Posted by OliviaRoss
It takes thoughtful work to scale an e-commerce store. I’m
sure you’ve had a few growing pains of your own getting to the
point where you are today. However, you’re reading this because
you may not be content with where your conversions are at this
precise moment. You may not even know if your conversion rate is
good or not!
Today, I will give you 21 tips (yes 21!) on how to double (even
triple) your current conversion rates.
But first, let’s determine what counts as a conversion.
These are the usual suspects for e-commerce conversion
goals:
An online sale
A user adding a product to their cart
A user adding an item to their wishlist
Email signups
Social media shares
Any KPI your company finds valuable
So, what’s a good e-commerce conversion rate?
The Monetate Ecommerce
Quarterly is a great source for regularly updated benchmarks on
conversion for large e-commerce brands.
From this data, we know that the average e-commerce conversion
rate is between 2 percent and 4 percent; but we don’t want to be
average, do we?
Let’s break down some suggestions you can use to improve your
site faster.
1. Fix your analytics
Analytics that are in tune to the needs of your business will
give you real insight into how people are using your site, and show
you obvious improvements that need to be made in your CRO
strategy.
With most analytics, there’s usually something that isn’t
tracking properly to give you full clarity into what your customers
are doing. You need to properly track your goals to give you that
insight and help you find out what your site visitors are doing.
For instance, are you looking at what people who search your site
are doing, or people who enter your site through specific
categories, product pages, or information pages?
To find out which events are leading to a purchase, tweak your
analytics by segmenting traffic that tracks repeat purchasers.
2. Use Hotjar or other qualitative data tools
You can make wild guesses based off of “best practices” all
day, but you won’t know what your customers are doing unless you
see it. By using qualitative data tools such as Hotjar or CrazyEgg,
you’ll have real insight into what your customers are looking
for.
You can achieve this by creating heat maps, session
recordings, conversion funnels, and user polls.
Heatmaps will show you an average of where all visitors are
clicking and scrolling in a static image. Session recordings will
record the screens of visitors on your site so you can view the
video and see exactly what the customer is looking at and what they
are clicking on.
By creating a conversion funnel, you will be able to see where
people are dropping off. For example, if you create a funnel from
the homepage to the shopping cart, to the confirmation page, you
may be able to see that about 75 percent of users are dropping off
in the cart process.
Then, you can view session recordings of that step in the funnel
and see where people are getting confused or frustrated with your
shopping cart process. Pretty cool, right?
Lastly, you can leverage polls on Hotjar — they’re effective
because they give your customers a chance to voice what they think
of your site. Try asking questions like “What is keeping you from
getting your [insert product name or offer] today?”
Often times, people respond with answers like “I need more
information,” “I don’t need this right now,” “Too
expensive,” or “I don’t know if I’ll like this brand.” If
the majority of people are saying it’s too expensive, you may
want to either reconsider who you are targeting or reevaluate your
pricing.
3. Display your phone number prominently
Customer service is essential in online commerce. You want
customers to feel that you are readily available for any questions
or problems they may run into. Ensure your phone number is clearly
visible in the header, footers, and the checkout process of your
site at all times.
If nothing else, at least make sure you have a Contact Us page
with all methods of contact options listed.
See the phone number in the top right on Selini NY’s website?
4. Clearly state unique selling propositions (UVP)
I preach this in basically all of my blog pieces. It’s
essential to think in the mind of the customer: Why would I buy
from you over anyone else? Are you cheaper, faster, do you get
better results? Why are you so special?
I suggest placing your UVPs in your headlines as often as
possible since that’s going to be the first bit of information a
person will read on each of your product pages.
5. Grab visitors’ attention quickly
In reality, you have about three seconds to capture your
prospective customer’s attention. This goes back to the UVP as
you want to make sure your copy is captivating, but you also want
to use quality images, GIFs, and videos to back up your claims.
For example, if you sell software, it could be valuable to show
a quick and straightforward video of the software in action. Why?
This way, people can get a realistic view of what your software
does without having to leave your site or contact someone.
6. Optimize for mobile
First, let’s explain with some statistics from
OuterBox on why it’s imperative to optimize your mobile
site:
77 percent of Americans own a smartphone.
Over 230 million U.S. consumers own smartphones.
Around 100 million U.S. consumers own tablets.
79 percent of smartphone users have made a purchase online
using their mobile device in the last 6 months.
Almost 40 percent of all e-commerce purchases during the 2018
holiday season were made on a smartphone.
E-commerce dollars now comprise 10 percent of ALL retail
revenue.
80 percent of shoppers used a mobile phone inside of a physical
store to either look up product reviews, compare prices or find
alternative store locations.
An estimated 10 billion mobile connected devices are currently
in use.
Keep in mind, these are just U.S. statistics! With the world
turning away from desktops and utilizing their phones more than
ever, your B2B e-commerce business must keep up with the times.
