With online sales doubling in 2020 due to physical distancing restrictions in response to COVID-19, the need to build a successful ecommerce website has never been more important to retailers.

The problem is while you’re busy setting up your online store, your competition is doing the exact same thing. This raises the question of how to ensure your ecommerce store is doing everything it can to convert your website visitors into customers.

The good news is that you can optimize your ecommerce store easily without spending a lot of money!

Here are 3 key areas you should focus on to maximize conversions on your website:

1. Create a user-friendly experience

Shopping online should be easy, efficient, and fun! Your website architecture plays a crucial role in whether customers stay on your website. Even if you have the best products at the best prices, a poor online experience will send your customers away from your website and into the hands of your competitors. Here are some key strategies to create the best user experience possible:

• Refresh your web design: Any time is a good time to do some housekeeping, especially since 75% of online shoppers report that a website’s first impression strongly influences their buying decision. This means making sure your product listings are nicely organized, your product images and descriptions pop, and your site navigation is easy without your customers having to do too much clicking.
• Revisit your SEO strategy: When someone searches for a product on Google, you want to be on the first page. With less than 5% of web searchers making it to the second page, there’s no other option if you want to reap a ton of organic traffic. By researching the right product keywords, improving your website load speed, and developing a comprehensive search engine optimization strategy, you’ll increase your chances of landing on the first page of Google.
• Optimize your website for mobile: Did you know that 60% of mobile users have purchased a product or service from their mobile device? Always ensure that your eCommerce store looks great and performs efficiently on mobile so you won’t miss out on these valuable sales opportunities. Also, Google places a high priority on quality mobile websites, which will also help your search rankings.
• Add a customer chat box: Sometimes customers need a little help on your website. In fact, 83% of them do! Make answering their questions easy (and fun) by adding a chat box to your site. If you can’t support 24-hour live chat support, try a chatbot. Both will really ramp up the customer experience and drive more sales.
• Focus on your bestsellers: When it comes to shopping online, too much choice isn’t always a good thing. In fact, being overwhelmed by rows and rows of products can actually chase customers away. That’s why it’s often a great idea to help your shoppers make informed buying decisions by featuring bestselling items or other subsets of your inventory on your web page.
• Create clear CTAs: Your customer has read your product page and is excited about the product. Without a clear call-to-action, they won’t know what to do next. Whether you want them to buy, subscribe, or contact you directly, your CTA needs to succinctly express the next steps you want them to take – otherwise they may not take any action at all.

2. Create compelling product pages

The customer experience you created has compelled someone to click through to a product page. So far, so good! Now’s your chance to convert that visitor into a customer, so let’s make sure your product pages are up to the task. Here’s how you can do that:

• Sell product benefits, not features: When people come to your website, they’re looking for the right product or service that will solve their problem. Simply boasting about how great the product is won’t create a connection with your customers. Be sure to create product descriptions that focus on the benefits.
• Provide upsell opportunities: Selling 3 items is always preferable to selling one. By offering related items or bundled packages on your product page, you create the opportunity to boost sales by up to 35%. Additionally, you create extra value to your customer by offering complete solutions all in one shot.
• Create FOMO: Customers can be highly motivated by a “fear of missing out” (FOMO). You can create a sense of urgency with compelling reasons to complete the purchase, such and “Limited quantities available!”, “Only a few left!”, “Free shipping available only today!”, or another angle that will make the sale.
• Display product reviews: According to research, 92% of consumers trust a recommendation from a peer. This means that people actually take reviews into account. There are simple widgets you can use to ask customers to review your company, customer service, and products, further building brand trust and reputation which helps increase the likelihood of conversions.
• Show demo videos: Videos are excellent tools to tell product stories that connect with your customers. According to a recent survey, 84% of consumers were convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand’s video. In addition, consistently posting how-to videos, product reviews, and other video content can really help your SEO.

3.    Optimize the checkout experience

Now that your customers are ready to check out, you can continue to provide a great payment experience that can bring in additional sales both right now and down the road. How can you do that? Read on:

• Make checking out easy: Having a long, complicated checkout process can frustrate your customers and result in abandoned carts and lost sales. Design your checkout process to be fast, simple, and stress-free for your customers by minimizing clicks and navigation, offering multiple payment options, and ensuring a seamless checkout experience on mobile.
• Start a loyalty program: Research has shown that 80% of your future sales will come from 20% of your customer base. You can grow this number by rewarding repeat customers with a loyalty program. Loyalty programs that offer incentives for redeemable point totals or completed levels are fun for customers, and will grow your customer base at the same time.
• Display security badges: Shoppers want to be assured that you’re going to treat their personal information with respect. You can help earn their confidence by prominently displaying your trust badges, payment provider logos, and SSL certificates. This will show your customers that you take data security and customer safety seriously.
• Offer upgrades to free shipping: How many times have you ordered more than you originally intended in order to qualify for free shipping? Your customers don’t want to pay for shipping either, so by offering a minimum order total that qualifies for free shipping you can convert more sales quickly.
• Send abandoned cart reminders: Sometimes, shoppers will put items in their shopping cart and then leave your website before completing the transaction. We may never know why it happens, but you can try to recapture those sales by sending automated cart abandonment emails that invite customers in a friendly, upbeat way to complete their transaction, along with a link to their shopping cart.

Optimizing your online store might take some time and effort, but investing in it now will pay off huge dividends in the long run. As always, if you have any questions or need assistance, our team is here to help!