Improve eCommerce Conversion Rates

There is quite a bit of hype and lure related to starting and operating an e-commerce store. The news is full of stories featuring stay-at-home moms who are now making thousands of additional dollars per month thanks to their e-commerce store they run for just a few hours per day. In reality, running an e-commerce store is very difficult, and few people break even, let alone make thousands of dollars in their spare time. While we’re not trying to dissuade you from starting an e-commerce store, we are going to give you three tips which you can implement into your e-commerce store to increase conversions and sales, and ultimately increase profits.

Use Upselling and Cross-Selling Techniques

Upselling and cross-selling are two terms used to describe the practice of suggesting more products for your customers to buy while they are in the checkout phase. These products should be similar, or should be complementary to the objects they already have in their shopping cart. For example, if your customer has decided to purchase a cellphone from your e-commerce store, it would be appropriate to upsell cellphone accessories such as cases, chargers and screen protectors, since these items are generally bought in conjunction with cell phones anyway.

Another method you can use that is similar to up-selling is called cross-selling. There are numerous ways to go about cross-selling, but it generally refers to using incentives to get your customers to purchase more items from your store. One of the most common cross-selling methods seen in almost every e-commerce store is the free shipping incentive. This involves setting a subtotal threshold that will eliminate the shipping cost. The threshold should be high enough that the additional shipping cost you bear won’t cut into your total profit from the sale.

A popular way of incorporating cross-selling into your e-commerce store is to download a plugin that will automatically recommend products to your customers that will bring their total to the threshold before they checkout. This greatly increases the chances of your customers purchasing the additional items, thus giving you more revenue.

Simplify Checkout Process

UK SEO is highly dependent upon optimizing the store checkout process in an effort to make it as seamless and easy as possible. You would be surprised by the number of people who have decided to purchase something, but then abort their purchase when it comes time to checkout because the checkout page is unorganized, difficult to navigate, or doesn’t look trustworthy for whatever reason.

Many e-commerce websites incorporate confusing, lengthy and oftentimes malfunctioning multi-page checkout forms which are both annoying and difficult to use. Instead of using a multi-page form you can improve customer conversion by using a single-page checkout form that incorporates all needed information on the same page. This page will show both the billing and shipping address, the shipping option(s) available, the payment method, and obviously what items are being purchased, how they cost, along with the total. Users should be able to edit all information from this one page, making it much easier for them to complete the checkout process.

Remind Customers of their Shopping Carts

All too often people will go to your website and fill their virtual shopping cart full of items that they want to purchase. For whatever reason, they leave your website without making a purchase. Perhaps they were making a wish list for when they have additional money, or perhaps they wanted to see how much all items were on your website versus a competitor’s website. No matter the reason, you can often lose out on 15% of your profits simply because of people leaving your website without purchasing anything, even though they have items in their shopping carts.

One of the easiest ways to increase the amount of revenue you generate from your e-commerce website is to use email marketing to remind your customers about the items they still have in their cart. A good way to spice up the pot and make them more likely to make a purchase is offer some type of incentive if they purchase. This could be an overall discount on their order, free shipping, or something similar, as long as it gives them incentive to purchase.