30 Sep
With the global increase in online shopping, many businesses focus on increasing traffic to their websites. This is both admirable and necessary, but there comes a point when you need to turn your focus from traffic to conversion rates.
After all, if your ecommerce conversion rate is low, more traffic isn’t the solution that’s going to fix the problem. You may have spent years building your own ecommerce site, but if you can’t convert visitors into paying customers, your efforts need to be redirected.
With enough traffic to your site, conversion rates should be good enough to provide a decent profit, but what if this doesn’t happen? How do you improve your ecommerce conversion rate? Let’s study further about the low conversion rate.
What is the ecommerce conversion rate?
The ecommerce conversion rate is the ratio of transactions to sessions, expressed in the form of a percentage. For instance, a ratio of one transaction against every ten sessions would make for an ecommerce conversion rate of 10%.”
Used in conjunction with other critical metrics, conversion rate serves as an excellent barometer to measure the health, performance, and competitiveness of your online store. The higher the conversion rate, the better the customer value proposition and lower the customer acquisition cost. To make any meaningful improvement in conversion rates, it is important to take an audit of your current conversion rate.
What’s a good ecommerce conversion rate?
If you’re already achieving 3%, 5% or even 10% conversion rates, is that as high as you’re going to go? But what is a good conversion rate? Across industries, the average landing page conversion rate was 2.35%, yet the top 25% are converting at 5.31% or higher. Ideally, you want to break into the top 10% — these are the landing pages with conversion rates of 11.45% or higher.
We recently analyzed thousands of Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords) accounts with a combined $3 billion in annual spend and discovered that some advertisers are converting at rates two or three times the average. Do you want to be average, or do you want your account to perform exponentially better than others in your industry?
Through our analysis of this massive amount of data on landing pages and conversion rates, we were able to identify some common traits of the top converting landing pages. What do they have that you don’t? Believe it or not, there isn’t much standing between you and conversion rates double or triple what you’re seeing today. But the way you’re going to get there is totally counter to typical conversion rate optimization wisdom.
Reasons you might have a low conversion rate
1. Your Site Makes a Bad First Impression
One common reason for a low conversion rate is that people don’t like what they see when they land on your site or, even worse, they can’t find the information they need. If you’re getting traffic but no conversions, or have a high bounce rate on a page you think should keep visitors on your site, then it makes sense to troubleshoot site design issues first.
We’ll tackle the most common design issues that hurt your conversion rate throughout this article. However, while it’s important to have a site that looks good, it’s even more crucial to look after usability, so people can get essential information and complete their desired actions without hassle.
Check conversion rate metrics, user flow, bounce rate, and your conversion funnel (shown below) in your analytics software to see where the issue is. Some common reasons for low conversion rates include:
- Poor navigation. Ensure that the most popular items are easy to find.
- Poor filtering and sorting. You don’t want to overwhelm visitors with too many options. They should be able to filter items so they get only those choices that meet their needs.
- Poor search. Again, ensure that search results are likely to match what people want. If visitors can’t find an item, they won’t be able to buy it.
2. You Don’t Know Who You’re Selling To
When you’re thinking about how to improve your conversion rate, another issue to consider is whether you’re clear on who your customers are. If you’re not marketing to the right people, then you’ll end up with a low conversion rate, and sales will decline.
That’s why a key step in addressing ecommerce conversion rate issues is to find out what your customers want. You’ll need to look at web analytics to see how people behave on your site, and social analytics to see what they’re sharing.
Pay attention to online reviews and customer interactions via your customer helpdesk and messaging apps. You can also collect useful customer information via customer surveys.
All of these will help you understand your market, so you can create customer avatars and market more effectively. Once you’re marketing to specific personas that match your audience segments, you’re sure to see a bump in conversion rates.
3. Your Site Isn’t Optimized
Driving more traffic to your site won’t improve your conversion rates…in fact, it may lower them. However, by optimizing your site the right way, you’ll rank well for the keywords your best prospects are searching for. A better quality of site visitors will translate into a higher conversion rate.
SEO is all about optimizing content and web pages so they appear when people search online, using keywords related to your products. That word “related” is important, because Google aims to show the most relevant content when people search. If your pages aren’t showing up, then people won’t click and traffic will be low.
