Conversion is the main criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of online marketing. It helps to understand how productive the activities you are taking for the site (setting up ads, connecting new traffic sources), and also allows you to measure the user’s response to your motivation or call to action.
Conversion is a relative value that shows the share of users who completed the target action in the total number of visitors. A high value of the indicator indicates a high probability of increasing sales in the online store. But what needs to be done to achieve the desired growth and achieve the goals? In this article, we will figure out how to increase the conversion of an online store.
How to find out the conversion rate of an online store?
The conversion rate is usually referred to as CR and is calculated as follows:
The indicator is the ratio of the number of visitors who completed a certain action to the total number of those who came to the site.
The target action is an integral part of the concept of conversion. Therefore, its calculation should be preceded by a definition of what kind of action on the site will be considered as such in each case.
When determining the conversion of an online store, the fact of purchase is most often set as the goal. Thus, the indicator is calculated as the ratio of the number of buyers to the number of unique users who visited the site.
What is an acceptable conversion rate? In general, it is impossible to name the value or determine the range exactly. The answer to the question depends on the characteristics of the product, its type and the profitability of the chosen type of activity in general.
As a rule, a normal indicator for an online store does not go beyond the range of 0.3-8%. It is important to consider that 0.3% is quite decent, and 8% is an impressive achievement, but you can strive for more.
Important! Without analyzing the value of the average check, the conversion rate alone cannot fully characterize the effectiveness of an online store. For example, if 20 out of 200 people who came to the site made deals for a total of $500, this is much less profitable than just 5 out of 200 buyers who spent a total of $10,000. Obviously, the conversion will be higher in the first example, and the ROI will be higher in the second.
Many factors affect the level of conversion, and some elements on the pages of a web resource can either positively affect the indicator or show an unsatisfactory result.
What affects the conversion of an online store?
Among the factors that affect the conversion rate of an online store, the most important are:
Hit in the target audience. This fundamental aspect needs to be explored at the site creation stage. Indeed, specific requirements may be imposed on the content, structure and design of a site designed for certain segments. By delving into the study of the portrait of a potential buyer, finding out his needs, income and wishes, you will be able to offer the majority of visitors exactly what they want;
The uniqueness of the offer. What is the difference between your product and analogues? What does the buyer win by working with you? How difficult is it to find a product with the same characteristics? Conversion on sites with a unique offer sometimes differs several times from competitors;
Level of niche competition. Companies operating in highly competitive areas cannot boast of high conversion rates. Users have a wide choice, and they make a deal with the seller who offered the most optimal conditions;
Degree of trust in a web resource and its reputation. The level of trust in little-known companies is usually not too high. The influence of this factor can be reduced by posting real photos of the goods on the site, information about the actual addresses of the offices of the seller company. Links to pages in social networks and customer reviews are also useful;
The external design of the web resource. The user can be interested in stylish design and well-built structure. On such a site, it is more pleasant to study the assortment and you can stay longer, and the more time the visitor spends on the site, the higher the chance of concluding a deal;
Ease of use of the site. Resources with good usability are always in a winning position. Moreover, it is important that it is convenient to use not only the desktop version, but also the version intended for mobile devices;
Content quality. Text information should be complete and understandable, any articles and descriptions should be useful, and for visual content, choose only high-quality photos and videos;
Payment methods, delivery terms and return options. Small territorial coverage, inconvenient payment options, lack of delivery and difficulties with the return operation always negatively affect the conversion;
Quality of service. The way your managers talk, how quickly they respond to a customer’s request and are interested in satisfying it as much as possible, forms a general opinion about the store, which directly affects the desire to contact it here. In a situation where a potential buyer is faced with difficulties in choosing, paying or processing, the success of the transaction directly depends on the desire and ability of the manager to solve the problem and minimize the negative.
How to increase the conversion of product cards in an online store?
Not all online store owners think about the importance of pages containing information about specific products. But product cards are crucial. Their improvement helps to increase the conversion of the online store as a whole. Let’s dwell on the most effective ways.
Install the related products plugin
Alternative options – “products in a similar price segment”, “buy together with the product”, “recommendations”, etc. If the product on the page for some reason does not suit the visitor, he will not leave the site, but will continue to look for an alternative.
Post customer reviews
Help! Only 1 in 10 users don’t read reviews before making a purchase, and among the rest, nine out of ten people trust recommendations as if they were given by a friend or relative.
Publishing real customer reviews increases the level of trust, which inevitably translates into increased profits in the future.
Record a product review video
Give potential buyers a sense of personal selling by communicating with them through video. This will also demonstrate to the audience that you are not a scammer, but a real company. In the video, tell us what determines the choice of product, focus on its features, and, if possible, demonstrate it in action.
Describe the terms of delivery in detail
If your plans include entering new territorial markets, ensure the delivery of goods to other regions. This will attract more visitors, among which there will be potential buyers.
