Our Blog

This is a huge month for the average e-commerce business expecting to take advantage of the traditional consumer spending spree over the holiday period, so we thought we would talk a little about ways to increase your conversion rates.

Firstly we will assume that you have what we would call an intermediate online shop (i.e. not a free platform) or preferably a bespoke ecommerce platform. I have never understood why some people risk their whole business on a cheap or free platform that will probably be more of a headache than it’s worth and will not allow your business to perform to its full potential. To me that is like one of the huge department stores saying “To cut costs lets just put this new store inside this old warehouse and instead of hiring experienced staff to sell our products lets just fill the place with temps”. Ok rant over lets look at some conversion techniques.

The basic principal is to make it as easy as possible for the visitor to find the product they are looking for and to buy it with as little effort as possible. So let’s start with the traffic source and in this example we will take Google as it usually dominates most peoples traffic referral sources. Let’s say your shop sells DVD’s people are not going to type in “DVD” into Google they are going to type in the film name so you need to be found for every film you stock. Whether you are found in the organic or the paid listings you need to ensure the description is persuasive and that when a visitor clicks the link they are taken to the page related to that item. The home page is no good as only a few people will bother to search through your site until they find the film they were originally looking for. This landing page needs to have a clear call to action and path for the visitor to follow. Once they have chosen to buy the item do not demand that they create an account and if this must be done make sure you only collect the information you need to be able to complete and deliver the order and if possible get them to sign up to a newsletter. At the point the customer has to enter payment details you need to make sure that it is painfully obvious your site is secure and show some testimonials so they can see that other customers have been satisfied with your products. Finally set up the auto responder to send them confirmation as soon as the order is placed. After delivery has taken place send the customer a feedback survey and keep them updated with your latest offers (if your system is good enough you can make these specific to each customer based on what they have previously ordered). Follow these basic steps and your conversion rate will increase dramatically. If you can not do this due to the limitations of your current platform then I suggest it is time that you seriously consider where you want to take your business.

In summary then

• Be found for each and every product you sell
• Send visitors to the landing page for the product they were looking for
• Have a clear call to action “Buy it now”
• Do not demand that they create an account
• Recommend other items that may be of interest
• Have the forms set up to only take the details you need to process and deliver the order
• Make sure they can clearly see your site is secure and your customers are satisfied
• Set up auto responders to give the customers confidence
• Follow up with feedback surveys