Is your online store working to its full potential? There’s always an opportunity for growth unless every single individual who walks into your store makes a purchase and eCommerce optimization might not be as time-consuming as you believe. If you know where to look, a few minor changes can result in a 50% increase in sales (or even more). On the other hand, changing the wrong things could be a waste of effort — or even have the reverse impact, hurting conversions. It isn’t easy to know where to begin when there are so many variables to consider. 

The Marketer's Guide to E-Commerce Website Optimization

What is a Good Conversion Rate in E-commerce?

Let’s clarify what a conversion is and a decent eCommerce conversion rate before optimizing eCommerce conversions. A conversion typically refers to someone saving an item for a later purchase, adding an item to their shopping cart, or making a purchase.

The Marketer's Guide to E-Commerce Website Optimization

1. Make Product Pages Better

Make it simple for customers to find new products no matter where they are on your website. The Baymard Institute recommends breadcrumbs based on product hierarchy (where they fit within a range) and history (where people have visited on the site). From the Amazon site, here’s an example of breadcrumbs:

Catchy, SEO-friendly product titles can also help your product pages perform better. This will help the pages rank higher in search results, making it easier for customers to locate what they’re looking for. Product photos are essential since they are one of the ways that customers can see what they are buying. Include photographs that demonstrate various parts of your product or demonstrate the product in various settings and scenarios. Modcloth, for example, displays both customer and model images for its products. Use video to show customers what items look like and how they work. This is what Zappos does with shoes, and it works well.

Product Video From Zappos

Product descriptions allow customers to visualize how their lives might be different if they used your product. At the very least, the best of them do. Avoid using the manufacturer’s standard product descriptions and instead create your own.

On your product pages, you may also leverage eCommerce optimization in the following ways:

  • Specifications are fleshed out using product details.
  • Using ratings, reviews, views, and likes to demonstrate the attraction of your items
  • We’ll go through the price in more detail in the next section.
  • Learn more about how to create high-converting product pages in our guide.

2. Make Pricing Improvements

It’s critical to get your pricing correct. Otherwise, no one will want to purchase your product. Numerous adjustments may be made to increase your earnings. Here is a handful that could have a significant influence.

Compare And Contrast Two Products.

Did you know that displaying two products side by side can help the lower-priced product sell more? Williams-Sonoma was having problems selling a breadmaker until they compared it to a higher-end model. The lower-priced item became extremely popular overnight, and sales nearly doubled.

Analytical Paralysis Should Be Avoided.

The sheer amount of alternatives available might sometimes overwhelm visitors. Thankfully, eCommerce optimization may assist with this.

To save space on a pricing page, keep the language short and emphasize the desired option. Here’s an example of a pricing page from WPForms:

You can also persuade visitors to do a little action first, such as watching a demo.

This is based on the Zeigarnik effect, which states that people who begin a task are more likely to finish it. It’s why Yes/No Forms from OptinMonster work so well. AtHoc saw a 141 percent increase in sales-qualified leads as a result of their use.

Consider Charm Pricing.

Charm pricing is another eCommerce improvement that might help you increase sales. According to Gumroad, using numbers ending in 9 to price things can enhance conversions by double them in some circumstances.

Split testing several product and pricing pages to find which type of pricing works best for your clients is the best way to go.

Use The Live Chat Feature.

When we talked about product pages, we emphasized that live chat works excellent for the price. Customers appreciate the opportunity to speak with a live person about their concerns. In one study, the ability to ask presales inquiries resulted in a 38 percent increase in conversions.

3. Make Personalization A Priority

Personalization has been a big issue in eCommerce for the past few years.

Personalization entails providing relevant, customized offers and content to your clients. You may accomplish this using information from your web and social analytics, such as who they are, what they enjoy, and where they’ve been on your site.

Make Yourself Relevant

To begin with, the best personalization is intelligence and focused.

Visitors despise seeing stuff that isn’t relevant to them. OptinMonster can help you segment and target your website’s marketing campaigns, so they’re always relevant.

Related highlight Products

Try highlighting similar or recommended products if you’re searching for a quick fix. According to Smart Insights, promoting products with the phrase “visitors who saw this product also viewed” generates 68 percent of eCommerce income.

Change the site’s navigation.

You can also personalize your site by altering the navigation based on the interests of your visitors. The following time we logged in to ASOS to look at women’s products, the site directed us to the correct page.

Personalize Email Marketing Messages Based on Consumer Behaviour

Even when visitors leave your site, you may personalize eCommerce marketing. That’s a clever method Amazon employs. If you look at a product, you’ll receive a couple of emails from them telling you about similar products and promotions. Barilliance is one tool that can help with this.

Discounts Organized By Category

Another way to improve your eCommerce conversion rate is to customize your offers to the portion of your site that a visitor is looking at. Smart Tags from OptinMonster can help with that. Inc Stores expanded their list by 300 percent with the same functionality, developing a variation of their flooring campaign to target home gym consumers.

4. Mobile-Friendly Design

Mobile is one eCommerce optimization you can’t afford to overlook. This is because mobile devices are more popular than desktop computers. It’s also a great way to learn about new products and services. As a result, you must increase your mobile conversion rate. Here are a few pointers on how to optimize your mobile eCommerce store.

