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Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization

By Ashish Kasamaauthor-img
September 30, 2020|9 Minute read|
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INTRODUCTION

Conversion Rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who take a desired action. The desired action can take many forms, varying from site to site. 

You define what a conversion is, but it means sales, in most cases, especially for ecommerce businesses. However, if you’re running a small consulting business, maybe you just want people to pick up the phone and call you. Those can also be conversions. Or if you are offering software, then the number of downloads could be conversion or just about any activity beyond simple page browsing.

Part 1: How to calculate your Ecommerce Conversion Rate

Calculating your conversion rate is often as simple as logging into a tracking program, such as Google Analytics or the backend to your Shopify ecommerce store, and looking for the data provided. 

In Shopify this is done for you. In Google Analytics, all you need to do is add some code to your website after you set up your tracking report. From there, you can track as many campaigns as you want, from Facebook Ads to email signups on a landing page.

Or if you want to calculate manually, then conversion rate comes down to this simple formula:

Part 2: How to Increase Your Ecommerce Conversion Rate

Some Conversion Rate Optimization strategies are as follows:

  • Avoid confusing offers
    •

    A confusing offer will almost always lower your conversion rate. If you confuse your visitors they’ll likely click away. If you want people to download your latest resource, you have to make your offer crystal clear. Check out these examples:

    • Download my e-book!
    • Get my free e-book!
    • Snag a free copy of my best-selling ebook on conversion rate improvement!

    They get clearer from start to finish. In the first example, people don’t know what the e-book is about or how much it costs. In the second, they know it’s free, but they have no idea about the subject matter. The third example contains more compelling verbs and adjectives to increase engagement.

  • Remove All Distractions from the Page
    When you want a high conversion rate you need to keep your visitors’ eyes on the prize. In other words, you want them focused exclusively on the offer.

    Removing the navigation bar that appears on most of your website pages can have a dramatic impact. So can eliminating any distracting visual elements.
  • Test the Main Elements
    •

     
    Running A/B tests on the primary elements of your landing or sales page is very useful. These could include the following:

    • Headline
    • Product image
    • Product copy
    • CTA
    • Product video
    • Bullet-point copy

      By testing these individually and changing up your approach, you can figure out how best to reach your target audience.
  • Watch Your Visitors in Action
    •

     

    It is good to know exactly what a consumer does when he or she lands on a sales or landing page. Watching a recording of your visitors in action can lend you plenty of insight into their interests. You can see where they click, for instance, and when they scroll.

    Part 3: Why does ecommerce conversion rate optimization matter?

    Walmart.ca noticed that a large chunk of the traffic to their e-commerce website came from mobile devices, like tablets and smartphones.

    Unfortunately, the page wasn’t optimized for mobile at all, resulting in 2 major problems.

    The web design was not great and the loading times gigantic. 2 proven revenue killers, because online, it has to be beautiful and fast.

     

    This is what the website redesign looks like:

     

    Walmart was able to boost loading times by about 35%. The design has been improved and holds up to modern user experience criteria. Furthermore, the website is now responsive and exactly fits itself to custom browser and screen sizes for different kinds of tablets and smartphones. Results were very positive for the responsive design. Conversions were up by 20%, mobile orders were up by 98%.

    Part 4: What Is a Good Conversion Rate for Your Online Business?

    “A good conversion rate is one that’s higher than it is now.”

                                                                              -Brandon Weaver 

    To know the best conversion rate for your ecommerce business, you need a baseline. What is your current conversion rate? And what conversion rate do you want to achieve in the next 30 days? The next six months? The next year?

    Industry benchmarks aren’t always an accurate comparison guide. However, let’s look at some of the industry numbers so you can put your mind at ease.

    What Is a Good Conversion Rate for Ecommerce?

    Ecommerce represents a huge chunk of online businesses.

    According to a 2017 study, the average conversion rate for e-commerce is just 1.6 percent.

     

    To put that into perspective, if 1,000 people visit your product page, only 16 of them will convert. That’s kind of depressing. But in an ecommerce business, you need to consider how many products the business sells or what are the price points compared to competitors etc.

    What Are Good Conversion Rates for B2B Websites?

    PropelGrowth breaks down conversion rates based on lead qualification. According to the company’s research, conversion rates from visitor to marketing-qualified lead hover at around 5 percent. The conversion rate from marketing-qualified leads to sales-accepted lead jumps to nearly 60 percent, and more than 50 percent of those make it to the sales-qualified lead stage.

    The final conversion — from sales-qualified lead to actual sale — reaches nearly 30 percent.

    What Is a Good Conversion Rate for Landing Pages?

    It depends on the industry. The best conversion rates for landing pages were nearly 30 percent, while the median conversion rates hovered at around 4 percent across industries.

     

    What Is a Good Conversion Rate for Facebook Ads?

    The average conversion rate for Facebook Ads across all industries in a Wordstream study was 9.21 percent.

    Conclusion

    There are many "best practices" out there when it comes to CRO but, ultimately, you need to find out what your customers respond to, and what drives results for your business.

    Follow these steps for optimizing your own website’s conversion rate:

    • 1. Calculate your conversion rate and compare it with the industry benchmark to check potential for improvement.
    • 2. Experiment with CRO strategies to discover what works for your business.

    Find links below to each part in our Series on Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization:

    Lucent Innovation is a full-service Shopify web design and development company. We build eCommerce websites that are ready to sell, scale, and grow.-- 
    Contact us for your next project:

    844-582-3681
    shopify@lucentinnovation.com
    https://www.lucentinnovation.com/

    Ashish Kasama
    Ashish Kasama

    One-stop solution for next-gen tech.