4 Simple Ways To Boost eCommerce Conversion Rates
When it comes to online marketing, getting visitors to your website isn’t the tough part, especially considering that the average person spends one in six waking minutes online. The real challenge comes with converting that stream of visitors into paying customers.
So what’s the key? It’s all about your checkout. Optimize your booking process with these four steps, and start changing site visitors into paying customers.
1. Decrease Options, Increase Sales.
When someone walks in the door at In-N-Out, they already know what they’re getting; a fresh burger and quick service. In fact, the only decision they really have to make is to cheese or not to cheese. Because they know exactly what to expect, people visiting In-N-Out are already arriving with the intent of buying.
Channel your inner In-N-Out when it comes to choice, and watch conversions increase. In theory, more options, the better. But in practice, it equates to more effort during the checkout process and a higher level of purchasing anxiety. Instead, offer visitors a targeted choice and a clear expertise. Your bookings will take flight.
For the greatest increase in conversions, offer two to four options. Make the decision even easier with banners that call out your “Most Popular” or “Best Value” options, providing visitors a clear-cut solution no matter what they’re looking for.
2. Build Trust (And Keep It).
Nobody – including your customers – really enjoys handing out their personal information to a faceless form over the internet. Ease the pain by taking a few extra steps to build trust with your site’s visitors and ensure their information security.
Your website is your company’s first impression. Make sure it’s professional and intuitive, with a direct call-to-action that gets visitors to their final objective with ease.
Welcoming visitors to an image-rich site with a simple, clean design is the first thing you can do to start building trust. Once the visitor has decided to make a purchase, continue building their trust as they move through the checkout.
Make sure your credit card processor is fully PCI compliant, and that your processing system safely and securely stores all of your customer’s credit card information.
3. Keep Visitors On The Same URL.
Consider this: only the unicorns of the e-commerce world ever achieve even a 4% conversion rate. Any customer who is even one-click away from completing a purchase is still at a volatile position in the sale.
For this reason, it’s essential that the customer isn’t forced to change URLs in the middle of the booking process. Moving the customer away from the original URL in the middle of the check-out flow instantly depletes trust. They’ve finally made the decision to trust one company, and navigating to a different URL asks them to blindly trust another. Stick to one URL and prevent any doubts.
4. No Making Accounts. Ever.
Never ask your customers to provide more information than is actually needed to complete the sale. On the same note, never subject your customers to receiving more than they’re asking for.
Customers looking to buy a product or experience are looking to do that and only that. Forcing them onto mailing lists or requiring them to make user accounts will only equate to lost conversions. In fact, 23% of eCommerce shoppers abandon their cart to avoid having to make a new user account.
Don’t make the mistake of forcing your customers to choose between your product and making an account.
Main takeaway: Build trust and make it easy. Your customers have options (a lot of ’em) when it comes to making an online purchase. Give them a good reason to choose your business.
