Your business is bleeding! The flow of potential customers is the blood of your business. But you are losing a lot of blood every day. Instead of injecting more blood into your business, first You should stop the bleeding.
Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization is the patch that stops the bleeding of your business.
Everyone who is active in the Ecommerce industry knows that getting new customers is not easy or cheap. Increasing sales may require a significant increase in website traffic. Unfortunately, more than 90 percent of this traffic is wasted and does not convert into customers.
But what if there was a way that magically without increasing traffic, can lead to more sales? This is what Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization will do for your business.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore what conversion rates are, the key formulas behind them, and five tried-and-true best practices for boosting your online store’s performance.
What is a Conversion Rate?
Before understanding Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization First, we need to start with the general concept of Conversion Rate:
it is a fundamental metric in the ecommerce industry. The conversion rate meaning can be varied for each business. It means the ratio of people who are on step 2 compared to all people who were on step 1. For example for a clothes shop, the number of people who try on a dress compared to the all people who enter the shop is a conversion rate.
Ecommerce conversion rate usually means the percentage of the website’s visitors who take a desired action. For example, the percentage of visitors who buy your product. Or the percentage of visitors who subscribed to your newsletter or downloaded a white paper.
And the process of improving the website and marketing campaigns to increase the number of visitors who take a desired action, such as making a purchase is called Ecommerce conversion rate optimization or CRO.
You can calculate the conversion rate between 2 stages of the marketing process using the AIDA model or any 2 touchpoints of your customer journey. It will help you to find your bottlenecks and speed up your business growth.
Conversion Rate Formula
But how can you learn Ecommerce conversion rate optimization? Well, first you need to learn how to calculate conversion rate.
Before any calculation, you need to define your conversion rate. Are you going to calculate your general ecommerce conversion rate, or do you want the conversion rate of your subscribers to customers?
Then the conversion rate formula is pretty easy:
Conversion Rate (%) = (Number of Conversions / Total Number of Visitors) x 100
For example, if a website receives 100 visitors and 5 of them make a purchase, the conversion rate would be 5%.
In the formula, the “number of conversions” is the number of people who did a desired action like buying, downloading, registering, etc. It depends on what is your desired action for this calculation.
This simple conversion rate formula serves as the foundation for assessing your website’s performance and identifying areas for improvement.
5 Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Best Practices
When it comes to ecommerce conversion rate optimization CRO, the difference between success and failure often can be defined by small but easy-to-miss and small details. You will find many tips for CRO on the internet, but based on our long experience in the Ecommerce landscape, we’ve discovered five invaluable tips that have consistently boosted conversion rates for businesses across the digital industry. This can be your first step to multiplying your sales:
1. Collect Trustable Data
Ecommerce Conversion rate optimization without robust and trustable data is like going on a road trip with broken lights. Not only will you fail to reach your destination, but you are also likely to harm yourself or have an accident.
Before any attempt at Ecommerce conversion rate optimization or CRO, you need to make sure that the data that you are using for calculation is accurate. This is where business intelligence and business analysis become the cornerstone of the optimization process.
There are many different tools that you can use to collect data, such as Google Analytics and Hotjar. Google Analytics can help you track your website traffic, while Hotjar can help you understand how your visitors are interacting with your website.
2. Identify Bottlenecks First
Now that you have trustable data, you need to find the critical points. Imagine your ecommerce website as a highway; bottlenecks are where the road narrows and causes traffic jams. These bottlenecks slow down the flow of traffic which in your business, means decreasing your income flow. Therefore, your main focus of Ecommerce conversion rate optimization should be on solving these critical steps.
These bottlenecks can be anywhere in your customers’ journey or at different stages of your sales funnel. Before optimizing anything else, identify these bottlenecks. They could be poorly designed checkout pages, overly complicated forms, or slow-loading product images.
How can you identify them? Well, it is quite easy, you just need to calculate your ecommerce conversion rates between different stages. The one with the lowest conversion rate is your bottleneck.
We strongly suggest that you read the “Proven Steps for Using AIDA Model in Your E-commerce” and “Ecommerce Sales Funnel Essentials” articles in order to understand what are your ecommerce business stages and how to clarify them.
Addressing these issues can result in immediate improvements to your conversion rate. Remember, a smooth, uninterrupted customer journey is the secret sauce to higher conversions.
3. Add Trust Signals
You can not convince people to buy from your ecommerce website unless you make them sure that your business is safe. When people take out their credit cards, they become very skeptical. Therefore, addressing this basic instinct is a very important factor you should consider in the process of ecommerce conversion rate optimization. There are some ways that you can show how trustworthy your business is:
Trust Badges
Trust badges are logos or icons that indicate that a website is secure, trustworthy, and verified by a third-party organization. Common trust badges include Norton Secured, McAfee Secure, and BBB Accredited Business. These badges are visual cues that reassure customers about the security and reliability of your website. They prove that your site undergoes regular security checks and is safe for transactions. They are very effective in the Ecommerce conversion rate optimization process.
Secure Payments
Ensure that your website offers a range of secure payment options, such as credit card payments, PayPal, and other trusted payment gateways. When customers see familiar and secure payment methods, they are more likely to complete their purchases with confidence.
