In this modern era, people like more to purchase from online. If you are running an online store, you have to start thinking about ways to boost your eCommerce conversion rates now. Without solid conversions, all the work you put to create traffic will be in vain.

What are Conversion Rates?

For those, who are just wondering what I’m talking about, let’s do a quick overview of conversion rates.

In simple word, conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to a website or landing page that convert. Depending on your business types, a “conversion” could be a lot of things, but here are a few common types of conversions:

• Making a purchase (the biggest conversion metric for eCommerce businesses)
• Adding an item to a wish-list
• Starting an online chat
• Signing up for a subscription
• Downloading content
• Participate in a poll and or survey
• Upgrading services or products
• Leaving comments
• Sharing content
• Using a sale code

Generally, a conversion is a measurable action that shows the progress that a potential customer is going towards making a purchase.

How Do I Calculate My Conversion Rate?

Calculating conversion is not a big deal.

Just divide the number of conversions you get during a certain time frame by the total number of people who visited your site and multiply it by 100.

(Total Conversions / Total Visitors) X 100% = Conversion Rate %

For example, if you had 15,000 visitors to your site in one month and it had 4,060 conversions, your conversion rate is 27.1%.

Very easy calculation, right?

By calculating conversion rate you can be as specific or as broad with your conversion rate as you want to be. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) can also be conducted on landing pages, category pages or any other pages that touch your customer.

Here are a few different types of conversion rates you can use to examine performance:

• Overall conversion rate 
• Marketing channel conversion rate 
• Page-level conversion rate 
• Campaign conversion rate 
• Individual ad conversion rate 
• Keyword conversion rate 

Generally speaking, the conversion rate is a great metric for evaluating the performance of almost any aspect of your eCommerce store.

12 Ways To Boost Your Ecommerce Conversion Rates

To help you make the most out of your online marketing and website, let’s take a look at the simple ways you can boost your online conversions!

1. Avoid Long and Complex Forms

In 2011, Expedia made a change to its checkout form that increased the profits by $12 million.

Have a look:

They removed a single and unnecessary form of field.

Like Expedia, make the checkout experience as simple as possible for your customers. The longer your form, the fewer people will be to fill it out. This can reduce your conversion rates. For that reason, only ask for the information you absolutely must have including billing and shipping address.

Consider this factor from the customers’ point of view. Every additional field is just another barrier to buy your product.

Focus on more to simplify the form as much as possible.

2. In your Checkout Forms Use “email” as the First Field

Repeat customers are essential for every business, not just in eCommerce. It’s vital to reach out to these customers to tempt them to buy again. 

A customer’s email address is the most critical piece of information you can get during the checkout experience.

Even if a visitor doesn’t complete their purchase, you can still use cart abandonment automation to convince them.

Make sure that your forms are compliant with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Like other security features, it’ll also help your visitors feel more secure as well as protect you from liability.

3. Use cart Abandonment Software to Engage Customers

Though you are using a simplified checkout form having an email address as the first field, you still have a chance of cart abandonment. However, you can use cart abandonment software to engage these customers and get them back on track.

There are plenty of options available to use. I can recommend Rejoiner to create personalized emails and send them a couple of days after the date of cart abandonment.

The software automatically re-targets shoppers with products they’ve viewed and related items. It also follows up with abandoners in real-time by messaging that relates to their desired product. Plus, it helps save your customer’s carts so they can continue checking out from any device.

The main purpose of this type of software is to catch people before they change their minds completely. It is very clear that those people were looking for the same products but due to price or some other issue, they haven’t completed the purchase.

You can reach to this type of people with cart abandonment software with a discount or some other offer to complete the purchase.

You can also use a survey platform to find out what they don’t like about your site or why they’re lingering on certain product pages. Then you can put insights to work to improve the checkout flow. I can recommend Qualaroo to use.

4. Ensure Site Security

Cybersecurity is very crucial nowadays for online businesses. Without security or proper protocol, online sellers are putting themselves and their customers at risk.

Trust badges, logos, and seals can make sense of security to get your customers to buy.

Most importantly, you must use an SSL certificate like https://yoursite.com. This is mandatory in today’s eCommerce business.

Finally, make sure you require the CVC or CVV for debit and credit cards to add security. This extra step will discourage fraud without frustrating buyers.

5. Offer Free Shipping

Let’s say your product is $50 but your shipping cost is $5. Logically, the product price greatly outweighs the shipping cost—but for some reason, many people are reluctant to pay that $5. People would like to rather spend an extra $10 to get free shipping than pay a $5 shipping charge.

It really makes sense when you think of the issue from the point of view of your customer.

