The key to success for digital stores is conversions. After all, if website visitors don’t make a purchase, the business won’t be making money. By 2025, consumers are going to be spending over $7 trillion in e-commerce retail, which means companies in the industry should be optimizing their conversion rates so they can attract as many consumers as possible.
However sometimes, optimizing an e-commerce store can be confusing, even if a business is trying to do everything right. In order to increase conversions, the ultimate goal for these types of businesses is to make it as easy as possible for visitors to make a purchase. The way to do that is to first figure out what’s turning consumers away.
E-commerce CRO
Strategies for optimizing the conversion rate for e-commerce stores are a bit different compared to other types of businesses because, in e-commerce, companies are selling physical products. Physical products can be a bit more time-consuming and complex to purchase compared to a service, which is why service-based businesses tend to have higher conversion rates. That’s largely because service-based companies tend to have fewer steps in their checkout process, compared to e-commerce websites. E-commerce stores have to pay a lot more attention to the overall purchase process to optimize their CRO. Between shipping and returns, e-commerce businesses have very unique points of friction for consumers—points that can impact their purchasing decisions.
Recommended products
A great way for e-commerce stores to increase their conversion rates is to recommend products to consumers. Whenever a potential consumer visits a product page, they want to see more information about that product and how it can solve their problems. Companies can suggest products that those consumers might find interesting, and help guide their purchasing decisions to increase the conversion rate. According to research, consumers that open product recommendations are about four times more likely to add more items to their cart, as well as complete their purchase.
Improved product pages
The key to e-commerce success is high-quality product pages, which make consumers feel confident in their purchasing decisions. Since consumers of e-commerce stores can’t feel or touch the products, but they still need to make sure the product will cater to their needs, those businesses need to depict their products from various angles through high-quality photos. Companies that can also add a 360-degree view of a product can increase their conversion rates. Companies should also use models to show how a product fits various types of bodies. Businesses can also ask past consumers to submit their own images showcasing the products they purchased. This will encourage future consumers to buy them, and generate third-party approval of the products.
Wish lists
Allowing consumers to save the items they might want to buy in the future is another great way for e-commerce stores to increase their conversions. That’s because this feature gives users the opportunity to reconsider a product and come back later to make a purchase when they’re more certain about their decision. Aside from that, wish lists require users to create their own accounts on e-commerce stores. This means through wish lists companies can gather more data on their customers, which improves user experience and increases sales.
