During the Covid-19 eCommerce boom, all that eCommerce store owners talked about was conversion optimization and eCommerce conversion rates. But.. what really is conversion rate and how do you optimize your store for an increase in this metric?
What is eCommerce Conversion Rate?
Simply put, the conversion rate is the percentage of users visiting your website that end up being customers.
How is the conversion rate calculated?
eCommerce Conversion Rate = (Unique Customers / Total Visitors) * 100
If you think about it, the eCommerce conversion rate is the key metric that affects your profitability as an eCommerce business. Hence, it is important to focus on a technique called conversion optimization.
What is Conversion Optimization?
Conversion optimization refers to the practice of improving or enhancing your eCommerce store to increase conversions. There are various techniques to improve your conversion rate including product page changes, home page edits, sales & promotions, etc. In this article, we will cover 10 Tips to Improve eCommerce Conversion Rate that are easy to implement whether you’re a startup eCommerce store or have been around for a while.
1. Write Amazing Product Descriptions
The product description is one of the first pieces of information that a user comes across and the quality of the description heavily impacts the eCommerce conversion rate. It is important to write clear, concise descriptions that highlight the features and the benefits of the product you offer. In some cases, you can also highlight how your product competes against the rest of the market. Here’s a complete guide to eCommerce product descriptions.
2. Stunning Product Photos
Contrary to the popular saying, looks do matter and people do judge a book by its cover, at least on the internet. When shopping online, you can’t try on a product or touch or feel it. Images are the best you can do. For each product you sell, make sure you have clear, high-quality images showing different angles and highlighting different features. Here’s a guide to product photography from our friends at Hubspot.
3. Lifestyle Photos
Users on the internet have little to no information about how the product would look and feel in their own homes or lives. Adding lifestyle images that convey this information can significantly boost the conversion rate and also reduce return rates on your eCommerce store. For example, if you’re selling a leather couch, click photos of it in a real living room that’s been staged to perfection. This helps users envision how the couch will look in their home setting.
4. Live Chat / AI-based Chat
When you’re in a brick-and-mortar store and have questions about sizing, quality, or product fit, a trained salesperson is always around to help you with clarification. Chances are, if you’re satisfied with the help provided by the sales rep, you’ll proceed to the cashier and purchase the product. The same applies to your eCommerce store. Having an AI-based sales rep or live web chat dedicated to answering customer queries can significantly increase your eCommerce conversion rate.
Here‘s our most recommended live chat plugin, Talk.to, for WordPress eCommerce Stores.
5. Notify When Available
What happens when a customer really wants to make a purchase but you run out of stock? In most cases, the customer never returns to check on their own in a few days if the product is back in stock. You can change this (and subsequently increase the conversion rate) by adding a “notify when available” button to products that are out of stock.
6. Descriptive & Visually Prominent Product Titles
Adding a descriptive element to product titles is a great conversion optimization technique (and also works well for SEO). For example, if you’re selling a leather couch, instead of using the title “Henley Leather Couch”, you can be more descriptive and go with “Henley 84 inch Genuine Leather Couch”. Descriptive titles allow the user to justify price more easily and entice them to browse product details thereby increasing eCommerce conversion rates.
10 Tips to Improve eCommerce Conversion Rate Share on X7. Product Rating & Reviews
When users see that others have used and liked the product they’re browsing, the chances of converting them to customers increase significantly. Having a product rating summary next to the product title helps significantly increase the conversion rate. If you want to level up your conversion optimization game, consider adding reviews with photos and videos from past customers to the product pages.
8. User Generated Content Related to the Product
In our previous article titled User Generated Content & How to Use it on Your WordPress Website, we talked about the importance of UGC and its benefits. One of the main benefits of UGC is that it substantially boosts eCommerce conversion rates. We recommend adding as much UGC to each product page as you can.
9. Company & Product FAQs
Having an FAQs page or section can significantly boost your store’s conversion rate by addressing any reservations that customers may commonly have about your company or product. We recommend frequently updating these FAQs to ensure they are relevant.
10. Visible, Easily Distinguishable CTA
This is one that is easy to achieve, yet a lot of stores get it wrong. A clear, visible, and easily distinguishable call-to-action is a very important part of conversion optimization. Make sure to have clear buttons with minimal hover effects and appropriate text to ensure users know what to do next in their journey to purchase completion.
if you like these tips, stay tuned to our blog for more!
Want to increase your eCommerce Conversion Rate but don’t know how or don’t have the time? Get in touch with our team of experts, here.
FAQ
Q. How do I calculate the conversion rate on my website?
A. The simple formula is – eCommerce Conversion Rate = (Unique Customers / Total Visitors) * 100
Q. How many photos should I add to each product page?
A. 4-5 product photos from different angles on a white background are recommended in addition to 1-2 lifestyle photos.
Q. Is ROAS the same as Conversion Rate?
A. No, these are two different metrics. ROAS = (total conversion value from advertising / ad spend).
Q. Is optimizing for conversion rate the same as optimizing for search engines?
A. No, conversion optimizing is solely focused on converting a user journey into a sale after the user is on the website already. SEO is the practice of optimizing the website for relevant search terms on specific search engines.
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Nick @ The WP Website Help Team