15 Tips on How to Increase Ecommerce Conversion Rate

In such a competitive market as the digital one, learning how to increase ecommerce conversion rate, to turn leads into customers, is a big challenge many companies face, from different sectors. 

Several factors can influence online sales, starting from being seen by your target audience. Different from physical stores, with an ecommerce store you may have competitors from all around the world, all of them wanting to conquer space in the same market.

So, it becomes essential to know how to highlight your company and develop brand awareness.But, that is just the beginning. Once people access your website or social media pages, how can you convince them to follow the path of making a purchase?

There is no magic formula that fits all, but there are some practices that can help you when it comes to how to increase ecommerce conversion rate. 

1. Know Who Your Target Audience Is#

The first step to increase ecommerce conversion rate is getting to know your audience. Who are your potential customers? Where do they live? What social media networks do they use? What is their average income? What is their age range? Those are just some of the questions that you should try to answer to build your personas.

Persona is a term used to describe a fictional character that is created based on the main characteristics of your target audience. Once you have your personas well-defined, it gets easier to create marketing and sales campaigns, focusing them on what motivates your customers to act. 

Research about your target audience also allows you to identify what their demands are, so you will know how your products or services can solve their needs. Based on that, you can draw the best actions to attract, sell and retain. 

2. Use an Attractive Design#

When accessing a website the quality of the design has a strong impact on the perception you have. Even if the content is great, a low-quality design gives the impression that the website is made by amateurs, and your brand can seem unreliable, mainly if the user doesn't know your company.

It's important to invest in a design that has your brand visual identity and it's also thought to facilitate navigation. For example, with a well-organized menu on the top or the side of the page, and a search bar, enabling people to easily find what they need. 

Also, pay attention to details such as avoiding inserting too many elements that can distract the reader's attention from the main information you desire to pass.

A minimalist design often is the best option. Another important detail is readability, choose background and font colors that have good contrast to make it easy to read the content. 

3. Create Amazing Content#

Developing content that speaks directly to your customer's pain points is essential when the subject is how to increase ecommerce conversion rate. You need to create multiple types of content, each one focused on the different steps of the buyer's journey, but all of them have to provide useful and valuable information.

You can make articles, videos, podcast episodes, social media posts: depending on your marketing strategies, but, make sure the content is aligned with your persona. It has to grab your potential customer's attention to help them to advance on the buyer's journey.

Don't forget to include calls to action (CTAs). They must be strategically built to convince the person to give the next step that you desire, for example,  downloading an ebook or buying a product. The content where the CTA is inserted also must be aligned with its purpose. 

4. Invest in User Experience#

Customers are looking for a great user experience when buying online, whether it's through their mobile devices or on their desktop computers.

If your website or app doesn't provide an intuitive path to complete a purchase, with good design, clear information, and fast loading time, for example, it's very likely that your conversion rates won't be satisfactory. 

You need to put yourself in the place of your customers, and evaluate every detail to make the buying process an attractive and easy path. Personalize it by, for instance, using artificial intelligence to recommend products based on customer previous purchases. 

Make it easier for the customer to get in contact with someone from your sales or support team by adding a live chat, so they can quickly solve their doubts. Offer incentives to complete the sale, such as discounts or gifts. Show that you care about customer satisfaction.

5. Offer Benefits For Loyal Customers#

Once customers complete a purchase, it's important to invest in actions to retain them and make them want to come back to your store. You can do that by, for example, creating a rewards program, or sending a discount for the next time the person buys on your website. 

Develop actions to build a long-lasting relationship with your customers. Providing excellent customer service is the basis for that, train your team to offer amazing support, and also invest in the buying experience. For example, you can send a thank-you note in every package, and also include a product sample. 

Loyal customers can help you increase your conversion rate by making one of the most effective types of advertisement, the word of mouth, recommending your store to friends, coworkers, and family. 

6. Promote Engagement Through Social Media#

Social media networks are also very important regarding how to increase the ecommerce conversion rate because they provide several tools to straighten the relationship with your target audience. First, identify what social media platforms your potential customers use, then define the ones you want to invest in. 

It's important to create a marketing plan that includes a calendar of posts for each social media, and the type of content that you are going to approach. Instagram and Facebook enable you to interact in multiple ways, for example, by using the stories to make quizzes, polls, and answer questions, enjoy those features.

To make it even easier for customers to buy from your ecommerce store, put them available on Facebook and Instagram's marketplace. If you have a b2b business, consider using LinkedIn to gain visibility with your public. 

