Online shoppers have high standards these days, and its important for your eCommerce store to measure up to the competition.

Think about the last time you bought a product online. If you’re like most online shoppers, you did a quick Google search for the item you’re looking for, and clicked on the first link that seemed relevant. But, if you encountered one tiny issue between landing on that page and finalizing your order, chances are you went back to the results page, and moved on to the next result.

As an eCommerce store owner, small issues that disrupt a flawless customer experience can seem insignificant. They can also be difficult to detect. But, refining each minute part of this buying process can lead to substantially higher profits. Read on to learn more about the various ways you can improve your eCommerce website to keep customers engaged.

What Are Conversion Rates?

First thing’s first: what is your eCommerce store’s conversion rate? The answer is fairly simple. In fact, it’s probably something you’ve been thinking about since you opened up shop.

Generally, a conversion rate is the percentage of people who visit your website and take the action that you want them to. In the eCommerce world, this step is, of course, making a purchase. The higher your conversion rates, the higher the percentage of people who are buying your products.

Based on our years of experience designing a wide range of eCommerce stores, we’ve put together a short guide about how you can improve your eCommerce store to raise conversion rates.

1. Write Detailed Product Descriptions That Give Plenty of Information

An awesome product picture might bring customers to the page, but detailed product descriptions will make them stay. Most customers won’t make a purchase without having all of their questions answered first.

Now, that’s not to say that your product descriptions should be overwhelming– they should be written for customers to easily digest. The first paragraph should be front-loaded with the essentials: the core selling points, and crucial details.

Creating a bulleted list with features, benefits, and technical specs is a great way to provide more information.

In fact, longer product descriptions are also good for SEO. Product descriptions over 300 words will help customers find your website via Google.

2. Quick, Seamless Checkout Process

People place a lot of value on their time. While a lengthy checkout process might’ve been the norm in 2008, the tide has changed. Now, customers expect a checkout process that makes things quick, easy, and requires the bare minimum amount of information.

Pressuring customers into making an account can be a major turn-off. If you want to increase your eCommerce store’s conversion rates, then be sure to allow guest checkout. This is the perfect option for customers who want to buy products with no strings attached. Better yet, you can still collect an email address for promotional emails through an optional newsletter/email list subscription.

3. Lightning-Fast Load Times

According to Kissmetrics, if your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, customers will leave. It’s that simple.

When your website takes too long to load, customers will check out one of the other results. If you want customers to choose your eCommerce store over competitors, then your website should load as quickly as possible.

Without the proper skill set, though, this isn’t always easy. Beyond getting higher service bandwidth, there’s not much that eCommerce store owners can do to decrease load times. eCommerce developers can easily fine-tune your website’s code to streamline the load process.

4. Offer Free Shipping, and Eliminate Hidden Fees

For sky-high conversion rates, your eCommerce store should be as transparent as possible about price. Customers expect the price that you are charging for your products to be the final price they’ll be paying (with the exception of taxes). Any additional expenses tacked on at the end might be a deal-breaker.

Shipping fees were once an acceptable expense, but are no longer the norm for eCommerce stores. To boost your eCommerce conversion rates, offering free shipping is a must. This may not be financially possible for eCommerce stores with sales that average below, say, $40, but “free shipping above a certain price” policies can also work. Regardless of the shipping approach that you take, be sure that it’s clearly communicated on your website.

5. Show Your Product Reviews

In a recent study, GE Capital Retail Bank study learned that 61% of shoppers look at reviews before purchasing. Customers are eager to see what other shoppers think about products, including how specific features work. Product reviews add a lot of legitimacy to your operation, and are critical in shaping decisions.

Having product reviews on your website is more important than ever. If a product has enough reviews, and your website is well-optimized, then the rating may show up on the Google results page. This means customers see how awesome your products are even sooner.

Negative reviews aren’t the best, but addressing them shows customers you’re listening, and eager to address issues. Deleting negative reviews only creates additional reasons for your customers to be upset.

Even if your eCommerce store is programmed to display reviews, your customers may not go. That’s where some creative thinking can save you. You can encourage customers to leave reviews by including a product review link in the confirmation email.

If your website doesn’t currently allow reviews, an experienced eCommerce developer can make the proper adjustments.

6. Encourage Clicks With Strategically Located “Buy” Buttons

Your call-to-action buttons– which might say “buy now”, “add to cart”, or something similar– are the most important part of any eCommerce page. Making this button easy for customers to find means making your products easy for customers to buy.

There are a few factors you should be paying attention to with checkout and buy now buttons:

Location: CTA buttons should be easy to find, and located “above the fold”, or on the top part of your website. Losing a conversion because your customers couldn’t find the right button to press means losing a sale.

Color: Expert marketers have poured thousands of hours into figuring out the best CTA button color. Often, the best color can vary by brand and industry. But, the CTA button should be either red, orange, green, or blue.

Text: The text on your CTA button should be written with a sense of action, but can vary by the industry.

One way to earn a higher ROI is to test several different types of buttons, and compare the data. A strategic approach toward creating CTA buttons will go a long way in boosting conversion rates.

7. Add Credibility With Contact Info

Making it easy for customers to contact you with questions and issues will strengthen your credibility, and conversion rates.

It may seem backwards for an eCommerce store to have a phone number listed. But even the option to reach out to a real human proves your operation is legitimate, and that you’re here to help. Your support email address should, of course, also be prominently listed. By taking these small-but-important steps, you can help skeptical customers become confident ones, and increase conversion rates.

8. Include Plenty of Images and Videos

In the modern eCommerce world, having multiple product pictures is a must. Before pulling the trigger on a purchase, customers want as vivid an idea as possible of what your product is like. Having multiple high-quality product images (and if possible, videos) on your website is the way to go.

There are a few ways that you can improve the quality of your images. First, taking these pictures against a clean, white background allows them to focus on what matters. Secondly, having multiple pictures means you can show the product off from different angles. This shows the customer what the entire product looks like, rather than just the front. A zoom-in feature gives customers an even better idea of what they’re buying.

9. Make Data Safety a Priority

In this day and age, website security is a hot topic. Customers won’t purchase anything from your website if they have suspicions about the safety of their personal data, especially their payment information.

Fortunately, making the proper security assurances can save your conversion rates from this pitfall. Updating your SSL certificate, using verified payment platforms, and other website security badges will show customers that you’re committed to keeping their data safe.

Our eCommerce development company can take all of the necessary measures to protect your website’s valuable data.

10. Rope Customers Back In With Abandoned Cart Reminders

Unfortunately, even the most fine-tuned eCommerce stores can’t convert every customer. There will always be a few outliers that slip through the cracks. But, if you’re proactive, they won’t be lost forever.

Thanks to remarketing ads, you can remind customers of the purchase they came so close to making. These remarketing ads follow customers around the internet. They’re cheap, effective, and drastically improve your conversion rates.

Ready to Start Boosting Your Conversion Rates?

Improving your conversion rates is a never-ending battle for success in the eCommerce world. At Logic eCommerce Solutions, our development and design team is well-versed in creating and fine-tuning websites for a flawless buying experience. Based on your industry, we can find a solution that works for your audience.