There might not be a more frustrating experience as an entrepreneur than building a beautiful site, launching to an amazing customer base, and waiting for the sales that never come. Or maybe you’re seeing sales come in, but they aren’t building at the rate you hoped.
Luckily, humans are creatures of habit. By understanding how humans behave, we can also learn how to build trust with customers and optimize our site layout to encourage visitors to complete their purchase. We’ve put our heads together and found 8 quick ways to boost your e-comm conversion rates!
- Simplify your checkout form
No one likes a long form. In fact, having to fill out a ton of information at the checkout is one of the biggest ways to lose a sale. Optimizing your checkout is key to boosting your conversion rates. Here are a few things to try:
- Set email as the first field. Emails are the most essential piece of information you can collect from your client because you can use it as a remarketing tool. Collecting it first means you’re more likely to get that information in the off chance your customer doesn’t complete their purchase.
- Only include fields you absolutely need. More information might feel important, but every field a customer has to fill it out is one more step away from completing the sale. Try to only take billing and shipping information to complete the purchase.
- Group similar information together. Grouping similar fields together makes it easier for your brain to process the information, and faster for customers to fill out your form!
- Use Google’s geolocation to autofill information. This will help fill in address information so customers don’t have to type it all out manually.
- Use abandoned cart notifications
Imagine a customer is just about to make a purchase. They’ve made it to the checkout. They’re entering information to complete the sales. They’re so close you can almost taste it! And then, they leave. That’s an abandoned cart and, let’s be honest, they suck.
But there is a bright side to abandoned orders. Now that you’ve got your checkout form optimized with your email address field first, you can connect your customer emails with an abandoned cart software. Then, you can set up automated emails to encourage customers to come back and complete their purchase. Sending a discount code or promotion to complete the sale is a great way to boost your conversion rates. You can also send out a survey and ask why customers didn’t complete their order to help you make further changes and improve your checkout experience.
- Highlight site security
Buying online requires a massive amount of trust. Customers are easily swayed with small visual cues like trust badges, payment provider logos, seals, and lock icons. You’ll also need to make sure you have an SSL to show secure payment processing. While these are all easy-to-implement indicators of security, today’s world is filled with fake news and fraudulent advertising. Making these simple additions will certainly help boost your conversion rates.
- Offer free shipping
More than 90% of consumers are encouraged to buy more items from a store in order to make their purchase eligible for free shipping. Not only that, consumers are also willing to wait longer to receive their order if it means their shipping is free.
Offering a free shipping option is one of the quickest ways to boost your conversion rates. Whether you need to increase your product pricing or lengthen your shipping time, finding a solution that allows you to offer free shipping rates is proven to be worth the effort!
- Visual progress bar
Showing you customers where they are in the checkout process helps set expectations of how long it’ll take to checkout. That clarity can help encourage customers to push through the steps and complete their purchase, as well as reduce any confusion along the way.
- Let customers checkout as guests
We all have too many passwords to remember, and we absolutely don’t need another login. Allowing customers to checkout as guests or connect with social platforms can speed up the checkout process, and also build trust by seeing familiar and large-scale platforms integrated with your site.
- Implement a hassle-free return policy
Not being able to return an item definitely makes it feel like a bigger purchasing decision. Consumers will be much more likely to purchase your products if they have more flexibility in trying the item and determining if it’s a good fit for them. Something as basic as a 30-day guaranteed return policy will do wonders to boost your sales, and is shown to have more benefits versus costs when evaluating the rate of returns for most businesses.
- Include exit-intent pop-ups
Exit-intent popups are your last ditch effort to convince visitors to buy. When your customer goes to leave, you can show a pop-up with a variety of purposes:
- Discounts to encourage them to buy
- Newsletter signup to collect email addresses
- Information about your product or service to alleviate any confusion
Whatever you choose to use it for, you don’t want to miss the opportunity to connect with your customers and finalize that sale.
There isn’t one secret trick to boosting conversion rates, and you’ll want to come back to this list regularly as you grow your business. But a checklist is only as good as the person using it – and the key to your success is knowing your business. Make sure you’re considering how the changes will improve your customer experience. The time and effort are worth the payoff!