And if they don’t find what they expect when they arrive at your site, conversions will be low, too. That’s why it’s important to do keyword research for your niche and make sure your web pages meet searchers’ needs.
4. You’re Ignoring Mobile Users
You may have a beautifully laid out landing page, but if it does not translate well to smartphones and tablets, you are missing out on a large portion of your conversions.
Mobile users are quickly dominating the landscape, and if they cannot easily navigate your website, they will leave without signing up for your services.
There is no guarantee that they will return when they find themselves at a computer, so test your website functionality on a variety of devices and mobile web browsers. This is more important than ever now that mobile-friendliness is a ranking factor for Google.
5. Nobody Loves (or Understands) Your Product
Product pages are where people who are browsing make the decision to buy, so that’s another area where your website conversion rate can suffer. One of the main reasons why some product pages have a low conversion rate is because they don’t do a great job of demonstrating the product to the potential buyer.
Shoppers need to understand how the product benefits them and solves their problems, and what the product’s main features are. Every detail about the product should be clear. That’ll help define the value of the product and make it more likely that people will buy.
6. Product Images Are Poor
Images are important for conversions, and that goes for eCommerce sites, too. The better your product images look, the more likely your product pages are to convert. Avoid tiny, low-quality, grainy images in favor of large, clear and interesting photos if you want to improve conversions.
You can also use product videos to win customers; video is proven to increase engagement, and the longer people stick around, the more likely they are to convert.
7. Your Copy Isn’t Persuasive
The copy must be informative, error-free, well written, descriptive, persuasive, and emotional for the best results with ecommerce conversions. Persuasion is especially important. There are six principles of persuasion that underpin buying decisions: reciprocity, authority, commitment and consistency, social proof, scarcity and liking. Craft persuasive copy and conversions increase.
Create copy to target those buyer personas mentioned in point #2. That’ll make sure each product appeals to the person most likely to buy it. Your copy should also include power words and action words, so you both stir up emotion and inspire action.
And there’s one last thing: spellcheck your copy so it’s error-free. People notice mistakes, even if they aren’t aware of doing so, and error-filled copy can hurt both conversions and your reputation.
8. The Page Is Distracting
Make sure each page is focused on the main offer you want to make to give you the best results. That means removing navigation and other unnecessary elements on cart pages or landing pages.
You can check analytics for your pages to see if anything’s stopping people from converting. Go to Audience » Users Flow in Google Analytics, and see where people are leaving the shopping process. For even more insights on shopper behavior, you can enable enhanced ecommerce in Google Analytics.
And if you’re looking for a simple way to create conversion-focused landing pages, we recommend using a landing page builder like SeedProd. It helps you create any type of landing page for your WordPress site. It comes with a ton of beautiful templates to get you started quickly and the drag and drop builder makes customization easy.
Plus, you can use ready-made landing page blocks like email optin forms, countdown timers, CTA buttons, testimonials, giveaways, and much more. There are even WooCommerce blocks like add to cart, checkout, shopping cart, and products grid. With these tools, you can create distraction-free pages that make your visitors want to convert.
9. The Call to Action Is Unclear
Keep in mind that the CTA is at the heart of a conversion action. Everything on the page leads to one single goal, the CTA. It’s crucial to have a single, clear call to action so visitors have no doubt about what to do next.
But a good CTA isn’t just about copy. You also have to get the design and color right, so people can actually see it. If people can see and understand your CTA, it’s easier for them to take action.
10. Shoppers Don’t Trust You
There’s no getting away from it; trust boosts sales. So, if you’re experiencing low conversion rates, one reason could be that visitors don’t trust you. You can up the trust factor of your website by:
- Avoiding spam marketing.
- Using social proof, including real customer reviews.
- Showing that you’re real by putting your address and contact details and, if appropriate, team photos on the site.
- Including trust seals so shoppers know their credit card details are secure.
11. People Have to Pay for Shipping
Shipping costs kill conversions. That’s why so many eCommerce retailers offer free shipping. According to the study, around 61% of people abandon shopping carts because of high costs, including shipping costs.
