Over the last 12 to 18 months, many businesses across practically every industry have turned to eCommerce platforms in order to facilitate a continuation of service. Having an eCommerce presence is incredibly useful for your customers, as it allows them to engage with your business online. However, there are additional strategies which can help to improve conversion on your eCommerce site when implemented correctly.
Website optimisation
The user experience of your site is part of what dictates how likely a customer is to convert. A streamlined customer journey through your eCommerce website is paramount to reducing the risk that a potential customer leaves without purchasing or following a key CTA.
Collecting data on how people use your website and optimising the design to address pain points can improve the rate at which users convert. This can include:
- Improving page load time to minimise frustrations
- Adding clarity to call to action buttons
- Making the checkout process as simple and straightforward as possible
- Redesigning key elements to add appeal or create a more cohesive design
- Overhauling and optimising the mobile experience
Each of these things could be a reason why a user doesn’t convert, so understanding the data from your site to identify the priority areas which need addressing is paramount.
Increasing trustworthiness
With the amount of choice available to consumers online, your eCommerce site needs to give people a reason to choose you over your competitors. One method of achieving this is by highlighting the positive experience other customers have had.
Adding review widgets from known review sites, such as Trustpilot or Feefo, can give customers a clear indicator of your business’ quality. Pulling through specific testimonials can also provide further reassurance to potential customers.
Signposting contact methods and making getting in touch as simple as possible can also make your business appear more trustworthy online. As digital businesses lack the tangible elements of a brick-and-mortar store, having a valid phone number, email address and contact form can further legitimise your company.
Finally, a social media presence can add additional contact points for your business and showcase that your business is engaged with its online community. If customers can easily find ample detail about your brand and read plenty of positive experiences, they’ll feel more comfortable doing business with you.
Harnessing automation
While marketing emails have been a steadfast tactic used for well over a decade, email still presents a sizeable return on investment (ROI) when utilised correctly. What that means within the modern marketing landscape is using email automation to harness the full potential of the medium.
The rise of email marketing automation has meant that it’s easier than ever to tailor marketing emails to specific customers well beyond just using their name. Automation tools can look at your customer data, what products they like, when they’re most active on your site and more. This will then be used to personalise email marketing comms to improve your conversion funnel and create genuine connections with your consumers.
If you push out a discount via automated marketing emails, you can then reference this against website activity and conversion rates to see how successful campaigns are. This level of data and reporting can not only improve conversion on your site, but also show how you can make future improvements too. Using an email marketing automation platform can be the best place to start if you’re looking to make sure of this, as they can also guide you and offer support through automation best practice for eCommerce sites.
These three areas can give you some useful areas to start reviewing in order to improve the conversion rate on your eCommerce site. Work on adding the features that you can and work with experts if you need assistance with implementing the more complex solutions.