Low conversion rates can kill a business. This is especially true in the eCommerce world where people have unlimited options and unlimited time to make a decision. Since there’s not a lot of interaction or pressure in eCommerce, you have to find creative ways to increase your eCommerce conversion rates. So if you struggle with low conversion rates on your eCommerce site (lots of people do) – then there are some things you can do to increase your conversion rates and get more money in your pocket through higher average order values and increased customer retention as well! Some of these are easy solutions while others will take some time and effort to implement. In any case, the time, money, and effort that you spend on them will definitely pay for themselves in no time thanks to increased store conversion rates!
Offer Free Shipping
The first thing that you can do to practice conversion optimization in Shopify is to offer free shipping. Shipping plays a big role in whether or not a potential customer will complete a purchase. Free shipping offers them an extra incentive to purchase from you instead of another company that might not offer free shipping. Obviously, this is easier said than done and it can be difficult for a lot of store owners to cover shipping costs without losing money. On the other hand, if you aren’t able to offer 100% free shipping, make sure to advertise a low shipping rate in a high-visibility location on your website so that people have this information up-front.
Use an Abandoned Cart Recovery Service
The second thing that you can do to increase your conversion rates in your Shopify store is to use an abandoned cart recovery service, like Cart Text. These services have apps that you can install into your Shopify account where they can see your data. When a shopping cart is abandoned, they have a live representative follow-up with that customer via text message to see why they clicked the cart button but didn't finish the whole checkout page. They can then use personalization when responding to the customer and provide an incentive to go through with the purchase whether it's free shipping or another special offer. Cart abandonment recovery services that use SMS have high open and response rates. Effective retargeting services like Cart Text can help you save up to 21% of your abandoned carts, making it more effective than traditional email marketing from general email lists since everyone is constantly texting on their smartphones these days.
Streamline the Checkout Process
Another thing that you can do to increase your conversion rates on your Shopify site is to streamline your checkout process for a better shopping experience. Some people will get annoyed and frustrated by a checkout process that has a bunch of pages and fields to fill out before ordering. People also do not like checkout processes that force you to make an account before you buy – instead, try making this an option for after they have completed the purchase. Another good way to make the checkout process easier for your customers is to accept a wide variety of different payment options from PayPal to credit cards! So make sure to streamline the checkout process by offering autofill, guest checkout, and eliminating unnecessary fields and pages.
Speed Up the Site
When it comes to shopping online, trust and reputation is everything. A customer’s perception of the reliability of your brand is often based on the speed of the site. In the 21st century, we are always on the move and need things to move quickly – including the websites we purchase from. A website that is slow or crashes during the checkout experience will immediately turn off customers no matter how great your products are. Even a website that is a few seconds slower than what your customer expects can drive them away. Pop-ups are also a turn-off. So make sure to simplify and optimize your site so that it loads in just a few seconds on mobile platforms and on web browsers for a flawless user experience!
Make Your Products Look (and Sound) Good
Since your customers can’t physically see your products when shopping online, you need to make sure that they look as good as possible so your customers will want to press "add to cart." This means using good lighting, backdrops, and high-quality images that help your products and your homepage or landing page pop on the screen. Some features that shoppers love to see in product images include the ability to zoom in on the image, the ability to see all the angles of the product, and the ability to see additional pictures of specific features of the product like the logo, pattern, fabric, etc. on the product page. Another really underrated eCommerce business feature are product descriptions. Your product descriptions should sell your product just as effectively as the picture! Make sure to include important information like measurements, materials, model information, etc. so that your customer feels like they know everything they need to know to move forward with the purchase.
Promote Real Reviews
The next thing that can help conversion rate optimization in Shopify is to obtain and then promote real credible reviews of your products. So if you aren’t already displaying your testimonials, then you’re really missing out! However, if you don’t have very many customer reviews then you need to encourage your customers to do so. Reach back out to them afterward and ask for their feedback. You could also potentially offer them a discount for their next purchase if they leave a product review. And while it might be tempting to leave out bad reviews, bad reviews can actually make your product more credible and believable than having all reviews be five-stars.
Simplify Searching
Another way that you can increase Shopify conversion rate is to simplify the search process and make it easier for customers to find exactly what they’re looking for in your online store. Some things you can implement to achieve this include autocomplete, mobile searching, tolerating misspellings, and natural language processing - things that you see on Google. Another great way to help your customers with their search is to include thumbnails of photos as they are typing in what they want. That way, something might catch their eye and motivate them to purchase. Also, offer recommendations and “similar items” to make their lives easier and promote different products to potentially increase the order amount.
Integrate Social Media
Finally, the last way that you can increase your conversion rates in Shopify is to integrate social media into your business platform. Social media is huge in the eCommerce world and utilizing this well will definitely give you a leg up on competitors who neglect to use this sphere. This can mean using cookies to target people based on their previous searches. This can also mean using real photos of your products on Instagram and including the links where people can shop these products as social proof. Finally, this can mean using “influencers” to try out and vouch for your products to make them more credible and give them an added “cool factor” that you might not have otherwise.
Overall, there are so many different things that you can do to increase your conversion rate in the Shopify app. Sometimes all you need to do is write a new product description. Other times you might need to build a social media platform with curated content, direct links, and a large following. The good news is that there are services, like Cart Text, that you can use to make your life easier and help you increase your conversion rates with features that are tailored to your eCommerce store. If you’re in this business for the long haul and expect to compete with eCommerce website giants, you’re going to have to up your game. It’s completely possible to compete with the big guys like Amazon if you have quality products, a top-notch website that's compatible with mobile devices, great customer service, and an active social media presence. None of this will happen overnight, but with a solid strategy for growth, you will be able to implement all of these methods into your business over time and gain tons of customers and revenue in the process.
Sources:
https://mention.com/en/blog/online-reviews/
