eCommerce conversion rates refer to the percentage of website visitors who complete a predefined action on your website. Optimise your conversion rates by improving your website design, removing roadblocks to checkout, simplifying the user experience, enhancing product descriptions, personalizing shopping experience, recapturing interest with remarketing and retargeting, and seeking to amaze with excellent customer service.
Growing your sales and achieving your business milestones is not rocket science.
It's all based on standard best practices and guidelines.
And I'm here to share those battle-tested best practices with you.
The key focus is to increase conversion rates -- which is a critical metric to track if you aim to grow your business and generate more revenue.
Understanding conversion rates helps you measure your traction and optimize your website for increased ROI.
Again, high conversion rates do not materialize from thin air like dollar notes from The Bureau of Engraving and Printing. You plan for it.
This piece will give you seven practical tips and guides to skyrocket your B2C eCommerce conversion rates. Whether you're a complete newbie or an eCommerce veteran, you'll find valuable insights to hit your revenue and KPI goals in this article.
Let’s begin with the fundamentals:
What is eCommerce Conversion Rates?
eCommerce conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who complete a predefined action on your website, like buying, reading your content, signing up for your newsletter, or requesting a product launch demo.
Conversion rates are crucial for measuring the effectiveness of an eCommerce website or online platform in converting visitors into customers.
To calculate your conversion rate, divide the number of conversions (such as completed purchases or subscriptions) by the total number of website visitors. And multiply the result by 100 to express it as a percentage.
That is, Conversion Rate = (Number of Conversions / Total Number of Visitors) x 100.
For example, if an eCommerce website had 10,000 visitors in a month and 500 of them made a purchase, you can derive the conversion rate as follows:
Conversion Rate = (500/10,000) x 100 = 5%
Optimizing your conversion rate hinges on improving every aspect of the user experience on your site, as they can influence it.
What is Conversion Rate Optimization?
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a technique website owners use to increase the number of website visitors who complete a desired action, such as purchasing or filling out a form. CRO is an essential aspect of any online business.
Improving your conversion rate has a direct correlation with revenue and engagement.
For example, if you improve your website user experience, the probability of visitors purchasing will improve. It's like a chain reaction -- everything connects to everything else.
And in that sense, there is no single definitive method for conversion rate optimization. CRO involves testing different hypotheses to determine which performs better.
For instance, you can try different headlines, images, calls-to-action, and other elements to see which combination yields the highest conversion rate.
You can also improve your website load times or simplify navigation to ensure users have no reason to exit your site before taking the desired action. We'll dig into that in more detail in the proceeding section.
7 Ways To Increase Your B2C eCommerce Conversion Rates
If you do what I’m about to share with you, I guarantee your website conversion rates will explode and your bottom line will dramatically improve as well.
Make Your Website Performance Better
Start with an AI-optimized site search.
AI site search is becoming increasingly popular among eCommerce merchants and news agencies. Unlike legacy site searches that focus on matching keywords to search queries, the system uses artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to enhance the search functionality.
AI-optimized site search enhances the search experience for users, improves search accuracy and relevance, enables personalization, and provides valuable insights for businesses. It ultimately leads to increased customer satisfaction, higher conversion rates, and improved overall user engagement on the website or eCommerce platform.
Ensure fast page loading times
Fast page loading times are non-negotiable for a positive user experience and reduced bounce rates on your website in this age of short attention spans.
Compress and save images as WebP to reduce size without compromising visual quality.
Configure your web server to enable browser caching so visitors can store specific files locally, improving loading times.
Minify your CSS and JavaScript files by removing unnecessary characters, whitespace, and comments. Also, combine multiple files into one file where possible, reducing the number of requests needed to load the page.
Use CDN to distribute your website's static content across multiple servers worldwide.
Remove unused or unnecessary codes, and avoid excessive JavaScript or CSS that could slow loading times.
Use lazy loading or asynchronous loading for critical above-the-fold content of your web page first while the rest of the page loads in the background.
Use caching mechanisms, optimize database queries, and consider upgrading your hosting plan or using a faster hosting provider.
Design for mobile and tablet users that might have slower internet connections.
Remove Roadblocks from Checkout Processes
Making the checkout process simpler helps you reduce cart abandonment and increase the conversion rate on your eCommerce website.
How to remove roadblocks from your check process:
Allow users to make purchases without creating an account for a quick and hassle-free checkout experience.
Only ask for essential information like shipping address, billing address, contact details, and payment information, as long, complex forms can frustrate users and increase abandonment rates.
Use auto-fill to populate form fields automatically with validated user input or stored information.
Offer multiple payment options to accommodate user preferences and increases convenience.
Show all the steps involved in checkout processes with a progress indicator so users can have a sense of progress, making the process feel more manageable and reducing uncertainty.
Simplify shipping options selections with clear shipping costs.
Use clear and concise calls-to-action (CTAs) to guide users through each step of the checkout process. Make buttons like "Add to Cart," "Proceed to Checkout," and "Place Order" visible, well-labeled, and prominently placed on the page.