Free shipping is very appealing to the customers. According to a study by ComScore, 58% have added items to their shopping carts to qualify for free shipping. Similarly, 83% of US online shoppers are willing to wait an additional two days for delivery if shipping is free.

One of the main reason of cart abandonment is because of unexpected costs and shipping charge is one of them.

Since the above data shows that people are willing to buy more to get free shipping. It can also lead to generate more revenue.

6. Add a Checkout Progress Bar 

Look at this beautiful checkout progress bar example from topman. It’s very clean and easy to understand.

Your customers want to know how long the checkout process will take. So, if yours has multiple steps, make it simple and show them the steps along the way. If customers can’t see how close they are to complete their purchase, they can become frustrated and abandon the cart midway.

7. Simplify Checkout Form

As I mentioned earlier, a simplified checkout form is the first principal to boost your eCommerce conversion rates.

You can use different tools to examine how your visitors use the checkout form. Hotjar, CrazyEgg, or other similar tools can serve the purpose.

Mockplus gave creative ideas to optimize checkout from.

1. Don’t force your users to create an account

2. Limit the amount of information required from users

3. Don’t use field labels as placeholders

4. Design single-column forms

5. Group relevant information together in chunks

6. Help users to fill out address

7. Provide different payment options and design a perfect credit card form

8. Provide summary

9. Design a “quick buy” feature

10. Provide the option to complete the purchase on another device

Your checkout form can either improve or hinder your eCommerce conversion rate. Make sure it’s a seamless experience that requires as little effort from visitors as possible.

8. Allow Guest Checkout

According to the research by Baymard Institute, a mandatory requirement for creating an account is one of the top reasons why people abandon the checkout process. Don’t make this type of mistake. Allow users to make a purchase without creating an account.

It’s Important not only to provide guest checkout options but also make it clearly visible. Baymard Institute also found that 88% of mobile checkouts forms fail to make the guest checkout option clearly visible, so users often overlook it.

9. Allow Social Login

Social login lets customers quickly use the same information to create a new account. This is a quick alternative because it doesn’t require a new username and password.

According to Gigya Survey, 88% of US consumers say they’ve used social logins.

Let’s have a look at the following screenshot:

If you are running your eCommerce store in the WooCommerce platform, then you can use the WooCommerce Social Login extension. With this extension, customers can link their accounts on your website with their social media profiles for a simpler checkout experience.

10. Offer a Return Policy

A good return policy is very important from the selling point of view.

According to a study, 60% of online shoppers make at least one return or exchange per year, and 95% will make another purchase if the return experience is positive. 

Returns are a big part of the online marketplace. However, if you apply and manage your return policy well, you can also drive growth.

According to eBay Data Analytics, providing a 30-day free return policy can lift your conversions close to 17% and with a 60-day free return policy lifting conversions by an average 34%.

That means the more flexibility you give your customers, the more inclined they’ll be to stick with your products.

11. Provide Chat and Phone Support to Customers

Potential customers expect instant gratification and setting up chatbots and other AI that can help answer questions immediately. It can increase your conversions just by being helpful and attentive!

Chatting with customers can increase the conversion rates. But if you are not using live chat software be sure to immediately respond to customers who request chats! To help responsiveness, make sure to add service hours that customers can expect to hear responses from. If you are not in, the service hours reassure customers with an instant message telling them you will respond within 24 hours!

Chatbots can help your customers quickly get answers to their questions. This will can reduce the overhead cost of your staff.

Powerful Ways to Use Chatbots for Marketing and Sales

12. Add Exit-intent Popups

Let’s say someone visited your website and going to leave your site without buying anything. It looks like you are going to miss one of your valuable customers. But with exit-intent popups, you will get one last chance to coax visitors into action.

Exit-intent popups let you attract non-buyers with coupons, limited-time offers, or newsletter subscriptions. You can also offer different types of discounts.

Instead of using popups, you can also provide your customers with information. This will also boost eCommerce conversion rates and amplified sales in the long run since you’ve added value instead of applying pressure. 

Boost eCommerce Conversion Rates: Final Words

You run a business, you know your customers, you understand everything in and out. But sometimes you do not know what to look for when trying to boost your conversion rates after success.

Conversion rate optimization doesn’t just happen with the above tactics, it requires a lot of planning. Understanding CRO trends and how you can improve your site and user experience (UX) is key if you are going to sell online.

No matter which tactics you are using above, always be sure to test and keep testing. By doing so, you are actively making sure that your conversion rates are actually increasing!

If you want to learn more about how you can improve your eCommerce site or user experience, feel free to put a comment in the comment box.