In all honesty, making money by running an e-commerce store is by no means an easy task. You divert all your efforts into your shop with few returns. It’s a rather frustrating situation to find yourself in. But here’s the harsh truth.
If your e-commerce shop isn’t selling as many products as it should, you aren’t just missing out on turning a profit. In all likelihood, you’re losing money once you account for your production costs, marketing costs, and other associated spendings.
The situation isn’t helped by the fact that there’s ample competition out there. The e-commerce industry is projected to grow continuously. In 2016, 58.3% of worldwide internet users bought something online. That’s 1.5 billion people. The global buyer penetration is expected to grow to 63% by next year.
Source – Statista
Now, I know what you’re wondering. What can I do if I find myself in such a predicament? Well, it all comes down to your conversion rates. You need to figure out why your conversion rates are low. And what can you do to fix them?
Understanding E-Commerce Conversion Rates
A conversion rate is the percentage of people who visit your website and complete the desired action. Knowing your end goal will help you accurately define conversions so that they align with your business objectives.
Typically, for an e-commerce store that means measuring the number of people who purchase something. But that’s not the only metric to measure the success of your e-commerce store.
Here are some conversions you should monitor for your e-commerce business:
- Online sales
- Users adding products to their carts
- Users adding items to their wishlist
- Social media shares
- Email signups
What’s a good conversion rate, though? In a study conducted by Wolfgang Digital, the average conversion rate for e-commerce businesses was found to be 1.56%. Going by that benchmark, any number above that would count as a good conversion rate.
Source – Wolfgang Digital
Let’s move on to discuss the potential issues that could be the reason for any low conversion rates.
1. Bad First Impression
A common issue for low conversion rates is that visitors don’t really like what they see on your website. Another problem could be that they can’t find the information they need. All in all, your site is making a bad first impression on potential customers. You want a customer-centric e-commerce website.
These design issues can result in high bounce rates despite the high traffic you rake in. Some of the main issues include:
- Poor navigation
- Poor search options
- Improper item filtering and sorting
- Poor quality of product images
2. Un-optimized Website
If your site isn’t optimized, then that could be another potential reason for your declining conversion rates. If your website isn’t keyword optimized, then people aren’t likely to find your website when looking for related products. That’s why you need to do your keyword research and meet the needs of searchers.
Another thing you want to look into is mobile optimization. More people are browsing through e-commerce stores on their mobile devices. That’s precisely why your website needs to be optimized for those customers. Providing users with a seamless experience will help you increase your conversion rates.
3. People Don’t Trust Your Business
The biggest issue with e-commerce stores is that people aren’t very trusting of such businesses. A great deal of that can be attributed to the fact that people like to hold and sample products before making an actual purchase. But that’s not an option with e-commerce businesses.
You can try increasing the trust factor of your e-commerce store by:
- Using social proof
- Avoiding spammy marketing
- Showing that you’re real by including your address, contact details, and team photos
- Including trust seals so that shoppers know their card details are secure
4. Unconvincing Copy
Product descriptions make all the difference to your conversion rates. Chances are if your product copy isn’t informative, well-written, and persuasive people aren’t going to press “Buy.” Good copy is capable of making visitors convince themselves that it’s the right product for them to buy.
It goes back the issue of people needing to know exactly what they’re buying. Simply adding bullet points on technical specifications isn’t going to cut it. Your copy should be comprehensible, convert the features into benefits, and have an option to compare with similar products.
How to Fix Your Low Conversion Rates
Now that we’ve looked at some of the main reasons you’re seeing low conversion rates, here’s how you can fix them.
1. Optimize Your Website
We’ve already discussed how an unoptimized website can adversely impact your conversion rates. Running ads might earn you a lot of clicks, but it’s more important to appear organically for relevant search queries.
The obvious solution to this problem is to optimize your website for search engines. Work on improving both your on-page and off-page SEO (search engine optimization) elements. That includes keywords, internal and external links, site structure, meta descriptions, proper title tags, local listings, and more.
