Converting site
visitors into paying customers is the goal of every online shop owner. But it
can be tough with all the competition out there vying for your same target
audience.
After all, there
are plenty of eCommerce sites that see lots of daily traffic, high engagement
rates, and email campaign activity, yet
still don’t have many sales.
In fact, it’s
estimated that the average cart abandonment rate hovers around 69.89%
for all online stores, regardless of industry.
And chances are
your mobile eCommerce conversion rates
fare even worse since the average is a meager 3.3%.
But don’t lose all
hope. There are tons of successful online shops out there overcoming these sad
statistics and generating lots of revenue.
You just have to
know how to boost your store’s conversion rates in the right way so that people
coming to your site are not only engaged with your content but want to buy from
you too.
So, read on to learn some of the best strategies for increasing conversion rate so you can continue to grow your business into the success you always hope it’d be.
1. Optimize for Speed
Your eCommerce site’s speed and performance play a significant role in how successful you’ll be.
After all, the
speed at which your website loads not only affects the overall user experience,
it affects how high you’ll rank in search results.
Unfortunately, many
online shop owners fail to see the correlation between site performance and
conversion rates and don’t take the time to optimize their sites.
If you want to break the mold and push ahead of the competition, start by seeing just how fast your website currently loads for site visitors using a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights.
Once your site has
been analyzed, you can follow the suggestions for making improvements, and do
some of the following to increase your site speed (and your conversion rates!):
- Enable browser caching
- Use a reliable web hosting
provider - Minify CSS, JS, and HTML files
- Decrease server requests
- Compress image files to reduce
server strain - Use a CDN to deliver content
across the globe fast
Your slow website
may be costing you more than you think.
With 40% of people abandoning a site
that doesn’t load within 3 seconds and a 1-second delay decreasing conversions
rates by as much as 7%, you can’t afford not
to speed things up.
2. Create a Sense of Urgency
If you are looking
for a quick and easy way to boost your conversions rates, whether you want to
encourage people to subscribe or buy, urgency is a great place to start.
When you put a time
limit on something, such as a special sale price for a best-selling product, is
pushed people to take action. After all, no
one wants to miss a great deal.
Secondly, creating
a sense of urgency invokes what is called FOMO, or fear of missing out.
This feeling gives
people the urge to complete an action, such as sign up for your newsletter so
they can grab an exclusive coupon because they don’t want to miss out on
something others are getting.
One of the best
ways to create urgency on your website and kickstart conversions is to create a
countdown timer using a tool such as OptinMonster.
You can customize
all elements of the countdown timer, such as color schemes, time limit, CTA
button, and special deal, all within an intuitive interface.
Perfect for
eCommerce shops trying to boost sales, a countdown timer can be used to highlight
exclusive deals, promote time-sensitive offers, and even showcase seasonal
offers.
And the best part is, when you convince people to sign up so they can get a special deal, you can then use their contact info to build a long-lasting relationship with them and turn them into repeat customers.
Related Reading: Landing Page Optimization Best Practices
3. Offer Free Shipping
Of course, you
don’t get into online retail to give stuff away for free. You’re in it to make
a profit. But the thing is, one of the biggest reasons people don’t convert as
customers is shipping costs.
And, since most
online stores offer free shipping to
their customers, if you’re in the minority and still charge to ship items,
you’re likely to see less than stellar conversions rates.
Offering free shipping to customers can boost your conversion rates by as much as 25 to 40%, offsetting any shipping costs you have to absorb.
Related Reading: How to Offer Free Shipping without Losing Profit Margins
4. Do Your Keyword Research
Getting your
website into the right search results is the key to driving high quality leads
to your site that will convert.
But if you don’t
take the time to optimize your eCommerce shop for SEO, you’re leaving things up
to chance when it comes to search results, which can be harmful to your brand.
Think about it.
If someone finds
your website in a search result, clicks on your link thinking you have what
they’re looking for, and finds out you don’t have what they’re looking for,
what happens?
The site visitor
immediately abandons your site causing your bounce rate to rise, your
engagement rate to tank, and your search rankings to suffer.
Plus, you don’t get
a conversion or a sale.
The best way to land in the right search results is to optimize your site’s content for the right keywords.
Luckily, you can use a tool such as Ubersuggest to find excellent keywords that not only relate to what you have to offer, but are being actively searched for in search results.
You can get
estimates on search volume, SEO and paid difficulty, and the cost per click for
PPC advertising to see if the keyword you’re trying to rank for is worth it.
And of course,
you’ll see alternative keywords you can integrate into your content marketing
strategies so you can rank higher, drive more traffic to your site, and secure
more conversions.
5. Add a Search Function
When people land on
your website, whether they know exactly what they’re looking for or have idea,
they want to be able to find it fast.
Rather than have
people exploring your navigation menus and hitting dead ends when they don’t
find what they need, consider adding a simple search bar for people to use.
If you use
WordPress as your content management system, the free Ivory Search plugin lets you place
a search bar anywhere on your site using a simple shortcode.
Making things as
easy as possible on your site visitors once they arrive on your website is the
number one way to guide them through your funnel and get them to convert.
6. Set Goals and Monitor Them
Lastly, if you want
to really give rise to your conversion rates and generate more sales, you
should take a little time to set some goals for yourself and monitor your
progress over time, so you can make changes as needed.
For example, let’s
say you have a revenue goal you want to hit, but aren’t sure realistically how
many site visitors you need to hit that goal.
Try entering your
goal into the Traffic Calculator to
get an estimated number of site visitors needed to hit your monetary goal.
You’ll then know
approximately how many visitors and sales per day are needed to achieve your
goal.
Of course, these
calculations are based on pre-set conditions, so you’ll need to adjust as
necessary.
But you can get a
good idea of what it will take to grow your business as well as have something
tangible to work toward while boosting your conversion rates.
Is one of your goals how to make money from home?
Add that into your
list of goals to hit and research ways to better monetize your website such as:
- Starting a YouTube channel or
podcast - Get into affiliate marketing
- Create an online course and teach
others using your expertise and skills
All of these are
great ways to boost your monthly income.
And if what you’re
doing resonates with your target audience, you’ll see a bump in conversions as
people begin watching your video content, buying your recommended products, and
even signing up for your online course.
Final Thoughts
If you want to
build a successful eCommerce site, you’re going to have to focus on your
conversion rates and how to increase them to generate more sales.
Luckily, no matter
what kind of store you have, how limited your budget is, or what your overall
goal is when it comes to scaling your store, there are easy ways to encourage
more people to buy.
So, start
optimizing your online store for more conversions now, and watch as your
competition becomes a thing of the past.
