17 Ways to Increase Ecommerce Conversion Rate ASAP (2024)
Conversion rate is probably the most important ecommerce KPI to measure and optimize.
The best way to increase ecommerce conversion rate is to remove friction at every step of the user journey, so it’s as easy as possible for customers to make a purchase.
How to Increase Ecommerce Conversion Rate?
1. Sell Benefits, Not Features
Throughout your online store and on your marketing, highlight the benefit your product provides to the customer, not just the features.
Doing so increases your ecommerce conversion rate by making the customer more likely to want to buy your product.
Here’s an example of features vs. benefits. The feature of an eCommerce shipping app is it allows your customers to track their shipments.
The benefit is it improves your customer service, which gets you better reviews.
How to Do It
- Research your target audience and emphasize the benefits you think would appeal specifically to them.
- With every feature you write on your site, list the benefit of that feature next to it in the product description.
- Use case studies or customer reviews to show customers the benefits the product has actually had for previous customers.
2. Minimize the Number of Steps at Checkout
Customer friction is one of the key things that make a customer most likely to abandon their checkout.
The more steps they have to go through to purchase a product, the less likely they are to purchase it because it’s too time-consuming.
That’s why ecommerce conversion rate optimization involves minimizing the number of steps that a customer has to go through at checkout.
How to Do It
- Allow users to save their personal details for future orders so they don’t have to type everything in again.
- Don’t ask for details such as middle names unless they’re absolutely necessary.
- If possible, implement one or two-click ordering for repeat customers so they don’t have to go through an entire checkout process every time.
3. Sustain a Fast Response Rate
If a user comes to your site with purchase intent, but she has a quick question about a product first, a quick response to that question can be the difference between them buying your product or leaving the site out of boredom.
You don’t want customers to wait too long and leave your site for a competitor’s, so you have to keep response times quick.
How to Do It
- Invest in live chat software for your website and load it with automated responses for FAQs.
- Add a help desk to your website so customers can find information themselves, with FAQs, a knowledge base, and tutorials.
- When your budget grows, if you have tons of customer service inquiries, hire a part-time customer service assistant to help.
4. Upsell and Cross-Sell Products
The point of upselling and cross-selling products is to increase the average order value per person who comes to your site.
This conversion tip gets people who are already planning on buying from you to buy more.
Upselling involves selling an upgrade or more expensive version of a product, while cross-selling involves selling other products to complement the customer’s purchase.
How to Do It
- Advertise commonly-bought items just before the checkout to encourage customers to have a large-minute splurge.
- Use CRO-focused themes to create bundles featuring products that customers tend to buy together all at once to appeal to groups of customers.
- Don’t offer too many upgrades or extra products at once, or the customer might get overwhelmed.
5. Offer Free Shipping and Returns
One of the key things that make customers think twice about a purchase or abandoning the cart is high shipping or return costs.
Removing these costs removes friction for customers, making it an excellent ecommerce optimization technique.
If you can’t afford to offer these for free all the time, offer them as part of special discounts or to re-engage customers that haven’t bought from you for a while.
How to Do It
- Advertise free shipping and returns across your website so customers know straight away that it’s available.
- Minimize returns (and therefore costs) by including as much detail as possible about products and making product videos so customers know what they’re buying.
- Email all previous customers letting them know that shipping and returns are now free.
6. Send Cart Abandonment Emails
When customers abandon their cart, it can happen for multiple reasons, but often it’s by accident.
A great form of ecommerce conversion optimization is reducing cart abandonment, making sure that every customer that reaches the cart actually checks out.
The easiest way to implement this is by sending cart abandonment emails, reminding customers of what they’ve left in the cart.
How to Do It
- When you send the cart abandonment email, offer a discount code or free shipping to overcome any customer doubts.
- Mention that the product(s) they added to their cart is selling out quickly to create a sense of urgency.
- Send a couple of cart abandonment emails, an initial reminder, and another reminder saying the product is about to sell out.
7. Offer All Popular Payment Methods
Customers can experience friction when they get to the checkout, and their favorite payment method isn’t included.
If customers prefer to use PayPal, Apple Pay, or something similar, they may be put off if they reach the checkout and their favorite payment method isn’t available.
To implement this ecommerce conversion tip, research the most commonly used payment methods and add them to your checkout.
How to Do It
- Promote the payment methods you have available on your homepage so customers know what they’re getting straight away,
- Offer buy-now-pay-later options to encourage users who want to spread the cost to buy products from you.
- Promote this conversion tactic on the first stage of checkout to ensure customers that the checkout process is friction-free.
8. Use Live Chat Support
Live chat support allows you to respond to your customers more quickly and avoids the need to constantly check emails or to have a customer service phone line set up.
Improving ecommerce conversion rate with this method is easy because it reduces customer friction.
When customers have a query, they don’t want to have to wait too long for a response. Having a live chat feature allows customers to get an almost instant response.
How to Do It
- Check your eCommerce platform provider to see if they offer a live chat integration or app.
- Set up some automated responses for the live chat for easy questions that customers commonly ask.
- Advertise your live chat as a feature on your homepage to show customers that your customer service is excellent.
9. Create Product Videos
This ecommerce conversion tactic is successful because customers want as many details about a product as possible before buying it.
By creating product videos, you can show customers exactly what they’re getting and remove doubt before buying a product.
