Conversion rate optimization (CRO) plays a crucial role in e-commerce businesses as it directly leads to an increase in sales. Hence, an e-commerce agency needs to have a strong strategy to achieve greater CRO. It is considered to be one of the most critical numbers in analytics. It informs how many website views result in purchases and can provide insight into what you’ll need to do to stay in business, expand your brand, and generate income.
An e-commerce marketing strategy consists of the methods you intend to employ to promote your online business and increase sales, and e-commerce conversion rate optimization is the practice of optimizing your online store’s UX (user experience) to increase sales. E-commerce marketing services with good tactics can also help in conversion. While it can include a complete website redesign, CRO frequently entails minor changes like repositioning a CTA (call-to-action) button, boosting site performance, or introducing different payment alternatives.
Here are nine actionable tips to improve your CRO
1. Optimize your e-commerce checkout process
18% of consumers abandon orders due to checkout UX difficulties – the experience is either too long or confusing. Your checkout procedure should be smooth and simple so that your consumer does not encounter any problems attempting to purchase a product or service. This is an excellent technique to increase conversions from visitors who are close to making a purchase. You can optimize the checkout process by allowing guests to checkout without asking for unnecessary information, connecting customers to support when they need it, etc.
2. Display product reviews
User reviews aren’t vital; they’re critical to users’ confidence in a product’s appropriateness and influence their buying decision. Across numerous desktop and mobile testing rounds, 95% of subjects relied on reviews to assess or learn more about the product. Moreover, they usually check for crucial information regarding reviews: the average rating score and the number of ratings on which the average is built. Make sure to show both for each product.
3. Optimize websites for mobile users
While most websites are mobile-friendly, many e-commerce sites still don’t offer an excellent mobile experience. Paying attention to mobile UX is crucial now that consumers often browse websites on their phones. Making it easy for consumers to use your site on their mobile devices and work through your e-commerce funnel is one of the best methods to enhance conversions.
4. Place shipping info and return policy in the footer
Return policies are critical to buyers. Consumers often abandon orders because they are dissatisfied with the site’s return policy. You can include your return policy in a separate section of your website’s navigation, or it can be on the product page. However, different customers will hunt for this critical information in various areas.
For example, a subset of people will constantly track this information in your site’s footer, even if it means scrolling past the product page’s prominent, relevant area. This is a crucial e-commerce optimization strategy that many sites overlook. Making shipping and refund information easily accessible to users may make or break a business. Incorporate shipping links into the footer of each page.
5. Allow users to search within categories
It’s natural for people to believe the two are linked when they first see a list of classified items and a search area above it. If we accept the user’s point of view, it appears to be a completely logical assumption, one that consumers are most likely to act upon.
Allowing customers to search within a category on an e-commerce website can help in conversion optimization. This is especially crucial on mobile, as users typically desire to view a reduced subset of product possibilities due to smaller displays. According to research, search within categories are 1.8% more likely to convert.
6. Streamline mobile payment
Mobile users should be able to pay more efficiently. Payment method selection is a phase where customers frequently encounter usability concerns. Most websites have one primary payment method (typically credit cards), but they also provide a few third-party payment choices. Those options might be difficult to balance on a small screen, causing users to become overwhelmed and confused. Below are some tips to streamline your checkout payment processes.
- Provide an option to select the online mode of payment on the payment screen.
- Give the option of all the leading online payment platforms to select the desired app for the transaction.
- Transition smoothly to the payment app to avoid confusion.
- Provide a secure gateway to type the password.
- Provide confirmation of payment.
7. Ensure the product description is clear
E-commerce product descriptions must give visitors the specific information they need without becoming overpowering. If a product description on a page falls short of the visitors’ expectations, many will click away rather than risk purchasing the goods. Consider including information on product composition (materials or substances), product dimensions, and compatibility in your product descriptions.
8. Improve product photography
The pictures on a website may tell users a lot about a business. Visitors are reassured that they are purchasing the correct item when they see high-quality product photos. As a result, they have the potential to have a significant influence on your e-commerce conversion rates.
56% of consumers begin investigating product photos soon after landing on an e-commerce website. However, low-quality photographs or images that consumers cannot fully zoom in on result in an effective cart abandonment rate. Despite the significance of product photographs, only 25% of e-commerce sites give enough images for visitors to evaluate a product adequately.
9. Feature user-generated content
User-generated content is an excellent way for an online company to enhance the buying experience. It dispels uncertainties and answers frequent product inquiries, builds trust and credibility by using social evidence, and assists shoppers in visualizing their purchases with real and relatable material.
One thing to remember about UGC is that curation is necessary to locate and present the proper material for your brand. Therefore, it’s worthwhile to investigate software programs that can assist you in navigating social media in quest of the best user photo and video reviews of the items your consumers would like.
Conclusion
CRO has become an inseparable aspect of the e-commerce business, and thus, it should not be overlooked. Collaborate with e-commerce marketing experts to address the existing issues with your e-commerce website and optimize it to improve your CRO. An e-commerce conversion optimization strategy is vital to your company’s success and will be critical in the future.
