E-commerce has long been an integral part of our lives. Every day, more and more people make purchases through the Internet, and recently, creating an online store has become incredibly simple. There are many automated resources with ready-made layouts of Internet sites, but the level of competition is growing along with this. Assessment of the effectiveness of the selling resource is becoming increasingly relevant, and one of these indicators is the conversion of the online store.
What is conversion?
The conversion of an online store is the ratio of the number of visitors to the site that performed certain actions to the total number of visitors.
Unfortunately, most owners do not quite understand what a conversion is. By their naivety, they believe that the more people visit the store, the more they will make purchases. Of course, there is a grain of truth in this, only by increasing the conversion of the online store, you can get more sales from existing traffic.
Increasing conversion is a set of measures to improve sales. To improve the commercial situation, it is necessary to find the problem points and eliminate them.
Average performance
It is worth noting that the target action of an online store is not always the purchase of goods. This can be a link, subscription, registration, etc. In order for the resource to work efficiently, you need to correctly understand and analyze the conversion dynamics, because the income directly depends on this. Only by determining the conversion level of the online store, you can understand how effectively it operates.
Based on average indicators, you can observe the dynamics of the development of the resource. It is believed that the average conversion of an online store is 1-2%. Such indicators are considered normal, and if the owner is close to normal, he can develop and expand his resource with a clear conscience and a calm heart. But if the average is less than 1%, you should look for additional sources of customer acquisition.
It is also worth noting that each owner must decide for himself how the average conversion of the online store fits his business. For example, if the resource specializes in the sale of expensive household appliances, then the completed 20 transactions per 1000 views (i.e. 2%) - this is a very good indicator. But if the online store sells small and inexpensive goods, then such indicators will very soon ruin the owner.
Formula
Owners of online stores and marketers use special tools for fixing indicators. Simply put, they calculate the conversion percentage of an online store using the formula:
Conversion = Number of orders / Total visits x 100%.
For example, if the store was visited by 2,000 people, and 104 customers placed the order, then the conversion level in this case would be 5.2%. According to recent market research, rates above 5% are considered high. But still, much depends on the specifics and the goods offered. Therefore, so many owners are wondering how to improve conversions. Trying to find a worthy answer, they do not even notice how they make many fatal mistakes.
Nasty tips
The question of how to increase the conversion of an online store is interesting to many, so the owners are not averse to sharing their experience and achievements. There is only one big “but”: what suits one business can adversely affect another. Therefore, do not:
- Take general advice. Each store has its own unique problems. And if some method worked well for someone, this does not mean that he will bring the same results to others.
- Thoughtlessly implement changes. Before you try something new, you need to conduct preliminary testing.
- Focus on the wrong indicators. It is necessary to focus on the action that will be profitable. It is more important for someone to increase market share, for someone - to make a profit from advertising returns, etc. It is necessary to pay attention to such trifles, and not to the number of visitors and goods in their baskets. Who knows, suddenly they still will not buy it.
Improving Conversion
Owners of online stores often face a problem when their resource is visited by more than a thousand users, but sales are not observed. This can be caused by a number of reasons: from inappropriate traffic to an inconvenient and complex interface. What needs to be done to increase the conversion of the online store?
First, put yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer. Owners often sin that they never place orders on their own site. Very vain! They must go this way from beginning to end with the accompanying video fixation and screenshots of each step. After analyzing the ordering process from the point of view of the client, you can understand what is redundant in this process, what can be added, and what can be simplified.
Secondly, you need to build a sales funnel. That is, to form a list of pages that lead to sales. This list ends on the thank you page for your purchase. This will provide an opportunity to understand at what stage and where potential customers go.
Thirdly, you need to connect additional analytics to study the behavior of users on the site.
Fourth, you need to work with reviews. No one but the buyers will say what and why they do not like. Better yet, if the owner conducts usability testing. This will increase understanding of the problems that the buyer is facing.
Solution of problems
All these steps help identify problems in the functioning of the resource. At the next stages of increasing the conversion of the online store, you need to solve them. First, make a list of all the flaws.
Each problem has its own reason; it needs to be identified and circumvented in the future. Each problem needs to find a solution. Sometimes there may be several such solutions, so preliminary testing will be necessary.
In addition, it is worth looking for promising hidden opportunities. For example, on the page with gratitude you can list all the advantages of registration and invite the client to register. A person, knowing that he already has an account, will use it. This method will help increase the number of subsequent sales and, accordingly, make a good conversion for the online store.
After the work on the errors has been carried out, and if there are options on how to fix the situation, it is necessary to conduct testing and apply the method that will bring more profit.
Popular methods
Often, for online stores use the following methods of attracting visitors:
- SEO promotion. Internal and external resource optimization to attract traffic. Typically, the key words are entered into the texts, and the target audience that is configured to make a purchase gets on the site.
