Want to earn hundreds and thousands of dollars per year online?
You can, with ecommerce.
Whether you’re starting a new ecommerce shop from scratch or you’ve been in business for a decade.
There are always better ways to make more money by improving conversions.
Boosting your conversion rate is the best way to generate more revenue.
You won’t have to worry about changing your products or even driving more traffic to your website.
There are certain ecommerce tips, tricks, and best practices that can double, triple, and even quadruple your conversion rates practically overnight. (well that’s how it will feel).
We’ll show you the top 20 tricks that you can implement right now for higher ecommerce conversions rates.
Trick #1: Boost Your Page Loading Speed
How fast does your website load? Take the Google PageSpeed Insights or Pingdom Website Speed tests to find out.
If your website is too slow, it’s causing your traffic to bounce at different stages of the buying process. Shaving seconds off of your loading time can significantly boost your conversion rate.
You need to come up with ways to make your website faster. You might want to switch web hosts or upgrade your hosting plan to accommodate more traffic. Or analyze your plugins for slow performance with advanced performance monitoring tools.
Use an image compressor and remove unnecessarily large files and code from your site. Consider using a CDN (content delivery network) to optimize speed.
Trick #2: Optimize For Mobile Devices
Mobile commerce is on the rise. In fact, 82% of Internet users in the US have shopped online from a mobile device.
An ecommerce site that’s mobile-friendly has a 67% greater chance of converting. But websites that aren’t mobile-friendly have a 61% higher chance that visitors will leave and buy from a different website.
Optimizing for mobile is a must in 2020 and beyond.
It’s also worth noting that mobile shoppers spend twice as much money as customers on other platforms. So not only will your conversion rates increase, but so will your average order value.
Trick #3: Simplify Your Design
Simplicity converts.
Eliminate clutter from your website. Take advantage of whitespace and use visuals sparingly on your homepage. Optimize your site structure and make it easy for visitors to navigate.
If your ecommerce site has too many flashing lights, bells, and whistles, it’s easy for a visitor to get distracted. By simplifying the design, it allows the customer to focus on your products, value proposition, and other elements that convince them to buy.
Simple designs also load faster, which relates back to our first trick—improve your page loading speed.
Trick #4: Improve Your Copy
According to a recent study of online marketers, copy was named as the number one element having the greatest impact on conversions.
Copy is a crucial component of an ecommerce website because it’s necessary to tell the story. When people are shopping online, they don’t have the same luxuries that they do when buying in-person.
They rely on the written text to tell them more about the brand and products.
Don’t rush through your copy haphazardly. Take the time to make each word meaningful.
For those of you who are new to writing website copy, check out our beginner’s guide to copywriting. This resource has everything you need, including copywriting formulas, to drive ecommerce conversions.
Trick #5: Use High-Quality Visuals
Written text alone won’t be enough to drive sales. You’ll also need high-quality images and videos.
Your visuals should give the buyer as much information as possible about the product. Emulate the type of experience a person would have if they were holding the item in person.
Take a picture from every angle. Zoom in on details and features. Show the product in action. If you’re selling hiking boots, show those boots on someone’s feet on a trail. Use videos to demonstrate how the product works.
Quality is key when it comes to your visuals. Don’t just use your smartphone and snap a couple of quick pictures in your warehouse. Hire a professional photographer; it’s well worth the investment.
Trick #6: Simplify the Checkout Process
According to a 2020 study, 21% of shoppers abandoned their shopping carts because the checkout process was too long or complicated.
Think about that for a second. These people wanted to buy something but ultimately changed their minds because the purchase process was inconvenient.
Each extra step you add to the checkout process reduces the chances of driving conversions. So if your checkout has ten steps, that gives the shopper ten chances to change their mind.
Condense the checkout to a single page and screen. There shouldn’t be any scrolling or “next page” clicks required. Collect only the information you need to process the sale. Don’t ask for their favorite color, mother’s maiden name, blood type, or anything else that’s non-essential to the sale itself.
Trick #7: Target Abandoned Carts
Even if you simplify the checkout process, cart abandonment is still inevitable to some degree. But that doesn’t mean you should give up on those customers.
Someone who added a product to their cart is already familiar with your brand and product. It’s much easier to sell to them as opposed to educating a complete stranger. So send a simple follow-up email to target abanded carts.