Provide free shipping options when applicable and ship orders with tracking functions to minimize chargebacks due to delivery uncertainty.
Make Your Website User Experience Better
One key reason for low B2C eCommerce conversion rates is when the user experience sucks.
Think of how you feel when you visit your favorite websites. Do your website visitors have the same feeling on your platform? To create an intuitive and user-friendly interface, you should start by understanding who your audience are.
Do adequate user research, collect feedback, and analyze user behavior to identify their goals, preferences, and pain points. With that insight, you can set your user journey to ensure they don't visit your platform only to bounce off to your competitor.
But it doesn't end there. The next step is to rework the look and feel of your website.
How to make your website user experience better
Don't clutter the interface with unnecessary elements. The layout, color scheme, typography, and visual language ... these tools must speak the same language across the board.
Make the navigation structure dummy-proof to help anyone quickly find what they need when they visit your site. From the descriptive labels and logical grouping to hierarchical menus, you must think through the entire process for coherence.
Use visual cues like size, color, and positioning to emphasize critical elements and functionality to guide users' attention, with essential information placed at the top and left sides of the interface.
Ensure the interface is responsive, with quick loading times and smooth transitions, to provide a seamless user experience.
Craft clear, concise, and easy-to-understand copy with familiar terminology to keep instructions simple.
Establish a visual hierarchy to guide users through the interface. Use contrast, font sizes, whitespace, and color to differentiate between headings, subheadings, and body text. Clearly distinguish interactive elements like buttons or links.
Minimize the required fields and use placeholder text to provide guidance when using forms. Apply inline validation to provide real-time feedback on input errors. Break your forms into smaller sections or steps to make them more manageable.
Choose universally recognizable icons and visuals that convey their purpose intuitively. Avoid overly complex or ambiguous icons that may confuse users. Use imagery and visuals to enhance understanding and engage users appropriately.
Above all else, the market always wins:
Listen to your users and tweak your designs accordingly.
Make It Easy For Users To Trust Your Product or Service
Your product or service descriptions makes or mars your conversion rates. Here’s how to make your product or service description better:
Talk to your audience in ways they can relate to, highlighting what sets you apart from the competition. Explain how they solve problems, enhance experiences, or fulfill specific desires. Use bullet points or subheadings to highlight important features for easy scanning.
Captivate your audience with persuasive language. Focus on the benefits and outcomes rather than just listing features.
People prefer to avoid bulky text. Break down product descriptions into short paragraphs or bullet points to make them easily scannable. Use headings, subheadings, and bold text to highlight critical information. Avoid lengthy paragraphs that may overwhelm or discourage reading.
Include high-resolution images and videos to showcase your products from various angles and demonstrate their features or usage. Visuals help customers visualize the product, understand its details, and make informed purchase decisions.
Show social proof with customer testimonials, ratings, reviews, or case studies to provide social proof and build trust. User-generated content adds credibility to your product descriptions and helps potential customers validate their purchasing decisions.
Constantly review your product descriptions for accuracy and completeness. Include details such as dimensions, materials, colors, sizes, weight, and other relevant specifications. Accuracy and transparency instill confidence in customers.
Conduct keyword research to identify relevant search terms and incorporate them naturally into your product descriptions. Optimize your descriptions for search engines to improve your products' visibility and attract organic traffic.
Remember, people buy why, not what you do. So create a narrative around your products to engage customers on an emotional level.
Share the backstory, inspiration, or craftsmanship behind the offer. Craft a compelling story that connects your audience and differentiates your products from competitors.
Meet Your Customers At Their Points of Need With Personalize Shopping
Besides using intelligent site search to tailor services to each customer, data analytics tools can help you understand customer behavior for a personalized experience.
Toos for Customer Insight
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a highly beneficial tool for most websites. It provides valuable insights into your website visitors, such as how they found your site - whether through keyword searches, referral websites, or directly. You can also see how long visitors stay on your site, where they come from, and whether they're new or returning. Additionally, Google Analytics allows you to track the type of device used to access your site and which browser or operating system they used. You can even monitor how many visitors convert and which interaction led to the conversion. Plus, you can link your Google Adwords campaign to track paid traffic.
HotJar
HotJar is exceptional for insights into how your website users interact with your platform. It offers heat mapping capabilities that enable you to track click, cursor movement, and scroll-depth, providing you with an in-depth analysis of their behavior patterns. Depending on your plan, you can view user activity on your site, including clicks, movements, and scrolls. Additionally, it provides live user playback, real-time suggestion boxes, and personalized user surveys that give you vital information on how to interact best with your users and the services they seek.
Leveraging customer insights from these tools, you can effectively implement personalized recommendations to tailor service to each customer.
How to implement personalized product recommendations
#1. Select a recommendation engine or software solution that aligns with your business model and integrates well with your website or eCommerce platform.
If you don't have the bandwidth for custom-built solutions, you could use recommendation engines like Amazon Personalize, Adobe Target, or Google Recommendations AI.
#2. Decide on the types of personalized recommendations you want to offer. Standard recommendation strategies include:
Collaborative filtering: This method recommends products based on the behavior and preferences of similar customers. It identifies customers with comparable purchase or browsing patterns and suggests products they are interested in.
