If you are running an eCommerce business, you would already know that the competition in the space is brutal, and you need to be at the top of your game to be successful. In a nutshell, how effectively your website can attract customers and increase conversions defines your success. eCommerce sales are skyrocketing across the globe. In 2020, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to 4.28 trillion US dollars and were projected to grow to 5.4 trillion US dollars in 2022. In this guide, we will explore some simple yet effective strategies to help your e-commerce business shine.
Here to optimize your eCommerce website for conversions?
Increase Engagement with Videos
A common problem that many eCommerce websites face is high bounce rates. Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who visit a single page on your website and does nothing on the page before leaving. While several factors affect the bounce rate, a high bounce rate indicates that your visitors do not find your website engaging enough. Using product videos is an excellent way to drive traffic, increase engagement and boost sales. They also help improve visitors’ average time on your website and give you a better chance of converting them into paying customers.
Improve navigation and search
When was the last time you abandoned an eCommerce site because it wasn’t easy enough to navigate? Website navigation, particularly for eCommerce sites, is a critical factor influencing visitor behavior, including bounce rate, average time spent, and ultimately sales. A good navigation design is optimized to help visitors quickly search for products they need and checkout with the least possible friction.
Optimize your product and category pages
Your website’s product and category pages are the bottom-end of your sales funnel. It should come as no surprise that these pages are notorious for topping the list of exit points. It would make a lot of sense to optimize these pages for conversions. Thankfully, there are several ways you can achieve this.
Firstly, make sure you use hi-res images from multiple angles to showcase vital product features and design. Using crisp product images on your e-store will help visitors make the right decision and reduce return rates.
Your target customers want to know everything about the purchase and how the product can help them. Make sure that the product descriptions are clear and informative. You can take this one step further and include FAQs to make it easier for visitors to find answers quickly.
Another technique to increase eCommerce conversions is to showcase related products, bundle offers, and accessories on your product pages. This simple strategy can help you significantly drive sales by getting customers to spend more with you.
Offer mobile apps
Did you know that smartphones account for 40% of all online purchases made during the holiday season? Mobile eCommerce apps are an excellent way to leverage the potential of connected customers. Mobile eCommerce apps drive higher conversion rates by offering a seamless purchasing process. They also help customers stay connected with your brand and effectively deliver deals, offers, and coupons to customers via push notifications.
Build trust with product reviews and ratings
Including product reviews and ratings is one of the best strategies any e-commerce website can use to help build trust. Websites that feature product reviews and rating sections see as much as a 270% increase in conversions. Product reviews help visitors make informed decisions based on feedback from other customers before purchasing the product. The worst mistake you can make as an eCommerce business is to skip the product review section due to the fear of negative reviews. Negative reviews may indeed hurt your conversion rates. However, by not including product reviews, you also lose out on business from potential customers owing to positive reviews.
Use live chat and chatbots
Quite often, visitors get lost and confused with similar products. Offering live chat support to your visitors can help you increase conversions dramatically. Another way to boost conversions is using chatbots. Chatbots can help visitors make a purchasing decision by providing instant answers to their questions and redirect them to the right page. With chatbots, your visitors no longer need to scroll through dozens of similar items, reading lengthy descriptions and trying to figure out what the best option is. Chatbots are also easy to implement because they can use your existing knowledge base and FAQs to answer questions.
Track, Analyze, and Improve
Is your e-commerce website capable of tracking your visitor’s interests and buying patterns? Tracking visitor behavior and analyzing it can give you valuable insights into offering personalized shopping experiences and improving navigation. For example, if your eCommerce site can report on your store’s least searched products, you can use this data to make navigational changes or run promotions to improve sales of such products.
Conclusion
eCommerce businesses need to stay competitive and up-to-date with the current evolving trends of the industry. The size of the e-retail market is snowballing, and by adopting these strategies, you can align your e-Commerce business to thrive in this competitive space and for success.
