Measurable e-commerce product strategies set in place right from the get-go can drive more conversions. In the world of eCommerce, it isn’t all about traffic but also conversions. Your website may be getting plenty of traffic, but how to convert this into real sales? The answer lies in improving customer experience and making small, focused changes to your website. Here are 10 simple, effective ways to boost your conversion rate.

1. Improve Website Load Speed 

Customers expect pages to load within 2 seconds, so if your website is taking longer than this, you need to consider speeding it up. Try to use browser caching and reduce plugins and redirects to help speed it up. Another aspect to consider is image sizes. Make sure that they are optimized for the web, as large image files can slow down your page load time, especially on mobile devices. If your page takes too long to load, customers are likely to abandon it and look elsewhere.

2. Search Bar usability 

Improve customer experience by making it easy for visitors to navigate through your site, using a clear and visible tabbed navigation system. Another fantastic tool to invest in is a good search bar. This is particularly useful for those customers who know exactly what they are looking for on-site. A search bar enables them to find what they need faster, have a better overall experience and therefore be much more likely to make further purchases from you in the future.

3. Optimize Website Navigation

Hand-in-hand with the consideration above, Go onto any leading clothing store or eCommerce store for that matter, well-planned menus is made an essential part of the many effective eCommerce product strategies & will show up at the top of the page. The quicker you can get customers in front of the products they’re interested in, the more likely you’ll be to secure a sale.

4. Have Clear Call-To-Action Buttons

One of the most important aspects of your website is your use of call-to-action (CTA) buttons.

“Lots of websites get this wrong,” explains Linda Bliss, a social media writer at Britstudent.com and Writemyx.com. Make sure that your CTAs are clear, focused and visible. Aim to only have one or two per page. The more CTAs there are, the less likely customers are to click on each of them, thus reducing their efficiency. So, be clear about what the purpose of each one is. Display it clearly on the page, preferably near the top. Your CTAs should stand out from the rest of the page and the copy should be short and direct.” 

5. Chat support

Assist customers through one of the most flexible eCommerce product strategies by offering chat support throughout their buying journey especially in eCommerce as customers are usually overwhelmed with the multiple options at their disposal. The faster you can provide them with a solution and improve their overall experience, the better. By providing visitors with live chats, you are able to quickly resolve issues, which will increase the likelihood that they will go on to complete a purchase. It also provides you with invaluable feedback and ideas for improving your product pages. 

6. Personalized Recommendations

A great way to increase conversions is to personalize a customer’s experience and provide them with recommendations. Make sure that you track the right data points to get the most out of this strategy. Track customer or history, search history and location to help you determine the type of products they might be interested to see.

“Another great technique to use is upselling,” says Kevin Grossman, a marketer at Australia2write.com and Nextcoursework.com. “That’s when you suggest an additional item to compliment the product the customer is already viewing. For instance, some jewelry or accessories, like belts, that will help complete a look. The addition will increase the value of the transaction.”

7. Address abandoned cart issue

The average rate of cart abandonment is approximately 77%. However, it can be easily mitigated by sending subtle email reminders to remind customers to come back to your site and complete their purchase. You can also provide the choice for customers to add to wishlist and return to it later, making it easier for them to find products again and increasing the chances of a purchase being completed.

8. Improve on-site copies & images

Even if it’s safe to say that you put a lot of hard work into choosing the right images and words to sell your products, that doesn’t mean you’ve got them right, especially when things change over time. It’s important to make sure you’re constantly coming back to your copy and images to ensure they’re selling the product you want to sell.

It can also be beneficial to A/B test your copy and images to see what performs the best and what’s going to help you make the maximum number of sales possible.

9. Offer Multiple Payment Options

Smooth check out process is a huge factor contributing to conversions. The customers abandoning their purchases at the checkout is due to their preferred payment option not being available. Having multiple payment options available will help to ensure that customers are able to pay in a more convenient way and it allows you to target a larger, global audience. 

10. Offer a Secure Website

At its core, doing things online, whether you’re working or shopping or anything, is security. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers. You’re going to be logging onto a website and giving them some key information, including personal information, such as your age and your address, and more sensitive information, including payment details.

11. Easy guest check out process

Another big reason for abandoning carts at the checkout stage is due to the need to create a new user account in order to complete their purchase. It is worth offering guest checkout as a way to increase your conversions. Consider giving customers the option to create an account after their purchase has been completed, either as part of a post-purchase email or on the confirmation page of their purchase.

Single-step checkout for existing customers is another great way to facilitate their purchase experience. Allow existing customers to save their personal details and payment options so that they can have a smoother, faster checkout and help to promote and encourage repeat shopping on your website.

12. Clearly Address Potential Customer Uncertainties

You want to ensure that customers feel confident in completing a purchase from you. To this end, displaying security badges, customer reviews and customer support phone numbers can be very effective. Also ensure that you have detailed, clear product information and that you address any questions that the customer might have which includes clearly displaying your returns or refunds policy, to address customer worries upfront.

13. Use Testimonials and Social Proof

If you’re buying a product on a store like Amazon, how often are you going to spend your hard-earned money on a one-star rated product? Similarly, are you even going to look twice at a one-star-rated product and give it your attention? If you’re like the vast majority of shoppers then no, probably not.

When it comes to selling your products on-site, it’s important to make sure the core of eCommerce product strategies – validation is set & highlighted. By showcasing reviews and testimonials from past customers to show how good your product is and what benefits it can bring into their lives. If you don’t have any reviews, source them from people you know!

14. Free Shipping as an incentive

Providing free shipping is one of the biggest incentives for customers to complete their purchase. You can choose to offer free shipping during specific time frames, on orders over a certain amount or on a minimum number of items per purchase. It’s also important to clearly inform customers of the estimated shipping time and delivery, especially if you sell products that are used as gifts for special occasions. 

15. Test & improve continuously

Last, but certainly not least, you’ll want to make sure you’re testing all the changes & tracking to ensure improvement. One change at a time – be it text, image or other elements across the website. Validate the change & move onto changing the other element. Look at the figures you’re achieving using analytics, see what difference the improvements made, and then refine constantly.

16. Conclusion

Focus on improving customer experience to help boost your conversions. Make sure that customers have a smooth journey from initial search to their checkout experience. Ensure that they are able to easily search for products, get personalized recommendations and can contact you if they need to.

Lastly, making small changes to your website can help to make a customer’s journey more positive, which will result in increased conversions & repeat purchases.

Michael Dehoyos

Michael Dehoyos is a professional editor and content marketer at Phd Kingdom and Academic Brits websites. He works closely with a range of companies, helping them to develop and improve their marketing strategy concepts. Michael is also a writer, contributing regularly to numerous websites and publications including Origin Writings, with articles and guides on content marketing.

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