17+ Ways to Boost Low Conversion Rate in E-commerce
Ways To Increase Conversion Rate on E-Commerce Website
Are you worried about the impact of a low conversion rate on your e-commerce website?
If visitors are not converting or there is a sudden drop in the conversion rate then your bottom line will suffer for it.
What can you do to recover those lost leads and sales? The first step is to identify the underlying cause.
There are lots of possible explanations for a poor conversion rate and we will look at those in this article.
Table of Content
Below are 17+ Ways to Boost Low Conversion Rate in E-commerce.
Click on any of them to get diectly to your prefered section or you can scroll down slowly and read from the start.
- What Is A Conversion Rate
- How Do You Calculate Conversion Rate
- What Is A Good E-Commerce Conversion Rate
- 1. Not Good First Impression On Your Site
- 2. You Do Not Know Your Customers
- 3. Not Optimised Site
- 4. Are You Mobile Friendly
- 5. Nobody Understands Your Product
- 6. Low Quality Product Images
- 7. Your Copy Is Not Persuasive
- 8. The Page Is Distracting
- 9. The Call To Action Is Unclear
- 10. Shoppers Do Not Trust You
- 11. People Have To Pay For Shipping
- 12. Checkout Is Difficult
- 13. You Are Not Using Exit Intent
- 14. There Is No Re-Targeting Strategy
- 15. Your Tracking Code Is Not Working
- 16. Your Pricing Strategy Is Wrong
- 17. You Are Not Sending Abandonment Emails
- 18. You Are Not Testing Enough
- 19. There Are External Factors
- 20. There Is No Live Chat
What Is a Conversion Rate?
Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website that complete a desired goal which is a conversion out of the total number of visitors.
A high conversion rate is indicative of successful marketing and web design that means people want what you are offering and they are easily able to get it.
By the end you will know what is responsible for your low conversion rate and how to solve them so you can increase your e-commerce conversions, boosts your sales and revenue and provide great customer service.
Further Reading: Create Engaging Content for Social Media
How do you calculate conversion rate?
Conversion rates are calculated by simply taking the number of conversions and dividing that by the number of total ad interactions that can be tracked to a conversion during the same time period.
For example if you had 25 conversions from 1,000 interactions then your conversion rate would be 2.5% since 25 ÷ 1,000 x 100 = 2.5%.
Further Reading: Create Engaging Content for Social Media
What is a Good E-Commerce Conversion Rate?
A conversion is when a web consumer completes a desired action and the conversion rate is the percentage of total web visitors who took that action.
Typical e-commerce conversions include adding items to a shopping cart and completing a purchase or saving items to buy later.
If your site visitors are not doing those things then you have a big problem.
So what is a good e-commerce conversion rate? As with most metrics – it depends who you ask because e-commerce conversion rate benchmarks can vary widely.
Average e-commerce conversion rates are 1% – 2%. A 2%+ conversion rate should be the baseline goal for your online store.
Add to cart or ATC conversion rates are typically around double those of E-commerce conversion rate.
They are calculated by dividing the number of add-to-cart (ATC) event by the number of visitor sessions. There is less difference between smartphone and desktop conversion rates.
Monetate has good quality benchmarks of e-commerce conversion rates for their UK and US customers including ATC rates but that figure masks wide variations depends on location and device.
That is why in e-commerce what you consider a low conversion rate depends on whether you are aiming to achieve the average or reach double digit e-commerce conversions.
Regardless of your current conversion rate or goals there is always room for improvement to optimise your e-commerce revenue.
Now let us look at some of the reasons why you might have a low conversion rate.
They are in no order or importance since all of them are equally important for the success of your business – increasing conversions, leads and customer satisfaction.
1.Not Good First Impression on Your Site
The main reason for a low conversion rate is that people do not like what they see when they land on your site or they cannot find the information they need.
If you are getting traffic but no conversions or have a high bounce rate on a page you think should keep visitors on your site then it makes sense to troubleshoot site design issues first.
We will tackle the most common design issues that hurt your conversion rate throughout this article.
However it is important to have a site that looks good and even more crucial to look after usability so consumers can get essential information and complete their desired actions without hassle.