Cart abandonment email campaigns have a whopping 45% open rate. Roughly 11% of those campaigns lead to a conversion.
So just by targeting abandoned carts, you can boost your conversion rates by 11%.
Trick #8: Leverage Social Proof
Sometimes people need a little extra convincing when they’re shopping online. Why should they buy what you’re selling? How do they know it will actually work?
The average consumer reads ten reviews online before finalizing a purchase decision. 88% of people say they trust an online review as much as a personal recommendation.
Don’t make your customers visit third-party review websites. Include customer reviews on your product pages.
Will you get the occasional bad review? Sure. But if anything, a negative review will show that your products are being reviewed by real people. It makes your brand more trustworthy. The positive reviews will ultimately outweigh the bad ones.
The more reviews you have, the better. In fact, the average consumer expects to see 112 reviews per product when they shop online. Consumers between the ages of 18-24 expect 203 reviews per product.
Trick #9: Provide Free Shipping
It might sound simple, but providing free shipping will significantly boost your conversion rate.
90% of US shoppers named free shipping as their top incentive to shop online more. Orders with free shipping have a 30% higher AOV.
What’s even more shocking is the adverse effect of failing to provide free shipping. 61% of shoppers say they are more likely to cancel an order if free shipping is not offered.
To compete with global giants like Amazon and Walmart, your ecommerce shop must offer free shipping. If necessary, you can increase the price of products to cover those shipping costs.
Trick #10: Fast Delivery
Free shipping alone isn’t enough. You also need to provide fast shipping. We’re living in an age where Amazon has officially set the bar with two-day free shipping.
75% of shoppers are more willing to buy from brands that offer same-day delivery. That number jumps up to 86% for Millennials.
18% of shopping carts get abandoned because the delivery time window was too slow.
Again, faster shipping is typically more expensive. But if you just include those costs into the price of each product, the customer won’t know the difference. Psychologically, seeing the extra cost for shipping during the checkout process changes the customer’s perception.
Don’t give your customers a reason to buy from Amazon or another competitor. You need to match those delivery times without adding shipping charges.
Trick #11: Provide Personalized Content
Every visitor landing on your ecommerce site shouldn’t be seeing the same content. The more personalized content you can provide, the higher your add-to-cart rates and conversion rates will be.
Provide personal recommendations based on browsing history and previous purchases. You can personalize content based on factors like age, location, and other demographics.
For example, let’s say your ecommerce shop sells clothing. A 50-year-old male shopping online in Alaska shouldn’t be getting the same recommendations as 24-year-old female browsing from Florida.
Trick #12: Offer Multiple Payment Methods
You can’t assume that everyone has a Visa or Mastercard. Even if Amex and Discover are a bit more expensive to accept, you need to be accepting all major credit cards and debit cards.
But even that won’t be enough. In today’s day and age, you also need to accept alternative payment methods like PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more.
We’re not quite at the point where you need to be accepting Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, but that should be something to think about in the future.
Everyone has their payment preferences. Whether it be for security, convenience, or rewards, you don’t want the payment method to be the deterrence from getting people to buy.
Trick #13: Highlight Your Security Best Practices
Credit card fraud has become a major concern for people. Even if you haven’t been the victim of fraud, I’m sure we all know someone who has.
Card not present fraud (ecommerce falls into this category) is 81% more likely than point-of-sale fraud. As the owner and operator of an ecommerce business, it’s your responsibility to protect your customers.
Make sure the transaction is secure, and highlight any of those security precautions on the checkout page. This will put your customers at ease when they’re shopping online.
Look at the top reasons for shopping cart abandonment in 2020.
We’ve already discussed a handful of these. But as you can see from what I’ve highlighted, 17% of people abandoned their carts because the site appeared untrustworthy.
Trick #14: Create a Customer-Friendly Return Policy
On the same graph shown above, you can see that 10% of shoppers abandon carts because of an unsatisfactory return policy.
The average ecommerce return rate is 20%, compared to just 8-10% in traditional retail. During the holiday season, the rate for ecommerce returns jumps up to 30%.
Unfortunately, returns are an inevitable part of running an ecommerce business. Rather than trying to avoid them completely, you can turn them into a positive experience and drive higher conversion rates.
