How To Improve Ecommerce Conversion Rates

You can increase your eCommerce sales without driving more traffic! Depending on who you ask, data shows that the average eCommerce website conversion rate is 2-3%. That means for every one thousand visitors you get somewhere between 20-30 sales. It does not matter if you are below, above or sitting right at "average", you should still put significant effort into improving your conversion rate. Why you ask? By improving your conversion rate you are increasing the total number of sales for the traffic you are already getting. Improving your eCommerce conversion rate (total number of sales divided by your total visitors) can be one of the most effective ways to improve your eCommerce sales.

Actual Example:

Your company has an eCommerce site and is getting about 6000 visitors per month. The site gets about 25 sales per month with an average order value of $125. If you owned this company you would have a .004 percent conversion rate, which really sucks. That's less than half of one percent. Now, at this rate you will sell $3125 of products each month or $37,500 a year. Now, take that same number of visitors (6000) and improve your conversion rate to just 2% (the lower end of average). Your sales will increase to 120 orders per month and the monthly sales jumps to $15,000 and respectfully, $180,000 annually. This example shows what a strong focus on your conversion rate can bring. 

Provided below are some tips on how to improve your conversion rate.

1. Improve Site Speed

In today’s day and age, speed matters. If your web page takes more than 2 seconds to load, you are losing 10% of your customers for every second thereafter. Make sure your page caching is turned on and operating properly. Reduce image file sizes and make sure your database is optimized properly.

2. Use Original Product Descriptions

Many ecommerce companies are selling third party products from other vendors or manufacturers. These typically have standard product descriptions that are provided by the OEM. While this won’t negatively affect your site, it surely isn’t helping. Stand out from the competition by using unique descriptions. This will also allow your brand and voice to stand out.

3. Don’t Ignore Mobile

Mobile commerce is a standard, and if you aren’t using a responsive website design, you’re likely missing out on sales. On average, 20-25% of online sales are coming from a mobile device, and that number will only continue to increase. If you are not using a responsive design you may be losing 20-25% of your potential sales.

4. Pay Attention To All Browsers

Your website visitors are coming from many different internet browsers such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Your website may not be optimized for all browsers or even previous versions of these browsers. This often leads loss of functionality and thus, sales. Check Google Analytics data for the most popular browsers your visitors are using. Make sure your site is properly optimized for those browsers. Invest your efforts in the 90% of visitors from good browsers (current versions of Chrome, Safari, IE or FireFox) and ignore the 10% from bad browsers. Bad browsers (IE8 & Opera) are outdated, problematic and users are declining.

Many customers I work with want to drive more traffic to increase sales. Driving traffic is important but why drive traffic to an underperforming website? As you can see, these tips make it possible to attract more buyers with the same number of visitors you are getting now. To increase your eCommerce conversion rates do the few things listed above: Decrease your load time; Optimize your site for the most popular browsers; Use a responsive design; Customize your product descriptions to stand apart from you competition. Don't be one of the many companies that overlook this very effective strategy to growing their online business. 

Another post by Chris Peer on eCommerce: 5 Smart SEO Strategies for eCommerce

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