Check conversion rate metrics, user flow, bounce rate and your conversion funnel in your analytics software to see where the issue is.
Some common reasons for low conversion rates include:
- Poor navigation. Ensure that the most popular items are easy to find.
- Poor filtering and sorting. You do not want to overwhelm consumers with too many options. They should be able to filter items so they get only those choices that meet their needs.
- Poor search. Always ensure that search results are likely to match what consumers want. If visitors cannot find an item then they would not buy it.
Hubspot recommends removing left hand navigation elements to keep buyers more focused and changing your home page regularly to retain visitors’ interest.
Further Reading: How to Improve SEO Rankings
2. You Do Not Know Who Your Customers Are
Another issue to consider is whether you are clear on who your customers are. If you are not marketing to the right people then you will end up with a low conversion rate and sales will definitely decline.
That is why it is important to find out what your customers want. You will need to look at web analytics to see how people behave on your site and social analytics to see what they are sharing.
Pay close attention to online reviews and customer interactions via your customer helpdesk and messaging apps. You can also collect useful customer information via customer surveys.
All these will help you understand your market so you can create a customer persona and market more effectively.
When you get your marketing to specific personas correct that matches your audience segments then you are sure to increase your conversion rates.
You are aiming to deliver targeted customer experiences rather than a one size fits all approach.
Further Reading: How to Write a Good Meta Description for SEO
3. Not Optimised Site
Another factor to look at is search engine optimisation (SEO) if your site’s experiencing a decline in conversion rate.
SEO is all about optimising content and web pages so they appear when consumers search online for your products using related keywords.
That word related is important because Google only shows the most relevant content when people search. If your pages are not showing up then consumers will not click and traffic will be low.
And if they do not find what they expect when they arrive at your site then conversions will be low too.
That is why it is so important to do keyword research for your niche and make sure your web pages meet searchers’ needs.
Tip: If you are running your e-commerce site on WordPress then use the Yoast SEO plugin to guide you through key SEO tasks and remove one cause of low conversion rates. Here is a guide to set up Yoast SEO to help you.
Further Reading: Get Traffic to Your Website Fast
Did you know that in 2019 there were about 11 billion mobile devices in circulation?
Online shopping market statistics reveal that businesses worldwide are engaging more and more of their customers through the internet.
Below you will see there is an increasing number of digital buyers as well as higher revenues for online shopping in different countries.
Moreover the average online store visits per user have become more frequent in the past few years.
- The global online shopping market size is predicted to hit more than $4 trillion in 2020.
- 10% of total retail sales in the US come from ecommerce sales.
- The countries with the leading average ecommerce revenue per shopper are US – $1804, UK – $1629, Sweden – $1446, France – $1228, Germany – $1064, Japan – $968, Spain – $849, China – $626, Russia – $396 and Brazil – $350.
- Amazon made up 43.5% of the total online retail market in 2018.
- 1 in every 4 online consumers purchases from e-commerce stores once a week.
- The digital buyers’ penetration rate across the globe is 47.3% as of 2018.
As mentioned improving conversions from mobile opt-ins are just of many reasons why you need to make sure your site’s optimised for mobile users.
The e-commerce conversion stats cited earlier show that people are using their smartphones and other devices to research products though mobile conversions.
That means that you need a cross-device marketing strategy and a mobile friendly e-commerce website to attract and retain customers no matter where they are browsing or buying.
If you are using mobile optins on your site to present special offers or related products – Optin Monster’s Page-Level Targeting will help you win over mobile customers by targeting optins to the device they are using.
Further Reading: How to Increase E-commerce Conversion Rate using Trust Badges
5. Nobody Understands Your Product
Product pages are where consumers browse to make a decision whether to buy hence it is an important area of your website.
One of the main reasons why some product pages can have a low conversion rate is because they fail to demonstrate the product to the potential buyer.
The upper right blocks were not meant to contain a lot of text and pictures – this is among widespread ecommerce website mistakes.
When you scroll down there is a lot of free space to the left and you have to scroll a lot to reach the end of the description.
Shoppers need to understand how the product benefits them and solves their problems and what the product’s main features are.
That will help define the value of the product and make it more likely for buyers to purchase.
