Optimising your ecommerce website is something brands should be doing on a regular basis to ensure their products are seen in a competitive world of online shopping. You may think you have a platform of users who visit your site each month, but those visits are meaningless if they aren’t purchasing your products.
From simple optimisation tactics to make your online shop more accessible and user-friendly, to conversion rate enhancement modifications to encourage that all important purchase are some of the ways you can increase your ecommerce conversion rate.
In this blog, we share six strategies on how to increase ecommerce conversion rate that will see more sales for your online store and take your brand to the next level.
6 strategies to increasing your ecommerce conversion rate
When it comes to increasing your ecommerce conversion rate, there are several strategies you can implement to drive more sales and grow your business. Here are six of the easiest and most effective ways to boost conversion rate for ecommerce stores.
1. Increase the visibility of your products
Ensuring your products are easy to find and navigate on your site can help capture the attention of your customers and encourage them to make a purchase. Product discoverability and online searches are critical aspects to running a successful ecommerce business because your company won’t thrive if people can’t find your products.
Adding a simple search function to your online shop where customers can locate what they’re searching for using keywords helps them find what they’re specifically looking for. For example, if you own an online perfume shop, a customer may be looking for a dark perfume. By merely typing in the words “dark perfume” into your search function, it should immediately lead the customer to the desired product, or at least a selection of products relating to that search term.
Equally, optimising your product pages will help customers find what they’re looking for while also improving the overall navigation of your site and SEO efforts. Incorporating relevant keywords into your product descriptions, using high-quality images and optimising image alt-tags, and organising your products into categories are all tactics to implement for a seamless browsing experience for your customers.
This will also enhance your visibility on search engines too, thus increasing traffic to your site, drawing in new potential customers, and boosting brand awareness.
2. Make the switch to mobile
According to 8th Dial, as of late 2024, 55% of all ecommerce purchases in the UK were made on a mobile device. This goes to show that people are increasingly turning to mobile shopping because of its convenience. With this in mind, it’s critical for ecommerce businesses to ensure they have a mobile-friendly online shop that is simple to navigate on a small screen.
Ultimately, making the switch to mobile can significantly boost your ecommerce conversion rate because you’re making it easier for customers who are shopping on their mobile devices to navigate your website, browse your products, and make purchases. If you already have a mobile-friendly online shop, there are plenty of ways to improve your mobile design to further increase your ecommerce conversion rate.
Whether you’re creating a mobile-friendly ecommerce store for the first time or you’re updating your mobile design, be sure to test your site on various mobile devices so you can ensure that the customer journey is functional and enjoyable for all visitors regardless of the device they use.
3. Ensure your checkout process is fast
Streamlining your checkout process is a great way to increase your ecommerce conversion rate. If your current checkout process has too many steps and takes too long to complete, it can quickly frustrate your customers and encourage them to leave your site and abandon their cart before they’ve completed their purchase.
This means you need a quick and simple checkout process with minimal steps to avoid losing potential customers. You may want to consider implementing features like guest checkout, auto-fill options for forms, and multiple payment methods to cater to different preferences.
By ensuring your checkout process is quick and seamless, it will result in a positive user experience and improve customer satisfaction, which can potentially lead to converting first-time purchasers into returning customers.
4. Make use of high-definition visuals
As almost all ecommerce business owners will know, your sales will not solely be guided by written text. Using clear, crisp images and videos that showcase your products in the best light will give your customers a better look at what they’re considering purchasing.
You want your images and videos to provide your customers as much detail as possible about the product you’re selling. Aim to simulate how they would feel if they were holding the object in their hands, or if they were wearing the piece of clothing for example. Videos work particularly well in this instance as you can showcase your products from all angles and demonstrate how it works.
Including high-quality visuals can enhance the overall shopping experience for your customers, as it builds trust in the product you’re selling and encourages them to make that all important purchase. But remember, quality is crucial. Hiring a professional photographer or videographer is well worth the money over taking pictures in your warehouse on a smartphone.
5. Provide a variety of payment options
We’ve touched on this briefly but offering multiple payment methods as part of your checkout process is key to conversion. Assuming everybody will want to pay in one certain way is naive, especially with all of the different options now available. From credit or debit cards to digital wallets to ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ options, every customer will have their desired payment preference.
That’s why you should consider offering as many payment methods as possible including card payments options, digital wallet options such as PayPal, Apply Pay, and Google Pay, and Buy Now, Pay Later options such as Klarna, and Clearpay.
When you accommodate various payment methods, not only does it make the checkout process more convenient for customers, but it doesn’t act as a deterrent to people buying and reduces the likelihood of abandoned carts, thus improving your conversion rate for ecommerce.
6. Improve your page speed
This is true for all pages on your ecommerce site, but speed is particularly essential at checkout. Google recommends a page speed load of two seconds or less, and according to a study by Semrush, pages that take longer than three seconds to load saw the amount of people that bounce off a site almost triple.
You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to see how your ecommerce pages are performing and if there are any issues, you can see how to correct them technically. Other tactics you can use to improve your page speed include reducing clunky, data-heavy elements on your pages, removing unused plugins, and reducing the file size of images for example.
A fast and responsive ecommerce website not only provides a better user experience and improves user satisfaction, but also increases the likelihood of visitors converting into paying customers, boosting your ecommerce conversion rate.
Learn more ways to improve your ecommerce conversion rate
These are just some of the many strategies on how to increase ecommerce conversion rate for your online store, and there’s no reason why you wouldn’t see a positive impact to your ecommerce conversion rate if you follow the tips above.
If you need expert help improving your conversion rate for ecommerce, don’t hesitate to contact us today. Our team of web design, web development, and digital marketing experts have a range of skills designed to help you maximise your sales, so speak to us to discuss your requirements in more detail and learn how we can help your business.