Optimize your mobile site by writing concise titles and copy
focused on the benefits that solve your customers’ pain
points.
Make sure your site’s load time is acceptable by plugging your
URL into Google’s
PageSpeed Insights. Google will give you a score and
recommendations on what you need to fix.
See below:
7. Give
detailed product descriptions
Good news: You’ve captured your audience’s attention! Now,
it’s time to keep them engaged.
When in doubt, air on the side of too much information. Too
often do people bounce from pages because they weren’t able to
get their questions answered.
Avoid unnecessary bounce by providing as much information about
your product as possible. This includes all benefits, how it works,
the features, what it can and cannot do, and anything else that is
critical for a customer to know.
For example, look below at how descriptive
Salesforce is about its B2B e-commerce solution. I’ve
included a snippet here of a very long web page covering nearly 20
different benefits of using Salesforce for your online
marketplace.
8. Add a product
video or demonstration
Adding a product video or demo goes hand-in-hand with your
product description. Your website isn’t a brick and mortar store
where people can walk in, talk to you, pick the product up in their
hands and ask all of their questions about the item.
So, ideally, you want to get as close as possible to the real
experience digitally. Provide a clear walkthrough or demonstration
on how to set up and use your product. Customers may be wary of
buying if they don’t know how easy or difficult it is to use.
Make it as plain as day and make it so they can’t say no!
9. Build a structure to easily find products
To better assist your customers in finding the exact product or
service that fits their needs, add filters to your category pages.
For example, how many products do you have? If it’s more than a
handful, can you filter them by size, price, color, style?
If you offer a service instead of a product, do you have
separate services with different functions that fall under that
parent service? You can see how Flexfire LED guides you to the
right product with their structured product menu. Could you imagine
if this was just one long list of all products with no categories?
It would be chaotic.
10. Set up
rotating banners of top products
Offer your champion products up front when new and returning
visitors land on your homepage. This helps guide customers to a
decision sooner instead of letting them figure out which product
may work for them on their own.
Restaurantware.com
has several rotating banners showing the top and latest products
they have to offer, keeping their customers constantly in the know
and wanting to learn more.
11. Obtain customer emails
Try to access targeted emails through a pop-up, or offer a
coupon code where you continuously market to customers in the
decision phase.
Zappo’s rewards program
does a great job of getting people to sign up for free shipping and
returns and exclusive access to 24/7 customer service.
Email marketing is a practice every B2B e-commerce company needs
because business executives are constantly checking their email. In
fact, those who use email marketing see an average of
40x more ROI from this practice as opposed to any other
marketing tactic.
When writing email campaigns, focus on educating and informing
your customers, which frames your company in a way that offers
solutions to their problems. Let them know what your services are,
why they work, and how your brand solves problems.
12. Allow customers to review products
Reviews are a critical part of determining a purchase. Why? The
same reason so many people buy from Amazon — we want to know,
from real people, if these products are legit. The social proof of
reviews creates trust and helps people move forward confidently as
they purchase items. It can be extremely beneficial to include top
reviews on your product pages to ease your visitors’ minds into
choosing you.
Additionally, you want the review to explain how your team works
and what makes your brand different from competitors. So, ask
previous clients, how did your brand make a positive impact on
their business?
13. Provide product testimonials
Along with review star ratings, try to have written or recorded
(video) testimonials spread throughout your product pages, landing
pages, and homepage. Again, your prospects want to know what others
are saying about your services/products, so show them!
Notice how each testimonial explains exactly how B-school helped
them succeed. Sarah’s testimonial is especially notable because
she has some solid numbers in her quote: $50,000 in one week is a
great result and could prompt new customers to work with B-School
as well!
14. Provide free shipping 
Customers would rather pay $10 more to get free shipping than pay a
$4.99 shipping charge. I’m guilty of this myself. But why is
this?
Anna Kegler from RJMetrics explains it well:
“Most shoppers are still more accustomed to the
offline store than the online environment. Because of this, we lack
the context for understanding how shipping costs factor into online
shopping.”
As a customer, if I’m shopping online for the sake of
convenience, but then see “convenience” is going to cost me $10
or $20, you better believe I’m going to start crunching numbers
in my head about how that money factors into the time it would have
taken to go to the store.
Guess what happens if the math doesn’t add up? Carts get
abandoned as “Unexpected costs” and it’s the
number one reason
shopping carts are abandoned.
15. Offer coupons
Coupons can be beneficial to gain interest and encourage people
to try your product or service out. However, it’s essential to
use coupons sparingly, as always being the lowest price point could
end up hurting your business.
For example, if you’re offering 50 percent off on too many
different services/products, you are cutting your revenue in half.
