What do you do once the customers have arrived on your e-commerce site?

How can you provide your target audience with a secure, efficient, and accessible e-commerce shopping experience?

How can you translate traffic into sales? 

As a business owner, it can often feel like there are more questions than answers when it comes to growing your revenue. It’s a LOT, right!?

Just remember that you are capable of achieving new levels of success via your ecommerce site, and the Boss Brand Blog is here to show you how.

One of the biggest challenges in ecommerce is driving traffic to your platforms and gaining traction within the sea of online retailers and businesses all vying for your target customers’ attention.

How can you stand out!? In our previous blog, we looked at some great ways to connect with what customers really want.

Let’s begin here.

You know your target, have connected with your clients in an authentic way, and have brought them into your space. Basically, you’re a boss babe with a regular stream of client interaction and site traffic! A flow of customers, however, isn’t enough! You also need sales.

This brings us to the challenge of Conversion.

As a refresher, the ratio of transactions to customer sessions on your site or platform equates to conversions.

This ratio is expressed as a percentage. If 1 out of 10 visitors complete a transaction, the ecommerce Conversion Rate would be 10%. The higher your score, the better – just Ms. Pacman (or Candy Crush).

There are several reasons that your conversions may be lower than you’d like. (And they’re all totally fixable).

Here’s how to address the main ways that you can actively address the gaps in your e-commerce strategy and maximize conversions. 

1. Focus on a stellar user experience

For customers to complete transactions, they need to feel absolutely confident and that they are making an informed and safe purchase.

Shoppers are busy! You only get, on average, 5 seconds to make a good first impression.

They then move on to a site with easier navigation, efficiency, and accessibility. And you lose sales.

With limited time to get browsers from product to checkout, the importance of simple navigation, security, and site speed is essential. To help customers feel safe, provide a professional and authentic appearance to your site.

Let’s look at How:

User Experience & Security

Your Ecommerce platform should readily demonstrate the ability to protect customers. This can mean adding a disclaimer of Privacy Standards related to their Personal Information and Fraud. In 2019 the American FTC received over 650,000 reports of Identity Theft. This is a real risk that your customers want to feel secure about. 

At the stage of purchase, Checkout should provide customers with multiple ways to complete the transaction, such as Paypal, Skrill, Google Pay, or other secure options for online payments. No fear of Fraud here! 

Make it simple and easy.

How can you make the shopping experience as efficient as possible? Some easy ways to simplify your site navigation are to:

• Keep your site and platform consistent in terms of fonts, colors, and sizes
• Divide categories of shopping clearly and efficiently
• Make navigation elements (buttons, products) into clickable links
• Maximize ALT text images
• Have a functioning Search Feature.
• Provide easy navigation throughout your site – The less clicks to get to the purchase, the better. 
• At Checkout, offer a simple and straightforward checkout method. 

Make sure your site is functioning properly at all times. Error messages are a huge red flag for customers and a big reason for abandoned carts. 

Add a “Buy Now” button directly to products.

allows customers to complete a purchase directly from a product page without dealing with slow and sticky checkout pages.

Site Speed

Some apps provide free speed checks. An optimal speed for e-commerce sites is under a half-second with two seconds being the minimum. Use free tools provide by Google Insight for an easy to follow site assessment to hand to your web development team.

Accessibility

This can mean two things. Your site should be optimized for viewing on various devices such as tablets, desktops, and i-pads, as well as a specific layout for mobile and smartphones.

Accessibility can also refer to ALT text being added for sight-impaired customers using screen-readers.

2. Be there when they NEED you.

Put a [virtual] face to it! See our previous blog on creating active and authentic connections with customers by understanding their persona, needs, and buying habits.

Humanize Content

Humanizing your content lets customers see the value behind the brand and feel invested on a deeper, more personal level. 

Evergreen Content

Invest in content that does will not need many updates (hence the name Evergreen like the tree) such as videos and tip graphics.

Outsourcing to a graphic designer can be a great option, however, if you feel like digging into your creative design skills, apps like canva offer free tools for design and content creation so anyone can be an artist!

You can also post testimonial pieces, and concentrate on those areas you have identified as possible rebuttals you discovered in your buyer persona development.

Loyalty Programs 

Consider adding a loyalty program to your e-commerce site. Your customers will love you! This can involve rewarding customers with points, samples, or discount codes in exchange for reviews, testimonials, purchases, ratings, or other actions that contribute to the success of your site. 

3. Investing in e-commerce technology that yields maximum ROI

A key to higher sales and increased average revenue per sale is investing in Web Development. Here are a few easy ideas that can be integrated into your site:

• “Suggest” other products that relate to what’s in the user’s cart. 
• Include a Continue Shopping option at Checkout. Customers will feel like your site is helping them by ensuring they have everything they need and making the most out of their purchase. 
• Include links to Shipping / Return Policies, Privacy Policies, and Contact Info on the checkout pages and confirmation emails.
• Create Wish Lists or Saved Carts in which customers can save the products they want most. 
• Hint hint! Tiffany’s uses the feature “Drop a Hint” to subtly suggest gift ideas to loved ones. Hopefully, they’ll get the hint!

4. Be on time, every time.

A great way to optimize ecommerce conversion and increase revenue is through automated triggers.

Platforms like Wix and Shopify offer tools and technology that can be utilized to optimize customer retention.

Timed email triggers can be used to help remind your customers about the products they’ve discovered on your site.

You can customize various email triggers such as when a customer abandons a cart or views products on your page. Some studies have placed abandoned carts at an average as high as 80%.

Increasing your conversion rate requires the retention and re-visit of those customers. 

Creating triggers based on various actions can:

• Remind customers about abandoned shopping carts.
• Remind customers why this product solves the problems you’ve identified in your customer base.
• Notify customers of new products.
• Notify customers that the product they’re interested in is selling out fast.
• Let customers know about sales and promotions on products related to their purchasing interests. 

5. Invest in remarketing – seriously.

Remarketing is a technology that is here to stay. It is a powerful tool for your business to market ONLY to those who have shown an interest in your products.

You can use your own contact lists to remarket to existing customers, or even those NEW leads taking an interest in your products.

Set up remarketing to appear on social media and Google pages.

The key here is to ensure the lead receives an omnichannel presence of your brand and is continually exposed to the product (in a not so creepy way) that they have shown interest in.

Conclusion

There are many actionable steps towards optimizing your customer retention, increasing revenue, and upping your ecommerce conversion rate. It’s time to Level Up and Crush it!

• Invest in a user experience that makes it easy for people to buy from you.
• Connect with customers in a way that means something to your brand and them.
• Use the right technologies on your ecommerce plan that yields the best ROI.
• Use automation tactics to show up when your potential customers need you!
• Use remarketing to invest in those leads or customers who have already taken an interest in your brand.

Keep an eye on market trends that will help you take your business to the next step. You got this, Bosses!