Boost The Performance Of Your Website

40% of smartphone consumers will abandon your site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

As a result, you must pay attention to the render start time (RST). That’s how long it takes for your site’s initial piece of content to appear. Sites with a high RST enhance engagement by 50% compared to slow-loading sites, offering you more opportunities to get and increase conversions.

Make Use Of  Videos

More importantly, 84 percent of consumers have purchased anything after seeing a video. As a result, using video marketing to increase mobile conversions makes sense. A brilliant place to start is with an explainer and product videos. A video popup can also be used to capture the interest of mobile users. OptinMonster makes it simple to do so. To learn how to accomplish it, watch the video below.

5. Incorporate An Upsell

Upselling has been shown to increase eCommerce income. You can persuade customers to purchase a more expensive version of a product they already want by doing the following:

  • On the item’s page
  • During the checkout process
  • After you’ve checked out,

You can also upsell to your existing clients. Furthermore, targeted recommendations account for roughly 30% of eCommerce revenue. In addition, customer lifetime value is increasing. That implies you’ll make more money over time.

To efficiently employ upselling, follow these steps:

  • Make sure you explain why the upsell is worthwhile.
  • Get the cost correct — Kissmetrics suggests going 60% cheaper than what’s already in the cart.
  • To make it more enticing, use social proof.

Whole Whale, an OptinMonster customer, used upselling to double conversions. Upselling can also be done in the following ways:

  • With page-level targeting, you may show your upsell on the cart page or other high-converting sites.
  • In the last example, use Smart Tags to personalize offers based on what’s in the cart.
  • Here’s how to use an in-cart upsell to increase eCommerce sales.

6. With Flash Sales, You Can Create A Sense Of Urgency.

SALE – those are the best four letters in the alphabet for some folks. And they can pay off handsomely for eCommerce merchants. Holiday sales alone surpassed $50 billion in 2017. What’s the best way for you to obtain your piece of the pie? Using the concept of urgency. When a situation is urgent, people are programmed to react. Essentially, we all want to get our hands on something tasty before it’s too late. The correct marketing might trigger that emotion.

A flash sale is an excellent alternative for eCommerce companies. 

  • When talking about time, pace, or scarcity, use urgency-based language.
  • Activate your fear of missing out (FOMO)
  • Include a call to action that is active and urgent, such as “Get Your Discount Today!”

You can also increase the urgency of your transaction by:

  • Displaying the competition for a particular offer, as Amazon does below.
  • Stock levels are displayed.
  • Providing a doorbuster or a bargain within a sale.

7. Other Specific Objections Must Be Overcome

Customers often take a long time to determine whether or not to buy. This is sometimes due to a lengthy sales cycle. Other times, it could be due to one of three typical buying objections:

  • Price
  • Product compatibility
  • Competition

For many purchasers, price is a stumbling block. However, as previously mentioned, you can overcome this issue using flash sales or discount offers. When it comes to product fit, it’s all about the customers deciding if the item is right for them. Making the procedure easy is one method to do so. Kennedy Blue, for example, allows consumers to request free color swatches so that they can choose their colors before purchasing bridal and bridesmaid gowns.

8. Reduce The Number Of Abandoned Shopping Carts

Even if you accept this as usual, isn’t it true that every company wants to make more money? That is why implementing this eCommerce optimization is so important.

Here Are Some Tried-And-True Methods For Lowering Cart Abandonment.

When visitors are ready to leave a page, OptinMonster’s powerful exit-intent technology identifies this and displays an offer to capture their attention. It’s been shown to lessen abandonment, and it helped Wild Water Adventures recoup $61,000 in sales.

Surprises Are Cut Out.

Shoppers despise being surprised when it’s time to pay, especially when it comes to the price. In reality, 60% of people abandon carts due to shipping and other unexpected costs.

Include A Variety Of Payment Options

The correct payment alternatives, on the other hand, can triple conversions.

9. Create A Mailing List

Email marketing is one of the most effective strategies to create a relationship with your customers. 

Get The Subject Line Right

The email subject line and preview text are the first things email recipients see. That is why it is beneficial to optimize both of them.

Make Your Emails More Personal

Everyone understands that customization increases people’s interest in your communications and ads.

Consider A Seasonal Approach.

For eCommerce merchants, the holidays are a crucial time. They are in charge of 20% of all annual sales. That’s why it’s a good idea to leverage significant holidays and other special occasions to spice up your communications.

10. Your Email Options And Campaigns Should Be Split Tested

Split testing was covered briefly earlier, but it’s worth revisiting. This is because it is a very effective method for increasing eCommerce marketing. Simply by split testing its advertising, Eczema Company increased conversions by 158 percent.

11. Email Marketing Can Be Automated

A shopping cart abandonment email sequence was discussed earlier. Other email automation sequences, aside from abandonment, can be tried. Create a popup to offer abandoned visitors a voucher, a freebie, or another lead magnet, for example. Then you can send them a series of emails to get to know them and establish trust.

12. Obtain Feedback

Do you want to take the guesswork out of eCommerce marketing? Obtain feedback from customers. It’s the only method to find out if your consumers are satisfied and how you can improve your service. By simply requesting users to complete a survey, Kennedy Blue employs an OptinMonster popup to convert 7% of abandoned visitors.

Dilip Tiwari

Dilip Tiwari is Digital Marketing Expert at USS LLC he likes to share Tips on Digital Marketing Services, Google ads management, Amazon ads management, and other blogs ideas.