8 Ways to Boost Your E-commerce Conversion Rate

Small businesses set up e-commerce sites for a number of reasons — including branding and engagement with customers — but the bottom line mission is to increase sales. That’s why your conversion rate is so important, as it measures the number of people who go from just browsing your site to buying something.

Getting people to find and click on your site is one thing, but get them to actually purchase something while there is another. Here are eight tactics that can help you increase those conversions.

Clear Calls to Action

Make sure you place clear calls to actions (CTAs) on your site in places where people can see them. They won’t know what you want to them to do — “learn more,” “save now,” “buy” — unless you tell them and make it easy for them to do so.

Personalize the Experience

Offering customers recommendations is one thing, but personalized offers based on their previous purchases and viewing behavior makes for a more enticing experience. For example, if they’re buying a book on your site, they may be tempted to buy something else in the genre. Buying a cranberry sweater? Maybe they’d like accessories in your store in complementary colors. Machine learning programs can help facilitate this strategy.

Make Customers Feel Secure

An estimated $9.1 billion in online sales revenue is lost every year because of shoppers’ fears around security, and there’s a heightened fear when browsing a new site. Use security logos that promote the safety of your payment system, along with reviews and testimonials from other customers, to make your customers feel their data will be secure every step of the way.

Free Shipping

If you can afford it, free shipping is a huge incentive for many shoppers, and many expect it. If they go to checkout and see a huge price increase price with shipping, many will abandon the cart in search of a better deal.

Customer Service

Be it live chat or a prominently displayed phone number, customers like being able to ask questions and talk to a real person. In one survey, 38 percent of customers said they bought something because of the chat support they received.

Add Video

Video is hot right now. Customers would much rather watch a description of a product than just read about it. One study found that using videos can increase conversion by as much as 80 percent.

Mobile Matters

People want to shop from their phones, and if you don’t offer an easy way for them to do so, they’re going to shop somewhere else. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly in every way.

Make It Faster

If your website is slow, people will get bored, annoyed and abandon your page. Not only that, Google ranks faster websites higher, which means the faster it is, the more potential eyes on your site.