Content-based filtering: This approach recommends products based on their attributes and customer preferences. It considers factors like product categories, features, tags, or descriptions to suggest similar or complementary items.
Hybrid approaches: You can combine multiple recommendation strategies to leverage the strengths of each method—for example, collaborative filtering to suggest similar products and content-based filtering for complementary items.
#3. Configure the recommendation engine to use the selected algorithms and strategies. Train the recommendation system using your customer data and product catalog. The algorithms will learn from the data and generate personalized recommendations for each customer.
#4. Display personalized recommendations on strategic places of your website or app. Typical placements include product detail pages, shopping carts, homepages, or personalized recommendation widgets on the sidebar or footer sections. Ensure the recommendations are prominently visible but not intrusive.
Use personalized discounts and promotions to incentivize clicks, and make your recommendations non-intrusive.
Use Targeted Marketing and Remarketing for Omnipresence
Targeted marketing, also known as audience targeting or segmentation, helps eCommerce merchants and website owners streamline marketing to specific groups of individuals who are more likely to be interested in a product or service.
For that, you divide the general audience into smaller, more targeted niches. The goal is to deliver personalized and relevant marketing messages to these segments, improving the chances of capturing their attention and generating conversions.
Remarketing or retargeting, on the other hand, is a strategy that enables businesses to reach out to individuals who have previously engaged with their brand or website. It involves displaying targeted ads to these past visitors as they browse other websites or online platforms.
Remarketing uses cookies or pixel tracking to identify users who have interacted with a specific website or performed certain actions, such as adding items to a shopping cart or visiting particular pages.
How to apply Targeted Marketing and Remarketing
Craft marketing messages and content that align with the needs, interests, and pain points of target segment from customer insights gathered above.
Isolate the most effective marketing channels for reaching your target segments. Social media platforms, search engines, email marketing, content marketing, or display advertising are some of go-to routes. The aim to be sure where your target audience spends their time online and which channels will provide the best ROI.
Many advertising platforms already have inbuilt targeting options to narrow your audience. Platforms like Facebook, Google Ads, and LinkedIn offer extensive audience targeting capabilities based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and more. Use these options to refine your targeting and ensure that your marketing messages reach the intended audience.
Come up with personalized content like customized landing pages, email campaigns, social media ads, or product recommendations. Personalization helps to establish a connection with your audience and increases the chances of engagement and conversion.
Use pixel tracking or cookies to track website visitors and display targeted ads to them as they browse other websites or platforms.
Pay attention to how your ad is doing and refine your messaging when neccesary. Targeted marketing and remarketing can be powerful tools for driving conversions and increasing brand awareness.
Ensure Your Customer Support Isn’t Letting You Down
Customers are the lifeblood of every business.
So, train and empower your customer service team to take care of your buyers. They should be able to make excellent customer service decisions and resolve problems without unnecessary escalation within reasonable guidelines.
Everyone in the company must also understand the importance of delivering excellent customer service. Imbibe such a customer-focused mindset in their dealings and encourage cross-department collaboration to address customer needs holistically.
While the customer is no longer always right in these days of spiking online shoplifting and cyber crimes, empathy goes a long way in building rapport and trust with customers. Make it a point to provide timely responses to customer inquiries and issues. Using multiple communication channels such as phone, email, live chat, or social media is handy here.
Equally vital, you can tailor your interactions and support to each customer's specific needs and preferences. Use customer data and previous interactions to personalize communication and provide relevant solutions. Address customers by name, reference their previous interactions, and anticipate their needs whenever possible.
To empower customers to find answers, simplify your customer service with self-service options, such as a comprehensive knowledge base or FAQs. And regularly poll your customer base to understand their satisfaction levels and identify areas for improvement.
See customer complaints and mistakes as opportunities for improvement, be proactive in identifying and resolving potential issues before they become significant problems, and constantly assess the effectiveness of your customer service efforts.
Metrics like response time, resolution time, customer satisfaction scores, or Net Promoter Score (NPS) helps you review these metrics to identify strengths, trends, and areas of improvement.
Final Words on Increasing Your B2C eCommerce Conversion Rates
It's been said that how you make your money is more essential than how much you make. If that is true, then improving the path to conversion is how you keep making more money.
If you implement these seven best practices for optimizing your conversion rates:
improving your website design,
removing roadblocks to checkout,
simplifying the user experience,
enhancing product descriptions,
personalizing shopping experience,
recapturing interest with remarketing and retargeting, and
Seeking to amaze with excellent customer service
You will unquestionably make more money than you know what to do with. Your business will also be an authority in your industry. Isn’t that what we all want?
About the Author
Tom-Chris Emewulu is HeyDay’s Digital Evangelist. With 8+ years of digital marketing and business development experience, he crafts high-intent, high-converting, data-driven SEO articles that put brands on page 1 of Google search. Forbes, DW, Business Insider, Businessss2Community, and many other publications have featured his works. You can find him on Social Media via @tomchrisemewulu.