Simply having ecommerce store is not enough to generate sales.
If you want your store to stand out from the competition and drive sales, you need to optimise your store to provide your customers with a seamless process that makes buying from you simple. In this article, we share some tips to help you optimise your ecommerce store for increased sales and conversions.
Why you should optimise your ecommerce website
In today's digital era, owning a website isn’t enough, it's important to optimise your site to ensure that it performs to the best of its ability.
Website optimisation is the process of driving more traffic and increasing conversions, one study found that often ‘website owners skip to other marketing strategies without ensuring that their company’s website is fully optimised’. When you have a website it is up and running 24/7, and with this in mind, it’s no wonder that your company's website should be optimised, in order to connect with more people.
A poorly performing website can lead to a high bounce rate, and lower conversion rates. Technology and competition has ‘forced ecommerce business owners to stay on their feet, optimising their sites' value’.
Any business with a website should ensure that their website is optimised, just how you might run tests on a product or service to make it the best it can be, the same should be done for a website as it can help to increase sales for your business and improve customer satisfaction.
How to optimise your ecommerce store
Improve your product pages
One of the first things you can look into improving with your store is your products. Your products are one of the most important parts of your business, your products are what will draw customers in and ultimately drive sales.
One study found that ‘Appearing in the top results of any prominent search engine is the end-goal for optimising product pages.’ However there are a multitude of ways that you can go about optimising your ecommerce product pages.
When writing your product descriptions, you should write your own descriptions and include relevant keywords. While many product descriptions will be taken from the main manufacturer, including your own product descriptions will add a level of personalisation and also make your content more unique. Make sure your descriptions are accurate and engaging to encourage customers to make a sale.
Imagery is a great tool for product optimisation, when choosing your imagery for a product page you should choose high-quality images, this will make you appear more professional to clients, another thing you can do is include multiple images rather than just the one.
One way you can optimise your website for your customers is by encouraging customers to leave reviews and testimonials. ‘Trust is at the root of the power of testimonials. As mentioned above, testimonials can instil trust in potential customers’. Testimonials are a great way of creating a sense of trust surrounding both your business and your products.
However, that’s not to say that your product reviews should all be perfect.
Many businesses will aim to get as many 5 star reviews as possible. While this will come with its benefits, obtaining a mix of all types of reviews can actually make you appear more trustworthy, ‘Too many positive reviews can seem fake to some shoppers, so you have to watch out.’ With this in mind, if you receive a negative review you should take action. This will demonstrate to potential customers that you address any issues that your business may have and make your company appear more human.
Improve the checkout process
One of the most important ways to optimise your ecommerce store for sales is to optimise your checkout process. The checkout process should be quick and easy, with minimal steps and distractions. Remove any unnecessary fields or steps, and ensure that it is mobile-friendly.
An ecommerce business sales will practically depend on your checkout process. If it is not seamless and simple, customers may feel inclined to shop elsewhere.
There are a few things to keep in mind when improving your checkout process.
Keeping the process short can be very beneficial, a checkout process with a lot of different steps to navigate and information to put in can be tiring. One study found that ‘27% leave their carts due to the length of the checkout process’
A few ways you can optimise your checkout process include:
Make the checkout process short.
Enable customers to checkout as guests. Not every person visiting your website will want to create an account, and if they don’t have a choice in the matter they might simply go elsewhere.
Remove any distractions such as the top menu, so the customer only has the checkout process to concentrate on.
Badges/symbols of trust and legitimacy (This might be a debit card logo or ‘secured by Visa’ etc.) 18% of people abandon their carts because they didn’t trust the website with their payment information.’
The ultimate goal of optimising your checkout experience is to get rid of the moments that may make a customer pause, get distracted and go elsewhere, leaving the order incomplete.
Improve store payment options
Offering your customers multiple payment options can significantly improve your conversion rates. Some customers prefer to pay by credit or debit card, while others prefer e-wallets or other payment methods. By offering a range of payment options, you can accommodate all types of shoppers and improve their experience on your site.
Giving clients multiple options for payment methods is an effective way to not only increase your global reach, but also, give your audience the option to pay using a method that is convenient for them.
As an example, think about how easy it is to use things like Apple Pay to make purchases, rather than having to enter your card details. Integrating with these payment options takes away the need for the entering card details, helping make the checkout a simpler process. Showing that you accept these can also be an added trust signal for your website. Not sure if there is something about them offering some sort of payment protection as well).
The most popular payment options are:
Use targeted promotions and discounts
Another way to optimise your ecommerce store for increased sales and conversions is to use targeted promotions and discounts. Use data analytics to determine which products or product categories are selling well and which ones are not or which ones you have excess stock of. You can then offer discounts or promotional prices on those items to encourage customers to buy them!
One study found that there were two types of targeted promotions.
Product Centric – retailers know the product they want to promote and aim to find the best group of customers to advertise to.
Customer Centric – identifies the group of customers the retailer wants to target, then seeks to find the product that best accommodates the interest of the target group.
While both strategies are good, to make sure you are targeting the right people you can use customer segmentation. This tool can help you target your marketing campaigns and optimise your store for conversions.
By dividing your customer base into segments based on their behaviour, demographics, or preferences, you can tailor your marketing messages to each group’s specific needs and interests.
Final thoughts
Optimising your ecommerce store is essential for increasing sales and conversions. By making sure your product pages are easy to use and navigate, customers can quickly find what they are looking for. Additionally, offering a secure payment and checkout process is key to giving customers peace of mind when shopping online. Finally, promotions such as discounts or free shipping can help encourage customers to purchase from your store.
Optimising your ecommerce store will help your business to increase sales and conversions and ensure that you are making the most of your store.
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