Further Reading: What is SEO Friendly URL Structure
Images matter for conversions and that goes for e-commerce sites too. The better your product images looks the more likely your product pages are to convert.
Avoid tiny, low-quality, unclear images in favour of large, clear and interesting photos if you want to improve conversions.
Here is a great example from the Leica website:
You can also use product videos to win customers – video is proven to increase engagement and consumers stick longer with video and are more likely to convert.
Further Reading: Choosing Right Domain Name for Your Website
7. Your Copy Is not Persuasive
For best results with e-commerce conversions SmartInsights says copy must be informative, error-free, well written, descriptive, persuasive and emotional.
Persuasion is especially important.
According to Robert Cialdini there are six principles of persuasion that underpin buying decisions – reciprocity, authority, commitment and consistency, social proof, scarcity and liking. Craft persuasive copy and conversions increase.
Create copy to target those buyer personas as mentioned above. That will make sure each product appeals to the person most likely to buy it.
Your copy should also include powerful actionable words so you both stir up emotion and inspire action in your content marketing strategy and on social media advertising.
Last but not least spellcheck your copy so it is error-free. Consumers notice mistakes even if they are not aware of doing so and error-filled copy can hurt both conversions and reputation.
8. The Page Is Distracting
For best results make sure each page is focused on the core offer you want to make.
That means removing navigation and other unnecessary elements on cart pages or landing pages.
Check analytics for your pages to see if anything is stopping consumers from converting.
Go to Audience > Users Flow in Google Analytics and see where people are leaving the shopping process.
For even more insights on shopper behaviour you can enable enhanced e-commerce in Google Analytics.
Further Reading: Ways To Create Quality Content Marketing
9. The Call to Action Is Unclear
Is your call to action (CTA) clearly written and visible? If not then you could be missing out on conversions.
It is absolutely crucial to have a single, clear call to action so visitors have no doubt about what to do next.
A good CTA is not just about copy. You also have to get the design and colour right so consumers can actually see it.
If consumers can see and understand your CTA then it is easier for them to take action.
Further Reading: Different Types of Websites to Create
10. Shoppers Do Not Trust You
There is no getting away from it – trust boosts sales and drive traffic to your website.
So if you are experiencing low conversion rates then one reason could be that visitors do not trust your site.
You can up the trust factor of your website by:
- Avoiding junk marketing.
- Using social proof including real customer reviews.
- Showing that you are real by putting your address and contact details and if appropriate team photos on the site.
- Including trust badges or seals so shoppers know their credit card details are safe and secure.
Further Reading: Ways To Create Quality Backlinks
11. People Have to Pay for Shipping
Shipping costs kill conversions. That is why so many e-commerce retailers offer free shipping.
According to the Baymard Institute around 61% of people abandon shopping carts because of high costs including shipping costs.
If you are charging for shipping then think about making it free. And if you already offer free shipping make sure potential customers are aware of it by putting it on every page on your site.
Further Reading: How to Write Good Title Tags for SEO
Baymard’s research also shows that two thirds of purchases are abandoned with 27% of people citing complicated checkouts as the reason.
If you can improve conversions enough to recover even a fraction of abandoning visitors then you will increase revenue from your site.
Here are some ways to do this:
- De-clutter your checkout pages.
- Make sure it is clear where shoppers are in the checkout process with a progress bar.
- Remind people what they are buying with product images on the checkout page.
- Include trust seals and shipping information so they know exactly what they are paying.
Another good fix for a low conversion rate is to have a guest checkout option so people can buy without having to sign up.
This works really well and then you can offer to save their information for the future. That offer is more likely to be accepted after a pain-free checkout.
13. You are Not Using Exit Intent
Another fix for a low conversion rate is to make the right offer just before people leave your site.
OptinMoster’s Exit-Intent Technology is the perfect way to do that.
Exit intent detects when someone is about to leave your site and puts your offer in front of them.
A limited-time discount or tripwire offer can be a great incentive to buy.
And if you combine it with OptinMonster’s Page-Level Targeting to make sure the offer shown is related to the page they have been browsing then you will be even more successful in fixing that low e-commerce funnel conversion rate.