Having secure payment channels is not a positive option, it is a “must”! without this, any attempt at Ecommerce conversion rate optimization will waste your time and money.
SSL Certificate
An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is a fundamental trust signal. It encrypts data transmitted between your website and the user’s browser, protecting sensitive information like payment details. When your website displays “https://” and a padlock symbol in the address bar, visitors know their data is secure.
Social Proof
Social proof can be a powerful trust-building tool. It is the psychological phenomenon where people are more likely to do something if they see that other people are doing it. This is why businesses often use social proof to build trust and credibility with their customers.
Display customer reviews and ratings prominently on your product pages. Customers’ positive feedback can sway potential buyers and ease their concerns. Adding social proof will ease your Ecommerce conversion rate optimization process.
Professional Certifications
If your business holds any professional certifications or memberships in industry associations, proudly display them on your website. Certifications like ISO 9001 or industry-specific accolades can enhance your credibility.
4. Present Professionally
How you present your products or services is becoming increasingly important. New trends are showing that presentation and packaging can even be more important than the quality of your products. You need to make sure that your online store exudes professionalism in every aspect, from design, User experience, and content. Without this, Ecommerce conversion rate optimization is almost impossible. There are some tips that you can use to improve your presentation and perceived professionalism:
- Use high-quality images and clear product descriptions.
- Craft a consistent content marketing strategy tailored to your customer persona.
- Use Choice Architecture tools to affect their decisions.
- Ensure your website loads quickly on all devices.
- Maintain a consistent and visually appealing design.
- Provide easy-to-find contact information and customer support options.
- Optimize your site for mobile users, as a significant portion of ecommerce traffic comes from mobile devices.
What is a Good Ecommerce Conversion Rate?
A common question that arises in conversion rate optimization is, “What is a good ecommerce conversion rate?”
First, we need to clarify the meaning of ecommerce conversion rate. Here we consider the general concept which means customers divided by total visitors.
The answer varies depending on your industry, product, and target audience. However, as a general benchmark, an ecommerce conversion rate of 2% to 5% is considered respectable. That said, the goal is always to improve and surpass your current rate.
In the following sections, we will explain some types of useful conversion rates that you may hear.
But what if your numbers are at the standard levels? you don’t need Ecommerce conversion rate optimization anymore? well, this is not true! you should always try to improve your conversation rate.
Sales Conversion Rate
The sales conversion rate specifically measures the percentage of visitors who complete a purchase on your website. Monitoring this metric closely will help you gauge the effectiveness of your sales strategies and identify areas for improvement.
Email Conversion Rate
Email marketing is a potent tool for ecommerce businesses. The email conversion rate tells you how many recipients took the desired action after receiving your email, whether it’s making a purchase, subscribing, or clicking on a link. There are many marketing automation tools that can help you to measure and increase your email conversion rate.
Landing Page Conversion Rate
Landing pages play a crucial role in your marketing efforts. A landing page conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on a landing page, such as filling out a form, clicking a button, or making a purchase. it measures how well these pages are performing in terms of converting visitors into leads or customers.
The average landing page conversion rate across all industries is around 2-3%, but it can vary depending on the type and goal of the landing page. A good conversion rate is above 5%, while an excellent one is above 10%. You can improve your landing page conversion rate by optimizing its design, content, and offer.
Lead Conversion Rate
For businesses focused on lead generation, the lead conversion rate is a vital metric. It tracks the percentage of website visitors who become qualified leads by taking actions such as signing up for a webinar or filling out a contact form.
This rate is often used as a way to indicate how successful your company is at attracting and converting the right kind of audience. To calculate your lead conversion rate, you can divide your total number of conversions by your total number of leads, and multiply by 100.
For example, if you generated 100 leads and 10 of them became customers, your lead conversion rate is 10%.
Key Insights
- Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the essential ingredient to stop the bleeding of potential customers from your business. Without it, your business may lose a significant portion of its revenue, akin to a recipe missing its crucial seasoning.
- More than 90% of website traffic can go to waste without conversion optimization, making it imperative to focus on increasing conversion rates before pouring resources into boosting website traffic.
- Trustable data is the foundation of an effective CRO. Tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar provide valuable insights into website traffic and user behavior, helping businesses make informed decisions.
- Identifying bottlenecks in your customer journey is crucial. These bottlenecks act as traffic jams on the road to higher conversion rates, and addressing them can lead to immediate improvements.
- Trust signals, including trust badges, secure payments, SSL certificates, social proof, and professional certifications, are essential to build trust with potential customers and increase conversion rates.
- A professional presentation of your products and services is vital for success. This includes high-quality images, clear product descriptions, a consistent content marketing strategy based on customer personas, and the use of choice architecture methods to influence customer decisions.
- A good ecommerce conversion rate typically falls between 2% to 5%, but it varies by industry and product. The goal is to continuously improve and surpass your current rate.
- Ecommerce conversion rate optimization is a repetitive process that every ecommerce business should implement it regularly.
- Different types of conversion rates, such as sales conversion rate, email conversion rate, landing page conversion rate, and lead conversion rate, provide valuable insights into specific aspects of your ecommerce performance and can be optimized to drive higher conversions.