The number of visitors a website gets, determines the level of success or failure. However, traffic doesn’t directly translate into an actual business until these visitors turn into paying clients. Whereas putting more effort in attracting visitors is important, greater emphasis must be given to conversion if businesses are to make substantial profits from e-commerce.
There are several techniques and approaches to employ in this endeavor, and what works for one business isn’t necessarily applicable to the other. In some cases, brands have to experiment with various techniques to find out what really works for them. In the discussion that follows, we look at various ideas that could increase the conversion rate.
1. Use high-quality images and video on your product pages
the visual element of products plays an essential role in influencing customer behavior online. Images are captivating, and you can use them to attract the attention of potential buyers. Use high-quality images for still photos as well as videos helps potential customers get a clearer picture in their minds. This hastens their decision-making process. You can use the following tactics to make your photos effective:
- Provide several viewing angles, probably as many as possible
- Show different colors and styles of the same product to help customers make a choice.
- Provide the image in the right file and size to allow clients a better look on devices of their choice
- Get the highest quality images possible, preferably through a professional photographer.
2. Constantly optimize your keyword list
Researching and analyzing the most relevant keywords should be a continuous activity for e-commerce websites. It is a basic component of online marketing, and a lot of effort should be given to it. Keyword optimization requires continuous learning and application of different techniques. Keyword optimization helps to grow your online business in a number of ways:
Brings specific and most qualified traffic to your platform: People use specific terms and phrases for their online search. When you have the relevant keywords on your website, you attract the most relevant customers with greater potential for conversion.
Helps you to gauge traffic potential: A consistent search on particular keywords is an indicator of its popularity. It helps you to outline customer needs and desires and measure the potential of particular items. More searches for particular keywords mean that more people desire that product or any other that’s related. This is also important in understanding user behavior, and it’s also good for your AdWords management. You get an idea or a picture of their desires and needs.
You write helpful content: People use certain keywords seeking for information that answers their queries. Understanding these keywords helps you to tailor your content to correspond with their needs.
3. Apply persuasive design and copy
A key intention in your online campaign should be appealing to the mind and heart of your audiences. In other words, your content should elicit some emotions. When you achieve this level of connection with your potential customers, it becomes easy to have them buy your products.
Persuasive communication refers to all the audio-visual elements that appear on your website. In your marketing copy be sure to run AdWords campaigns that demonstrate confidence in what you are selling. For instance, choose a tone that you would apply in face-to-face communication with the same audience. Be friendly, but formal, and also knowledgeable about your products. This way, potential clients have a reason to trust you even better.
4. Use E-commerce conversion rate optimization tools:
There are several useful tools that can help accelerate you optimize your content. Here are some of them:
Google Analytics
Google Analytics can help you discover important information about your audiences such as age, gender, location, interests, and even the devices they use. You also get data on how customers landed on your website. This is a powerful tool for AdWords management since it gives you measurable results.
Quantcast Measure
Quantcast leverages its access to enormous amounts of data on the internet to help deliver specific results to customers. Quantcast is a specialist in audience measurement and helps advertisers to send out real-time targeted ads from a deep understanding of online audience behaviors. With such invaluable information, you can customize content to suit your audiences.
HotJar
If you want to know how users interact with your website, Hotjar is the right tool to use. Information such as clicks, session recordings, actions on-site can help you deliver specific and targeted content to your site. Hotjar is specifically tailored to give you a data-backed outlook on how visitors are engaging with your site.
Mixpanel
Mixpanel is an analytics tool meant to help understand user behavior. Mixpanel focuses on event-based data to demonstrate preferences and various needs of web visitors. Pageviews as well as browser sessions are some of the metrics that Mixpanel employs.
Google PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights (PSI) analyses how fast a website responds to requests on a scale of 0 to 100. According to Google, a score that is above 85 shows the good performance of the website. This tool is applicable both on mobile and desktop devices. PSI also offers suggestions on ways to improve the pages it has scanned.
5. Create Omni-Channel Coolness
An omnichannel approach to sales is an exciting way of attracting customers from various sources. There are numerous ways of doing this. Starting with optimizing several social media platforms is one approach that you can use. You will need to understand the various strategies that are applicable to particular channels and their effectiveness.
E-commerce platforms depend on reviews, mentions, targeted Adwords management campaigns, organic traffic, referrals as well as on-site visits to make sales. Marketers therefore must ensure that they optimize all the channels (inlets and outlets) that keep their brands visible all round.
6. Use scarcity, urgency, and exclusivity to your advantage
This strategy is known as FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and works with nearly any kind of product. From cars to real estate, food, and clothes, you can create a sense of urgency for your customers and make a quick sale.
A good way of implementing this strategy is by conducting frequent campaigns for various products. The idea is to put a campaign that sounds like a “quick sale” while promising “great discounts” while “stocks last.”
