One of the most common problems e-retailers constantly face is that their visitors don’t convert to the degree they want. We’ve put together our top 7 tips on how to turn your visitors into customers.
Conversion optimisation can seem like a long and complicated process that requires deep data insights, which is true to some extent. Fortunately, there are now a number of services that make data collection easier by telling you how your visitors use your website so you know where to focus your efforts. Once you know where your bottlenecks are, you need to know what to do about them and, as is so often the case when it comes to selling, it comes down to three things: satisfy needs, inform and entice.
Before we start…
Google Analytics
To succeed in your conversion optimisation, you first need to know how your visitors use your website, which pages they visit, when they abandon their shopping cart and where they experience the most friction. To collect such data, you can (read: should) use Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a data analysis service that helps you collect, process and report website and app data in a clear way. It ensures that your website accurately reports conversions and other important events so you can see how these events help fulfil your website’s goals. Getting started with Google Analytics is easy and we recommend Google’s own guide for this.
A/B testing
When you decide to optimise, you need to test your new solutions with A/B testing to find out which solution works best and converts the most. There are a variety of services for the tests, such as Google Optimise which works seamlessly with Google Analytics.
Let’s say you have an e-commerce store with 1000 unique visitors every day. You are both the cheapest and the fastest on the market, yet something is causing only 1% of your visitors to make a purchase. Using Google Analytics, you’ve noticed that many of your visitors add products to their basket but then abandon it when they get to the checkout. You decide to test whether it is the colour of your payment button that is perhaps too similar to the background colour, and therefore missed by many visitors. You want to test whether it works better with a different button colour and set up your website so that half of your visitors are greeted by the old button and the other half by the new, green button. Apart from the button colour, everything else on the page is the same.
If you notice that your conversions increase over time, you know that it is the colour that is wrong, the green button is much more visible and means that as many as 4% of your visitors now complete their purchase. If you don’t notice a difference, it’s not the button that’s wrong and you need to go back to square one, without making any changes, to find out what on the page is causing your visitors to abandon their basket.
This is a very simple example of an A/B test, often they go into much more detail than that but the principle is the same. Once you’ve understood the importance of thorough data collection and well-executed tests, you’re ready to take on board our 7 concrete tips, with examples from some of our previous projects, on what you can do to turn your visitors into paying customers.
- Ease of use
- Content management
- Customer service
- Offers and free shipping and returns
- Offer multiple payment options
- Social proof
- Find your USP
1. Ease of use
Assessing your own e-commerce’s ease of use can be difficult, if not impossible, and you’ll need to test it on many different users before you find the parts that create friction in the buying journey. Since you probably visit your e-commerce several times a day, you have learnt exactly how it behaves, where to click and what shortcuts there are, whereas for a new user it will be much more difficult. Poor usability can put off even the most acquisitive visitor, so you need to design your e-commerce site in a way that creates a natural flow in the buying journey, without a lot of distractions and unnecessary steps. The journey from the product page to the checkout should be as simple and clear as possible.
Mobile first
Developing your e-commerce for “mobile first” should be a given at a time when mobile devices are becoming more and more shopping-friendly. In Postnord’s 2018 Nordic e-commerce survey, 54% of Swedes said they had shopped with their mobile phone at some point in the past 30 days. Sweden is the most mobile-matured country in the Nordic region and the trend does not seem to be reversing. If you look at the pioneer country China, you see that as many as 79% had shopped online from their mobile phone, a figure that does not seem at all unlikely to reach Sweden in just a few years. The example below shows Equestrian Stockholm, whose large social media following demands a shopping experience on mobile that is at least as good as on the computer.
- Test your e-commerce on real people to detect friction.
- Create a natural flow in the buying journey.
- Think “mobile first”, visitors from mobile devices will only increase.
2. Content for your website
Images
The single biggest obstacle customers face when shopping remotely is not being able to touch and feel the product. To minimise this barrier, as an e-retailer you need to do everything you can to give the visitor the best possible impression of the product. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and this has never been more true than when it comes to e-commerce. In order for your visitors not to choose a competitor who presents their products better than you do, your product images must be really, really good. Hiring a photographer can often be a worthwhile investment that quickly pays for itself. The right photographer can take high-quality images that represent your brand and capture the feel of your product in the best possible way. When we developed Absolut Art’s e-commerce, we realised early on that the entire shopping experience would revolve around the great product images to give the artwork the attention it deserves.
Every customer wants to see different types of images. Some customers prefer to see the product completely exposed with no distractions, while others want to see an inspiring image where the product is placed in an exciting environment. Try to satisfy both types so that no one shuts down your site and goes to another store that has done better.
- Hire a product photographer.
- Show the product from all angles.
- Use high-resolution images that allow the user to zoom in on details.
- Showcase the product in different environments.
Product descriptions
To give your visitors the best possible impression of your product, it is not enough to have good pictures, your product descriptions must also convey the product’s characteristics in a way that makes your visitors want to read them. To write good product descriptions, you need to have a clear picture of both your customers’ needs and the product’s value proposition, i.e. how the product responds to the customer’s needs. Try to anticipate your visitors’ questions about the product and answer them in the text. Depending on what you are selling, you can often benefit from writing product descriptions that stand out, just listing the product’s features in a bulleted list is not very salesy. Try using storytelling and create a story that tells why the product will meet the customer’s needs and place the bulleted list below it. As someone once said: “Facts tell, but stories sell”. In the example below you see Love Warriors, who managed to create a story around a product as simple as a cutting board.