- Contextual advertising. Such advertisements appear on Yandex and Google search pages. These ads quickly attract the target audience, but for them to work properly, they must be set up by a specialist.
- Advertising products on the trading floors. According to the latest statistics, the bulk of online purchases are made on trading floors. Plus, adding your ads to these shopping conglomerates, the online store automatically falls into the first lines of search results.
- Social networks. Since they are incredibly popular all over the world, they are a valuable resource for attracting visitors. You can advertise an online store through an official group or place ads in other groups with related topics. With the help of social networks, the conversion of an online store, whatever it was originally, will increase several times.
- Advertising on thematic forums. This method is great for those resources that are aimed at attracting a narrowly targeted audience.
- Content marketing. Useful articles about the store’s products and their proper use will significantly increase attendance, and will also cause loyalty and trust.
These tools to attract traffic work, but you need to analyze them correctly. Some stores will only have enough advertising on thematic forums, while others will have to apply a whole range of measures.
Influence factors
It’s not difficult to measure the conversion of an online store, but be that as it may, it’s important to understand that many factors influence the percentage. Any innovation can change the conversion for better or worse. What should be done so as not to lose position?
First, understand your target audience correctly. Before starting a project with a product or service, it is important to understand who will buy them. Not only the style of communication with the client and the content of the site, but even the design design will depend on this. It happens that the target audience is not the people on whom the online store was oriented. Therefore, you need to thoroughly examine your typical buyer.
Secondly, it is important to correctly contact visitors, that is, to conduct a dialogue with them in a clear language. This will help create a trusting atmosphere.
Thirdly, trust. With the development of e-commerce, the danger of being caught by scammers has increased. On the site, the visitor does not see either the store’s employees or its manager, and what is a sin to hide, even the goods can not be held in their hands. Therefore, it is necessary to prove to the visitor his honest intentions and to convince him of the safety of the transaction. For this, they usually use social evidence: real contact details, team photos, reviews, etc. Also, design, usability, high-quality texts, reviews of real customers and specialists will inspire trust.
It is important to pay attention to the terms of delivery, payment and return of goods. If the proposed options are suitable for the buyer, he will certainly make an order. It is important that the client has the opportunity to choose the method of receiving the goods that suits him the most. Technical factors should not be overlooked: most users are impatient, and if the page loads slowly, they will simply leave it.
TOP 15 working recommendations to increase conversion
If the online store has a normal conversion, this is good, but this is not a reason to refuse to improve it. Experts recommend using the following tricks:
1. Exclude compulsory registration. The bulk of buyers are annoyed by the need to fill out a questionnaire and confirm data through the mail. It is better to abandon this bureaucracy by offering the Buy in 1 Click button. If registration is still necessary, then for it you can offer some bonuses or discounts.
2. Quality photos and videos. The buyer can not touch the product and inspect it in real life, so you need to do everything possible so that he can examine the product in detail through the monitor screen and make a positive opinion about it.
Texts, pages, delivery
All texts are for people. Visitors are repelled by descriptions that are similar to each other. Also no need to abuse keywords. You need to write as if you are talking to a person in a store.
Home page Since it is the most visited, it should be written about the activities and advantages of the company. In addition, you can talk about the assortment of goods, inform about the action - in a word, do everything to interest and keep the visitor.
Thoughtful delivery. It is necessary to analyze the work of competitors and work out all possible delivery options.
Advertising, advice, reviews
Lack of pop-up ads. Not that it should not exist at all, but to attack with a pop-up window a client who just followed the link is too much.
Online consultant on the site. Communicating with customers, managers can positively influence customer decisions.
Convenient website with responsive design. The interface should be simple, intuitive and displayed on all devices.
Reviews On the site you need to place real customer reviews, it is they who have a great influence on the decision to make a purchase.
Discounts, payment, goods
Offer alternative and complementary products. Visitors do not always buy what they came for. If the product has several options, then you can offer the buyer an alternative.
Basket. Oddly enough, but it is the simplicity and literacy of the design of the basket that has a big impact on the level of conversion.
Bonuses and discounts. This is the most effective way to attract and retain customers. It is worth developing an effective reward system - and the level of conversion will increase significantly.
Payment. It is worth offering customers several payment methods, in other words, accepting money in all possible ways.
Blog and specifications
Technical points. You need to constantly maintain your resource in working condition. Visitors will leave if the site starts generating errors or loading slowly.
Blogging Interesting articles on a constantly updated blog are a guarantee that more visitors will get to the site.
And finally: it’s worth remembering that conversion is a dynamic indicator. You can’t get a good influx of customers once and stop there. You need to constantly work and improve.