In 2016 retail ecommerce sales in the US will total just under $400 billion. By 2020 that number is predicted to grow to as high as nearly $700 billion. To date in 2016 the average US ecommerce conversion rate across all devices is 2.76%.
What follows are 6 keys areas to focus on in order to improve ecommerce conversions:
1. Shipping and Returns
Free shipping is the best shipping policy, but if offering free shipping is not an option, it’s critical to at least make shipping policies known to your customers before they reach the checkout process.
Without a generous return policy ecommerce retailers risk losing customers who are worried they’ll be stuck with a product they don’t love. Outline return policies thoroughly on your website. Users who can’t find information on returns may give up the purchase process altogether.
2. Navigation:
Navigation should be intuitive, which means that menu items are presented logically, according to the way users shop. The language of navigation items should reflect the language used by everyday shoppers to describe these categories and items.
In order to help customers find what they’re looking for without having to sift through pages of results, provide options that allow them to sort product listings based on the attributes that matter most to them.
3. Site Speed:
The slower an ecommerce site loads, the fewer transactions it will be able to complete. Building a beautiful, functional site is important, but if you really want it to convert fast load times are critical.
4. Mobile-Ready:
Ecommerce websites must be optimized for shopability on mobile devices. The checkout process should be revised to meet the needs of mobile users. Save and autofill customer information whenever possible. Use large buttons in areas of the screen that are easily accessible to the thumbs. Automatically zoom to form fields so fingers can easily fill in the required information.
5. Product Page Optimization:
High quality photography is the single most important component of an effective product landing page. Invest in high quality product photography and display a variety of large product images on product pages. Doing so makes customers more confident that the product they’ll receive matches what they see on your website.
Product copy should speak clearly to the benefits or value of the product. It should also preempt user questions and offer helpful brand advice about the product.
User reviews are a form of a social proof, which is a powerful way to highlight how trusted a brand is.
Product videos are a relatively new feature on ecommerce product pages and they do a tremendous job of taking much of the guesswork out of buying online.
6. Checkout Process:
The last thing customers want is to be surprised by shipping and tax costs at the final step of the purchase funnel. As advised in an earlier section, shipping costs should be clearly displayed elsewhere on the website, but it’s useful to reiterate them at the shopping cart level. Also allow users to calculate their tax costs based on area code so they have a full understanding of costs before they begin the checkout process.
Always offer a guest checkout option so customers can complete an order without creating an account.
Highlighting how many steps there are in the checkout process helps orient customers in the purchase funnel. When a guideline of the process is not available customers sometimes do not know how many steps until the final one and this can cause anxiety.
Courtesy of Forbes
