How to Increase E-commerce Conversions

Every website’s primary goal is to convert visitors to leads and leads to customers. Unfortunately, many websites fall short of this goal, often due to web development issues that cause visitors’ frustration. A poorly designed website can make your company appear unprofessional and not sensitive to your customer’s needs. Slow load times, a complex sitemap or gaps in product information can lead to frustration, which results in high bounce rates. 

If you want to win over every visitor that lands on your site, you must first start by identifying and addressing their needs. You also need to create the least amount of resistance to lead conversions while displaying your brand’s professional image. Below are some practical ways to increase e-commerce conversions on your website. 

Persuasive Web Design and Ad Copy  

Once site visitors understand that they’re in the right place and what you offer is relevant and interesting, it’s your job to draw them further in and push them further down the sales funnel. You can achieve this with a web design and website content that pulls the visitor’s eyes to the parts of the page you want them to notice.  

Start by establishing a visual hierarchy. Elements on your website that you want visitors to first notice should be highlighted using color, dimension, phrasing, larger font or photos and images. Another strategy you can use to persuade a reader to act is to create one primary action per page. This may be in the form of a call to action, navigation button or an interactive tool. 

Simplify Navigation 

To convert more site visitors into customers, you want to create as few steps as possible between landing on the page and making the purchase. If your site feels like a maze or it takes too many clicks to sign up or checkout, you will likely lose a potential customer out of impatience or frustration. This is especially important if you offer a lot of products or services.  

There are five primary opportunities to simplify website navigation and increase conversion rates. 

• Include only web pages essential for the visitor’s buying journey – weed out all others. 
• Remove, minimize or simplify distractions such as sidebars, icons or vanity content. 
• Eliminate stock photography and add images that are specific to your brand or products. 
• Synchronize your calls to action and align them with your marketing goals. 
• Restructure and organize your sitemap. 

Provide as Much Product Information as Possible 

You may be considered an authority in your industry, and your products may garner the highest praise. However, that’s a distinction that only hard-core customers or industry professionals would know about. First-time visitors may not know anything about your company, your expertise or your products.  

Therefore, add as much information about your product as possible. Make sure you educate and inform customers. Answer all perceived questions in the content or media to prevent them from finding the answers elsewhere. There are several ways you can do this, including blogs, white papers, product descriptions, FAQs, etc. 

Display Customer Reviews and Social Proof 

The internet empowers consumers to research and weigh-in on brands and products or services. If someone wants to know more about your company, they can simply go to a customer review site (for example, Angie’s List, Trustpilot or the BBB) or see what people say on your Facebook page.  

Customer reviews can also help your company establish credibility because they come from people who use your products or services. Reviews also allow you to address customers’ complaints while gauging the quality of your products. If possible, try to add and regularly update customer reviews to your website. You can add reviews or testimonials to your top header, sidebar or create a page dedicated to current customer reviews.  

Simplify the Checkout Process 

If you’re not getting the sales you want on your e-commerce site, your checkout process may be stopping would-be customers in their tracks. Your checkout process may be too lengthy, involve needless steps or it may be too complicated. If you want to ensure that your visitor’s journey ends with a sale, you need to simplify the checkout process.  

Some effective ways to make checkout faster include 

• Remove unnecessary fields when gathering information. 
• Keep your checkout on one page. 
• Accept payment directly from the site without a third party. 
• Allow guest checkout without creating an account. 
• Minimize the special offers and incentives during checkout. 
• Offer multiple forms of payment. 
• Implement a points or rewards incentive. 

Monitor Your Website’s Analytics 

Have you ever wondered how your website is performing or who is visiting your site? Website analytics tools make it possible for you to get real-time measurable data instantly. You can customize what type of data to look for within a specified time frame. For instance, you can use tracking tools to determine how your users are navigating your website and any potential pitfalls hurting your lead conversions. 

Some common analytics tools include Google Analytics, SEMRush, Moz Pro, Ahrefs and Matomo. Digital marketing agencies use these analytics tools to gauge your website performance and your digital marketing strategy’s success. Advanced tools allow you to adjust your strategy as you go without major disruptions in your campaign. 

Check Your Page Speed 

Page speed or load speed often refers to two different things: the time it takes to fully display the content on a specific page or how long it takes the searcher’s browser to receive the first byte of information from the web server. In either case, page speed is a critical factor in whether someone revisits your site or which links/pages they click once on the site. 

If it takes too long to load a page, the visitors will get frustrated and go to your competitor’s website. So, it’s crucial to make sure that you eliminate any barriers to a fast page load. There are several ways your web developer can improve your load speed so that viewers don’t have to wait. For instance, they can reduce the size of your images/videos, optimize the website code, reduce redirects, managed caching, improve the servicer response time or manage the content.  

Contact Lucid Advertising Today for Digital Marketing Services 

At Lucid, we provide a wide range of marketing tools that help you expand your market reach while targeting the customers you want. To find out more about our web development services, call us at 850-760-0478 or fill out the quick contact form below, and we will be in touch.