Important! Provide not only convenient delivery to other regions, but also transportation of the order within the city.
In the product card, it is enough to write down the main theses, and place the full information on the corresponding information page.
Mention guarantees
The most common doubts of the buyer can be dispelled by posting information that you provide warranty service for a certain period, accept goods for return or exchange.
Add the ability to order in 1 click
Do you enjoy filling out countless forms and fields when placing an order? Most likely no. And, if the terms of the transaction do not differ, you will probably choose an online platform where it is enough to leave only a phone number for an order. Do not make voluminous questionnaires and do not forget that users appreciate:
your time;
simplicity of wording;
the ability to not make extra effort.
Connect the action
Promotions, discounts and gifts always complement the purchase. Sometimes consumers even buy something that they do not need at all if there is a discount on this product.
Advice! Limiting the validity period of a promotion or the quantity of goods sold motivates the client to complete the transaction.
Information about discounts must be placed in such a way that it is clearly visible. An additional effect of promotional offers is word of mouth. Your customers will tell their family and friends about a bargain, which will definitely increase the number of potential leads.
Add product details
Users love to explore and compare product features. Before buying, they want information about product features and benefits, how to use it, and safety precautions.
Advice! Speak the language of the customer and present product information in an understandable way. The data that the phone’s battery capacity is 3500 mAh will not tell the average consumer anything. Additionally, specify how many hours the device will work without recharging in talk and standby mode.
The more answers a user finds on your web resource, the more likely they will choose your company to make a purchase.
Post high quality photos
The quality of the visual content of an online store directly affects the conversion rate, because photos are the only element that allows you to evaluate the appearance of the product.
Important! Images should naturally convey shades of colors and be clear. It is advisable to post pictures taken from different points. Important elements of the product must be shown in separate close-up photos.
Upload at least three images to the card for each item. It can be a front or side view, a product against the background of an object, in a box, in work, etc.
Use the “Did you find it cheaper?” block
Using this trick helps stop the user from further looking for a better deal. Most will understand that this is where the lowest price is presented. This technique works well for simple B2C products.
Ways to increase conversion in online store categories
One of the important methods to increase the conversion of an online store is the development of category pages. Here you should focus on the following elements:
Filters and sorting products
It is rational to add filters and sorting to the site when the number of commodity items exceeds a thousand. This allows the visitor to quickly make a choice without looking through the entire range:
Advice! Don’t create filters for every possible option. This confuses the potential buyer, and a confused person is unlikely to make a purchase. Make sorting intuitive and easy.
Product position in the catalog
Those goods that need to be sold faster should be placed at the top left of the list. The rest of the positions should be sorted so that the highest priority offers are as high as possible in the list. Products at the bottom of the catalog sell the worst.
Ability to add a product to the cart from a category
It is recommended to place a call-to-action button on the category page. This will save time for those users who do not want to open the product card and are ready to immediately purchase the selected items.
On any type of device, the button should not cover significant interface elements, texts and photos. Otherwise, the conversion may decrease. Choose bright colors for the button.
Top Sellers & Featured Products
When an online store offers a lot of products with similar or the same characteristics, it is easy to get confused at first. You will help the visitor to make a choice if you place a separate module with “bestsellers” or highlight the most popular positions.
How to improve the conversion of an online shopping cart?
Another way to improve the conversion of an online store is to work out the “Cart” section by doing a few things:
Place information about ordered items
This makes it easier for the buyer to control the quantity and range of ordered goods. After all, he may forget something or leave something superfluous – something that was added during the last visit, but is no longer relevant.
The buyer feels more confident when he sees what he pays for.
Set up remarketing
Some online shoppers place an item in their cart but don’t pay for it. There are many reasons for this – the purchase was planned later, something distracted from the process, doubts arose, etc.
remarketing helps to motivate the visitor to close the deal. Set up ads, remind the user about the abandoned cart and thus increase the conversion.
Turn off mandatory registration on the site
Do not force the visitor to waste time and register to make a purchase. Many do not want to share their data, fearing that they will fall into not the cleanest hands.
Moreover, in any case, you will receive contact information – the buyer will have to provide it when placing an order, even without registration.
Turn off unnecessary fields
If filling out the questionnaire takes longer than choosing a product, you should reduce the number of fields. It is illogical, for example, to ask 25 questions to someone who wants to buy just a mouse for a laptop.
Automate everything that can be simplified. Create drop-down lists, only contact fields should be empty. Do not ask questions that are not related to the execution of the order.
How to increase the conversion of the site as a whole?
Finally, let’s focus on ways to increase conversion by changing the overall design of a web resource:
Visually highlight contacts
The feedback form and contact details should be clearly visible. The visitor should not look for this information among large volumes of text and graphics. This factor is directly related to the conversion of the online store.
