Tips and Tricks for Improving Conversion Rates

Originally posted on spicerack.co.uk

We’ve been taking stock of the latest trends in the eCommerce world and reviewing tips for improving conversion rates and lifetime value. Earlier in the month, the Ecomm World Event had some exciting speakers. While, the Shopify Unite developer conference introduced some fantastic new features and improvements to the Shopify ecosystem, which we’ll be covering in another article.

The latest Treasure Data and MarTech Alliance survey also provided good insights into the challenges facing marketers in delivering better customer experiences. The report shows that 50% of marketing managers questioned are focused on joined-up digital and offline experiences, while 37% are committed to omnichannel integrated marketing campaigns to deliver consistent customer experience and grow top-of-funnel volumes.

Key takeouts and trends to follow this month are as follows.

TWEAK YOUR MICRO-MOMENTS

Once you have addressed the big-ticket optimisations on your store, it’s time to start identifying the micro-moments in your customer journeys that impact propensity to purchase even in a small way. These moments could be viewing an alternate product image, engaging with video or on-page chat, as well as viewing shipping/tax info or fitting guides. Pick one or two of these moments to focus on, set up your analytics to track the events, and work on optimising the experience with A/B testing by making small changes such as underlining links, changing sign-post copy, etc.

What’s great about this way of tweaking your site is that it’s very reactive. It’s all about continuous optimisation. Plus, individually, these might all be low risk changes that lead to better conversion rates when combined.

REVISIT YOUR PRODUCT PAGE

Your product page is the most important page on your store. Over time, it’s easy to focus on landing pages, supporting content, and more extensive site-wide changes to drive conversion. To help decide if your product pages need some love, here are some key questions to ask:

• When was the last time you gave your product page some love?
• Do you have a video explainer?
• Are you addressing your target audience’s questions and pain points?
• Are your product page header and navigation too busy? Could you declutter them and add a sticky CTA?
• Do you have a repeated buy component further down the page?
• Do you have social proof? Is it close enough to your CTA?
• Is the page super fast to load on mobile?

Depending on the type of products you are selling, you may want to develop a product microsite giving your users easy access to product benefits, FAQs, the product origin story, detailed usage instructions, and strong advocacy links.

When you are ready, plan your changes and set up A/B tests to further improve conversion rates.

UNDERSTAND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

The brain is a funny thing. It’s very irrational. We know that £49.99 is just a penny less than £50.00, but there’s still a perceived saving. We can use this irrationality to shape buyer behavior and improve conversion rates. Some top tips from Alex Chahin include:

• Give something for free to get a purchase
• Scarcity makes people buy
• Encourage people to promote your brand: social currency is powerful
• Try and associate your product use with repeatable events: the game on Saturday, Sunday lunch, etc.

WATCH YOUR COMPETITORS

With CMO’s focused on customer experience, joined-up digital experiences, and an ongoing shift to online purchasing, you should be watching your competitors closely. Sign up to their newsletters, buy their products and interact with their loyalty programs – what’s working for them can be adapted for you. In addition, you will spot opportunities around weaker points in your customer experience of their brand.

GROW YOUR ADVOCATES AND GET PERSONAL

We’ve said it before, but never more is it truer. Your customers are your biggest advocates. Building advocacy into your customer experience from the start will help you build loyalty, trust, and a growing customer base, as well as improve onsite conversion rates.

To do this, you need to get personal:

• People are 40% more likely to spend more than planned when they feel their shopping experience to be highly personalised
• Customers acquired through word of mouth promotion spend 200% more than the average customer
• 59% of customers like to give word-of-mouth feedback

Remember, what works for one person may not work for another!

Why not reach out to us and let us how you get your customers talking. We’d love to hear how you do it.

While you are here, check out what we’ve been doing for McCormick and Symprove to optimize conversion rates.