blog

10 Ways to Improve Your Ecommerce Website Conversion Rates

Just about every business owner wants to improve their website's conversion rates, but what many of them don’t know is that doing so comes down to following a handful of commonsense guidelines. Here are 10 ecommerce web design techniques that have been proven to increase conversions.

Product images matter

The quality of product is often assumed from the quality of the product's imagery. Always use high quality, high-res photos. And only use images with consistent product placement, dimensions and whitespace. Don't skimp on the number of photos and allow users zoom in to see a product's detail. Taking the time to properly naming your images is also a great way to improve your ecommerce website's seo.

Don’t cut corners on product descriptions

Consumers are hungry for to the point, matter-of-fact descriptions. Sticking to the facts and keeping it simple will drive conversions as well as repeat visits. Also, avoid skimping on the quality of writing. While you may be tempted to save a couple bucks operating your ecommerce websites, consumers can sense when description is not written by someone familar with your audience

Use videos wisely

Embedding videos into your ecommerce website can be a slippery slope. On one hand, video has been shown to increase engagement and conversions. But avoid auto-playing videos, as some users may become frustrated if pages are loading slowly. Back-linking to user-generated content sites, such as YouTube, is a great way to use video as part of your ecommerce web design strategy, while ensuring that your pages will load quickly.

Minimize shipping costs

75% of consumers expect free delivery. Obviously, some product categories are going to be more costly to ship than others, but conversions will increase if you can find a way to work “free shipping” into your ecommerce site's messaging and checkout. While you may not be able to ship all your products all the time for free, offering free shipping as a promotion will drive sales and increase conversions. 

Feature product reviews

Social proof is one of the pillars of persuasion, which is why so many businesses incorporate customer reviews/testimonials into their ecommerce website design. Research demonstrates that over 90% of consumers read reviews before they purchase. Reviews and testimonials are also a great way to juice your ecommerce seo.

More CTA buttons, please

You can almost never have too many Calls-To-Action, and it’s a good idea to repeat the same CTAs throughout your site. The most important buttons of any ecommerce web design are usually going to be “Add to Cart” and “Checkout,” so be sure to make those CTAs prominent and easy to find.

Showcase your contact info

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it is shameful how many businesses don’t display their phone number, email and address info where it’s easy to find. By making it difficult for consumers to find your contact info, you increase the likelihood that they’ll bounce to the next website and convert somewhere else. Make sure your contact info is a front-and-center part of your ecommerce website design.

Tackle shopping cart abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment is a reality for every ecommerce strategy, but that doesn’t mean you have to take it sitting down. Consumers abandon shopping carts for a variety of reasons from high shipping costs to low page load speeds. Forcing a buyer to register before buying also doesn't help. One of the easiest ways to minimize shopping cart abandonment is to collect an email address at the beginning the checkout process. That way you can retarget customers who abandon their carts with follow-up email campaigns.

Take advantage of multiple payment options

Eccomerce website owners can choose from a plethroa of website payments processing options to offer their customers including credit card, Apple and Google Pay and even Bitcoin. "Buy now and pay later" payment tools can also be added to the a checkout process. Sometimes winning the sale can come down to offering payment via PayPal versus havingt the customer to manually type in their credit card info. Staying on top of the latest online payment trends can seem daunting, but it’s worth it.

Make the checkout process easy

Checkout is not the time to play 20 questions. Businesses try to incorporate data mining into their ecommerce website design, but at the cost of conversions. For example, consumer survey's show that requiring registration during checkout can increase the likelihood of shopping cart abandonment by over 30%. Keep it simple: Only ask for the info needed to complete the transaction.

Avatar New York Web Design is an award-winning ecommerce website design company specializing in website design, custom development, digital marketing, and managed web hosting.