Are You Asking the Right Questions to Increase Your Conversion Rates?
You can have the best product in the universe and an outstanding ecommerce website, but it won’t mean much to your bottom line unless you can convert your website visitors into customers. Some studies have indicated that as many as 75% of website visitors place an item in their shopping cart and never actually return to complete their purchase. This means a lot of lost revenue for business owners like yourself. How can you increase your conversion rate and therefore improve the profitability of your company? Below are eight questions you should ask yourself regarding how you operate your ecommerce website. The answers to these questions home some valuable keys to helping you increase your conversion rate.
Eight Questions to Ask Yourself to Boost Your Conversion Rate
Knowing where to begin in terms of creating more customers out of the people who regularly visit your website can be confusing and overwhelming. This series of questions will provide you with a beneficial place to start in creating a needed boost in your conversion rate.
* Do You Know Your Audience?
You carefully analyze your product well before it ever launches. However, your target audience needs to be continually studied to ensure you’re appealing to the people you want as part of your customer base. Your target audience may even change from time to time through the life of your business. You cannot succeed in creating customers out of your website viewers if you don’t know who is coming to your site, what they want, and how they want it to be delivered to them.
* Do You Express the Value of Your Product Well?
What is the overall value of your product? If there are other similar products like it on the market, why should customers purchase your product versus a competing one? These are all important questions concerning showing the value inherent in purchasing your product rather than a similar one. The product you provide must fill a need or offer some sort of value to your customer base in order for your business to be successful.
* Can You Have a Better Call to Action?
Source: https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/call-to-action-examples/
A powerful and clear Call to Action is a vital part of your ecommerce website. The purpose of your website’s CTA is to provide the driving force that gets your website visitor to complete their registration and finalize their purchase. An effective CTA will use action words such as “Download” or “Add.” Research also indicates that larger CTAs garner much more attention and ultimately lead to a higher conversion rate. Aside from using action words and larger CTAs, there are a few additional ways you can improve your Call to Action. [1]
– Anchor text CTAs can improve conversion rates up to 120%
– First-person phrasing can create a conversion rate increase of up to 90%
– Personalized CTAs convert over 40% more website viewers than their non-targeted counterparts
* Can I do More to Reduce Friction on my Website?
No matter how amazing they are, all websites have sources of friction that are bothersome to viewers. The key is to limit the friction on your site as much as possible. Friction points can include the following:
– Slow load times due to overwhelming amounts of large graphics
– Too many form fields to register or make a purchase
– Poorly written text or too much text to read through
– Hidden or missing information such as shipping or return policies
You may not be able to completely get rid of all friction points, but starting with the ones mentioned here may be a good choice for improving your conversion rate and boosting sales.
* Can You Do More to Establish Trust?
Out of all possible factors that go into making a purchase, customers consistently rank trust as being one of the most vital points. You are not only asking the customer to trust that your product is superior to the competition, but you’re also asking him to trust your business enough to submit his personal financial information on your website. One recent study of online transactions indicated that as many as 70% of transactions are terminated prior to completion due to a lack of trust felt on the part of the shopper. No matter how much they want the product you have for sale, they won’t complete the purchase if they don’t trust you. How can you build trust? [2]
– Provide testimonials from actual customers
– Be transparent with company information, shipping facts, return policies, and contact information
– List any awards or recognition you’ve received
– List any affiliations you may have with other recognizable brands
* Do You Know the Reason People Leave Your Website without Purchasing?
You’re always aware when a customer completes a transaction on your website. Are you equally aware of those who terminate their purchase and their reason for doing so? If as many as 70% of possible sales transactions are never completed, you need to know what is making potential customers leave your site prior to purchasing so that you can correct these issues. Using software that enables you to work backward from the point of exit can help you reveal problems that you may not have even been aware of.
* Do You Make Appropriate Data-Driven Changes?
You must utilize data tracking software to keep abreast of changes and how they compare against previous data. You’ll need to track not only website data, but also data from social media platforms, advertising campaigns, and many other sources. Without the proper software, this can be an overwhelming and time-consuming task. The following software programs can help you aggregate and analyze important statistics. [3]
– Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a powerful, free resource for gathering customized graphs, detailed email business reports, and integrating your Google AdWords campaign information.
– Mix Panel
Mixpanel is excellent to use in conjunction with Google Analytics because it is even easier to grasp and make sense of all the incoming data. Mix Panel also makes it easy to set up sales funnels to increase your conversion rates over time.
– Full Story
Full Story is software that helps you recreate how users navigate through your website. All the way from their first click to the completion of their purchase, you can get valuable insight into what the process is like from the customer’s perspective, allowing you to make important improvements that will maximize sales and success.
* Can You Improve the Effectiveness of Your Images?
The internet is no longer text-centered. It has quickly evolved into an image-focused information highway. Many research studies prove that consumers prefer to consume image rich material when they’re browsing the internet, and powerful images have the ability to turn a viewer into a purchasing customer. But to be the most effective, your website’s images need to follow a few basic guidelines. Keep these in mind when choosing quality images to represent your products.
– Provide Alternate Views of Items
As a general rule, shoppers want to use their senses when they make purchases. They want to feel the item, smell it, taste it, or take it for a test run prior to making the commitment to purchasing it. Of course, touching, smelling, or tasting the item isn’t possible online. Shoppers are relying exclusively on the sense of sight to tell them what they need to know about your product and whether or not they want to purchase it. Provide as many high-quality photos as possible, from all different angles. This will help your viewers get a clear idea of the product they’re interested in.
For example, clothing websites should show the front and back of every item. Additionally, use photos that show the item being worn by a model rather than simply hanging lifelessly from a mannequin or bust. These are elements that provide a touch of realism to your photos and enhance the shopping experience for the customer. Some retailers have reported a 27% higher conversion rate from using 360-degree rotating images alone. Imagine the power of combining this feature with some of the other photo tips mentioned here.
– Don’t Forget the Zoom Feature
If the products you offer on your site have a lot of intricate details, be sure to use a zoom feature on your photos. Allow the viewer to get up close and personal, providing a clear view of the details that set your items apart from those offered by competitors. Remember the phrase, “The sale is often in the detail.”
– Show the Item in Context
Emotion reaches the heart of viewers and turns them from browsers into buyers. If possible, show the item you are selling in the context of its intended use. If you’re selling earrings, photos of them being worn by a happy, smiling woman at a lively party will be much more effective than simply lying against an attractive background. It will allow the viewer to imagine herself wearing the earrings and how they might make her feel.
Since you can’t present your items in person to potential buyers, your photos have to work twice as hard to make your products truly come to life. By following a few simple steps, you can make your photos work for you to increase your conversion rate.
You may already know how to drive plenty of traffic to your ecommerce site. You may also have an incredibly valuable product that can change the lives of your customers. Without converting your website visitors into paying customers, however, your business won’t experience as much success. The questions above were designed to provide you with valuable information to turn website visitors into lifelong, repeat customers. After all, these are the types of customers that are the bread and butter of your business and spell future success for your company. You will never have a 100% conversion rate. By following these tips, however, you can see a massive increase in the percentage of website visitors that turn into satisfied customers.