Product videos are also great for marketing. The rise of video content, thanks to TikTok and Instagram Reels makes video marketing more effective than ever.
How to Do It
- Add product videos to every product description, so customers can see what the product looks like in ‘real life’.
- Promote product videos on social media to attract potential customers to your eCommerce store.
- To improve conversion, include content creators or influencers in your product videos to attract fans of the creator.
10. Add Customer Reviews
One of the common points of customer friction is worrying about a company’s legitimacy and whether or not it’s trustworthy.
Having social proof on your website in the form of pictures, reviews, and testimonials is a great way of increasing conversion rate because it shows potential customers that they can trust the quality of your products and your customer service.
How to Do It
- Use your best customer reviews and testimonials on your homepage so new customers see them straight away.
- For more reviews to add to your site and social media, send customers emails requesting reviews after they’ve bought a product.
- Create a Google Business account for Google reviews and ratings to attract customers.
11. Display Realistic Delivery Estimates
One of the worst mistakes you can make in the eCommerce business world is overpromising and underdelivering.
To increase conversion rate in ecommerce, display realistic delivery estimates so customers know exactly when their order will come.
The more clarity you can give to your customers, the less friction involved in the process, and the more likely they are to buy from your online store.
How to Do It
- If you have the budget, invest in a shipping tracker app so customers can track their order once it’s been dispatched, which will reduce your inquiries.
- Be transparent about your shipping costs and times from the outset to remove customer friction.
- Once you’ve increased the online conversion rate, make sure you stick to your promised delivery time to increase trust for future orders.
12. Take Real World Product Images
While customers want to see high-quality images of the product they’re buying; they also want to see images being used in the real world.
As well as displaying product videos of the products being used in the real world, take images that display how customers can include the product as part of their lifestyle.
These photos can help improve ecommerce conversion rate by giving users an accurate view of your products.
How to Do It
- Take the photos with a professional camera and a setup that reflects a real-life situation.
- Feature models or influencers in your photos using the product, or if you can’t afford that, simply ask friends and family to step in.
- Include user-generated content, AKA photos submitted by customers, in your marketing.
13. Add Trust Signals
Trust signals are a form of social proof that tell potential customers that your eCommerce store is legitimate and can be trusted, therefore increasing ecommerce CRO.
To boost conversion rate, include trust signals such as the SSL certificate logo, payment provider logos, and your TrustPilot rating on your homepage.
Research the trust signals that your competitors have for inspiration on what to include.
How to Do It
- Promote these trust signals on your social media accounts to reassure potential customers that find your profiles.
- Make sure your reviews and ratings are good, thanks to excellent customer service, so your TrustPilot score is high.
- Another trust signal to boost conversions is a professionally designed website. You can create one using a Shopify theme.
14. Always Display Shopping Cart Contents
A great way to boost ecommerce conversions is to display the shipping cart contents at all times during the shopping process.
This also allows customers to keep track of what they have in their cart and how much they’re spending.
Keeping customers in the loop reduces the chance of customers abandoning their cart when they get to the checkout, therefore improving conversion rate.
How to Do It
- Keep the shopping cart contents on display in the order of the page so it’s visible but doesn’t obstruct the shopping process.
- Display the price as well as the contents, so customers don’t get a shock when they reach the checkout.
- Display the shipping price (if you charge for shipping) along with the overall price for full transparency to increase online store conversion rate.
15. Provide Detailed Product Descriptions
The more information your customers have about your products, the fewer returns you’ll have, and the more likely they are to buy your products, therefore increasing conversion rate ecommerce.
If customers are able to find out information for themselves, it will reduce the need for them to message, call, or email you for more details, making the buying process quicker.
How to Do It
- Give detailed descriptions not just of how the products look but other details such as materials and dimensions.
- Pair the descriptions with high-quality videos and photos to back up the description.
- Include positive user reviews of the product in the description to improve customer trust and online store conversion rate.
16. Prominently Display Call to Actions
Too many businesses forget to actually direct customers to carry out the action they want, such as buying a product or subscribing to mailing lists.
Displaying prominent calls to action can increase ecommerce conversions by encouraging customers toward a desired action.
These calls to action should be displayed regularly across the user journey of your website and in other areas like social media posts and adverts, and emails.
How to Do It
- Decide which metrics you’ll measure as conversions, then encourage users to carry out these specific actions.
- Play around with calls to action to make them fun as a way of increasing conversions. For example, instead of writing ‘buy it now’, try ‘secure your new style.’
- Make it clear at every stage of the shopping process what the next step is for the customer.
17. Offer Back-in-Stock Notifications
Understandably, customers can be disappointed when they go to buy a product to find it’s out of stock.
To reduce the chances of them simply going to a competitor to find a similar product, ecommerce conversion by offering back-in-stock notifications.
That way, customers can sign up to be notified when their favorite item is back in stock and can buy it immediately.
This technique also removes uncertainty about when particular items will be available.
How to Do It
- Set up the notifications to be automated, if possible. This avoids adding more manual tasks to your workload.
- If you have an idea of when a product will be back in stock, e.g., you’ve already ordered it and have a delivery date, display the back-in-stock date on the web page.
- Show items as out of stock at every stage of the process, not just when customers click on the product. Transparency and expectation management are key to improving ecommerce conversion rates.