How to Increase Website Conversion Rate - Conversion Rate Optimisation

What Is A Conversion Rate?

In ecommerce, a conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who make a purchase on your website. Your conversion rate can be worked out as:
Conversion rate = number of website visitors / number of purchases *100%

Even though your ecommerce site is up and running, you could be finding that you’re not getting many sales or conversions, from the amount of traffic your website is receiving. Increasing your conversions can lead to increased revenue, allowing your business to grow. 

The higher your conversion rate, the better your ecommerce business is performing. What constitutes a good conversion rate is highly dependable on your industry and what type of business you run. We have compiled a few quick tips to help you to increase your conversion rate, regardless of your industry, to allow you to make the most of your website traffic.

Add Testimonials and Reviews

When encouraging customers to make online purchases, it is important to be transparent about what you are offering in order to build their trust and encourage them to make a purchase. 

Displaying other customers’ reviews and testimonials on your product pages can validate your customer’s purchasing decisions. Reviews can also give additional information about a product, which can allow new customers to make a more informed decision. Because of this, reviews can be very influential towards seeing an improved conversion rate.

It is important to make sure that your product reviews are clearly visible to visitors, displaying them clearly on the product page. Additionally, providing a rating system for customer reviews makes it easier for customers to get a quick snapshot of how good that product is perceived to be by other buyers.

Offering reviews and testimonials can also increase your brands’ credibility which can in turn encourage customer loyalty, repeat purchases and a higher conversion rate.

Make Checkout And Forms Quick And Easy To Fill Out.

Customers can be put off by long checkout forms which can lead to them abandoning their purchase, and over time this can negatively affect your conversion rate. To make forms easier to fill out, ensure that you are only asking for essential information from your customers. This streamlines the process for them as well as for your business. 

To make forms even quicker to fill out, consider using guest checkout, auto-fill options and automatically duplicating the shipping address into the billing address sections, with the option for the customer to change this if necessary. 

Additionally, provide the option to checkout without having to create an account. Instead, provide an option to create an account once the customer has completed their purchase using the information that they have already provided. This can help to streamline your checkout process and avoid cart abandonment caused by lengthy forms.

Page Speed

Having a speedy website can make a big difference to your site optimisation and your conversion rate. Typically customers expect pages to load in just a few seconds, and often want mobile sites to load faster than those opened on a desktop. If a website takes too long to load, customers may become impatient and leave your site in favour of one that loads faster. Because of this, website page speed is crucial for ensuring higher conversion rates and increased website traffic. 

Faster page speeds are also good for search engine optimisation, and can increase traffic to your website, providing you with a larger pool of potential customers. The faster your page load speed, the faster your customer can begin browsing your site or viewing products, making them more likely to make a purchase at your store.

Ecommerce Product Videos And Photos

Product visuals are a powerful tool in ecommerce. Buying online is a very different experience than buying an item in-store, but providing videos of products and clear photographs can help to recreate that experience and allow customers to understand the product better. Product videos encourage customers to engage more with your product and visualise how they might use it, which can lead to higher rates of conversion. 

Additionally, providing product videos can humanise your brand and answer questions about the product for your customers. This can increase trust in your business while also contributing to increasing sales.

Photos of your products are also a useful tool for showcasing your product to potential buyers. Product photos need to be clear and professional, preferably photographed with a plain background to draw attention to your product and its features.

Conclusion

Taking the time to apply some of these methods on your product pages can help you to turn your visitors into paying customers. Conversion rates can be a good tool for measuring your businesses performance, and analysing any trends or changes in your conversion rate can allow you to make informed and suitable adjustments to your ecommerce site. Take a look at our other blog posts for more information on optimising your ecommerce store and helping your business to grow.