In the past couple of decades, ecommerce has evolved from being a mere luxury for certain "internet savvy" individuals to being a necessity for just about anyone connected to the internet. And the rise of smartphones has only added to the ecommerce juggernaut. Today there are online stores for everything imaginable. And all these stores are vying for the same set of customers.
Therefore it becomes all the more important to understand what to with the people who are visiting your store rather than obsessing only with bringing more and more people to your store. Today, its not just about how much traffic your get (SEO, SEM) its also about how much sales you can generate off whatever traffic you are getting (Conversion Rate Optimization). The ultimate goal of any ecommerce business is sales, not increased traffic.
So how to increase your store's conversion rate. As a general thumb rule, optimize every single customer interaction on your website to maximize conversion.
But to be more specific here are five areas of your store that you can optimize for conversion.
1. Optimize Store Homepage
Your store home page is the most important page of your shop and the most potent weapon in converting strangers into customers. How you structure and design the home page creates the first (and quite often) the last impression. So apart from aesthetic design, showcase your bestselling product on the home page. If you have the technology, personalize the home page based on the visitors browsing history and past purchases to show highly relevant products to them. If you have product videos, this is the page you showcase them.
2. Optimize Navigation Structure
Creating an intuitive and user experience focussed navigation structure for product categories is perhaps the most important step in ecommerce conversion rate optimization. Structure your navigation in such a way that it makes it super easy for your customers to find their favourite products. Some of the steps in this regard include - creating category names based on what people are actually searching, using mega menu to display all categories in a platter, using category images as a visual aid in right category identification.
3. Optimize Search Functionality
Search is another which contributed a lot to the user experience of an ecommerce website. The objective of a good ecommerce search functionality is not only to provide accurate search results but also reduce as much human effort as possible and make the search as simple and quick as possible. Test your search results for accuracy. Provide auto search functionality where users get category and product suggestions as they type in the search box, build your search functionality to include misspellings and plurals by default
4. Optimize Product Page
Once you have successfully made the customer come to their desired product page its time now to impress them your product page layout and information to convert the visitor into customer. Use high quality product images, take images from multiple angles and add an image gallery. Add product videos if available. Have an information product description and product page title. Clearly display things like product price, any applicable discounts, shipping charges, if any, and delivery time. Also allow them to select delivery dates show related products and product reviews. You can even show all reviews in one page to make reviews more accessible. All these are must have information that can seriously hamper conversion if not presented upfront, unambiguously.
5. Optimize Checkout Process
Checkout is the last mile hurdle that every ecommerce site must overcome to succeed. Every if you do everything else right and make your customers add product in the cart you will still end up with abandoned carts if the checkout process is not smooth and hassle free. Make sure to guide the customer through the process with the right information related to contact information, shipping address, billing address, payment methods, etc at the right place in the right manner. Don't make customers enter the same information more than once and don't confuse them with too many options.
To Conclude
Today, bringing customers to your store by any means and hoping for revenue to magically increase doesn't happen. When you conduct a promotional activity you make a promize to your customers and when they visit your store, you need to fulfill your promise the best way possible. Anything that doesn't enhance the customer's confidence in you is going to hamper your chances of getting a sale from that customer. With conversion optimization, you maximize your chances of making the sale happen.
Therefore it becomes all the more important to understand what to with the people who are visiting your store rather than obsessing only with bringing more and more people to your store. Today, its not just about how much traffic your get (SEO, SEM) its also about how much sales you can generate off whatever traffic you are getting (Conversion Rate Optimization). The ultimate goal of any ecommerce business is sales, not increased traffic.
So how to increase your store's conversion rate. As a general thumb rule, optimize every single customer interaction on your website to maximize conversion.
But to be more specific here are five areas of your store that you can optimize for conversion.
1. Optimize Store Homepage
Your store home page is the most important page of your shop and the most potent weapon in converting strangers into customers. How you structure and design the home page creates the first (and quite often) the last impression. So apart from aesthetic design, showcase your bestselling product on the home page. If you have the technology, personalize the home page based on the visitors browsing history and past purchases to show highly relevant products to them. If you have product videos, this is the page you showcase them.
2. Optimize Navigation Structure
Creating an intuitive and user experience focussed navigation structure for product categories is perhaps the most important step in ecommerce conversion rate optimization. Structure your navigation in such a way that it makes it super easy for your customers to find their favourite products. Some of the steps in this regard include - creating category names based on what people are actually searching, using mega menu to display all categories in a platter, using category images as a visual aid in right category identification.
3. Optimize Search Functionality
Search is another which contributed a lot to the user experience of an ecommerce website. The objective of a good ecommerce search functionality is not only to provide accurate search results but also reduce as much human effort as possible and make the search as simple and quick as possible. Test your search results for accuracy. Provide auto search functionality where users get category and product suggestions as they type in the search box, build your search functionality to include misspellings and plurals by default
4. Optimize Product Page
Once you have successfully made the customer come to their desired product page its time now to impress them your product page layout and information to convert the visitor into customer. Use high quality product images, take images from multiple angles and add an image gallery. Add product videos if available. Have an information product description and product page title. Clearly display things like product price, any applicable discounts, shipping charges, if any, and delivery time. Also allow them to select delivery dates show related products and product reviews. You can even show all reviews in one page to make reviews more accessible. All these are must have information that can seriously hamper conversion if not presented upfront, unambiguously.
5. Optimize Checkout Process
Checkout is the last mile hurdle that every ecommerce site must overcome to succeed. Every if you do everything else right and make your customers add product in the cart you will still end up with abandoned carts if the checkout process is not smooth and hassle free. Make sure to guide the customer through the process with the right information related to contact information, shipping address, billing address, payment methods, etc at the right place in the right manner. Don't make customers enter the same information more than once and don't confuse them with too many options.
To Conclude
Today, bringing customers to your store by any means and hoping for revenue to magically increase doesn't happen. When you conduct a promotional activity you make a promize to your customers and when they visit your store, you need to fulfill your promise the best way possible. Anything that doesn't enhance the customer's confidence in you is going to hamper your chances of getting a sale from that customer. With conversion optimization, you maximize your chances of making the sale happen.
