Having a good functioning website and traffic is one of the best ways to start your ecommerce business. But sadly, the internet has turned into a competitive platform where millions of aspiring entrepreneurs are vying for consumer’s attention. In order to have a chance to get succeed, you have to turn visitors into conversions. Here are some tips on how you can improve your website’s conversion rate.
Streamline Checkout
One of the most common reasons why customers abandon their shopping cart during checkout is the complicated process of paying for purchases. In most cases, customers have to fill out long forms for their information details like name, address and credit card numbers. This used to be alright but with many consumers shifting to mobile devices, the real estate for long forms has become smaller. Typing on cellphones is also more time consuming and harder.
This is why streamlining the checkout process is important. Providing customers with a 1 page checkout system will let them know that the end is almost insight with a simple and uncluttered form. Combine this with a progress bar and autofill for returning customers will make it easier for customers to buy products from your ecommerce store.
Customers should also know how much shipping fee is before they checkout so that there’s no surprises at the end of the lane. Make the cheapest cost of shipping default option to speed up the process.
Most importantly keep your SSL certificate up to date to make your customers feel safe with paying online.
Make Navigation Easy
Websites need to stand out from the competition in order to get noticed. This is one of the reasons why many website owners experiment with graphics, designs and even navigation. However, experimenting with navigation can backfire especially if customers use their mobile phones for browsing your online store. When the screen is so small, navigation has to be easy and straightforward so that customers don’t get lost when they need to go forwards or backwards.
Information architecture (IA) will tell you how to organize and structure your website so that the layout and construction stays consistent. For instance, there should be a clear menu structure that is consistent across all pages. You should also make sure that each item on the menu is clickable.
Heat mapping is a great way to find out how visitors are interacting with your website and can give you clues on how you can structure your navigation.
Include Reviews & Testimonials
Online shopping is more convenient than conventional shopping because you don’t have to leave home to buy stuff. However, there is no way customers can see or feel the product. This is where reviews come in. Reviews give customers a 3rd party idea of how the product is in real life.
Need more proof? Studies show that customers are 63% more likely to purchase if an online shop features reviews. Reviews are also shown to improve content on your website, giving your SEO a boost.
Optimize Speed Site
According to Akmai and Gomez.com, 79% of online shoppers would not return to purchase from a website that’s slow loading. This means that slow loading speed can kill your website.
Speed affects performance and with many other online stores, customers will always go to websites that provide better customer experience. Aside from lost customers, loading speed also affects SEO because slow load times mean less visibility in Google.
Customer Support & FAQ
The sale is not finished when the customer pays for the merchandise. Providing support is a great way to build trust between customer and seller and this is why you should always be easy to contact. Always have a page dedicated to customer support and post FAQs so that the customers will have access to the most common questions.
Being easy to contact and having FAQ can help alleviate your customer’s concerns. They also remove obstacles to the path to purchase. For FAQ you need to focus on questions with relevance and opportunity to turn that question into a path to further engagement or conversion.
Build A Responsive Website
Almost 80% of people use smartphones to search the internet. This means that if your website is not optimized for smartphone use, customers won’t purchase from you.
Traditional websites are usually built for desktop browsing. However, technology is fast evolving and more people are using their mobile phones not only to browse but also to buy. Having a responsive website design will ensure that your layout will adapt to user’s screen be it a tablet, mobile phone or desktop.
Don’t forget to account for touchscreen interface instead of traditional cursor inputs to make it easy to click items.
Wrap Up
Coming up with a good user experience can help improve your website conversion. Remember that it doesn’t matter if you have a nice looking SEO and rank high on SERPs. If you don’t get visitors to convert, you will end up losing your ecommerce store anyway.
