Increasing your ecommerce conversion rates

Increasing your ecommerce conversion rates

As the owner of an online store, sales are everything to you. All the carefully curated content and gripping graphics in the world are scant consolation if sales figures are low.

Fear not, however, for we here at Link Digital have written a guide to increasing the ecommerce conversion rates of your online store. Read on below.

Step one: Identify a desired rate

It’s important to not get bogged down and overly concerned with ‘average’ conversion rates. Essentially, you want a better rate than the one you currently have so there’s no point chasing the rainbow and some mythical perfect number.

After all, there are too many variables between sites to make direct comparisons and anyway, the perfect number is 100 per cent, which is obviously never going to happen so forget the rest and focus on yourself.

Step two: Images, images, images

The number one factor in generating online sales is quality images of your products. The most persuasive prose in the world is not going to sell something that looks awful in the picture.

You will never sell anything with just words, but you could just about sell with images alone, though of course this isn’t recommended.

Nevertheless, your products’ images are the key to success so make them clear, detailed, zoomable and include a variety of angles and close-ups.

The phrase ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ has never been more apt then when generating ecommerce conversions.

Step three: Words, words, words

Having said all that, a lousy description can soon undo all the good work a quality picture promotes. Concise, content free of clutter and full of clarity is what is needed here. Potential buyers will quickly spot, and be turned off by, over-hyped, desperate-for-sales text.

Letting the customer make the decision is crucial to ecommerce success. Your product descriptions should simply give enough information to allow buyers to convince themselves that your product is the one they want.

You should offer both short and detailed descriptions. The brief version should capture the essence of the product and its’ uses whilst the longer one should answer any questions any buyer might have.

Step four: Videos, videos, videos

Everything points towards an internet future dominated by video. The link between seeing an image and physically holding a product in a shop, videos are going to be increasingly big players in terms of generating ecommerce conversion.

Whether it’s displaying a product from all angles or demonstrating how a product is used, videos are a short, simple and extremely persuasive tool.

Step five: Customisation for customers

Wherever possible, you should enable customers to adapt what it is they are ordering. Whether it’s choosing a unique colour scheme or name-stitching on sports boots or a personalised laptop, customers are simply more likely to purchase a product if they are able to put their own spin on it.

Customisation creates a greater feeling of ownership and people are often prepared to pay that little bit extra for the personal touch.

Step six: Free > Cheap

When it comes to shipping, free beats all. The fact is customers are more likely to take advantage of a free-shipping offer than one for discounted products.

A number of online merchants have witnessed great success with the introduction of free shipping for orders over a certain amount of money, tempting customers to top up their shopping carts to reach the required level.

If shipping costs are unavoidable, then try and use a flat fee across your product range. Also, be up front about it. Sudden shipping fees are like kryptonite to ecommerce conversion rates.