Learn how to increase ecommerce conversions rate.
Building an online store is the first step to reaching your target audience and goals. But there are thousands of other businesses that have taken their brand online with the same hope and are failing in more ways than one.
That’s why it is going to take more than just listing your products online, to get them to convert. Proper strategies are needed to tap into consumer psychology and leverage it. However, we understand that the amount of information available on the internet on this topic can be overwhelming and even confusing.
But don’t worry! As eCommerce experts, we got your back. Here are 10 conversion must-haves on your eCommerce website we strongly recommend.
Conversion must-haves for new-age eCommerce websites and why it works
Announcement bar
The average attention span of an internet user is roughly about 8 seconds. That’s all! It’s this increasingly shorter attention span of consumers that most online stores see a very high bounce rate on their websites.
Take a look at the average bounce rates for different types of websites –
Source – CXL
So, you need to be quick in gathering a store visitor’s attention. You should be able to gauge their interest from the get-go.
Now, how do you do that?
An announcement bar is a great way to ‘instantly’ capture attention with your best possible deals and offers. Make your announcement bars sticky, bright, and easy to click on. It should be visible clearly even when the user scrolls down and on all pages. Add a clear CTA here to direct the user to engage and take a particular action.
Personalized recommendations
Personalization in your eCommerce website is no longer good-to-have; it is a must-have!
To put things into perspective, check this out – 91% of consumers state they are more likely to shop from brands that give personalized offers and recommendations. And hence, 89% of online businesses are investing in personalization to leverage these conversions.
To keep a visitor engaged with your website, you need to continually show them things they are likely to be interested in. Shopify apps like WISER make this easy with its AI-based product recommendation engine. It helps not just show similar products, but also items that can be bought together, what others are buying, etc. This helps play on psychology and interest thus persuading the user to complete a purchase.
Additional resources:
- See how leading Shopify and Shopify Plus brands generate 10X more revenue with personalized product recommendations
- How to use product recommendations at different stages of a buyer journey
- Conversion hacks to get more sales out of product recommendations
- How to choose the right product recommendation strategy for your Shopify store
Social proof
Social proof on your website helps build customer trust, aid in and simplify a customer’s buying decisions, and improve your brand presence.
As an eCommerce store merchant, you need to completely understand that buyer preferences are heavily influential. Consumers need to give ‘justifications’ to themselves for the purchase that they are making. And other happy consumers’ experience with your brand helps shape this thought process.
Did you know that shoppers read an average of 40 online reviews before trusting if any branding’s star rating is accurate or not? Furthermore, 88% of consumers trust user reviews as much as personal recommendations.
The more proof you have, the more likely a store visitor is to convert and come back.
So, your new-age DTC eCommerce website needs to include social proof in its store design. You also need to display the reviews, ratings, and testimonials clearly. Add a few notable recommendations to your landing page in a dedicated section for the same. You should also add a customer review section on all of your product pages.
Additionally, keep the process of adding a review as simple as possible. It’s also great if you could enable users to upload product pictures and/or their experiences in their reviews.
User-generated content (UGC)
This is another form of social proof, but more real-life. It helps tap into the relatability aspect for a consumer and gets them to visualize how a product looks on those like them.
Here’s an interesting statistic. An average of 30% of the total time that millennials spend on online media consumption is spent on UGC. And 41% of consumers will be tempted to purchase a product with as few as one to four of such content pieces.
On your website, you can invite consumers to engage with your brand and post their experience on social media using a dedicated hashtag. You can then repost this content on your social media handles and also display a portion of it on your website.
Live sales notifications
You can also add another persuasive design element to your eCommerce website – live sales notification.
Here, notifications about recent purchases from your store keep showing up; ideally at the bottom-left corner of the screen. This helps create a sense of urgency, getting a visitor to decide faster.
Countdown timer
This again helps create the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO).
According to Strategy Online, 60% of millennial consumers claim they had made an impulsive buy within 24 hours after experiencing FOMO.
Setting a time limit to a product or an offer is a great persuader to get a user to take an action swiftly. A countdown timer is a great addition on pages that include offers and deals that are time-sensitive. Once the said time window elapses, the product goes back to its original price.
Try to add this countdown timer to your announcement bar and make it sticky. This way, it will always be visible to your website visitors and will urge them to take the required action.
Live chat
In online shopping, the inability to touch and feel a product leads to doubts. Your consumers are bound to have tons of queries before making a purchase. How you handle this anxiety and doubtfulness is going to make a huge difference in your conversion rate.
Guide them throughout their shopping journey by being just a tap away. Live chat is a great integration to eCommerce stores. Here’s something interesting. Live chat boasts a 48% increase in revenue per chat hour. Furthermore, 40% of users who use live chat have much higher chances of completing an online purchase.
FAQ section
It’s important to go beyond the conventional product descriptions and also add a comprehensive FAQ section to your website. It helps answer queries and concerns in more detail.
You can add a separate FAQ page and/or have a dedicated FAQ section on all product and/or category pages.
Ability to check delivery and shipping
Keep your users informed. Let them feel like they’re in control.
On the product page add a field where users can input their zip/pin codes to see if the product is available in their location and when they can expect the delivery of it. This improves the User Experience (UX) of your online store tremendously resulting in increased likeability and acceptability of your brand. This is ultimately going to impact your conversion rates as well!
Exit-intent popups
Even after making all the above-mentioned alterations and additions, there is still a good chance your customers could leave without making any purchase.
Exit-intent popups have a similar effect as that of announcement bars, but give you that last opportunity to re-capture a visitor’s interest and get them to convert.
Make an irresistible final pitch by displaying a popup with discounts and deals to grab their attention.
Here’s an example of what an exit-intent popup looks like –
Conclusion
Increasing conversions will not happen overnight. It takes time and strategic addition of the conversion elements mentioned in this article will help.
With WISER, we help you tackle the one must-have to drive more conversions on your online store – personalization. With our powerful recommendation engine, we help you understand how consumers interact with your website, the products they are interested in and their purchase intent, and display recommendations that they are more likely to interact with at that stage.
This has led to Shopify and Shopify Plus brands seeing an average increase of conversion rate by almost 13% and higher.
Ready to see how product recommendations work? Install the WISER app on your store today!
