Did you know nearly 218.8 million US customers shop online in the US? And the estimated eCommerce sale for 2023 is 20.8% of total retail sales (worldwide).
Online shopping horizons are expanding in every platform and country, attracting SMEs to create their digital presence.
However, the buyers of this era have a handful of eCommerce sites catering to their needs. In such circumstances, gaining their attention and turning it into a sale has become daunting for many.
Fortunately, understanding the eCommerce conversion rate and implementing optimization strategies can help shopping sites. So, without beating around the bush, let’s get started!
What Is eCommerce Conversion Rate
E-commerce conversion rates are the percentage of website visitors that complete an action. Simply put, it’s the proportion of transactions to website sessions.
There are numerous types of conversions that an eCommerce website desires. It includes sales, adding products to a cart, contacting customer service, email newsletters subscriptions, filling lead-generation forms, and more.
Conversation rates provide a wealth of information using the buyer’s behavior when visiting the site.
How Is Conversion Rate Calculated?
Know that conversion rates vary significantly as per the industry. Yet, the average rate across major online shopping sites for 2021 is 5.2%.
To calculate this rate, you have to divide the number of users who took any of the actions stated above by the total number of visitors and multiply that by 100.
For instance, if you have 250,000 visitors monthly and 10,000 of them make a purchase, your conversion rate will be:
(10,000 / 250,000) * 100 = 4% conversion rate.
When the rate is low, marketers implement different techniques for conversion rate optimization (CRO). The tactics can be implemented on landing pages, categories, and customer touchpoints. It enhances the customer shopping experience and improves sales.
Tactics To Optimize Conversion Rate
Now that you know the conversion rate and how it is calculated, let’s learn about the optimization strategies for eCommerce businesses.
- Use High-Quality Visual Content
Whenever you upload any picture or graphic on your shopping site, think of yourself as a visitor. What would you like to see when browsing through an online store? This is crucial as, during online shopping, a buyer can not touch the product to confirm its quality or quantity. Sales are majorly encouraged using visual content.
Therefore, you must provide high-quality product pictures and videos. It will entice potential buyers to click on the product page and boost the conversion rate.
- Follow Competitive Pricing
As already mentioned, customers have multiple options when purchasing something. That’s why conducting competitive analysis and pricing your products accordingly is essential.
It is essential when selling a brand’s item, also available at other stores. In that case, you must adjust the product price below or exactly that of competitors. You must be well-versed with the brand’s audience and messaging to attract the right audience and revenue.
Apart from this, the demand and quantity of the product can significantly influence its cost. So, it would be best to stay updated with the market changes.
- Use Appropriate Plugins
To optimize the conversion rate, you have to understand the taste and preferences of target customers. For this, marketers, particularly SEO practitioners, use different tools and plugins to gain valuable insights. Some of the popular plugins for eCommerce are:
- Yoast SEO: This plugin assists the practitioners in tweaking the site’s SEO and generating organic traffic. It comes with different settings that enable customization of eCommerce sites, increasing the number of clicks and conversions. Additionally, Yoast WooCommerce SEO settings aid in adding adequate product details such as color, brand, and manufacturers. Better product detailing persuades customers to view the product and make a purchase.
- All In One Schema Rich Snippets: All In One Schema Rich Snippets is another excellent plugin that gives you a brief overview of your web page in the search results. This provides you with a summary of all the information on the page. It improves CTR, optimizes content, and displays info on links.
- Broken Link Checker: Pages you added in the past but have since removed are considered broken links. On product sites, such pages or dead links display a 404 error. Search engines view these links negatively for eCommerce stores because they affect the visitors’ experience. So, it would be wise to use the Broken Link Checker plugin to check for broken links that search engines can use to penalize your website.
- Offer Live Chat Support
Live chat support or chatbots in your eCommerce platform is the need of the hour. It assists the customers in interacting with the brand and getting answers quickly.
It is noteworthy that live chat support and chatbots are often used interchangeably, but they perform differently. As the name indicates, chatbots use AI to interact with potential customers during off-hours. They are programmed in such a way that it includes answers to common customer queries.
That said, for the best customer experience and high conversion rates, you should use both- live chat and chatbots.
- Improve The Site’s Structure
What makes a shopping site better than others? It is easy to find the product on a website. For instance, including options like “Shop By Color,” “Shop by Product Type,” and others, as your product categories will make it easy for the shoppers to find the right product. Similarly, you will notice a considerable difference in the conversion rate if you set up a rotating banner to highlight your best products and install a website search so visitors can find things quickly.
In short, focus on making as few steps as possible to get a user to a product as quickly as feasible. It is crucial to remember that visitors are more inclined to purchase from you if they can find a product quickly.
To Sum It All Up
As more people all across the globe are inclined towards online shopping due to its ease and convenience, you can reap incredible benefits from this. So, follow this guide to optimize your conversion rate and boost your eCommerce business.
