Any online shop needs to convert as many shoppers as possible. Even the best-converting websites are only converting about 5% of their website visitors. However, on average, only about one in fifty visitors to your website will convert.

Improving the number of people who buy (or take another action) on your website, is known as Conversion Rate Optimization. It is a complicated process where you design your website and sales process to make it more effective at converting visitors to your website through SEO and on-page optimization.

In this article, we will look at how you can optimize your website so it performs better. But first, you’ve got to understand why conversion rates might be low.

Why Are Conversion Rates So Low?

There are numerous reasons why conversion rates are traditionally low. For starters, the average number of touchpoints (interactions) between a brand and a lead is 5-12 before a sale is made. That includes the number of times a customer visits your website, speaks to a member of your sales team or perhaps interacts on social media.

There could be numerous reasons for this, but the main cause is often that they are just researching their purchase at one time and don’t have the time/funds to commit to a purchase. Sometimes, they want to know what their budget is for the purchase or what you have to offer.

Conversions could also be low because there are problems with your website design. Design can have a big influence on visitor behaviors. Another key factor that can impact sales is your delivery options. In fact, delivery costs are one of the main reasons why people don’t convert.

Another common factor is trust. If customers don’t trust you with their information, they’re not going to provide it.

You have to overcome these problems if you want to succeed. This is where these 10 conversion rate optimization strategies will help.

Key Takeaways
1
Minimize website clutter to direct customers to call-to-actions, improving load times and conversions.
2
Build trust with audiences using trust badges, reviews, live chat, and social media feeds to boost conversion rates.
3
Utilize gamification, like wheel-of-fortune games, to engage visitors and encourage them to provide their email addresses.

Strategy One: Minimization

The first strategy is to make your website less busy. Research has shown that when your website has less clutter, you can direct customers to important call-to-actions and other elements that you want them to see on your website. The less distractions, the more visitors that will follow through with actions.

Another bonus is that minimization of your website will improve speed. Research has shown that 25% of visitors will abandon your website if it takes 4 seconds or more to load. Minimization reduces load times and therefore conversions. It can also impact your page ranking on search engines.

Strategy Two: Think About Placement

Another key aspect is to think about the placement of items on a page. Users tend to read more of what is on the left-hand side of the screen or at the top. So this is where you need to put the important information.

Try to make your ‘go to checkout’ a floating bar across the top of the screen. Therefore it is always possible.

Strategy Three: Build Trust With Audiences

Another key aspect is to build trust with audiences. There are several ways to do this. The first is to include trust badges stating what payment processes you accept. Another is to add reviews. There are lots of review apps on Shopify that will import product reviews from AliExpress and other systems.

There are some that can also automate review requests.

There are other factors that can improve trust, including having live chat on your site. You can also add social media feeds. Social media profiles which you have lots of followers on, can improve trust because they act like reviews by providing peer recommendation trust signals.

Strategy Four: Gamification

Gamification is one of the best options when it comes to conversion because it taps into the human need to compete. Many aspects of gamification can be tied to building a mailing list or ensuring that your visitors are buying. A very popular gamification is a wheel-of-fortune game. This is where visitors are offered free spins on a wheel to win a prize.

To claim their prize, often a discount or a free ebook, the user provides an email address. There are several apps that, on Shopify, can really help you convert more customers. One of these is Vitals, which is an app that has more than forty functions.

Strategy Five: Coupon Codes

One of the main reasons why customers leave your store is that they think your prices are too high. That leaves a simple option that allows you to convert more visitors to your store: coupons. Today there are lots of ways to give your audience coupons to buy from you. You could just have coupons and advertise them on coupon sites.

However, the longevity of the customer’s lifetime is probably limited for this. What you really want to do is to get the customer to give you their email address and offer them a discount code for that offer.

For the best results, to ensure coupon code sites don’t just steal your codes and pass them on to unsubscribed customers, is to have these codes automatically generated when the customer subscribes.

Strategy Six: Utilize Shoppable Instagram Stores

Instagram is a powerful social media platform and it is highly used by millennials. And 84% of this age group are influenced by what they see on this channel. You can upgrade your Instagram feeds, so that when a user clicks on the picture it can be added to a cart.

Your feed can be embedded on your home page for quick access to products. This speeds up the process of buying for customers and gives you a great way to generate sales.

Strategy Seven: Adjust Your 404 Page

Your 404 page is a page that displays when someone has entered an incorrect extension to your website. This could be because of a typo or because there is a broken link. The 404 page is often underutilized. Instead of just showing the default 404 page, change it to feature top performing products, featured collections, or content you think your visitors might like.

Strategy Eight: Build A Great About Us Page

Often, the about us page on a shop is underutilized. You need to tell a story with your about us page, to build a strong identity and sympathize with your audience. They need to feel an emotional connection with your brand and for the customer to realize the lifestyle that is associated with your products.

Try to build a story of your product using the following questions:

  • Where did your idea come from?
  • What makes your products special?
  • What makes your team special?
  • Describe the average day in the life of your customer.

Strategy Nine: Make Sure You Have Lots Of Contact Information

Customers want easy-to-find contact details for your business. Research has found that 44% of customers will abandon your store if they can’t find a phone number or any other contact information. They want to share their thoughts and perhaps ask questions.

So be sure that you have all the basic contact information on your website. And don’t have a generic Gmail or Yahoo email. They look like you’re an amateur when you want to be building trust with the audience.

Even if you’re dropshipping, don’t forget to include a physical shelf either. Many countries have this as a legal requirement and customers like to see there is a physical location for your business.

Strategy Ten: Ensure Your Website Is Mobile Ready

The final strategy is to ensure that your website is mobile-ready. If it isn’t, you could lose more than two out of every five shoppers. This could lead to a loss of 40% of your revenue. Every Shopify store is optimized for mobile, luckily, so it is a good reason to select Shopify as your store’s software.