A complete guide to eCommerce conversion rate optimization: Tips and Practices

Most eCommerce businesses invest highly in various resources to bring in traffic to their websites. After all, it is vital for any eCommerce business to have high traffic in order for it to survive. But that’s just one part of the overall problem that any eCommerce business faces. eCommerce conversion rate optimization is another part of the very problem. Just bringing in empty traffic to a website is of no use to anyone. In order for an eCommerce business to be successful, they also need to sell its products and services and build a strong customer base. eCommerce conversion rate optimization is the only viable solution to this problem. 

During my research about this particular topic, “ eCommerce conversion rate optimization,” I came across several terms and queries that individuals were asking about eCommerce conversion rate. That is when I realized that most people who operate an eCommerce store are completely unaware of eCommerce conversion rate optimization and how it can affect their eCommerce sales and services.

Our today’s article is dedicated to understanding eCommerce conversion rate optimization, related terms, and a few valuable tips/practices to grow your conversion metrics further.

As usual, before we begin, let us understand the basic fundamentals first.

Meaning of eCommerce conversion rate optimization

When you own and operate an eCommerce store, what is your primary goal? Your goal, I take it, is to make revenue by selling products and services to prospective clients and to increase the size of your online business. But how does one achieve these goals in such a competitive market? At least in shops, you can actually confront the traffic and ask them why they are not interested in your products and services. But a face to face communication isn’t available to modern internet based businesses.

But that’s fine. eCommerce conversion rate optimization is one such strategy that can help overcome this issue and convert your incoming traffic into paying customers. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a very vital process that every eCommerce business should implement in order to operate a successful business. The primary goal of eCommerce conversion rate optimization is to convert as many users and visitors as possible to a business website into paying customers while also keeping the overall expenditure low.

Importance of eCommerce conversion rate optimization

The whole point of operating a business website is to sell goods and services to the incoming traffic. If a business website can’t achieve that goal, then there is something wrong with your strategy. And that is why eCommerce conversion rate optimization plays such an important role in operating a successful eCommerce store. The amount of money that an organization makes from a visit has been shown to have a direct relationship to the conversion rate of the organization. This is a common rule of thumb. 

There are various reasons why an online business should optimize their eCommerce conversion rate:

• It helps attract potential customers and turns them into paying customers.
• A high eCommerce conversion rate can also help with building your brand image and positive word of mouth among your customer base.
• Additionally, the eCommerce conversion rate may help with optimizing the overall appearance of a business website so that more and more customers are enticed to purchase something.

The method to calculate the eCommerce conversion rate

It is fairly easy to calculate the eCommerce conversion rate. You just need to divide the number of visitors by the total number of conversions (users who took the desired action) within a given period of time. For example, If your online store got x visits and x conversions, just divide them. The final answer will be the eCommerce conversion rate. 

The average eCommerce conversion rate of any online business is somewhere around 2 to 3%.

Why is it important to establish conversion metrics?

Before we begin with tips and practices on how to boost your eCommerce conversion rate optimization, it is vital to establish conversion metrics and their objectives. Conversion metrics aren’t universal in nature. It entirely depends on the type of industry your online business operates in. For example, the goals for B2B conversion rate optimization might completely differ from a B2C conversion rate optimization. Every business has different goals when it comes to conversion metrics, and it is vital to establish those before you start working on eCommerce conversion rate optimization.

Tips and Practices: eCommerce conversion rate optimization: 

Now that we are clear with the basic fundamentals, let us begin with eCommerce conversion rate optimization tips and practices.

1. Increasing page load speeds can help you land more paying customers

The first thing any user notices after arriving on a web page is its speed. Increasing page load speeds can help an online business land more paying customers because no one likes to wait. Be it in the real world or virtual.

• Optimize your images: 

Optimizing your images and their sizes can help load your website load faster, and your customers will appreciate that effort.

• Optimize your CSS:

Optimize your CSS files so that they do not generate an excessive number of files and slow down your server.

• Implement lazy loading:

Lazy loading is a technique where a part of your website is pre-loaded, and as the user explorers further on your website, it loads accordingly. It is a simple yet effective tip.

2. Make sure that your business website is search engine optimized

Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is essential for your conversion metrics. Suppose your customer can’t find your website for a particular topic on top of search engines. In that case, they will never arrive on your website, to begin with. SEO doesn’t only help with search engines, though. 

The practice of SEO also includes optimizing a website’s title, headers, content, and a lot more things. 

3. Providing live customer service around the clock

Most online businesses operate worldwide. That is why it becomes necessary for them to provide customer service around the clock. Suppose you have customers all around the globe. In that case, the possibility of issues arising at any time of the day increases tenfold. That is why it is imperative to provide customer service around the clock.

4. The development of an efficient CTA

CTA is short for a call to action. CTA is a button on a particular webpage that invites a potential customer to take certain actions, such as purchasing a product or service. That is why it is so crucial to develop and optimize an efficient CTA so that the moment a user sees it, they make their mind unconsciously click that button and take action. 

Here are some tips for CTA:

• Create one CTA that can be used on every web page of your website.
• Place the CTA appropriately on your page so that it is properly visible.
• Don’t overuse the CTA on your website.

5. Optimize your checkout tunnel

Checkout tunnel is just a fancier way of saying the checkout process. No one likes to go through a complicated checkout process in the real world. They hate it even more in the online world. Optimizing your checkout tunnel can help you create a checkout process that is simple and straightforward. Checkout tunnel is an easy way to eCommerce conversion rate optimization.

6. Use A/B testing tools to finalize the best

There are a few methods that can help you with the optimization of the eCommerce conversion rate. But A/B testing is a simple yet effective tool to select the best variation for everything that goes on your website. You can use it to create and test various versions of your websites, CTA’s, images/graphics, titles, and many more things. This way, you can select the best variations that will eventually make it to your website.

7. Look into unclaimed shopping carts

Often people visit a site, add certain products of their choice, and then leave to never return. However, just because these users have gone doesn’t mean that you can’t bring them back to complete their purchases. By retargeting unclaimed shopping carts with targeted ads and offers, one can persuade these users to complete their purchases.

8. Do an in-depth analysis of your customer behavior

By analyzing your customer behavior, you can create tailor-made strategies and ads that can boost your eCommerce conversion rate optimization further. You can study things like how and when one makes their purchases and what’s their spending habits. This is a powerful tool to use, so use it carefully and with integrity.

9. Invest in eCommerce hosting solution for better performance

If you hosting your eCommerce store on regular hosting then consider migrating it to a specially optimized eCommerce hosting platform for enhanced perfomace and security. A good and reliable eCommerce hosting provider can help you boost your conversion rate even higher by prroviding high uptimes and enhanced website perfomance.

Conclusion 

eCommerce conversion rate optimization is a powerful tool/method that can help boost the revenue of an online business furthermore. But just implementing one method or tip isn’t going to take you anywhere. You need to properly implement and execute the above-mentioned tips and practice so that you can extract the most of your business website and get higher conversion metrics.