10 Easy, Implementable Conversion Rate Optimization Tactics for your Ecommerce Site

Setting up your own online business is easy, profiting from it, not so much. Traffic means nothing if visitors do not sign up, subscribe, buy or complete the action you want them to. With limited conversion, all your investment in advertising will go down the drain.

The success of any eCommerce venture boils down to one metric, conversion rate. It is the measure of your business’s profitability. To convert visitors into customers, you need a Conversion Rate Optimization campaign, but every decision you make is crucial. Embark on an uneducated campaign based on gut feeling and guesswork, and you stand to lose sales and revenue.

Here are some optimization pointers guaranteed to increase the conversion rate of your eCommerce site.

1. Earn visitors’ trust

Your visitors want evidence of credibility. Adding the following to your site should do the trick -

• Testimonials: Fun fact, your customers are better at selling your products and services than you are. Shoppers trust products that have been tested and green lighted by other shoppers.
• SSL certificate: Put up an SSL seal at your website especially on the check-out page. An SSL certificate may be pricey, but it is worth the investment.
• Mention the relevant press coverage, awards and certifications you have received.
• Provide more than one payment option. You stand to lose customers who do not find their preferred mode of payment.

Image via: Acquisio

2. Make speed your best friend

Customer satisfaction is tethered to your site’s speed and ease of use. To optimize the ease and speed with which your visitors can navigate, search or buy on your site you can;

• Find ways to improve your website’s loading speed
• Make the checkout quick and effortless. Eliminate forced registration and other distractions unless they are useful pop-ups.
• Use clear progress indicators

3. Step up your product page game

One of the easiest optimization strategies is to improve your product pages. Great product pages improve search engine ranking which brings in more traffic to your site. If they are informative and enticing enough, they should also convert most of the visitors into customers.

Visitors on your product page are one-step away from conversion. Give them a little nudge with the following changes to your product pages-

• Make your product name specific and descriptive
• Write a high-quality and unique product description
• Use big, beautiful images and descriptive videos to showcase your product
• Make the “Add to Cart” button clearly visible and easily accessible

Image via: Kissmetrics

4. Optimize your site design

You can drive all the traffic to your site, but if your visitors don’t like what they see, they will not buy or subscribe to anything. Improve your site’s look, feel and user experience by investing in professional design. Ideally, a visitor should be able to tell what you are selling and feel comfortable sharing his or her credit card information with you all within three seconds of visiting your site.

5. Kill shipping costs before they kill conversion

Top of the list of the reasons customers may despise an online shopping experience is high shipping costs. Since the introduction of free shipping, nobody wants to pay for shopping anymore. A free shipping offer is even more appealing to a customer than a price discount that saves him or her more money.

If you have to charge shipping fees for your products, mention the fees upfront instead of ambushing a buyer at the very end of making a purchase.

6. Reduce the rate of shopping cart abandonment

There are many reasons why potential customers abandon shopping carts. You need to find out the reason specific to your site and tackle it. If your site is too slow speed it up, if you charge for shipping consider free shipping and if your prices are higher than your competitors, lower them or provide your customers a valid reason for the disparity.

A persistent shopping cart or the option to save the cart can also tackle this problem. People prefer comparison-shopping so they should return to your site to find their shopping cart still intact.

7. Converse with your visitors

This is another trust thing. You can win over more conversions by providing a prominent phone number and email address on your site.

Provide additional avenues via which your prospective clients can contact you to air their issues and concerns and have their doubts cleared. You can employ relevant social media and discussion platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn or Live Chat Software Solutions on your website.

8. Constantly test everything

Usability is your friend. Spend time rigorously testing your site to make sure it works flawlessly. How?

• Put on the visitor hat and conduct user testing.
• Hire a bunch of strangers to do the testing by having them perform some tasks and recording problems they may encounter.
• Invest in tools such as Usertesting.com, OptinMonster, and YouEye.

9. Reduce choice with better product filters

More options make choosing harder. It also makes the webpage look messy. An effective way to combat the paradox of choice and help shoppers navigate more easily on your site is to use filters. The role of a filter is to reduce distractions and focus the user’s attention on a few options thus optimizing conversion rates.

To further reduce choice, consider collapsing the left-hand filter to display the least facets and options possible.

10. Assure security

With cases of credit card information theft on the rise, many people are wary of using their credit cards for online payments especially on sites they haven’t used before. As such, you need to convince your site visitors that your site is secure by dispelling their fears.

Add large security icons, a confidence badge, an EV SSL Certificate or other security seals to your checkout pages. Declare reassuring information such as exchange policy and warranty. You can also redesign your checkout process to accommodate links to relevant T&C pages and trusted review websites such as TrustPilot.

Result? Successful conversion rate optimization

Conversion rate optimization is an art. It is a process that does not have one correct way of implementation and does not take place overnight. It is however based on certain principles covered by the above pointers. Apply them to create and perfect a user-friendly eCommerce site where people not only visit but also convert into subscribers and buyers.