Whether this appeals to old and new customers, they will certainly want to make quick purchases and probably save a few bucks.
You can also take advantage of exclusive products to give your customers outstanding deals. Pick products that are exceptional, rare, or new in the market and promise your customers unrivaled quality and prices. In other words, you promise to deliver premium quality at pocket-friendly prices. This approach might appeal to your existing customers, who, in turn, help to spread the world. Make sure that the campaign is adequately visible on all possible platforms.
7. Stop Abandoned Carts
Abandoned carts can be disheartening. It feels like a customer backing off from a deal just when you were sure you had everything figured out. E-commerce site managers and marketers should know that they have a bigger responsibility in stopping abandoned carts. A significant part of this process has to do with the follow-up process you make and the communication that the customer gets out of the process. You can reduce or stop abandoned carts in a number of ways.
8. Acknowledge the customer’s presence on your website and choice of your brand.
When customers load their carts with your products, it’s a clear demonstration of interest in your brand. It should also be the beginning of an interactive session with them. Acknowledge their choice of your brand and spark a conversation that will eventually convince them to make a purchase.
a) Simplify the navigation process from cart to store.
The e-commerce buying process isn’t a linear and smooth affair. It, therefore, helps to make the checkout process easier to avoid losing the potential customer in between. Make the next actions for your customers almost straightforward and flawless
b) Highlight Money-Back Guarantee
Customers will always be sentimental about what they pay for and you have to keep your word on your money-back policy. This aspect alone can lead to monumental failures in your e-commerce business. Customers want to deal with traders who share are compassionate enough to listen to their concerns and preferably give money back if products don’t meet their needs. Remember, users, trust you before they have a true feel of what they are buying. To increase your conversion rate, this level of trust should be maintained even if you don’t eventually do business with the potential customer.
9. Focus on the pages and channels that convert the most
Over a period of time, you learn what really works for your e-commerce platform. Once you identify this, optimize them by ensuring continuous quality content, customer satisfaction, timely feedback, and so on.
For instance, when potential clients ask for information through social media platforms, be quick to respond with relevant information. This could be in the form of product photos, more information on functionalities, or directing them to the landing page.
If your website serves as your most important channel, ensure that visitors get the kind of information that caters to their needs. Ensure that the website design is interactive, friendly, and responds quickly.
10. Watch Your Metrics
You must constantly keep an eye on the performance of products, social media pages, your website, and all other marketing campaigns that you run. This is to help you identify areas that need specific actions and consequently act on them. It’s important to know where your main traffic comes from, what needs to be done to increase or maintain the numbers.
An e-commerce site will only be sustainable if there are enough purchases that happen back and forth. Customer satisfaction is key to this process and you must ensure that your products are also reflective of customer needs and wants. Keep an eye on the performance of specific products to determine. This is important because it helps you to know the products that move quickly, the quantity, and the quality that customers look for.
Watching your numbers means being proactive and being solution-oriented. Too many abandoned carts, bad reviews, or negative publicity should raise the alarm and push you to act accordingly.
11. Provide multiple payments and delivery options
A major cause of cart abandonment is complex payment systems. The process of paying for products should feel as easy and simple as paying cash in a brick and mortar business. Enhance your site with several paying options that are universal and easy to confirm and execute. Ensure that your system allows immediate confirmation or decline feedback to your customers too.
E-commerce businesses have learned to leverage exceptional delivery options as a way of growing their business. Different environments demand different situations and therefore, you must customize your delivery options to suit the situation. For instance, if you live in a city where heavy traffic is constant, you might want to use motorcycle riders for your delivery. You can also work around times of the day when there is less traffic in a particular city. Work closely with individual customers to see what really works for them in terms of delivery.
12. Running Giveaways, Promotions, and Discounts
You can consider these techniques as ways of keeping your e-commerce platform as a lively market place. Naturally, people are appealed by sellers who offer discounts, promotions, and periodic giveaways. Choose the right time to run such promos on your website and you will constantly have customers who can vouch for you.
A good way of maintaining such campaigns is having running them around special dates and seasons. Christmas, Valentine, school holidays, and other special days around the year could be your way to make big sales from your e-commerce business. During such seasons, you must enhance your AdWords management techniques to attract more visitors. Depending on the products you sell, customize your campaigns in such a way that visitors will instantly get hooked.
Conclusion
Having an all-round successful e-commerce business takes time. However, this effort eventually pays off when the right steps are followed. Importantly, keep on learning and testing your e-commerce site against your competitors. You must also consistently find creative ways of ensuring that your site remains a top choice in your niche.
Joel House is an SEO Expert and the founder of Joel House SEO Sydney. He loves helping business owners and grow their business with higher success around the world. Joel House has the reputation and experience that you need to take your business to the next level. hello@joelhouse.com.au
E-commerce conversion stock photo by Jirsak/Shutterstock
