3 Ways to Grow Your E-Commerce Conversion Rates

Whether you’re selling your latest e-book to accompany your online business or are simply looking for creative ways to get people interested in your newest product, the success of your e-commerce store relies heavily on your conversion rates and how effective your current e-commerce platform is at getting your digital or tangible products in the hands of your target customers.

If you’re in the midst of rehashing your e-commerce strategy or want a clear-cut idea of what online sales tactics are leading to the most growth, measuring your e-commerce conversion rates as a key performance indicator (KPI) can provide you with valuable insights to revise your current strategies.

What Are E-Commerce Conversion Rates?

An e-commerce conversion rate is a KPI that can demonstrate how many e-commerce customers and users are taking your ideal action on your platform. For example, your conversion rates can measure how many people complete a purchase versus how many drop off once their cart is full.

If you’re interested in finding some easy methods to grow your e-commerce conversion rates, continue reading for our latest industry insights. These three tactics have been used on e-commerce websites to help site owners maintain and grow their customers from their ideal customer profile (ICP).

1. Perform A/B Testing

A/B testing may sound like a tedious task, but when done right, it can an accessible and easy-to-learn method of calculating what’s working on your current e-commerce platform and what content could use a revamp.

Basically, there are two points to A/B testing: the starting point (A) and the end point (B). To begin A/B testing on your e-commerce site, identify an area of your site that you hypothesize people are falling out of your sales cycle. These areas could be:

• The call-to-action at the bottom of your page
• The location of your action buttons
• Your e-commerce content

Once you’ve identified the area of your e-commerce site that you would like to measure, take the content (whether it’s a button or entire webpage) and change aspects of it based on your ideal outcome. The first page, “A,” is also known as the control page, and the modified page, “B,” will be referred to as the variation page.

For A/B testing to be successful, you will have to create a second version of the webpage and aim to have half of your webpage traffic go to this newly created page to get the most accurate measurements and results. To measure your e-commerce conversion rates successfully, you’ll need to work with A/B testing software like Zoho or VWO.

Once you’ve started you’re A/B testing process; it’s time to wait for enough data to be collected for the most accurate results. At this point, your A/B testing, and conversion measurement software will be doing most of the work by sending users to both the control page and the modified page equally. The software will collect user data, measure their actions, and create a report to communicate your results in a user-friendly fashion.

Often, these reports will include information such as how many people used your web page, what they did on the page, and demonstrate any major differences between the two pages. As an e-commerce manager, you can use these results to identify gaps in your sales funnel and make necessary changes to your current webpage.

2. Keep Your Site Content Targeted

To keep your e-commerce site engaging for all your visitors, your written content matters just as much as your visual content. Online shoppers do not like to be misled when they click-through emails or pay-per-click (PPC) Google ads, so it’s vital that your e-commerce information and products align with what they’re looking for.

Even the smallest bits of written content on your e-commerce pages matter. Things like your call to action buttons and error notifications should have personality, be concise, and keep potential buyers engaged. Try switching up the wording on your call to action buttons, and streamlining your e-commerce content to match your linked PPC advertisements.

The descriptive text on your e-commerce site should feel as though it’s personalized to each individual customer. Your product descriptions should be fun, compelling, and interesting to read while staying true to your brand. For example, if you’re known for your casual, good-feeling brand personality that should translate into each and every product description you write.

Additionally, the content should flow well and be easy to read even on mobile devices as 15.6% of all retail sales made in the UK, and 8% of all retail sales in the USA are made online. Make sure that the text contrasts well with the website and that it does not dominate the mobile version of a webpage.

3. Generate Real Customer Reviews and Increase Engagement

Are you feeling frustrated with the conversion rates of your expertly designed e-commerce site? Although working with a professional e-commerce designer can help you develop a future-forward platform, it takes real reviews from your previous clientele that truly makes a difference. According to Econsultancy, 61% of online consumers will take time to read reviews before making a final purchase.

Why do so many people read reviews before making a purchase? Simply put, we’re social creatures and want to trust that the product or service we’re purchasing will be of benefit to us in some shape or form. When we see a positive opinion or feedback from other consumers with experience using that product, we’re more likely to believe that the product and provider can be trusted.

With so many people relying on knowledgeable reviews from your past customer base, it’s vital that you do all that you can to encourage reviews and make doing so an easy process.

Another great way of boosting your online reputation and utilizing customer reviews is through harnessing the power of social media. At this point, you’ve probably heard of brand ambassadors and people paid to post positive information and photos of products on various social media channels.

As an e-commerce manager, you can use social media to your benefit. Create a hashtag that represents your product, and encourage customers to post with the hashtag when using your product or service. These social media reviews allow people to have a visual representation of how your product works or looks in the real world and compare it to their unique interests and needs.

Although it’s a little different than online customer reviews, writing case studies can help you demonstrate your expertise or product effectiveness to a wide audience. Case studies can be kept on your website or shared across social media platforms. Not only can a case study help solidify your product’s success, but it can also help grow your brand awareness and encourage people to click through to purchase your product or service.

Other Elements of a Successful E-Commerce Site

Not only is an e-commerce site a profitable venture in the modern retail industry, but also it can be created with ease on a wide range of e-commerce platforms.GoDaddy outlines four essential elements of effective e-commerce sites, including:

• A great call-to-action and associated call-to-action buttons
• Engaging visuals and imagery
• Clear and concise product descriptions
• An easy check-out process for customers

Getting your e-commerce site set up well can be a learning process, but including these elements from the get-go can help you improve your conversion rates and get a head start on your industry competitors.

Final Thoughts on Growing Your E-Commerce Conversion Rates

To develop an effective e-commerce strategy and increase your overall conversion rates, it’s vital that you keep your customer in mind throughout the entire development and research process. Having a solid vision of what you want to accomplish on each individual element of your page will help you carve out a clear-cut idea of what you can revise, remove, or add to maximize your e-commerce conversion rates.

First, take the time to test the success and conversion rates of your current e-commerce site. Google Analytics is a great option to help you find an accurate data-based representation of your conversion rates on different web pages. Once you know your starting point, A/B testing can provide you with valuable insights into what changes yield the highest conversion rates on various pages of your e-commerce site. Whether you decide to change the content on your page or simply make your call-to-action buttons livelier, your content can greatly impact your overall conversion rates.

All e-commerce website content should accurately represent your brand’s personality and keep users engaged throughout the entire website sales funnel. From clicking on a PPC Google ad to making their purchase, the procedure should be clear, easy to follow along and provide a great user experience overall.

To grow your conversion rates, maintaining an active customer reviews section will help you develop a rapport with potential customers, as being able to see what happy clients have to say about your product or service can greatly impact their view of your brand. Whether this is a standalone section on your website or generated through social media posts, reviews create room for authentic engagement with your e-commerce site and products.

By using the above tips and tricks to increase conversion rates, you’ll be able to grow your e-commerce site in no time.

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