- If the product allows it, use everyday language that makes the text easy to read.
- Identify the customer’s needs and respond with the product’s value proposition
- Dare to take a leap of faith!
- Ask someone to proofread.
- Check for spelling mistakes.
- Ask someone to proofread again.
3. Customer service
Despite your inspiring images and exciting product descriptions, there will always be customers who want more information about your products. As with your many payment methods, you should also offer multiple ways for your customers to contact you, as some prefer chat or email to phone and vice versa. Today’s direct communication has made us expect good service and answers in a very short time, we don’t have time to wait for hours or even days to get an answer on when a certain product is back in stock. Therefore, try to respond to your customers’ requests as soon as possible. But, don’t forget that it’s more important that you give each customer a satisfactory answer than that you deal with as many customers as possible in the shortest possible time.
Today, there are several different services that can help you with customer relationship management, such as Intercom and Drift. Ales & Brews chose Drift as its service and can now give all its customers a personalised response, no matter who answers.
- Offer different contact options.
- Respond quickly.
- Quality over quantity.
- Compile and answer the most frequently asked questions in a FAQ.
- Build a relationship with your customers.
4. Offers and free shipping and returns
When you start calculating how much you need to sell to make your new campaign profitable, you might be discouraged at first. A 30% discount on your entire range might mean you have to sell more than twice as much as usual to stay in the black. But, remember, such an extensive promotion is an investment for the future and will increase your customer base with customers who have already experienced the benefits of buying from you.
Once you have built a customer base, you need to nurture it. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a topic in itself and is about nurturing the customers you already have, as this is often cheaper than finding new customers. An example could be sending out personalised offers to all the new customers you got thanks to your campaign. However, be careful what you send out to whom, how happy would you be if you received an email about a discount on a product you just bought at full price?
Free shipping and returns
In the great country of the West, free shipping and returns have long been standard in e-commerce, and in Sweden too, more and more e-retailers are starting to offer their customers free shipping options. Even if you know you have too small margins to consider free shipping, remember that it is often a psychological game. Being able to boast “always free shipping and returns” often outweighs a price increase of a few per cent on the entire range. If your customers can order, try and return the product free of charge, what do they really have to lose? Your shipping costs will increase, of course, but so will your conversion rate.
- Invest in a campaign to increase your customer base.
- Entice existing customers with personalised offers.
- Be careful who you send what to.
- Offer free shipping and returns.
5. Offer several different payment options
Shopping from a new store for the first time can be a barrier, especially if you don’t offer your customers their preferred payment method. In the 2018 Swedish E-commerce Survey, 45% of respondents said they have cancelled an online purchase in the last three months and 32% of them cancelled because the store did not offer the preferred payment method. Therefore, to survive as an online retailer, you need to offer several different payment methods, otherwise many of your visitors will turn to your competitors to complete their purchase.
customers many different payment options in a single module.
Make it easy to pay
However, it’s not enough to just offer the right payment method, it must also be quick and easy to pay. In the same survey, 54% of respondents said they didn’t want to have to enter their card details for every purchase, and luckily, it’s easier than ever for you as an online retailer to recognise your customers. Klarna, DIBS and Billmate all allow your customers to save their delivery and card details so that they are pre-populated when they arrive at the checkout, allowing your customers to pay with one click.
- Offer multiple payment methods.
- Make it as easy as possible to pay.
- Use a payment service that recognises your customers.
- 6. Social proof
Customer reviews
Using social proof is an effective marketing technique that involves justifying a product by showcasing other customers who have bought it. Your visitors are more likely to trust other customers than they are to trust you and sometimes a good customer review is all it takes to convert an unsure customer. Highlight your customers’ reviews on product pages and reward those who write really good ones with something in return, such as a discount code or free samples.
Trust badges
Another way to gain your customers’ trust is to use trust badges. Trust badges are small images you use on your website to show your customers that you are a trustworthy seller, as you showcase other businesses that have chosen to trust you after careful scrutiny. In Sweden, there are several common trust badges, such as Trygg E-handel. Trygg E-handel is a certification issued by the Swedish Trade Federation to e-retailers who, after ongoing checks, fulfil their requirements for clear, simple and uniform conditions for consumers.
- Highlight product reviews written by your customers.
- Show off trust badges.
7. Find your USP
Take pride
What makes your e-commerce unique? What is it that makes your visitors choose to buy from you instead of the competition? Finding your USP, your unique selling point, can be difficult in a saturated market, but it is a must when you want to differentiate yourself from similar players in the market. To find what makes your e-commerce unique, you need to start with a thorough market analysis to get a clear picture of what is available in the industry today. Then think about what you can offer that no one else can. Are you the cheapest, the fastest, the biggest or the trendiest? Show it off with pride!
Sometimes we meet e-retailers who want to “be the best at everything” or “be there for everyone”. This is a good vision and goal, but the risk is that if you try to stand out by being known for being the best at everything, you will often not be known for anything. Try to pick one thing and then work hard to be the best at it.
- Flaunt your USP.
- Don’t try to be the best at everything. Many have tried, few have succeeded.
Conclusion
Conversion optimisation is about testing, evaluating and implementing. Your customer base is unlike any other and therefore there is no one-size-fits-all approach, you need to discover for yourself what it is that makes your visitors click the buy button. Most importantly, take your time, analyse your data thoroughly and don’t do something just because it ‘feels’ right. Hasty change decisions based on feelings will most likely only lead to confusing your visitors, and a confused visitor rarely becomes a converted customer.