10 Ways To Increase Your Stores Conversion Rate

Did you know that the average conversion rate for an eCommerce store sits around 1.2 - 2%? That means for every 1000 visitors, you can only expect 12 - 20 customers, and to be honest, that's quite a good conversion rate.

The difference between 12 customers and 20 customers can be quite a lot if you have high average order values. Consider an average order value of $68 (which is pretty good), just getting an extra 8 customers for every 1000 visitors would mean an extra $544 in revenue for your store.

That's money you could reinvest into your marketing budget or SEO efforts.

Let's look at 10 quick ways with huge impacts to help increase that conversion rate.

Pop-ups

According to a recent study done by Sumo, store pop-ups have an average conversion rate of 3.09% but, from their research, they found that in the top 10 percent of highest performing pop-ups, they have an average of 9.28% conversion rate which is exceptional.

An effective pop-up is a very easy way to increase conversions and that's why when we do web design, we always add an effective pop-up.

The trick between an average pop-up, and the highly effective one are a few key details:

• More context = more conversions
• Don't show your pop-ups immediately. Add a 20 second delay
• Clear and engaging copy
• You need to add value to the visitors life (like a discount, or free item)

Now, it's important to not be one of those pop-up websites where it's hard to dismiss it, or it spams you on each and every page.

So to avoid that, make sure you:

• Make the pop-up easy to close. If the visitor doesn't want the value, fine, but don't force it to the visitor as you risk losing them
• Set up a website cookie, so when it's closed or added to cart, you don't show it again

We've put this at the top of our list because adding a pop-up is a really low-risk easy way to increase conversions.

Social proof (testimonials, reviews)

No one wants to be the first one to buy something for lots of reasons:

• What if the quality isn't as described?
• What if they never get the item?
• What if the store is fake?

Everyone thinks like this, even yourself, as the owner or eCommerce manager for your store. Your visitors and customers are no different.

Giving them peace of mind in this area is a sure-fire way to have them buy your products.

If social proof isn’t something you’re currently featuring on your website, then you can expect significant improvements in your conversion rates once it’s been added to all of your critical pages.

Clear the distractions

One of the most common points we see when doing audits for our shopify clients is most of the time, pages are created and have no real goal, or they're just filled with copy for SEO purposes.

But these just create extra pages for your visitors to browse and get distracted from their primary goal: buying your stuff.

So stick to the bare minimum to help keep your visitors on track:

• Clear headlines and subheadings
• Valuable benefits and features
• Social proof
• Visuals to promote

There are some cases where it makes sense to add a live chat box can also be useful, but keep in mind these only exist to support your main product or offer, so it shouldn't distract your visitors from completing their goal.

Add countdown timers

This one's an interesting one isn't it? But hear us out, it's all going to make sense in a moment.

Think back to the last time you bought something where you uhm'd and ahh'd for a while. What was it that made you pull the trigger? Was it a timely "offer will expire soon" email? Maybe a cart abandonment email? Or was it a sale?

All of these things come back to one point: countdown timers. They add a sense of urgency, and a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out), which ultimately results in a lot more people pulling the trigger quicker.

Sometimes, with these urgent offers, people will buy before they think, which sounds bad, but it's a win in your pocket.

Third-party login services

Now this is an easy one, especially if you're on platforms like Shopify or Bigcommerce.

One of the points below is around form fields. Naturally, some people just don't like filling out forms on their mobile phone. Whilst you may think "oh well", that's absolutely the wrong thought process when 80% of the worlds traffic comes from mobile devices.

A quick way to beat forcing your customers to complete extra forms or fields is to add third party login services like Facebook or Google.

This can let your customers breeze through checkouts and register for exclusive perks with ease, helping contribute to your overall goal: increasing your conversions.

Live chat

Many of your visitors may be on the fence about buying your product or service.

But the surprising fact is: it may only take an answer to a question or two, to get them over that fence and onto the buying side.

Live chat is the perfect way to help convert your visitors into paying customers.

It's also a great way to receive user feedback and conduct user testing to see if you're receiving the same types of questions through live chat.

Live chat is more effective due to the nature of receiving instant-like replies. Many customers only send emails if they have no other option, but for visitors on the fence about buying a product, they will almost never send an email to ask a question.

Strengthen your CTAs

Generic CTA (call to action) buttons like Sign Up or Start Trial aren't going to give you the best conversion rates possible unless your social proof, accompanying images, or descriptions are absolutely on point.

Spending a few minutes improve this copy will give you a relatively easy conversion rate increase.

Start your CTAs with Yes because it positions your offer in a positive light.

Example: Yes, give me this offer!

High-quality images

Now, this is an obvious one, but one worth mentioning.

Not only does this make your site look great, but high-quality images are proven to add credibility to your brand.

Think about it: when you shop online, you cannot see or touch the product, and so naturally, you expect the best experience as a replacement to that - high quality images.

A quick tip: If your product has multiple colours, go to the effort of having a photo for each one, and put them all on the same page so users don't have to navigate to multiple pages.

Free shipping

This is a tip we use quite often as it invokes many positive vibes when interacting with an online store.

Not only does it promote higher average order values, as users get a release of serotonin when hitting this point, but it also gives users a reason to check out.

Shipping costs quite often cause cart abandonment so we recommend having an easily reachable free shipping tier (adjust it to the average price of your products) and show it everywhere.

Implement an abandoned cart campaign

We recently published a topic on this: Shopify eCommerce 101: How To Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonments

The stats just don't lie. A huge number of users abandon their shopping carts, so you need this in place.

Grab someones email via a discount or offer, then implement a cart recovery email campaign so you can market to those users and follow them up.

Takeaway: Your site is your best salesperson

If your store isn't growing an email list and nurturing those leads, you're missing out on countless opportunities.

eCommerce is a very competitive space, especially with the pandemic. It's just not enough to sit back and pray that your store does all the work for you, without any input from you.

It's critical that you build credibility quickly, maintain a fantastic customer experience, and provide your shoppers with the answers to their questions, before they even ask.