Apart from working on your SEO, you also want to optimize your website’s customer journey. Your site should be easy to use, on a desktop and on mobile. Go through the actual process a potential customer would when trying to purchase a product.
This will help you better understand the nooks and crannies of the e-commerce shopping experience. You can use A/B split testing tools like Unbounce to experiment with your landing pages. Figure out which site features are driving your conversions and then stick to that.
Source – Unbounce
2. Leverage Influencer Marketing
Remember that trust factor we discussed and the need for social proof? This is where influencer marketing can help. Nothing better to convince prospects than to provide them with testimonials from existing, satisfied customers. In fact, 60% of consumers have found social media posts and blog reviews helpful in making purchase decisions.
Influencer marketing won’t just help you create a buzz about your e-commerce business but also improve your conversion rates. The trick, though, is finding the right influencers to work with – ones who align with your niche and can have the desired impact.
You can use tools like Grin to help you run an end-to-end campaign. It can help you find the right influencers based on a host of parameters, reach out to them, and monitor the campaign performance.
Source – Grin
But what does a successful influencer campaign look like? Brands like Sperry leverage Instagram and influencer-generated content to the fullest for their e-commerce website. Here’s one such post from a happy customer.
Source – Instagram
3. Use High-Quality Images
This may seem like a redundant point, but I cannot stress enough the importance of having high-quality product images. Think of it this way, an e-commerce site could work with just images and no product descriptions. Mind you, I don’t recommend that, but it could work. The other way around, though, wouldn’t.
People want to be able to see what they’re getting. You should show the product from different angles, add a zoom feature, or even a 360 degrees view, if possible. Depending on the kind of product, furniture, for example, you could also add images that show the item’s dimensions.
It’s all about providing customers with all the important information they may need to make an informed purchase decision. Pairing good quality, informative images with compelling copy can make all the difference to your conversion rates.
4. Use Exit Intents and Promotions
One fix for low conversion rates is to give site visitors an enticing offer just as they’re about to leave your website. With the right tools, like OptinMonster, you can detect when a user is about to leave your site and present a promotional offer to them.
Source – OptinMonster
A limited time discount is a good way to get prospects into taking that final step. With page-level targeting, you can offer promotions on the products they were looking at. This will go a long way in fixing your low e-commerce conversion rate.
Even off your website, you can use the information from your page-level targeting efforts to re-market your products to prospects. Further, you can have your influencers share special discount codes with their audiences to encourage them to make a purchase.
Here’s how Body Angel Activewear does it.
Source – Instagram
5. Add a Live Chat Feature
Imagine you’re in a store and you need help deciding on a product. Who do you turn to for assistance? The in-store customer service representatives, of course. But what about when you’re shopping online? Here’s where a live chat feature comes in handy.
It goes back to a customer’s need to make an informed purchase decision. With a live chat feature, shoppers can get in touch with your team and ask them for details about the products they’re interested in. Live chat features establish a direct line of communication with your potential customers.
It gives them the benefit of learning all about your product. It gives you a chance to convince them to make the actual purchase. The human connection element will help build trust for the immediate purchase and brand loyalty for the future. In fact, as of 2017, 80.68% of customers who used live chat were satisfied with the services.
Source – Statista
Conclusion
The first step to fixing your low e-commerce conversion rates is to figure out where you might be going wrong. Once you have an understanding of the factors that impact your conversion rate, it’ll be easier to fix them. Hopefully, with these pointers will get you started on the road to increasing your conversion rate.
If you have any other e-commerce conversion rate fixes, do let us know in the comments.
About the Author: Brian Mechem is COO and Co-Founder of Grin, a software solution for companies who run influencer marketing programs. Grin’s software powers some of the best influencer programs in the world, providing insights on ROI and adding efficiency to the influencer marketing process.