54% of consumers say they are more willing to buy online if the website offers free returns or exchanges. 68% of shoppers are deterred from shopping online if they have to pay for returns.
96% of consumers would buy from an online retailer again in the future if they had an easy return experience. The numbers don’t lie; simple returns drive conversions.
Trick #15: Simple Navigation
You need to make it as easy as possible for customers to navigate and find what they’re looking for on your website. This can be complicated if you’re selling hundreds or thousands of products.
The easiest way to simplify the navigation is by implementing a search function into your ecommerce site.
Site search can help boost conversion rates by over 200%. You’ll also benefit from an increase in average order value from visitors who searched for products on your site.
While having simple menus and organizing products by category is necessary, it’s not enough, especially for websites with extensive product catalogs. You must add a search function if you want to maximize conversions.
Trick #16: Use Optimization Tools
Optimizing your ecommerce website is always an ongoing process. You can never settle and assume that your design and layout is optimized for conversions.
What happens if you change the wording of your CTA button? Will one image on your homepage convert better over another? How are users behaving on your site?
Don’t make assumptions. It’s impossible to know the answer to these questions without data-driven analytics.
You can gain valuable insights by using optimization tools like Google Analytics or Crazy Egg. With the Crazy Egg heatmap tool, you can view visual reports about user behavior on your website. You’ll also have access to A/B testing tools and more to fully optimize every single element of your site.
Trick #17: Create FOMO
Leveraging consumer emotions is one of my favorite ecommerce tricks to drive conversions. Fear is one of our strongest emotions.
By creating FOMO (fear of missing out), it encourages shoppers to buy now.
Often times, people visiting your ecommerce site are just browsing. They don’t always have the intention of converting. But they obviously have some general interest in what you’re selling; otherwise, they wouldn’t have landed on your site.
FOMO can turn a browser (metaphorical window shopper) into a buyer. There are two main ways to do this—scarcity and time.
With scarcity, you can show when products are running low in stock. This tells the customer that if they don’t buy now, it may not be there they need it. Amazon uses this trick all of the time.
Another way to create FOMO is by running time-sensitive promotions, like flash sales or deals that expire quickly. When someone lands on your site, you can have a timer along the lines of “offer expires at midnight.”
These tricks will increase the motivation of shoppers.
Trick #18: Allow Guest Checkouts
In terms of personalization (which we discussed earlier), it’s always better if you have shoppers create an account. You’ll be able to learn more about them and give your customers a better experience overall.
With that said, you shouldn’t force people to create an account during checkouts. Let them make that decision on their own.
Forcing a profile creation makes the checkout process longer than it needs to be. Furthermore, 34% of online shoppers will walk away from a purchase if there is no option for guest checkout.
That’s right; you could be losing one-third of buyers if you force people to create an account. This is an easy fix for higher conversions.
Trick #19: Improve Your CTA Button
I briefly mentioned this when we talked about using optimization tools, but it’s worth discussing in greater detail on its own. Your CTA buttons can make or break your conversions.
Subtle changes like “buy now” vs. “add-to-cart” or “done” vs. “order” can have a significant impact on whether or not people finalize the sale. Changing the size, placement, color, font, and other elements of your CTA buttons can make a difference as well.
Test different theories by using an A/B testing tool or a heatmap to get data-driven insights. This will optimize your CTA button.
Trick #20: Add Live Chat Support
By providing shoppers with excellent customer service, it increases the chances that they’re going to buy something. Live chat is the support method of choice when it comes to shopping online.
If someone has a question, they can get it answered quickly by speaking to a live chat agent.
Customers who use live chat are three times more likely to buy than those who don’t. Adding live chat to your ecommerce website can increase conversions by 20% and increase ROI by a whopping 305%.
Final Thoughts
If you follow these tips and best practices that I’ve outlined in this guide, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to double your ecommerce conversion rates. Most of you will probably be able to boost conversions by even more.
As you can see from the data-driven insights I’ve provided, some tricks alone will automatically increase your conversion rates by 10% or 20%. So the sky is the limit as you continue to implement more ecommerce conversion strategies.
Some of these are easy fixes. You could probably implement half of these tricks within the next week. Good luck!
