Do you own a website that sells products or services? If so, it’s only natural if you plan to encourage more visitors to place an order for the items that you’re selling. Increasing your e-commerce website conversion rates revolves around two main principles – drawing the masses to your storefront and then getting them to purchase. The main objective of each site is to convert a visitor into a buyer, although e-commerce conversions could also refer to the success of getting your visitors to contact you for more information, sign up for email updates or having them follow you on social networks. It is actually a lot easier to increase your conversion rate as opposed to increasing your website’s traffic.
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Among the main methods of increasing conversions include reducing the number of clicks it takes to complete a purchase, making navigation more user-friendly, examining historical site analytics and adding more payment methods. Analysis has also shown that studying successful sites and competitors, applying suggestions from reputable studies, increasing site speed, improving the appearance of the site and surveying the crowd to be effective methods in converting your site visitors. On top of that, some have also noted that their conversion rates have improved after implementing promotions, changing ad copies, lowering their prices and making calls to action more prominent.
Aside from the methods mentioned above, here are five more reliable strategies for you to try out to increase your e-commerce website conversion rates:
1. Constant updates of About US and FAQ pages
These two main and common pages are always the ones being overlooked by most websites. You should probably know that most visitors tend to be lazy when it comes to contacting the customer service to inquire about an issue that isn’t being discussed in the FAQ.
You might be able to generate a large numbers of sales by providing relevant answers to questions that people might have when they’re interested in your products and services. Tell a story that’s related to your company and make sure that it’s relatable, honest and compelling.
2. Take advantage of the Google Website Optimizer for free testing
You’re more likely to succeed in increasing your conversion rates if you have tools like Google’s Website Optimizer. You’re able to generate some income with it and although it may not be as good as the paid tools, the Website Optimizer by Google allows for basic A/B and multivariate testing which also has enough options to get you by.
3. Display trust seals on your home page and cart page
Trust seals work like a charm as it has the power to gain the faith of your visitors, hence leading to more sales and profit. These seals are also an indication of how secure your website is for them to make a purchase. It is interesting what a simple seal can do to boost the image of your business. Among the best trust seals recommended are Verisign, TrustE and BBB. These options might come across as expensive but they would indeed be great long-term investments.
Tips: it is worthwhile to put in some investment to make sure your website is compliant with these standards and once you are awarded the compliance, you can display those seals.
4. Feature testimonials and endorsements at your site
Testimonials that come from reliable sources will definitely lead you to higher conversion rates. The same goes to positive press as well as endorsements from top personalities and other reputable companies who have enjoyed your product or service.
However, don’t worry if your testimonials come from the average Joe on the street; the testimonies are valuable as long as they’re a reliable source. The more praises you have about your business, the more conversions you’re likely to get.
5. Have a more user-friendly website
You would have certainly tried to manoeuvre your way through a cluttered website or waited for ages for a website to load. So you would definitely understand the frustration of a site visitor when faced with the scenarios above and wouldn’t want to put your potential customers through the same hassle. Your chances of increasing conversions are pretty slim if your visitors won’t even stay long enough on your site to wait for it to load or to find the item they want!
In conclusion, the improvement of conversion rates is all done through trial and error. However, make sure that you aren’t investing too much time, money or effort into one or two particular methods only to find that they do not produce the desired results. Figure out which method works best for you and stick to it. It may take some time until you’re able to increase your conversion rates as much as you want but be assured that practice makes perfect.
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Do you have any other tips? do share with us in the comment section below.
This article is written by Jessica. She is a fashion addict who loves online shopping. If you wish to write for us, kindly check this.
Great post Jessica. I used to use Google website optimizer more untill it became a part of their analytics. Luckly there’s alot of alternative tools out there to help you optimize conversion rates. 🙂
Great tips. I am sure your tips not only apply to E-commerce sites, but will certainly apply to other types of websites too. For example, on my web hosting site, I do use some of your strategies to increase traffic and conversions. I also provide great web hosting coupon codes.
Love your article and writing style. Hope to see more articles from you here!
Yeah Jasmine you are right these tips are general applicable to all websites offering services or information even.. Thanks Jessica for mentioning the Google Optimizer for testing out the website 🙂
FAQ web sites will be increase high traffic into the blog. And, it will increase conversation rates as well. Thank you so much for sharing your post on here 🙂
Good One,
I think these are the enough points to get good conversion rates. You teach very well how to use these tips step by step.
I like point #5 in this post which you mentioned like that "". Have a more user-friendly website"" this is one of the great idea to make good impression on visitors.
Nice points Jessica. And to add on, conversion is really very important factor for any online business.
Sometimes reviewing also works but again that should be helpful to the user. These reviews shouldn't be biased to make affiliate income but they should provide about that pro's and con's of the product/service.
Also, having user feedback page with genuine references shall be very helpful in building a positive impression and can also improve the conversion rates.