Although you may get some more new customers this way, you won’t
have enough money to sustain your business. Plus, a coupon does not
guarantee repeat business. How many times have you bought something
just once because it was free or discounted?
Instead, focus on providing outstanding service and overall
unique brand experience. Here are some appropriate ways to use
coupons:
Sell “stale” inventory
You can’t make money if you can’t sell your inventory, so
this is the best time to start utilizing coupons. Either give a
percentage discount on individual items, a BOGO type of offer or
offer a free item once a certain spending threshold has been
hit.
For example: “All orders over $250 get a free wireless phone
charger. Use coupon code: CHARGE250”
Show appreciation for customers
According to
Business.com.: “Acquiring new customers costs 5 to 10 times
more than selling to a current customer — and current customers
spend 67 percent more on average than those who are new to your
business.”
All the more reason to show your current customers some love!
Email coupon codes to loyal customers to show thanks for their
continued support.
Reward new customers with automatic discounts 
For new customers, automatically apply discounts towards their
first purchase with your business, but don’t try to sell this
upfront. Surprise is a great tactic to make lifetime customers.
As you can see above, new customers at Check Depot get a
discount off their entire first order. Little bonuses like that
don’t hurt to try!
16. User personalization 
Smart Insights reveals that one type of personalization
(“visitors who viewed this also viewed”) can generate 68
percent of e-commerce revenue.
You can see how everything is broken by recommendation type and
how each one increased revenue. Try these out on your own site to
see where you get the most traction. Just remember, according to
Shopify, good e-commerce personalization should:
Meet users’ needs
Avoid turning visitors off with poor recommendations
Be used only where the potential return justifies your
investment
Amazon.com is a shining example of all of this.
Nearly every element on the Amazon page is personalized in some
way, including the personal “Olivia’s Amazon.com” link, the
personal hello, the link to my account, and my “Wish List”. All
suggested items are based on my past searches so nothing is
recommended to me outside my realm of interests.
Strive to be on this level for your own customers and you’ll
start seeing your profits increase.
17. Competitive Pricing
If you have seven competitors, and they all offer their product
between $200–$400, but yours is $1200, you may run into some
friction from prospects who are shopping around. If you’re going
to have a high price point, you must justify it.
The amount a customer is willing to pay boils down to their
perception of your brand, and this ties back into your UVP. Let’s
say you want a customer to pay three times as much for your product
over your competitors. Think to yourself, what makes you three
times better than competitors 1 through 7? Is your product of the
highest quality?
A smart way to determine what pricing will be acceptable to your
buyers is by keeping your buyer personas up to date.
Sellbrite
provides a good example of this:
“Create profiles for your customer types that identify their
buying concerns, what motivates them to buy your product, their
income, and other insights that will help you understand their
willingness to pay. With this knowledge, you’ll feel secure in
what you are charging for your product and more confident that you
will make sales.“
18. Make
your “Add to Cart” and “Checkout” buttons prevalent
How can a customer buy from you if your button to purchase
isn’t accessible? It doesn’t have to be rocket science!
Keep in mind, in western countries, we read left to right, so
you’ll notice in the image above that the add to cart button is
in the bottom right corner after most of the important information
has already been reviewed. This is a wise spot for these Cart and
Checkout buttons since most people on Amazon are reading through
product and shipping details before adding to the cart.
19. Use live chat or chatbots
What works better? Utilizing chatbots will help to avoid the
overhead of staffing for a live chat. However, you will probably
get a better response from customers through using live chat.
Why? Buyers want a personalized customer experience that fits
their needs, just as if they walked into a brick and mortar
store.
Today, we’re using all of these digital tools to find out why
people are bouncing — Hotjar, Qualaroo, Rejoiner — but what if
we just let visitors tell us right away what they need from us as
businesses? Think of all the friction that has been removed just by
having a quick conversation with your customers as they entered the
site.
Look at how SiteGround proves you are talking to a real expert
that can help you based on an actual photo, name, ratings and how
many customers have been served. On another note, who is that lady
on the right? I’m pretty sure her name isn’t Diego like it
shows. When using live chat, make it clear to your visitors that
they are actually talking to a live person.
If you choose to take the chatbot route, be upfront with
customers and don’t try to trick them into thinking that a bot is
a real person. See how the Facebook Chatbot Bitcoin Buddy deals
with its limitations below:
20. Show
that your site is secure
Cybersecurity is one of the most critical aspects of e-commerce.
Without proper protocols in place, online sellers put themselves
and their customers at risk for payment fraud. Yikes.
Trust badges, trust seals, logos of your payment providers, the
little secure “lock” icon on the browser, and more add that
needed security to get your customers to buy. Most importantly, you
must set up your store with an
SSL certificate (https:// pages). Lastly, require the CVV for
debit and credit cards for added security.
21.
Referral marketing tactics 
Read more: moz.com