Having people visit your site is great, but it doesn’t mean anything unless they actually buy something. While converting customers is always the goal, that goal can be difficult to achieve. The following tips can help you quickly turn site visits into customers.
Clear Search
If you want customers to spend money on your website, they need to be able to find what they are looking for. The best way to provide customers with a search option is via a search bar. The search bar should be visible and easy to use. You should also enable auto-complete for common phrases. By minimizing the amount of typing necessary, you provide a better customer experience.
You can also help customers find items via a faceted search option. This allows customers to narrow their searches by colors, price, size, etc.
Merchandise Your Products
With the rise of social media, pictures mean everything. So the media on your website must be pristine. Once a customer finds the product they want, they should be able to zoom on the high-quality photo of the product to see the small details. You may also want to add video, so customers can see your products in action.
Don’t just rely on photos and videos. The product description is extremely important. Include a unique and compelling description that is tailored to your audience. Providing customer ratings and reviews will also help your customers make a decision. Customers tend to trust their peers more than companies, a review may be what a customer needs to finalize the purchase.
Compelling CTAs
If you want to increase your sales, there should be a clear call to action on every page. These CTAs should be bold, so customers prioritize them visually. On a product page, you can add a call to action that reads “add to basket.” In the cart, the call to action should read “Proceed to checkout.” These are options you would typically include, but by emphasizing them as bold calls to action, customers are more likely to follow through.
Fast Loading Site
You typically have just three seconds to grab a customers attention. If those 3 seconds are spent on page loading, customers are sure to turn away. Having a fast-loading site is extremely important. If you notice your site is slow, make sure caching is enabled on your site. You should also clean up any inactive CMS pages and remove out-of-date information. Archive old orders, and limit the number of current promotions you are running. By making these small changes, you can ensure your site is fast and friendly.
Mobile Friendly
It’s estimated that over 60% of your customer base will come from mobile phones. Therefore, it is extremely important to cater to that audience. When creating your website, it should be made both desktop and mobile friendly. A good way to enhance the mobile experience is to automatically detect mobile browsers and display a mobile-optimized version of your site.
Another solution is to create a mobile app for your store. The app will ensure customers have an optimized experience when shopping on their phones.
Follow Up with Customers
Just because someone leaves your site, doesn’t mean they are gone forever. You should create a way to follow up with potential customers, to finish the conversion process. By utilizing cookies, you can send an email reminder to prompt customers to complete the purchases on their shopping carts. You can also provide them with discount coupons for the items in their cart, enticing them to come back.
Simple Checkout
Once a customer has decided to spend money on your site, move them through checkout as quickly as possible. Checkout should be just a page long and should feature as few required fields as possible.
Instead of making shoppers create an account before checking out, allow them to create an account after the transaction. This will keep the checkout process short, sweet and to the point.
Offer Multiple Payment Options
In this global economy, offering just one form of payment is old fashioned. You should offer flexibility for customers. Many people are wary of using their credit cards online, so feature a PayPal option instead. PayPal offers an express checkout button, that allows customers to pay for items with just one click. This useful option can be embedded onto your website.
Personalize the Experience
Every customer has different desires and needs. By collecting data about the customer, including their behaviors (i.e., how often they buy, and their demographic, like their age and gender, etc), you can send personalized advertisements. By pinpointing what the customer wants and/or needs from your company, you can effectively market to them. The more closely aligned your adverts are with the customer’s desires, the more likely they are to spend money on your site.
Use Promotions Wisely
Once your website has been optimized for performance and usability, you can start to focus on price promotions. These are both a blessing and a curse. Approximately 85% of consumers look for coupons before deciding where to spend their money. However, if used too frequently, coupons can negatively affect your profits. When utilizing pricing promotions, you have to find the sweet spot. Send them sparingly, so customers do not rely on them. If you are wary of using price promotions, you can also feature other customer rewards, such as loyalty points.
For more help taking your eCommerce business to the next level, visit us at Wagento today.
