If you are investing your time and money in setting up an eCommerce site, then you should also do everything possible to make sure that it has a high conversion rate. Getting visits is the first step, but visits alone are not enough. People have to want what is on your site badly enough to buy it and they have to like your site enough to buy the item in question from you instead of your competitor. Following are fifteen useful tips for increasing your eCommerce conversion rate.
1. Make your site “holiday friendly”. For Christmas, give your site a Christmas theme. Do the same for major holidays such as Easter, Halloween and Fourth of July.
2. Make sure your site is easy to browse. All the links should work properly at all times.
3. Make sure the site loads quickly. Eliminate unnecessary animations, graphics and/or videos that delay load time significantly.
4. Make the site easy to navigate. Buyers should be able to find what they are looking for quickly and easily.
5. Post product details. Everyone wants to know exactly what they are buying before paying for it. The product details should include color options, size and material used (in the case of cloth products) and other pertinent details.
6. Make the shopping cart easily visible. Most shoppers want to see their cart and keep track of what they have placed in it.
7. Make sure the site has proper security features. Many online shoppers have been burned by sites that were not secure and thus allowed scam artists to get a hold of their credit information. If you site does not have a small, green lock icon next to the URL when a person checks out, then you risk losing numerous potential customers.
8. Make your checkout process simple. No one wants to spend longer than a couple minutes paying for something.
9. Make your shipping options clear. Customers should understand just how long it would take for the item they ordered to reach them (or the person they are gifting the item to). Make it clear whether or not shipping fees must be paid in addition to the purchase fees.
10. Have a clear returns and exchange policy and post it in a prominent location the site. People are more likely to buy an item they are not familiar with if they know it can be easily refunded or exchanged. Don’t worry, if you sell high quality products, then the chances of your having to deal with a high volume of returned products are minimal.
11. Have a mobile version of your site or make sure your site can be browsed easily with a mobile phone or smartphone. It has been estimated that over 70 million Americans use a phone to browse and shop online. If your site is not mobile friendly, then you are missing out on a lot of potential customers.
12. Handle people’s personal information responsibly. Make sure that credit information and shipping information cannot be hacked into. Unfortunately, some large eCommerce sites have lost people’s valuable personal information and the chances of these same people shopping on the site in questions are very slim to none.
13. Another aspect of handling personal information wisely is avoiding the urge to spam customers by sending numerous unsolicited emails. No one likes spam. It is also important for you to disclose how people’s information is used, as some sites gather the information and then sell it to third parties for advertisement purposes. Make sure your terms of service section has a clause reassuring customers that their information is never sold or passed on.
14. Offer help. Having a chat customer service enables customers to ask questions and get help when needed. Traditional retailers have found that customers are much more likely to buy something after having talked to a friendly store employee. This same principle holds true for online retail sites.
15. Allow Checkout as Guest. Not everyone wants to sign up for store account and making people do so can actually discourage them from making purchases. Allow individuals to check out as guests instead of registered users.
These are some simple, basic tips that can help your online retail site have a higher conversion rate than would have otherwise been possible. While many of these tips are simple and do not require time or money to implement, each one is crucial to running a successful online retail site and converting interested visitors into satisfied customers.