The Covid-19 pandemic and the new social distancing norm following it brought the never seen before skyrocketing boost for the e-commerce industry.
It has become almost essential for every brick and mortar store to have an online presence if they wish to survive in the market. This brings forth very stiff competition among e-commerce websites. It has become very challenging to run a profitable online business. To stay ahead of your competition and to improve your website’s performance, having good conversion rates becomes the key deciding factor. But, what is a conversion rate? Conversion rate refers to the rate at which you are successful in making your visitors perform actions that eventually lead to sales conversions.
This could include making your consumer share their email address by signing in or clicking on the sales offers or buying your product. A software generating automated sales reports will help you make smarter decisions for your brand. A study conducted by Adobe Digital Index 2020 report on electronic consumer items and various other consumer items sales, reveals an average rate of 3% conversion rate which highlights a big gap between the traffic flow and sales conversion.
So, to see a business grow, a lot of planning and strategy needs to be put in place so that conversion rates can be raised. Let us explore some key points that must be kept in mind to increase sales conversion.
Good Website Design
- A good website design and a well-structured user interface are surely one of the most important factors that can lead to sales conversions. At the onset, a lot of attention should be paid to make the landing page most attractive for the customer.
- The landing page should be a place from where the user is lead seamlessly through actions that help the business achieve a conversion. Make the Call To Action (CTA) buttons on the landing or home page visually distinctive and bold so as to force your user to complete specific actions that lead to the sure sale of your product.
- Easy navigation through a website, easy access to various pages, and the information desired by the customer adds to the user experience and helps in engaging your customer in a very positive way increasing chances of conversion.
On the other hand, poor navigation leaves your customer frustrated as the required information is not easily accessible. This causes the visitor to lose interest and creates a poor impression, which certainly is the last thing needed for the website.
- Another important aspect that should be given proper attention is an easy checkout process. A faster and easy checkout process adds to a wonderful user experience, as it helps and encourages your customer to place hassle-free multiple orders.
- Try to make your website responsive and compatible with various gadgets like mobile phones, tablets used by customers from anywhere, and any gadget. This will help you achieve a great improvement in conversion factors.
Pay Attention to Product Details and Images
It goes without saying that a good and aesthetic presentation of your product in the form of a high resolution, clear image is a sure shot way to attract customers to your website. A customer who is not able to visit a brick and mortar outlet completely depends on these images to have a real feel of the product. These images allow them to visually check the product quality and feel assured about their purchase. Therefore, a lot of effort should be put in to upload high-quality pictures from multiple angles for offering a great visual experience to the customer. A zoom-in feature to view details of a product gives the customer a closer and clearer look at the product. In addition to this, an aesthetic and professional presentation of the product image can certainly prove to be a major high in engaging your customer and leading to sales conversion.
Also, it is equally important to provide full details of the product that is sold on the platform. This helps customers to decide whether the product fits into their requirements and helps in conversions.
SSL Security
E-commerce website security is of prime importance to the conversion rate of your website. As e-commerce websites handle financial transactions, it is essential to secure customer’s crucial credit card information, e-mail addresses, and other login details that are under severe threat from online data thieves. A customer’s sensitive data can be misused and cause heavy financial loss to both customers and website owners. With rising awareness of data security among customers, providing a secure online platform becomes imperative for any e-commerce website and one of the most crucial key factors affecting the conversion rates. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is the most effective solution to all your security needs. It provides a safe and secure path by providing authentication and encryption of user data between the web server and the user’s browser.
SSL Certificates are primarily of three types DV SSL, OV SSL, and EV SSL. Of these DV SSL certificates are the most popular among small businesses as they are cheap and carry out basic domain level validation. EV SSL Certificates authenticate domain and organization identity, its legal status if it is currently operational, and address. As EV SSL can only be obtained after a strict verification process, it brings the highest degree of security as well as trust to your e-commerce website and hence leads to higher conversions.
Competitive Discounts and Offers
Another obvious yet key factor in attracting customers is the presence of appropriately timed discounts and offers. With the majority of customers shopping from online retails stores, it is easy for them to compare prices and make a decision based on it, so make sure that the discounts offered are the best in the market and are timed in a manner to attract the maximum crowd. An off-season discount can also help you steer ahead of competitors and help increase sales conversions.
Live Chat Customer Support
The biggest apprehension of customers when they purchase anything online is customer support. Having a live chat option gives them the assurance that they will be heard. It brings forth the idea of instant customer support without having to go through the cumbersome process of sending a mail and waiting for a response from the team regarding their concern. In the digital age where everyone is so used to having everything at their fingertips, it is a great advantage to have the facility of a live chat for the customers for any queries that they might have.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, we can say that to win the trust of your customers and to improve the conversion rate for your e-commerce website, it is important to incorporate all the tips discussed. If you can provide your consumer a secure and great user experience on your website, benefits or competitive deals, excellent customer support, fast-loading and efficient website then all these features add value to a complete user experience that will lead your e-commerce website to achieve a very high conversion rate and take your business to new heights!
