Business

7 Ways to Improve Your Conversion Rates Overnight

Think Like a Customer

Improving your conversion rate offers the greatest return on investment of any almost online marketing effort, since you will make more money from the traffic you already have instead of trying to generate more traffic, shift the demographics of your customer base or update your brand image. After all, doubling your conversion rate from the standard 5% to 10% doubles the profitability of your ecommerce site. Here are seven ways to improve your conversion rates overnight.

Simplifying the Process

Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who complete the desired action, whether it is signing a petition, buying an item off your website or signing up for a newsletter. One way to improve your conversion rate overnight is removing any impediments to that smooth flow from visitor to customer. Eliminate the demand to create an account when they are buying something, whether you let them check out as a guest. You can incentivise them signing up with an account with a discount, but you’ll drive people away if you make it clear you’ll market to them even if they aren’t happy with the initial purchase.

Don’t ask for too much information as a part of the checkout process. One company found that removing the salutations drop down and a few other fields increased conversions several percentage points. Require as few fields to be filled out as possible, and minimise the number of screens they have to flip between.

Speed

Your website needs to run fast to keep the would-be customer engaged. And nothing will drive away a customer than a website that times out as they try to check out. If your website can’t handle the demand, you should consider working with a company such as bestwebhosting.co.uk to ensure that your site has the bandwidth and speed your company needs to keep customers coming back.

Ensuring They Get What They Expect

Remove surprises like shipping costs that cause people to abandon the transaction, since they were expecting a £49.99 item and it turns into £65 after shipping and taxes. Over a quarter of online shoppers abandon the purchase if shipping costs are too high. Whether you offer free shipping for purchases over a set limit or adjust prices to include shipping costs is your decision.

Remind People to Come Back

Shopping cart abandonment rates are thought to be around two thirds. If you cut that number in half among those closest to the end of the sales funnel, you’ll double sales. You can reduce this rate by sending reminders to customers about their abandoned shopping carts. Radley London reduced the abandonment rate by around 8% just by sending an email to customers half an hour after the shopping cart was abandoned. Movies Unlimited sent multiple reminders over several days and saw a 26% conversion rate. You might sweeten the deal by sending them information on the now lower price of the items they were thinking of buying.

Reviews and Ratings

Nearly all would-be buyers check product reviews and ratings before they buy an item online. They’ll look at the reviews on the ecommerce website and product reviews on other sites. You will lose out to the product with a 4 star rating if you don’t have any reviews on ecommerce sites like Amazon. You’ll see conversion rates fall to near zero if the only reviews and ratings for your products are negative. Seek positive reviews from happy customers, and solicit reviews as part of your emails thanking people for their business. Study the negative reviews, and where possible, respond to the customer to get the underlying issues resolved.

Improve the Security of Your Site – or Show That It Is Secure

A large number of would-be customers abandon the site when they wonder if their payment information is secure. If you have good security in place already, display the third party IT audit badges prominently so that customers know it is safe to buy from you. If you don’t meet these standards, fix it.

Payment Options

Not everyone wants to pay via a credit card, even if your website shows multiple IT security badges. Offer at least one way to pay other than a credit or debit card like PayPal, Apple Pay or Amazon payments.

Conclusion

Simplify the checkout process as much as possible, and avoid extra steps like going to another page to read the privacy policy or opting out of signing up for an account. Your website must load fast and never time out if you’re to remain competitive. Give customers what they expect, including the final bill. Remind customers to come back to reduce shopping cart abandonment. Seek good reviews and ratings across every site and platform where people may look for it. Ensure that your site meets the information security standards customers have and tell them when it does. And give them multiple payment options.

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