If you’re charging for shipping, think about making it free. And if you already offer free shipping, make sure everybody knows by putting it on every page of your site.
12. Checkout Is Difficult
Research also shows that two-thirds of purchases are abandoned, with 27% of people citing complicated checkouts as the reason. If you can improve conversions enough to recover even a fraction of abandoning visitors, you’ll increase revenue from your site. Some ways to do this are:
- Make sure it’s clear where shoppers are in the checkout process, for example, with a progress bar.
- Remind people what they’re buying, with product images on the checkout page.
- Include trust seals and shipping information, so they know exactly what they’re paying.
- Add testimonials so shoppers feel confident in their decision to buy.
Another good fix for a low conversion rate is to have a guest checkout option, so people can buy without having to sign up. This works well, and then you can offer to save their information for the future. That offer’s more likely to be accepted after a pain-free checkout.
13. There’s No Remarketing or Retargeting Strategy
Remarketing is an essential part of any ecommerce conversion process. It’s a way to get the attention of people who come to your site and leave without completing a purchase. This is crucial because most people won’t be ready to make a purchase on their very first visit to your site.
Ever noticed how when you leave a site and then go to Facebook, you see an ad for that same site in the sidebar? That’s remarketing in action, and it’s very effective, increasing both engagement and conversions. You can also use OptinMonster to run an email retargeting campaign to:
- Make offers to people who’ve been to your site before.
- Personalize pop ups to boost sales.
- Showcase relevant upsells to people browsing your site, as shown below. That optin also uses OptinMonster’s Smart Tags feature.
- Put the right offer in front of the right people at the right time, and conversions increase.
14. Your Tracking Code Isn’t Working
When you’re wondering why conversion rates drop, there’s one external factor to consider: your analytics tracking code. A sudden drop in conversion rate could mean that the code hasn’t been installed correctly, or needs to be updated to take account of a change you’ve made. Check your code, and don’t forget to set it up to track micro-conversions, too.
15. Your Pricing Strategy Is Wrong
Price is the most important buying factor for 60% of people? So, one reason your eCommerce site might have a low conversion rate is because of a poor pricing strategy. Lemonstand suggests improving conversions by using psychological pricing techniques like:
- Product bundling.
- Putting the number 9 at the end of a price, rather than rounding it up.
- Using small fonts.
- Making sure prices have only a few syllables when read.
16. You’re Not Sending Abandonment Emails
If you’re not sending abandonment emails, you’re missing out on potential conversions. In contrast, if you send them within the first hour after people leave, you can often persuade them to buy. Marketo suggests using a three-email abandonment sequence:
- The first email, sent within the hour, aims to help with any technical issues that got in the way of completing a purchase.
- The second, sent within 24 hours, warns people that their cart will expire.
- The third, sent within 48 hours, provides an incentive for completing the purchase.
17. You’re Not Testing Enough
Testing is the important part of conversion optimization, so it’s a no-brainer to test your entire website user flow to see where you can make improvements and boost conversions. You can test landing pages, product pages, offers and CTAs to find out which ones your visitors respond to best.
18. There Are External Factors
Sometimes a low conversion rate has nothing to do with your actions; it’s all about what’s happening externally. Maybe one of your competitors has released a product that temporarily takes customers’ attention away from your offering.
Monitoring your competitors to see if you need to adjust your marketing strategy can help address some of the conversion loss. Some ways to do this include:
- Setting up Google Alerts for your competitors.
- Monitoring their keywords with SEMRush or Moz.
- Using SimilarWeb to see who’s visiting their sites.
- Checking out content effectiveness with Buzzsumo.
- Paying attention to social media analytics.
19. There’s No Live Chat
Offering live chat means that when people stop during the purchase process, they can get immediate help. People like talking to people, and the use of live chat is only going to grow.
Wrap up
Essentially all it comes down to is understanding who your shoppers are and what they want. The closer you are to understanding their needs and expectations from your brand, the higher is your ecommerce conversion rate.
There is one strategy that fits all stores. There’s definitely a lot many reasons that a store has a low ecommerce conversion rate. The above are just a few tried, tested and proven ways of using modern technology to increase the ecommerce conversion rate.