Ecommerce website owners have been trained to accept that a 1% conversion rate is good, and a 2% conversion rate is awesome! I blame traditional direct mail for planting those expectations in the minds of website owners. The truth is that you should be expecting conversion rates in the double digits… how does 10%, 20%, 50 % or 65% sound to you?
The first ever Conversion Conference took place in San Jose at the beginning of this week. For three whole days I was completely surrounded by analytics freaks (I mean that in a nice way), marketing experts, web designers, and conversion experts. I was able to hear stories that most of my clients can relate to: ” My site is really nice. I’ve done everything right. I drive traffic like crazy through pay-per-click, search engine marketing and email, but… I have a conversion rate of less than 1% on my site. Help!”
If you’re not ready to start a full blown conversion consultation process, here are a few things you can apply to your Ecommerce site to help improve your online sales:
1. Establish Trust – Even if your product is under $20, there is a certain amount of risk involved for the customer to release their address and credit card information. Use trust symbols to help elevate your trustworthiness, like Hacker Safe, or even a simple lock.
2. Don’t Ask For Sensitive Information Too Soon – Again, no one wants to give their credit card to a complete stranger. If you require someone create an account, don’t ask for their credit card until they hit the “buy now” button.
3. Tell a Story - Especially in this age of social media, the more transparent and personal your company is, the more compelling your product will be.
4. Call a Friend – To you, your website is as obvious as can be, but you’d be shocked to find out how unusable it is to others. Give your friend (preferably someone who hasn’t already shopped on your site) a simple task to accomplish. You can ask them to tell you how many different women’s shoes you carry, or ask them to perform a purchase. Stand behind them and don’t give them any hints and see what you discover.
5. Remove the Risk – What is your return policy, guarantee and contact information? Who else has purchased from you? What were their comments? How many have purchased before? No one likes to be the first buyer on your site, so let them know others have gone before – and that they were happy.
These five steps might seem simple, but in the mind of your consumer they can help alleviate a lot of doubt and fear about doing business with you. Without thorough testing, I can’t promise you’ll see a lift from 1% to 65% but you will see some improvement. For businesses that are really struggling, even a 1% increase can mean the difference between being in business and closing up shop.
Need Help?
We’re here for you and want you to succeed on the web. If you need help putting some of these ideas in place on your own site, call us. We’re glad to help!
About the author: Jeune Ortiz is VP of Marketing and Creative Director at future-ink. With more than 20 years of experience in graphic design and marketing, Jeune brings extensive knowledge and creativity to each website and internet marketing solution to grow your business.
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1 Comment
expekt | May 10, 2010
I see a lot of interesting posts here. I have bookmarked for future referrence.