How to Boost Conversion Rates for eCommerce Sales
Turning window shoppers into customers has never been an easy task. But with increasing demand for online shopping options and elevated expectations for the eCommerce experience, it’s getting harder and harder for retail businesses to convert.
However, there are many eCommerce businesses who’ve cracked the code to successfully converting leads into customers. In this post, we’ll discuss 4 strategies these businesses use that you can capitalize on to boost your own conversion rates in 2020.
Provide a Variety of Options on Your Website
With nearly 88% of all US adults choosing to shop online, it’s more important than ever for retail businesses to offer a large selection of products in an eCommerce store and provide several options for order delivery, like BOPIS and direct shipping. Not only does doing so allow you to reach a larger population of people, but it also builds greater loyalty with your customer base by making the shopping experience more convenient. Here are some ways you can start building or expanding your eCommerce store:
- Select an eCommerce platform to create an online storefront OR build an eCommerce store into your existing website
- Map out the logistics for your order management and fulfillment operations using an omnichannel order management system
- Market your eCommerce products via popular social media channels to access the 50% of customers who have purchased or would like to purchase through social media
Optimize Your CTAs
When your website has to do the selling, your copy needs to be on point. And that includes your “call to action” buttons (CTAs). In fact, your CTAs may be among the most important copy on your website, as they encourage your site visitor to take action and tell them what action they should be taking. (In this case, purchasing your products.)
Surprisingly, optimizing your CTAs can be somewhat difficult, though. But there are some really small adjustments you can get started with.
- Pinpoint the exact action you want your site visitors to take — i.e. making a purchase or adding an item to a shopping cart — and make sure your CTA clearly directs visitors to take that desired action
- Eliminate all distractions that might detract from your primary CTA, including secondary CTAs
- Add a short statement above or below your CTA detailing an extra incentive customers can get by buying from you. For example, you might include a statement saying: “Free shipping for orders over $25”
- Use an accent color for your CTA to help it stand out against your standard background and surrounding content
Make Checkout a Breeze
The fact is, nearly 70% of all online shopping carts are abandoned before final purchases, and eCommerce businesses lose upward of $18 billion in revenue every year as a result. Fortunately for many businesses, this eCommerce conversion percentage can be improved by over 35% with one simple change: the optimization of the checkout experience.
How do you do that? By making checkout as easy as possible to complete. You simplify the content on the page, change up your CTAs, offer incentives, and generally make the process as intuitive as possible.
Offer Customer Support
Oftentimes, people are comfortable just browsing your eCommerce store to find what they’re looking for. But that doesn’t mean they’ll never have questions.
For example, your customers may need help with sizing, since they can’t try on items before purchasing. And they may have questions about shipping costs or timelines, especially with the holidays right around the corner.
That’s where top-notch customer support comes in. By making it easy for customers to get help — i.e. by contacting your team through live chat pop-ups, or providing frequently asked question information — you can deliver a better customer experience and increase the likelihood of conversion.
While it’s true that only a small percentage of site visitors tend to convert into customers, those numbers aren’t set in stone. By offering premier customer care, simplifying your checkout experience, and optimizing your CTAs, you can more easily sell a wide variety of products on your eCommerce site.
