One of the easiest things you can possibly do today is start making money online. In fact, there are a ton of self made millionaires that started their journey by deciding to go online and create their own online store. But, increasing the conversion rate for online store is essential. If we look at history, E-commerce started to become possible in the early ’90s when the world wide web was introduced for commercial use. Since that time, thousands of entrepreneurs have started with their online businesses.
Nowadays, if we look at the “new normal”, the recent pandemic has taken a significant toll on the economy and how the business industry adapts to the situation. Every business right now is doing its best to be visible on the internet, from the food, clothing, technology to the pawn shop industry which is made possible with today’s technology.
However, with thousands upon thousands of Amazon, Shopify and Etsy success stories, one might be inclined to think that it is an easy road to money. You create a shop, people come to buy your stuff, and you earn money.
However, this could not be further from the truth. Sales will not just start pouring in the moment you open up an online store, and it is actually a really steep uphill battle for your first customers. Out of 100 people to visit your site, you might only get 3 sign ups and 1 sale. Which, in fact, is quite good for the standards of many people.
These results could definitely be better however, as one of the main things you will be focusing on getting is high conversion rates. You might have heard this word being thrown around a lot, but it is not just about knowing what it is, it is also important to understand the metrics like the back of your hand. If there is one thing that will help you increase your sales from 1 person out of a 100 to 50 people out of a 100, that is to improve your online stores conversion rates.
Here are a few tricks on to improve the Conversion Rate for your online shop:
1. Have a Measurable Benchmark
Having an industry benchmark is extremely important in monitoring the growth of your online shop. It gives you a way to measure your success in a quantifiable manner, and it’s progress in comparison to your competitors.
Benchmarking your own progress so you have something to compare it to means that you are able to see how you are faring against your competitors. As they say, knowing your enemy is half the battle won.
The other half of the puzzle is to understand the metrics which is an integral part of success, and there are professional services with teams that do just that for thousands of online stores, like the team from Socital, which can be found here. By understanding the analytics behind your benchmarks and being able to track its progress, you can not only innovate from your competitor’s strengths but also identify and remove your own weaknesses and increase your conversion rate.
However, this process is extremely complicated even for the best experts. Thus there are services and websites out there such as Social who offer a team of experts that specialize in helping you do all the benchmarking and analyzing.
2. Site Navigation:
One of the most crucial aspects for increasing conversion rate is site navigation. The better and easier it is for a customer to find the product they are looking for, the more likely they are to buy from your online store instead of your competitors.
Some sites make it even easier to navigate by employing innovative techniques such as using customers’ words when labeling things, designing the site with extremely user-friendly intent, and showing every product with as much detail as possible. Some sites even use flashy colors and emotional words to influence their sales.
If you set up your site navigation with the customer’s satisfaction in mind, then your conversion rates are guaranteed to improve.
3. Make the Product Benefits Known:
When people come to a store, they want to know exactly what a product does and how it will benefit them. Make sure that knowledge is very easy to find and freely available. Do not highlight the features but rather the benefits of your product.
For example, if someone was building a computer and they were updating their processor, they would want to know exactly what generation the processor is, if they don’t have that knowledge, they will leave and can damage the conversion rate.
You will need to provide an explanation of what generation the processor is, and how powerful it is compared to their previous ones, and the benefits it brings to the table.
4. Increase the Site Speed:
It might seem mundane and even often overlooked, but did you know that how fast a page load is a deciding factor whether a person will continue shopping or not. In fact, a survey shows that 58% of people said they would leave a website if it does not load within 3 seconds. Just by being slightly slow, you have lost half your business and can decrease the conversion rate.