10 Expert-Level Tips & Tricks To Increase eCommerce Conversion Rates

There are a multitude of factors that contribute to a consumer's online purchase decision. During the process of building, designing and launching an eCommerce website, businesses must decide how to inspire customers to make a purchase.

To be successful in the competitive eCommerce world, there are strategies to follow and activities to avoid. In order to see an increase in your eCommerce conversion rate, start by improving the customer experience within your site.

In this blog, we're sharing some tips to help optimize your website to increase your conversion rate.

10 Tips to Increase eCommerce Conversion Rate

According to BigCommerce, average eCommerce conversion rates (CVR) are 1 to 2 percent. Whether you fall below or above this average, increase your CVR by implementing the following tips:

• Make it mobile responsive
• Improve site speed and page load time
• Use impressive product images and videos
• Use CTAs moderately
• Add filters to product category pages
• Offer flexible discounting
• Capture abandoned carts
• Show customer reviews
• Create a seamless checkout experience
• Offer alternative payment methods

1. Make It Mobile Responsive!

By 2021, 54% of all eCommerce sales are expected to be made on mobile devices. That being said, it's critical for your store to look and perform equally as well across all devices.

Designing an unusable mobile version of your desktop will only prompt users to abandon your site, resulting in a lower CVR. To combat this, identify and resolve mobile-specific issues to create an intuitive customer experience — while contributing to mobile conversion rate.

We recommend glimpsing through these 5 mobile eCommerce examples to inspire your mobile design inspiration.

2. Improve Site Speed and Page Load Time

Site speed and page load times are vital components of any website. According to HubSpot, the first five seconds of page-load time have the highest impact on CVRs.

Arguably, these aspects are one of the first things consumers notice when online shopping. Put yourself in the consumer's shoes — would you continue to browse a site that loads extremely slow and casually glitches? Chances are, you wouldn't.

Nail that first impression so that users will stay on your site and uninterruptedly purchase the products they came looking for in the first place.

3. Use Impressive Product Images and Videos

As the old saying goes, never judge a book by its cover. However, when it comes to eCommerce, online shoppers are judging your products based on your photos.

Use unique and high-quality product photography to make your products stand out within your category pages (and from the competition.) Follow these 5 basic principles to product photography to improve your eCommerce conversion rate. 

Don't be afraid to use videos to get your products or services in front of your customers. They're a great tool for communicating your offer to your customers. Begin by picking a genre, then proceed from there.

Three great genres to get started include the product features, the comparison and the lifestyle. We've gathered 3 eCommerce product videos that follow these genres to successfully drive product page conversion.

4. Use CTAs Moderately

Effective eCommerce sites create a path to purchase and direct consumers through the process. By highlighting a clear call-to-action (CTA), your customers will clearly understand, and proceed with, the next step.

Ensure your CTA button stands out from the rest of the copy on your page. Make the button eye-catching by using a contrasted color and large size.

Be sure to avoid using too many CTAs on one page. Remember, you want to clearly direct customers to take the next step on the path to purchase.

Whether your next step guides customers to learn more, download an eBook or even add an item to their cart — avoid any confusion by limiting your pages to one or two CTAs. Of course, this number can vary based on your offerings, just remember to use them sparingly.

5. Add Filters to Product Category Pages

Before getting started with this, we recommend conducting some research to first determine a few of the reasons why consumers aren't purchasing your products.

A common reason consumers don't purchase something is simply because they cannot afford it. Determining this initially allows you to further support that segment of customers. By adding a price filter, customers are able to shop from lowest to highest price (and vice versa.)

Other popular filters that may be valuable to add include: featured, new arrivals, most popular, highest rating, A-Z and Z-A.

6. Offer Flexible Discounting

Have you ever purchased something that you didn't quite need just because the price was so good? That's basically flexible discounting in a nutshell.

In an attempt to increase profitability, many eCommerce sites implement different discounting strategies to draw customers in. No matter what eCommerce platform your online store runs on, leverage its ability to display promotions and sales.

BigCommerce makes it easy to set up flash sales, percentage/dollar-off discounts, bundling, shipping or other promotions all from one location. Win new customers and reward repeat buyers quickly with flexible discounting.

7. Capture Abandoned Carts

The average online shopping cart abandonment rate across all industries is 69.57%. In order to win back the customers that originally left your site, it's necessary to invest in an abandoned cart app. We highly recommend creating an abandoned cart workflow to direct consumers back to their carts.

Motivate shoppers to complete a purchase with a customizable series of emails. Learn more about the features of BigCommerce abandoned cart, how it works and how it will benefit your business.

8. Show Customer Reviews

Customer reviews benefit both businesses and consumers. Of course, it's great if your site is filled with positive reviews. However, negative reviews help provide a better understanding of why customers are dissatisfied with their purchase or experience.

Learn from your customers, and improve the areas your customers claimed to be dissatisfied with to see an increase in your eCommerce conversion rate.

From a consumer's viewpoint, reviews are highly trusted. Some shoppers rely heavily on reviews from previous customers and peers when making a first-time purchase from a brand. Even negative reviews help customers decide that a brand may not be best fit for them.

9. Create a Seamless Checkout Experience

According to HubSpot, 79% of customers who report dissatisfaction with website performance are less likely to buy from that same site again.

Make is faster and easier for shoppers to complete their purchase with a streamlined, one-page checkout. Consider these three main psychological and emotional triggers when optimizing your site's checkout:

• Speed
• Trust
• Value

Read more about how these three triggers play a role in increasing conversions in our blog, One Page Checkout: The Key to eCommerce Conversion.

Further, its worthwhile for businesses to offer the option of guest checkout. Decrease abandon cart rates and increase your CVR within the checkout.

We weighed the pros and cons of guest checkout vs customer accounts so that you can determine which is best for your business.

10. Offer Alternative Payment Methods

By offering alternative payment methods, businesses have the ability to increase average order values and decrease abandon carts. Increase online conversion by providing shoppers with more options to pay, such as PayPal balances, Apple Pay, Google Play, instant financing and more.

Do some research to determine the most common payment methods your customers use, and strategize from there to determine how to better optimize your site's payment methods.

Conclusion

When planning to increase online sales, consider all aspects of your website's design and development. Implement these 10 tips to increase your eCommerce conversion rate — no matter whether your businesses falls above or below the average conversion rate of 1 to 2 percent.

If you have any questions or would like more information on how Groove can help your business increase eCommerce sales, contact our certified team of eCommerce experts through the form below. We'll be in touch!