Further Reading: Why You Need a Mobile Friendly Website
14. There is No Remarketing or Retargeting Strategy
Retargeting is an essential part of any e-commerce conversion process. It is a way to get the attention of people who come to your site and leave without completing a purchase.
This is crucial because most people would not be ready to make a purchase on their very first visit to your site.
Ever noticed how when you leave a site and then go to Facebook you see an ad for that same site in the sidebar?
That is remarketing in action and it is very effective in increasing both engagement and conversions.
You can also use email retargeting campaign to:
- Make offers to people who have been to your site before.
- Personalise popups to boost sales.
- Showcase relevant upsells to people browsing your site as shown below. That optin also uses OptinMonster’s Smart Tags feature.
Put the right offer in front of the right people at the right time and conversions increase.
Further Reading: How To Optimise Images for SEO
15. Your Tracking Code Is Not Working
If you are wondering why conversion rates are dropping then there is one external factor to consider – your analytics tracking code.
A sudden drop in conversion rate could mean that the code has not been installed correctly or needs to be updated to take account of a change you have made.
Check your code and do not forget to set it up to track micro-conversions too.
Further Reading: What are backlinks?
16. Your Pricing Strategy Is Wrong
According to research price is the most important buying factor for 60% of consumers. So one reason your e-commerce site might have a low conversion rate is because of a poor pricing strategy.
Marketers suggest to improve conversions then one needs to use psychological pricing techniques like:
- Product bundling.
- Putting the number 9 or 7 at the end of a price rather than rounding it up.
- Using small fonts.
- Making sure prices have only a few syllables when read.
Further Reading: 23+ Productivity Time Saving Hacks for Content Marketing
17. You are Not Sending Abandonment Emails
If you are not sending abandonment emails then you are missing out on potential conversions.
In contrast if you send them within the first hour after people leave you can often persuade them to buy.
Marketo suggests using a three-email abandonment sequence:
- The first email is sent within the hour which aims to help with any technical issues that got in the way of completing a purchase.
- The second is sent within 24 hours to warn people that their cart will expire.
- The third is sent within 48 hours to provide an incentive for completing the purchase.
Combine this with checkout optimisation as mentioned above and you could easily recover some of those lost conversions.
18. You Are Not Testing Enough
Testing is at the heart of conversion optimisation therefore it is a no-brainer to test your entire website user flow to see where you can make improvements and boost conversions.
Wordstream warns that you sometimes see conversion spikes that do not last after split testing but adds that if you do in-depth optimisation then you are more likely to get long-term conversion gains.
You can test landing pages, product pages, offers and CTAs to find out which ones your visitors respond to best.
It is easy to split test your campaigns. It only takes a couple of clicks to create a new split test in the dashboard then you can edit the new version of your campaign.
Results will automatically segment your traffic and collect analytics data so you know which opt in campaign works best.
19. There Are External Factors
Sometimes a low conversion rate has nothing to do with your actions but it is all about what is happening externally.
Maybe one of your competitors has released a product that temporarily takes customers’ attention away from your offering.
Monitoring your competitors to see if you need to adjust your marketing strategy can help address some of the conversion loss.
Some ways to do this include:
- Setting up Google Alerts for your competitors.
- Monitoring their keywords with SocialMention, Seobook or Moz.
- Using SimilarWeb to see who is visiting their sites.
- Checking out content effectiveness with Buzzsumo.
- Paying attention to social media analytics.
Further Reading: How To Increase Conversion Using Video Content Marketing
20. There Is No Live Chat
Consumers like talking to people and the use of live chat is only going to grow.
Offering live chat means that when people hit a bottleneck in the purchase process they can get immediate help.
This can increase conversions by up to 45%. Consider adding this feature especially during the checkout.
Want to easily add live chat to your site? Here is our roundup of Chat bot and Live Chats to get you started!
Further Reading: How To Optimise Images for SEO
Conclusion
Now you know how to fix some of the main causes of a low conversion rate on your e-commerce website see how you can boost conversions even more with these improvements above.
Check out our guide on how to conduct a conversion rate audit to identify your own leaks.
And see our guide on how to increase e-commerce conversion rate to keep your online store running smoothly and your overall strategy on the right track.
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