s credibility and your customer’s willingness to purchase.
10. Offer Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are a great way of encouraging repeat purchases and retaining customers. Using your tools such as email marketing to offer loyalty points, discounts, rewards, or exclusive deals for members can encourage your customers to keep coming back to your site and boost repeat purchase rates.