Search by product name
Even if you only have 100 titles in your catalog, you should implement this feature. If, for example, a visitor was interested in an Ariston dishwasher and forgot to add the product card to the bookmark, then next time it will be more convenient for him to use the search, and not flip through all the pages with dishwashers. If you place filters in the search results, then it is highly likely that the buyer will thank you with a paid order.
Add an online chat
Even if you have posted an exhaustive description of the product and the terms of the purchase, the visitor may have questions that are crucial to get qualified answers:
However, not all users have the opportunity to make a phone call for this. An online chat comes to the rescue in such a situation, where the consultant can keep the visitor and turn him into a buyer.
Important! Respond to the user immediately, not after a day or an hour. Most likely, he will forget what he asked, or find someone who will provide information more quickly.
For the initial interaction, you can set up bots and connect the manager only when the problem cannot be solved in this way.
Work on traffic quality
Traffic directly affects the conversion rate of a resource. Potential buyers will come to your site and immediately leave if the advertisements are not customized for the appropriate audience. For example, you place an ad for the sale of branded (luxury) clothes, and it gets into the search results for people with low or medium incomes.
The more responsible you approach the issue of forming a portrait of the target audience and setting advertising for it, the better will be the quality of traffic and the percentage of sales.
Here are a few simple tips to increase the conversion of your online store:
Keep your target audience in mind. Advertising cabinets provide wide customization options by geography, gender, age, income, interests, look alike audience, and more. Use all the tools provided to the maximum.
Remarketing is a powerful weapon. Do not forget about Google remarketing – this is advertising for those users who were on the site, but closed it without making a conversion. Work multichannel: A combination of Instagram Stories and promotional posts on other social networks will significantly increase your conversion.
Leverage warm traffic. It is recommended to choose the target audience at the penultimate steps of the sales funnel – people already know exactly what they need, they are just looking for a better offer. Such leads increase the percentage of closing a deal with 1–2 visits to the resource. Warm traffic usually comes from search (relevant for both paid and organic traffic). The right approach to working with semantics will bear fruit (add conversion keywords to the campaign, the desired geographic location.
Place Important Blocks Correctly
Jacob Nielsen conducted a study with more than 200 respondents about how a user views a page on a site. They found that users view pages in an F-shaped pattern. That is, they do not read the text on the page, as if scanning the available material, and if something catches them, they stop and read.
In the figure below, you can see the layout of the user browsing the page. It resembles the letter F. It is recommended to place important information according to this principle, so that it is easier for buyers to find it.
Optimize page loading speed
A popular reason for poor conversions is errors and slow site loading speeds. Follow the path of the buyer and fix all the technical flaws. A page rendering speed that does not exceed three seconds is considered acceptable.
Customize your site for smartphones
More than half of users access the global network through smartphones. To prevent such visitors from leaving the site due to its incorrect display, check:
what images look like and whether they actually load;
are there any intersections of graphic elements and text;
whether important information is available;
Is it possible to place an order and does it cause problems;
what is the page loading speed.
Conduct this audit at least once a month.
Add a Pop-Up Form
Pop-ups can cause irritation in the user and a desire to close the site. However, with the right approach, they can significantly increase website conversion. To do this:
The pop-up should not appear immediately, but after the visitor has had time to familiarize himself with the contents of the page. Then it will not interfere with reading. This allows you not to distract a person at the most inopportune moment. The ideal time for appearance can be determined empirically – use A/B testing for this.
It’s best to only show the popup once per session. The repeated appearance of a pop-up will most likely not give the desired effect, but on the contrary, will irritate the potential client.
Be sure to add the ability to close the window by clicking on a button or past a pop-up. Then visitors will have a feeling of control over the situation, and they will be able to close the pop-up information if it is not interesting to them.
The pop-up should provide real benefit to the visitor and motivate him to take the desired action (subscription, purchase, etc.), and not irritate him with a banal offer.
Motivate customers to leave reviews
Positively affects the conversion of an online store and the presence of reviews from real customers. People appreciate the opportunity to read other people’s experiences before making a purchase.
To encourage customers to more actively share their impressions of interacting with your store:
Offer a bonus or gift for a review. This could be a discount on the next purchase, free shipping, or a loyalty program through which the customer can accumulate a certain number of points and later exchange them for something valuable.
Remind the buyer of the opportunity to write a review in a letter after the order has been delivered. You can also set up an automatic email with a request to share your impressions after a certain time after receiving the goods.
Make the process of writing a review as simple as possible. The user must fill out 1-2 required fields, and then be able to share what they have written not only on the site, but also on their social networks.
It is especially important not to delete negative comments and to work with them correctly. This will create an atmosphere of openness and trust among the audience. Potential buyers will see that you react to negativity and offer different options to solve a possible problem, rather than leaving things to chance.
