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Let’s talk about e-commerce conversion.
If you operate an online store, this concept likely looms large in your meetings, goals, and head space.
First, let’s put it into perspective: the average e-commerce conversion rate in the United States is just 2.63 percent. The global website conversion rate is 4.31 percent. Of course, based on your industry or audience, this number could look slightly different.
Regardless, this stat illustrates the bigger picture: conversion is difficult.
On average, 3% of visitors will end up converting.
The majority of visitors on your site won’t purchase anything — at least at any one particular time. Conversion is a numbers game, through and through, but there are things you can do to tip the numbers in your favor (and spoiler alert: that’s what we’ll talk about below).
Failing to optimize your e-commerce site for conversion is a costly mistake. Yet it’s one our Fort Worth web development team sees all the time. Below, we’ll outline the five issues that could be disrupting your user experience, lowering conversions, and leaving you scratching your head at the end of each month.
Overwhelming Shopping Experience
What’s the difference between a junk store and a high-end boutique? Well, aside from the obvious price difference, think about the design and layout of the stores. How products are displayed greatly impacts how we perceive them. Carefully spaced presentation (with each product claiming its own defined area) helps us consider each of them more thoughtfully. On the flip side, overflowing shelves are tiring to peruse, making shopping feel a lot more like work.
In the same way, your online store relies on presentation. Too many choices with too little white space will overwhelm shoppers and lead to a negative browsing experience. You want your prospective customer to feel excited to explore your options.
Use the power of space to give your products a setup that helps improve their perceived value.
Authenticity is the most desirable social media trait for any brand. Stay honest about how your brand is coping during this time and, whenever possible, use your platform to connect and share — not sell.
Lack of Clear Direction
From the moment a potential customer lands on your website, you should make it painfully clear:
- What you are selling
- Why they need it
In your rush to push products front and center, don’t forget to succinctly describe the value they bring. Quickly establishing your brand identity and values can help people align themselves with your brand.
Avoid lengthy pontifications that casual visitors won’t take the time to read. Instead, state (clearly and concisely) what you stand for and what your products will help them achieve. Whether it’s enjoying their all-American weekend at the lake like Bison Coolers, or designing the ideal Texas home like Brumbaugh’s Fine Home Furnishings, your one-of-a-kind value should be the first thing consumers feel when they arrive.
Make sure that from every location on your site, users can quickly find the items they want. Include highly visible calls to action throughout the homepage and a simple, easily accessible navigation menu divided into relevant categories. Quick links in the footer or along the side of the page are another way to speed up their search.
Just like you would in-store, establish your brand’s value from the moment visitors arrive on your e-commerce site.
Poor, Inaccurate Product Descriptions or Photography
People love pictures. Professional photographs that show multiple angles of your products are an investment well worth the time and expense. Poor photoshopping techniques, unedited photos, bad lighting, or low quality images convey to a potential customer that your products aren’t good quality and your store might not be reputable.
In the same way, accurate, engaging, and clear product descriptions bring your products to life even more. While pictures draw people in, descriptions keep them there as they read about the features and benefits of the item. Having confusing, poorly written descriptions will increase consumers’ doubts about the quality of your products.
Invest in web content writing services (like those from Ardent) to make sure your descriptions help convince visitors the product is right for them. If customers reach out asking about various specifications for your products, your product descriptions could use some work. Or, if you receive negative reviews because a customer’s product wasn’t what they thought it would be, your descriptions may also need a refresh.
The good news is that not only will investing time into your product descriptions help persuade visitors who read them, they’ll also pull double duty as valuable SEO tools. (That’s right: including common search terms in your product descriptions (those your potential customers are using) is a great way to improve your site’s organic search engine rankings).
Poor Mobile Optimization
Pew Research reports that mobile internet use is on the rise, as roughly 81 percent of Americans currently own a smartphone. However, a more telling statistic may be the fact that 20 percent of adults in America are smartphone-only internet users, which means they do not use traditional broadband service in their homes.
Think about that: 20 percent of Americans only use a smartphone to access the internet.
That’s a sizable chunk of potential customers. If your e-commerce site doesn’t function properly on a mobile device, or it feels cluttered, disorganized or poorly designed, you’re losing sales. (We don’t want to beat a dead horse, but check out our blog “Is Your Site Designed to be Mobile-First? It Should Be” for a deeper dive into why mobile design is critical.)
Suggestions are welcome; investing in accurate product recommendations has been show to significantly boost revenue.
Lack of Relevant Product Recommendations
To understand just how valuable product recommendations can be for your brand, look at the global leader of this feature: Amazon. It’s reported that 35 percent of Amazon’s revenue is generated from their recommendation engine powered by AI.
While you probably don’t have Amazon’s technology and scope, you can take a page from their book and make your product recommendations a prominent feature of your e-commerce conversion strategy.
In 2017, Salesforce published results to a recent study that further proved product recommendations drive revenue. Even though visitors only engaged with product recommendations about seven percent of the time, this small group of shoppers drove a full 26 percent of total revenue on average.
That means though the majority of your shoppers won’t interact with product recommendations, those that do are far more likely to convert.
E-Commerce Conversion is a Numbers Game (and We Know How to Play)
At Ardent, our expertise in e-commerce sites means we can help you locate and improve the things that could be holding you back when it comes to conversion. If you feel like your e-commerce site isn’t operating at its best, or you’re ready to build an e-commerce site using these principles, let’s talk.
Our web development team can help you understand the e-commerce model that best fits your goals, and design a site that represents your brand while maintaining these best practices and more. Contact Ardent
