Running an eCommerce business can be a lucrative and successful venture, but you need to learn the tips and tricks of generating sales. There are different ways to do it, and one of them is by optimizing your website's conversion rate.
While this becomes easier when your store is powered by Shopify — thanks to its huge community and range of integrations — Shopify store owners can still struggle with their Ecommerce conversion rates due to the lack of actionable information on how to optimize their conversions.
In this post, we've listed some of the most effective ways to improve your Shopify store’s Ecommerce conversion rate. But first…
What is Ecommerce Conversion Rate?
Simply put, the eCommerce conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who become paying customers. The formula for conversion rate is:
Conversion Rate = Number of Transactions / Number of Visitors
Now, let’s see nine great ways to optimize your eCommerce conversion rate for more sales.
1. Keep Navigation Easy
In a survey, a whopping 94% of respondents suggested that easy navigation is the most useful site feature.
If you want to increase your Shopify store’s eCommerce conversion rate, then you need to make sure that your customers are able to find what they’re looking for.
And the best way to do that is by providing them with an easy-to-use, clear, and responsive navigation menu.
Here’s an example from a Shopify store. The menu option on the left-hand bar is prominent, clear, and visually pleasing:
2. Optimize your Store Content
To optimize your Shopify store’s content for better Ecommerce conversion rates and sales, you should take a look at your product page. This page is one of the most important places on your Shopify store.
As a matter of fact, 45% of online buyers visit a product page during purchase.
The reason is simple: this page is where people make a purchase decision. If they can't find the information they need, they will leave and never come back.
Unfortunately, if you look at the statistics, 10% of eCommerce sites have product descriptions that are not sufficient for buyers’ needs.
Consider content optimization by turning your features and benefits into keyword-optimized copy, anticipating your buyer’s pain points, educating your buyers, and telling your brand backstory.
For example, if you head to this Shopify store that sells Apple products, you will see that their product page communicates both features and benefits:
3. Provide Attractive Discounts, Free Shipping, and an Easy Return policy
Providing Discounts, Free Shipping, and an Easy Return policy are essential for your Shopify store as they will make customers feel that you care about their needs and wants; this will create a sense of loyalty to your store.
Also, since 90% of customers would shop online more frequently if given the option of free shipping, consider offering free shipping on orders above a specific amount.
And 92% of buyers say they will purchase again if the returns process is easy. So, providing it ensures customers that they’re not at risk.
4. Implement Up-selling and Cross-Selling
Up-selling and cross-selling influence customers to buy more from you.
You can implement Up-selling to promote featured products, highlight new arrivals, display seasonal offers, and more.
Here’s how CafePress used it to promote featured products:
Cross-selling, on the other hand, can be used to offer supplementary products, cross-sell related products, and promote products frequently bought together, among others.
As per McKinsey, cross-selling can boost sales by 20% and profits by 30%.
So, use an app like Upsell & Cross Sell Kit or Cross Sell & Cart Upsell to start cross-selling and upselling on your Shopify store.
5. Have a Live Chat Feature and a Chatbot
Live Chat is a great addition to your store to help you reach out to your customers in case they have any questions before they buy.
In fact, statistics suggest that 79% of customers prefer live chat support as it provides instant responses. And Live Chat has the highest level of customer satisfaction at 73%.
You can offer 24*7 customer services via Live Chat to get your users’ queries solved immediately. An app like Tidio can do the trick for your Shopify store.
6. Provide 360° Products View
Looking for a way to stand out from the competition and enhance your customers’ shopping experience? Adding 360° product views, also known as spin images, is an excellent way to do so.
In fact, a study by True Value saw ecommerce conversion rates increase by 22% after they added 360-degree photography to their product detail page.
7. Focus on a Mobile-friendly website
Mobile use has dramatically increased in recent years, and a lot of online shoppers are now using portable devices to access online stores.
In fact, in 2020, 68.1% of all site visits came from mobile devices while only 28.9% of visits came from desktops.
Consider using platforms like Shopify to optimize eCommerce conversion rate and boost store sales, as all their templates are pre-designed and mobile-responsive.
But designing a mobile-friendly website isn’t merely enough. You need to provide an omnichannel experience to your audience via mobile apps as well as mobile-friendly sites.
For creating a dedicated mobile app, consider Tapcart or Plobal. With Tapcart, for example, you can better reach your audience and convert 2.3x more than mobile websites.
With Plobal, you can instantly turn your Shopify store into a native mobile app and drive 29% extra sales.
8. Allow Multiple Payment Methods and Guest Check-outs
If you're selling online and only accepting one payment method, you're putting yourself at a considerable disadvantage. Statistics suggest that 56% of buyers want to see multiple payment options.
The other reason you should accept various payment methods is that it gives your customers the flexibility of COD, Netbanking, Wallet payments, etc.
Also, it is a great idea to allow customers to check out as guests. 34% of the users in a study abandoned an order as there was no guest checkout option.
You can use Shopify’s Shop Pay app to offer your customers an enhanced checkout experience. To turn Shop Pay on, you just have to activate Shopify Payments from your dashboard.
There is also the Shop Pay Installments feature that gives buyers an option to split the payment into 4 installments. It’s especially helpful for customers who don’t have credit cards, in turn, helping you increase ecommerce conversion rates.
9. Encourage Customers to Provide Reviews & Feedback
As per recent online review statistics, 79% of customers say they trust the reviews they read online in so far as personal recommendations.
Encourage customers to share their reviews after check-out by simply asking, automating the ask, offering an incentive, and following up.
For instance, Wander Beauty offers a free product sample in exchange for customers’ reviews.
You should also consider using reviews in tandem with user-generated content (UGC) – that is, video-based reviews or images of customers actually using the product, as they have a significant impact on trust and conversions.
As a matter of fact, 70% of customers say they consider UGC reviews before they make a purchase decision.
Not sure how to collect UGC?
You can leverage platforms like Yotpo to send photo and video requests that show relatable experiences and increase the impact of reviews.
You can also consider Okendo to garner high-impact customer reviews and display them on your site to build trust and drive conversions.
Wrapping up
Hopefully, we were able to share with you a few things that you can do to improve eCommerce conversion rate and boost your Shopify store sales.
If you've got it implemented, or if you've done what you can to implement it, then a little bit of extra attention paid to optimizing the shopping cart page alongside your home page should be enough to give your SEO efforts an added boost!
