10 Steps to Improve eCommerce Conversion Rates

Taking steps to improve eCommerce conversion rates will be among the few ongoing jobs you’d have to do after your eCommerce site is up and running. Assuming everything else being the same, it’s the work you put into improving conversion rates that’ll give you the competitive edge, and ensure sustained growth.

Here are ten different ways to improve eCommerce conversion rates now:

‍Get an accessible responsive mobile version 

Without the ability to cater to an ever-rising mobile traffic, you don’t stand a chance. To stay in the eCommerce game, you got to be “in the game”

By 2025, sales on mobile devices will account for over 10% of total retail sales in the United States, according to BigCommerce and Statista. 

It’s not just mobile versions too. There’s a rise of new payment trends within the realm of eCommerce and mobile commerce such as Buy Now Pay Later, Tap to pay, wallets for payment, mobile eCommerce Checkouts, and more. 

Having accessible mobile versions or proper mobile-responsive eCommerce stores is no longer “nice to have”. 

Make Product Pages Clear & Enticing 

Here’s a thumb rule when it comes to building and managing product pages, apart from basics such as to use irresistible product images and copywriting: absolutely anyone should understand what the products are, how your product works, and who the products are for. 

Keep the product pages easy to navigate and the products easy to understand. On top of this, ensure that your product pages focus more on the benefits as against feature lists and jargon. 

Use Spacing and colors along with high-quality product photos to your advantage. 

Benefit-oriented and customer-focused copy (product descriptions), multiple methods of payments for customers (including modern ones such as Buy Now Pay Later) along with accelerated checkout, eCommerce subscriptions (if applicable) are some great ways to enhance product pages.

Highlight Social Proof 

With social proof, there’s only one rule: Get it. Then, when you have it, you show it. 

Social proof is a core revenue driver. Even if everything else remains the same when you compare with your competition, it’s social proof (and this also includes the chatter on forms along with discussions on social media) that pushes you up or down the totem pole. 

In some cases, especially in crowded product categories, social proof is the only thing that matters. 

State Your USP & Focus on Benefits

Taking a leaf out of Apple’s marketing ethos, do you notice how it’s more of “Lovable. Drawable. Magical” for iPad instead of anything technical at all on product pages? 

Or, how about “Adventure Awaits” for iWatch Ultra? Apple does get into the details (but much later into product descriptions). They start with the benefits, the USP, the singular reason why you must consider getting into Apple's ecosystem. 

Highlight the “Why”, explain why your brand is special, why customers must choose your brand (or your products) over your competition.  

Make Website Secure & Fast Loading

In this day and age, nothing puts web users off more than a slow loading website or eCommerce store. 

SSL certificates, clean website design, and an intuitive user experience are a must for your eCommerce store. This is on top of making sure that your website stays “on brand”. 

Fast loading eCommerce websites are not “nice to have” anymore; they are mandatory. 

Apart from the obvious need for better search rankings and overall marketing performance, fast loading websites also help with a better customer experience, great UX/UI, and stellar first impressions (or repeat impressions for existing customers). 

Get Answers To Questions Customers Regularly Ask 

Roll out a dedicated live chat widget on your eCommerce store to allow customers to ask you questions. Or, create dedicated FAQ elements or even dedicated FAQ pages on your eCommerce store. 

If necessary, flesh out answers to frequently asked questions by creating full-fledged blog posts or content pages.

Trying to answer all these questions your potential customers have is like making an impressive first virtual handshake. The more convincing the answers are, the better your potential customers feel. 

How your customers feel has a direct impact on whether they buy products or not, and if they’d remain customers for life. 

Talk In Real-time With Live Chat [Or Use Bots With Human Handover] 

According to Gorgias, more than 66% of customers prefer brands that have a “live chat” option on eCommerce sites. 

Live chat not only allows you to interact with customers in real time but also helps convert casual visitors into customers, reduces shopping cart abandonment, and directly boosts eCommerce conversion rates. 

If you use Shopify, for instance, you get access to Shopify Inbox (one-click installation from admin) for live chat (directly connected to your store). Or you have several other tools that you could use for live chat -- real-time conversations that lead to instant interactions and much better conversions for eCommerce you’d miss otherwise. 

‍Monitor what your competitors are doing to get inspiration 

To know where your eCommerce landing pages stand and how they perform, you’d need benchmarks. Knowing what your competitors are doing is a great way to get the right start before you go all in -- with both hands, feet, and a couple of campaigns.

Using a tool like Panoramata, you get instant insights on how your competitors perform, the types of marketing campaigns they run, the marketing tools used, ads, content profiles, and how competitors (and others in the industry) use email marketing for driving sales.

Get an audit from an expert 

To do better, you’ll tremendously benefit from another pair of eyes. Even better if you get your landing pages audited by eCommerce marketing experts. 

You don’t have to go out on a massive global talent hunt to find experts to help audit your eCommerce landing pages. 

Contact us!

Never settle, always improve

Conversion rates, campaign performance, and anything else you get after your eCommerce store is up and with your campaigns running is not cast in stone. Marketing campaigns are always moving targets. 

Landing page converts at 17%? Ads have a click-through rate of 26%? The average order value is $29.99? 

Those numbers are not final. When it comes to marketing campaigns, it’s never “set it and forget it”. 

Once the campaigns are up, we all owe it to ourselves (and others) to continue to test campaigns, tweak campaigns based on data you get, and push towards better marketing results. 

How do you plan to boost your eCommerce conversion rates?