It is no secret that the point of an e-commerce business is to generate sales. Yes, leads are nice to have and if you can find different ways to drive leads and generate traffic, then you are on the right track. However, all these are of vain if your e-commerce store isn’t making any money-which is its main purpose. This is where conversion optimization (CRO) can help. It is a system to increase the number of visitors to a particular website that converts into customers.
Here are 5 CRO hacks that will boost your e-commerce sales.
1. Free shipping works like a charm
Let’s start with something that works like a charm when it comes to improving your conversion rate. Yes, it is free shipping. Maximum cart drop-offs happen during the checkout process for several reasons and one of them is the shipping fee. Offering free shipping is another nudge to a user to complete his purchase. Delivery charges are a let-down and almost all users love free shipping. While every e-commerce business knows that users crave free shipping, many of them ignore the necessity of offering the same.
Even if you offer shipping costs, you need to be careful with the presentation.
- Declare the shipping costs before checkout. Do not bring in shipping cost as a surprise. Trust me, they hate it.
- Despite charging a shipping fee, your shipping procedure might be slow. Users who won’t mind paying shipping fee might be even more considerate about shipping speed.
2. Leverage Re-targeting and re-marketing
Re-marketing is a quite broad term used to define different scenarios. The main objective of re-marketing is to bring your old users back to the site and convert them into customers. Though re-marketing and re-targeting is used interchangeably, there is a significant difference between the two. Re-marketing is the technique which uses email conversation to directly engage with old customers and present new sales opportunities to them.
See this example.
Whereas, re-targeting leverages browser cookies to follow the activities of your audience and display your ads when they visit other sites.
Re-marketing is the Holy Grail if you are looking for how to improve e-commerce conversion rate. Both Google and Facebook offer tools for re-marketing and re-targeting. Google dynamic re-marketing and Facebook dynamic ads are two of the popular channels. Re-marketing ads have a high chance of conversions as it targets only those who have shown an interest in your products.
3. Offering guest checkout
As you already know, the checkout process accounts for the highest percentage of cart abandonment and drop-offs. One way to optimize the checkout process of your online store is to offer an option for guest checkout. Guest checkout is the one which allows a customer to make purchases on your store without signing in. To buy anything, all that he has to do is to fill the shipping and billing details and that’s it. E-commerce optimization goes a long way.
We all have registered with many websites that we might have even lost track of. The plethora of email follow-ups and reminders are truly annoying. Users don’t like to register to websites just to buy a product. This is true with the first customers. A guest checkout makes the whole process convenient and easy and increases the chances of the customer making a purchase.
4. Credibility and social proof
When searching for any products, how often do you read online reviews before making the purchase? Almost every time right? 86% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase. 86% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase. Click To Tweet
Most people trust online reviews as much as their friends.
To boost your customer reviews, send automated emails to customers asking them to review the product after their purchase. In addition, offer a certain amount of discounts or free coupons on the next purchase. Another tip to boost customer satisfaction is to offer free refunds which make your customers believe in you. Also, focus on easy return policies which make customers happy and relaxed. Using logos, security badges, and partnership will help you build your credibility as a brand. This gives an assurance to your customers that even if things go wrong, your brand reputation and reliability will make things smoother.
5. Optimization of call to action (CTA)
Call to action is a very important element that guides users about what to do. The strategic placement of CTA converts a visitor into a customer in just few clicks. When styling CTA, you must make sure it is placed in the most visible area of your website.
Some of the examples of commonly used CTAs are "Buy now" or Shop Now.
Take adequate time to learn and experiment with the right content and presentation to optimize your shop button. Ensure that whatever you use is relevant and creative.
CTA optimization tips
- Make sure you don’t go overboard when you write action-oriented words.
- Try using different colors that give the best visual appeal which resonates your branding.
- Make use of the psychology of urgency to increase conversions. Include a time limit in end-of-the-season sale and mention the number of products left.
In closing
Last but not least, you can take advantage of live chat tools to boost conversion rates. As opposed to emails, live chat and chatbots go a long way to earning the trust of your customers. Add live chat to your e-commerce platform to increase customer satisfaction and you will see immediate results.
As an e-commerce brand, it is important to maximize your ROI and the best way to achieve it is not by getting more traffic but by converting the existing traffic. There are literally so many CRO hacks that you can follow to optimize your e-commerce business. The most important thing is to identify your weak points and start from there. Start small and proceed to bigger experiments. Increasing your conversion rates will be one of your top priorities, and you must always strive to improve. Keeping track of your analytics and identifying more avenues to optimize will help you reach the end goal. The trick lies in bringing in visitors to your site, making them interested and engaged. The rest will follow.
I am a professional blogger, guest writer, Influencer & an eCommerce expert. Currently associated with ShopyGen as a content marketing strategist. I also report on the latest happenings and trends associated with the eCommerce industry.
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