7. Show Social Proof#

If the customers don't know your brand, they may feel insecure about buying from your ecommerce. One strategy to help build credibility is giving social proof, for example, by posting customer reviews and testimonials. 

Include the option to rate products and send surveys to your customers, use social media to ask their opinions as well. 

This way you can show your leads the reasons to buy your products or services, which isn't just you trying to sell your company, but third parties explaining why they like and trust your brand.  If you have quality certificates,  and awards, display them on your website too.

8. Provide Multiple Payment and Delivery Options#

When we talk about how to increase ecommerce conversion rate to turn leads into customers, it's essential to consider means to facilitate the purchase process. The delivery and payment options offered can be decisive factors if the person is going to buy on your ecommerce site or not. 

Try to insert multiple payment methods, including credit cards, payment gateways, like PayPal, and debit, for instance.

For delivery, one great encouragement for completing purchases is free delivery, which you could offer in special cases if the person buys up to a certain amount of money or is part of your rewards program. 

Also, consider providing more than one delivery option, from multiple courier companies, so the customers can choose what fits them better. Make sure that they can follow the status order easily, in all cases. 

9. Give Discounts#

How many times have you decided to buy an item because it was on sale or the store sent a coupon discount to your email? No doubt, that's a strategy to promote sales and boost the conversion rate, it can be the decisive factor to buy and even become a loyal customer.

Analyze your business particularities, the return on investment you aim for, and how giving discounts can affect your profit. It's important to make sure it won't damage your business and plan marketing campaigns to promote when you are giving discounts on your ecommerce items. 

10. Give Complete Information About the Products#

Pay extra attention to product descriptions, they don't need to be long texts but you have to provide all the essential information about the items. Show how the product can solve a customer demand, describe its details, and the characteristics that highlight them from others. 

Many people can give up on buying from your ecommerce for lack of information about a specific product. This makes the customer feel insecure if what is being displayed is actually what they expect. Write a great description, and also include high-quality pictures that are as close as possible to the item in the reality, 

11. Simplify the Checkout Process#

If the checkout process is slow and complicated, probably many customers will abandon the cart on the last steps. Make it easier for them with a simple checkout where it's easy to fill in the information, and to choose the payment and delivery method. Check the page load speeds as well. 

Allowing guest checkout i's a way to simplify it, for instance. Instead of making it obligatory for the customer to register on your website to buy, enable them to buy without creating an account. If they like your store and see the benefits of becoming a loyal customer, they will want to register by choice, not an obligation. 

12. Follow Up on Abandoned Carts#

To increase ecommerce conversion rate, it's important to understand the reasons why people are entering your online store, adding products to the cart and, then, abandoning it.

Multiple factors can cause it, the checkout process is too complicated, the delivery rate is considered too expensive, the customer feels insecure about buying on your website, and so on.

Analyze data to try to comprehend better the customer path on your ecommerce and be able to identify the main causes of cart abandonment. You can also persuade customers to re-engage the cart by offering incentives. For example, you can send an email with a coupon discount. 

13. Show Your Website Is Secure#

Filling out sensitive information on the internet, such as credit card and ID number,  make people insecure about buying products from a website they don't know about. How will they know their information is safe? 

You can help reassure them by highlighting the security measures you take to protect your website and all the data stored. For example, show the security certificates your ecommerce has. 

14. Make Tests#

Marketing is also about trying different strategies to see which ones perform better and invest in them. Test different ways to approach and attract your leads, to convert them into customers. For example, you can do a/b testing on email marketing campaigns to see the more effective headlines. 

Also, test different types of calls to action, changing, for instance, the image, the position on the page, or the text. It's important, though, to change one element at a time, to monitor the key performance indicators (KPIs), and be able to identify what alterations actually helped to improve results. 

15. Analyze Your Ecommerce Data#

To learn how to increase ecommerce conversion rate, it's fundamental to pay close attention to your website data. Analyze the number of organic and paid traffic you have, which are the sources of traffic, the most visited pages, and how many people convert to customers. 

This will help you to have new insights, and identify weak parts of your ecommerce and marketing actions that can be improved. By analyzing real-time data, you are going to have a more accurate and complete overview of what can be done to achieve your goals, therefore, selling more. 

Know your Business to Learn How to Increase Ecommerce Conversion Rate#

There is no single path to follow on how to increase ecommerce conversion rate, each market and business has its particularities that need to be taken into consideration.

To draw the best strategies, talk with your sales and marketing team to see their points of view, develop personalized actions according to your company and target audience characteristics.