Attracting traffic to your website is one thing, turning these visitors into customers is quite another. A lot of money can be wasted trying to attract new traffic to your site when the money could be better spent on optimising those who already reach your site, encouraging them to perform a particular action.
What does conversion mean in ecommerce terms?
A conversion depends on your definition and the specific goals that you have but generally refers to moving your prospect along the sales funnel and wanting them to perform a specific action; taking the next step so-to-speak.
We would always advise our clients to take a holistic view at any metrics. It can be easy to look at and measure 'vanity' metrics (these are the quick win volume metrics such as impressions, followers etc) that are relatively easy to track but, are they really adding any value to your goals?
Sustainable growth should factor in other key performance indicators, such as customer satisfaction and repeat purchases. There needs to be a balance of quantity and quality and a deeper understanding of the correlation and relationship of data and its meaning for your business.
The AIDA model
The AIDA model is an advertising theory which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action - it refers to the journey and stages that a customer goes through when making a purchase and is what marketers base their strategies on. To delve deeper, check out Shopify’s blog on conversion funnel leaks.
What actions do you want your prospects/customers to take?
For your business, what actions are you wanting your prospects/customers to take? These may include:
- Going to a specific product/page on your site
- Clicking on a link
- Adding items to a wishlist
- Signing up to a newsletter
- Joining a loyalty programme
- Adding an item to the cart
- Checking out
How to calculate conversion rate?
CONVERSION RATE = TOTAL NUMBER OF CONVERSIONS ÷ NUMBER OF VISTORS x 100
Be specific and consistent with your data. Are you counting ‘sessions’ or ‘unique visitors’? Clarify what you define as a ‘sale’ – is this an ‘order’ or is it ‘shipped/completed sale’?
To give you a benchmark the average ecommerce conversion rates to orders are between 2.5% - 3%, however, it is important to track, measure and adjust according to your circumstances. Be wary of split testing with low numbers as it won't give an accurate sample.
How can I improve CRO on my ecommerce store?
Test with the data – humans aren’t always logical, so even though you may think that your audience behave in a particular way, be sure to monitor what they’re actually doing and how you can better serve their wants and needs. Often data can be implied, so delve deeper!
Things to consider:
- Mobile responsiveness & load speed - if your site isn't responsive or takes too long to load, people leave. Search engines also favour quicker sites
- Landing page - consider content hierarchy and ease of navigation
- Simple CTAs (call to actions) - think easy to use buttons in the right places
- Pop ups - used sparingly these can be a great way to grab attention and encourage action
- Banners - another useful tool to elicit action
- Search bars – help visitors get to where they want to quickly, consider utilising AI with smart search
- Lead generation - how are you encouraging leads to leave their email address? Are you offering a discount code? Are you providing content?
- Product pages - are images consistent, on brand and correctly compressed? Are descriptions consistent, benefit rich and again, on brand?
- Ease of delivery options and returns - this can be a major barrier
- Social proof - reviews and testimonials create trust
- Content - are you providing relevant, useful content with good CTAs? Is your content search engine optimised?
- Heat maps - these show you where users move, click and scroll on your site. Try Mouseflow or Hotjar
- Checkout optimisation - make it super easy for customers. Add Shop Pay, gift cards, account & loyalty creation, upsells as well as guest checkout option
- Automated email campaigns - think welcome series, abandoned carts, back in stock
If you would like some advice or support with improving conversion rate for your Shopify store then get in touch - we'd love to help you.
