According to mashable.com, most e-commerce sites don’t succeed in converting more than 1 to 4 percent of their leads. However, top e-stores manage to convert more than 15 percent of those who browse their pages. What is their secret? Can they share it with the rest of us? Read on to find out.
There are numerous aspects that determine conversions, but successful examples of e-commerce websites prove that it all boils down to bringing people to a product they really need by using a simple, user friendly, efficient platform. This means your e-commerce website. The web design and the entire software architecture that makes your e-store functional need to fulfill three basic prerequisites: allowing visitors to find what they want easily, displaying the product in an attractive way, and enabling the customer to go through the checkout process seamlessly.
Help Visitors Find What They Came for
The navigation of your e-commerce website should be intuitive, allowing users to find what they want quickly. Also, pay attention to the features of your website search to get people to the page they are looking for. Your search features should simplify the purchase, or people will get frustrated and go shopping elsewhere.
Display the Product in an Attractive Way
A picture is worth a thousand words, so make sure you do justice to your products and showcase professional pictures on your e-commerce website. Also, make sure the product description accompanying the photos provide all the relevant information the customer needs.
Checkout Process
To ensure visitors complete their purchase after adding products to the shopping cart, it’s critical to make the checkout part as short and uncomplicated as possible. Besides reducing the number of steps a visitor must take to complete purchase to the minimum possible, it’s also helpful to provide live assistance, as this increases the chances for conversion. In some cases, people are discouraged from buying a particular product because they encounter an obstacle during the process, and there’s no operative assistance to help them overcome it.
There are additional factors that add up to these three pillars that make a successful e-commerce website. A few words about them below.
Use an Effective Content Management System
The CMS product management, as the Content Management System is also called, allows you to add, edit and organize products and content on your e-commerce website. A CMS interface enables you to track inventory, prices, and other product details. Moreover, you can use keyword tags to make searching within your e-store easier. The CMS product management offered by companies such as Shopify should be friendly and clean, allowing you to manage content without interfering with other operations.
User Feedback and Product Reviews
Give your customers/users the opportunity to say what they feel about your product and about their shopping experience on your e-commerce website. This will ensure transparency and will help you better understand your customers. You can use social media websites for this.
Assist Customers
Let people know that they can get help whenever they need it by setting up customer service that offers them answers to their queries promptly and effectively. For that, you can use a toll free phone number that is clearly visible on your website. You can also add a live chat service that will let customers know that they can get help during their shopping experience if they need it. Also, make sure you answer emails and queries promptly, and you solve requests in the shortest amount of time possible.
Be Sociable
E-commerce websites can benefit from promoting their products on social media sites through ads and compelling content. Electronic word of mouth (eWoM) is extremely effective when it comes to launching your e-store. You need to leverage all the channels at hand to make yourself known. Don’t underestimate the power of social media and be sure to integrate it in your online marketing and SEO strategy. If used properly, it can help you in your search engine optimization efforts, increasing the number of back links. Place the social media buttons strategically on your website. Don’t make them too conspicuous, but make sure they are visible.
Offer Incentives to Your Customers
The power of incentives is proven both offline and online. Use promotions, freebies, discounts, and various forms of loyalty programs to build customer loyalty and encourage referral. Nurturing customers and keeping them close will pay off in the long run.
Keep Up with the Ever-Changing Landscape
E-commerce is continuously evolving, so to stay ahead of competition you need to advance together with the landscape you’re moving in. Stay up to date with trends and technologies, educate yourself, and improve your e-commerce strategy by implementing new tools. This way you will be able to offer your users a superior shopping experience, which in turn will reflect on your sales.
Sam DeeringSam Deering has 15+ years of programming and website development experience. He was a website consultant at Console, ABC News, Flight Centre, Sapient Nitro, and the QLD Government and runs a tech blog with over 1 million views per month. Currently, Sam is the Founder of Crypto News, Australia.
