E-commerce is all around us. If you look around the internet, many website sell products because it has become convenient way to shop. However, e-commerce is also a very challenging industry. It is saturated, meaning other businesses will be selling the same product or service as you.
One of the biggest challenges for e-commerce websites is growing their sales. In this post we will share with you some tips to optimize e-commerce experience to help you convert.
Use Artwork For Emotional Connection
Images are very powerful tools that can help you make emotional connections with your visitors. However, images have a positive and negative impact on visitors which in turn can affect conversion rates.
To test the impact of imagery, test it out prominently on your homepage to determine if you spark viewer’s curiosity. Then downsize or eliminate in the checkout funnel to achieve a simpler layout and to keep users focused on primary conversion.
Experiment With Best Email Capture Method
Getting your visitor’s email is a great way to keep them engaged and gets them to purchase. E-commerce websites are always looking for various ways to increase subscribers.
A/B testing can help you find out the best way to capture emails. For example, many people find pop-up methods to be distracting while others find floaters more appealing. Experimenting with various methods will help you find the best and easiest way guests can leave an email address while growing your subscription list at the same time.
Test Value Proposition
Do you offer free shipping on bulk orders? Do you offer a money back guarantee or easy returns? Value proposition is a key factor in differentiating your website experience from your competition. When you are able to offer a unique or delightful experience to users, make sure they know about it.
Confirm When Shoppers Add A New Product To Their Cart
Help buyers keep their interest on the task by helping them keep focus by making the next step obvious. One of the best ways to do this is by giving them confirmation after adding a product to the shopping cart.
Showing a preview of the current cart along with a call to action during checkout reduces the effort it takes to begin the checkout process.
Prioritize SEO
Having the best looking website or the most amazing product is useless if users can’t find your website. This is why SEO needs to be a priority for e-commerce sites. Good SEO will not only make you rank higher on SERPs page; it also impacts your sales.
Think about it, if you are easy to find on SERPs, you will get more traffic which in turn boosts leads, conversions and sales.
Simplify Menu
If you’re a big e-commerce store, chances are you will have a lot of products. One of the ways to make products easier to find is by adding categories. However, you also don’t want to complicate things, too many categories can prevent customers from finding what they need.
For example, if you’re a clothing retailer your categories can be:
- T-shirts
- Long sleeves
- Tank tops
- Sweaters
- Pants
Simplify The Checkout Process
Customers should find it easy to checkout. One of the reasons why shopping carts get abandoned is due to complicated or long checkout process.
The key here is to get only the necessary information from the buyer. There is no reason to ask for additional (and oftentimes useless) information like their mother’s maiden name or 3 other credit card numbers.
The only thing you need is their billing address and shipping address.
Accept As Many Payment Options As Possible
This is in connection to a simple checkout process because the more payment options you have, the easier it is for customers to pay. Also, you can’t assume that everyone has Visa or Mastercard, and even if they do, that might not be their preferred payment method.
Even if other payment options have higher transaction fees, you still need to give customers the option. Accept PayPal, Skrill, Apple Pay and other forms to make it easier for your customers to buy from you.
Running a successful e-commerce store is not an easy task. Fortunately there are ways you can improve leads and sales. Don’t let these best practices intimidate you. Practice as many as possible, so that you can maximize your efforts and learn from your experiences.
