6 ways to increase the conversion rate for your eCommerce business

by Alycia Gordan 6 years ago 6 min read

If you run an online store, the success of your business depends on how well you can manage your sales. Your ultimate goal is to boost your sale and increase the conversion rate of your eCommerce website.

A great number of people visiting your site does not guarantee conversion. They may check out your website, see what you are selling, but may not buy any of your products. In fact, this is rather a typical scenario if you have just set up your business. Simply running a website or promoting it on Facebook will not drive the desired traffic. Those are just the first steps, and there’s a lot more work left to do.

You need to buck up your marketing and sales strategies to earn bigger sales. Conversions are not miracles; you must optimize your site for it.

Whether you are running your own eCommerce business as a one-man-show or working as a marketing director or manager for a website, you can use the information shared in this article to potentially increase the conversion rate for your eCommerce website.

But before we jump to the ideas you are looking for, let’s start with what conversion really is for an online store.

eCommerce business conversion rates

The conversion rate measures the number of visitors who visit your website to complete the action of buying. This number cannot be defined as conversion until the desired action is completed. To find out the ideal conversion rate for your website, you must be well aware of your ultimate business goal.

In your case, a conversion rate for an eCommerce business is the percentage of visitors who visit your website and buy something from your online store. However, considering it the only metric to measure your online store success is not enough. There is more to an eCommerce website. These include:

Users adding things to their carts
An online sale
Email subscription
Users adding products to their wishlist
Social media shout-outs

In short, conversion is an extensive topic because it is influenced by different aspects of user experience on the website. What you need to work on is improving the user experience to drive sales and improve conversion rate.

What’s the best way to calculate the conversion rate?

Average conversion rates for an eCommerce website fall between 1% and 2%. But how would you calculate if your conversion is up to the mark?

The simplest way is to divide your conversion with the number of visitors you are getting on your website. For instance, if the number of visitors on your eCommerce website is 10,000 and you are getting 100 conversions for a set period, this makes your conversion rate 1%.

While this is the simplest and most effective way to derive your conversion rate percentage, you can utilize a number of online analytics tools available to get a detailed segmentation of data.

Conversion rate optimization tricks

Here’s the information you have been looking for. While there are tons of conversion rate optimization ideas, these eCommerce SEO tricks covered below are the most effective; ones that won’t cost you anything more than dedication and time.

1. Improve the quality of your product images

What’s the first thing you see that makes you buy a product online? Before you get into the details or description, it’s the image you see that persuades you to click on the product to find out more about it and buy it.

Online shopping can restrict you from determining the quality of the product since you cannot touch it or view it in real-time. To make sure you entice your customers and get them into buying the product from your website, you must show them a detailed, high-quality image, so they know exactly what they are buying.

A high-quality image that allows easy zoom-in can help your visitors make their mind more quickly. Believe it or not, an eye-popping image can be the ultimate secret to conversion optimization, which can drastically boost your eCommerce conversion rates.

Here are some improvements in the image quality you can make right away:

Incorporating high-interactive images that allow users to rotate, zoom, pinch, and scale the image to their preference
Adding more white space around the product
Using a high-resolution image
Using images that display the product from different angles

These are some no-cost options that are bound to derive results.

2. Improve your product descriptions

Content matters. Once your visitor is done viewing the image, they will turn to the description to learn more about the product. If the sales copy fails to entice them, the conversion may not happen.

Use product description to offer valuable information to your visitors to help them make a decision. The best content for a sales copy includes maximum information about the product. Even if the description is long, go ahead with it. But make sure it is free of fluff and repetitive content.

Content rich in valuable information truly engages customers. Also, make sure to keep up with the formatting to make the text digestible and scannable.

Moreover, avoid using the manufacturer’s description of the product. This can jeopardize your eCommerce SEO strategy. Come up with your own version and keep it unique.

3. Free shipping

Free shipping is a big deal! Even if it’s a tiny cost, it can be a big turn-off for some visitors. To be able to get the product at its original price without being charged extra for the shipment is considered a big plus.

A study revealed how 93% of people responded that they tend to buy more products if it is available with free shipping. Providing free shipping to customers makes them feel like they are getting some type of a discount or a deal. It has a psychological impact that you can definitely cover with the product prices.

4. Use videos for products

No, you don’t need a hefty budget to hire professionals to do this for you. Making product videos should not be costly.

Putting up videos can be a great way to tap your visitor base and influence them to purchase from you. Simply shoot your own video and use the free editing tools to make it more professional and appealing. Presenting your product through videos is a great way to showcase what you have to offer.

Photos are awesome, but video can be better for conversion rate optimization.

5. Improve your CTA button presence

Using CTA buttons to boost eCommerce conversions is another effective way to get the result you need. As opposed to what most marketers believe, the color of the CTA button doesn’t really make a huge difference. It’s the quality of the button that matters.

Place the CTA button right in front, so the customers do not have to look for it. Whether you use a wish list button, a checkout button, or an ‘add to cart’ button, don’t let the customer hunt for it or feel annoyed by it.

A high-quality conversion button adds to the smooth shopping experience, which is crucial for conversions. Thus, it’s essential that you make your call to action buttons stand out. Add big, bold, brightly colored checkout buttons on your page to make them more prominent to the customers.

Never use text links for CTA. They aren’t reliable.

6. Accept payments from PayPal

Be sure to accept payments via PayPal (in addition to credit/debit cards)–it makes a huge difference. It turns out a lot of people like to pay using PayPal.

Bottom Line

The key to boosting your conversion rate is to stay as focused and accurate as you can with your analytics. The process of conversion optimization can be time-consuming and challenging, but the results are rewarding.

Regardless of the approach, just make sure you are tracking the results to identify the changes you make for the better. The best part is that you can always boost your conversion rates by improving user experience;so don’t hesitate in aiming higher.

Alycia Gordan

Alycia is a freelance writer who loves to read and write articles on healthcare technology, fitness and lifestyle. She is a tech junkie and divides her time between travel and writing.