How to improve the conversion rate of an online store: simple and effective steps

Online store owners always keep their eyes on the conversion rate, because it shows how traffic turns into profit. To make your business as successful as possible, you should use the tips for increasing conversion rates that we will discuss below.  

What is conversion rate?

Conversion rate is the ratio of those who performed a targeted action on a website to the total number of website visitors.

For online stores, the main conversions are orders or pre-orders. After all, the main advantage of such websites is that the customer goes through almost the entire purchase process on their own.

That is, if 1200 people visited your website and 100 of them bought a product, then the conversion is calculated as follows: 

(100 ÷ 1200) х 100% = 8,33%

In general, conversion rates of 1% to 5% are considered normal for e-commerce. In particular, one of the latest studies provides the following data.

So, if your figures are similar to the above, then everything is fine. But there is no limit to perfection. Therefore, below we will tell you about simple and effective steps to increase the conversion rate of your online store. 

How to increase website conversion in the e-commerce niche?

The methods described below are really working. You can use them simultaneously or sequentially. In any case, it is important to track the statistics of changes in the medium and long term. 

Google Analytics, for example, can help with this, if you have the appropriate conversions set up. Another useful tool is sales figures from the admin panel of your online store. 

1. Speed up website loading.

The average website loading time in 2023 is 2.5 seconds on a desktop and 8.6 seconds on a mobile device. At the same time, the impact of loading speed significantly affects the website conversion rate.

• A website that loads in 1 second has a three times higher conversion rate than a website that loads in 5 seconds.
• A website that loads in 1 second has a 5 times higher conversion rate than a website that takes 10 seconds to load.

For example, a website with 1000 products on a page from Solomono loads in 2.3 seconds. A website with the same number of products on Magento will take 10 seconds to load. Consequently, conversion rates between similar sites on different platforms will be significantly different.

Under standard conditions, all pages load in less than 1 second, even if the store has 100,000 products.
If you are just planning to open an online store, take this into account when choosing a platform for your project. And if your store is already up and running, consider migrating it to a faster engine.

Other factors that affect the loading speed are:

• weak hosting (the disk where the website information is stored);
• the presence or absence of caching — copying the data that the user accesses most often;
• unnecessary plugins;
• too large images and videos;
• too many redirects (redirecting users between pages);
• high website traffic;
• too many unnecessary scripts.

Analyze these points and improve everything possible.

2. Use high-quality images.

On the Internet, people often, so to speak, "fall in love" with a product with their eyes, because they can't touch it. So you need to give your potential customers this opportunity. 

The image should convey the quality of the product, demonstrate its characteristics, ideally in 360° format, especially when it comes to clothing or footwear.  

3. Communicate the essence and value of your offer, confirm them.

A person who visits the website should immediately understand what is being offered. It is advisable to show the product on the very first screen and tell them that it is very easy to buy it.

Another powerful tool for strengthening your offer is feedback from real customers. Make sure they are on your website. After all, 93% of buyers say that online reviews influenced their purchase decision. 

In addition, a quality review motivates consumers to buy about 1.5 times better than a discount. 

So, store owners should make an effort to get honest reviews from real customers. To do this, you can write to people on social media, messengers, and by email. In fact, customers like to be asked their opinion, so most will be happy to leave a review.

4. Use catchy calls to action (CTAs).

To make a purchase, a person needs to understand what they need to do. Therefore, it is very important to place noticeable calls to action on the website. Usually, they are created in the form of buttons. It is ideal when the button is on the first screen. 

That is, a person looks at the product and sees that it can be bought right now. Most popular online stores use this technique. 

To make your CTAs convincing, we recommend the following.

• Find a color that attracts attention against the background of your website. You may need to test several different options for a week, for example, and compare the results.
• Write as clear a text as possible so that people don't have to think and guess. Use appropriate verbs, for example, "Buy now" and "Add to cart" are good options for a product business.
• Remove all bright elements next to the CTA so that they do not draw attention to themselves. 

5. Simplify the checkout process.

If a consumer is going to buy two toothpastes, but to do so, they need to fill out a 10-point questionnaire and provide a bunch of information like the number of children and pets, it is likely that they will leave the website without buying anything.
Therefore, if possible, leave literally three lines:

• name;
• phone number;
• delivery method.

6. Add several payment and delivery methods.

When a person gets to the point of paying for the order and sees that he or she cannot pay using a familiar and convenient method, he or she may refuse to make a purchase.

So, we recommend the following:

• set up online payment;
• add e-wallets, cards, online banking;
• link the card to your account to allow for one-click payments in the future. 

If you don't want to set up a large number of payment systems on your own, you can turn to aggregators (Interkassa, Portmone).

It is also important to pay attention to delivery. The standard options for Ukraine are Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta. If you have integration with these services on your website, you can manage shipments directly from the website's admin panel. 

7. Remind about abandoned carts.

This is a simple but effective way to increase the conversion rate of your online store. You can set up different notification chains that will be sent to the customer's email. 

Studies show that the profit from one abandoned cart email can reach from $2.59 to $10.75. This is a lot of money, especially if you have a large customer base.

So now you know how you can improve conversion rates of your online store. Of course, every business has its own peculiarities, so if you have ideas for increasing the profitability of your business, but don't know how to implement them technically, we invite you to consult our experts. They will help you find answers to questions related to e-commerce.