Written by: Pedro Campos, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The ecommerce marketing space is getting more competitive by the day. In fact, between March 2020 and January 2022, the number of Shopify stores grew by over 200%. Knowing how to improve e-commerce conversion rate is now increasingly important. As more ecommerce businesses pop up, advertising platforms get crowded, increasing traffic costs and potentially stealing eyeballs from your brand.
Your best strategy is to squeeze the most performance out of your ecommerce website. Contrary to popular belief, the best advertising doesn´t always win. In this article, we´ll dive into some of the crucial optimizations you can make to increase your store conversion rate and return on ad spend.
Make Your Store Load Faster
These days, consumers are quite impatient and will bounce if your store takes too long to load. The slower the website, the more money you´ll waste on driving clicks from advertising platforms. A fast-loading store isn´t an option anymore but a necessity. How fast should it be?
Well, ThinkwithGoogle reported that as page load time goes from 1 to 3 seconds, the probability of a user bouncing increases by 32%. But it doesn´t end there. The study also references that 53% of visitors will abandon your website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. As you can imagine, it´s all downhill from there after.
I would advise you to track the conversion rate between clicks and landing page or product page views, inside your advertising platforms of choice. That way, you´re able to see how many visitors you are losing due to page load time and optimize your store accordingly.
Here are some practical ways to start making your store faster.
Work with your developer to get rid of any javascript or unnecessary coding on the store
Consider upgrading to a VPS or dedicated hosting solution
Load images from a CDN (Content Delivery Network)
Consider a faster third-party ecommerce theme
Uninstall unnecessary apps that could slow down the site
Curious to know how fast your store really is? You can use a free tool such as Pingdom, which gives you a score and many technical insights you can share with developers to improve your store speed.
Think About Mobile First
Did you know that 67% of all ecommerce happens on mobile? Considering there are more mobile devices on planet earth than there are humans, this is actually expected. In recent years, we´ve seen consumer behavior shift more towards mobile devices and the trend will only accelerate in the near future.
You´ve probably been to an ecommerce site that was so bad on mobile that you decided to visit on desktop. Then again, you were not impressed with the experience and swore you´d never come back. Most of us want to start and end our buyer journey on the small screens.
Whenever you want to make changes to your ecommerce site, always think mobile-first. Make those changes with the small device user in mind. Also, I´d recommend you prioritize any conversion rate optimization and split-testing efforts for mobile. This doesn´t mean you´ll completely ignore bigger devices but you´ll start with the ones that create the most impact on your bottom line.
Showcase Your Products On Video
Video content is still widely unutilized as a way to increase Shopify store conversion rates. Most brand owners just stick to images as they´re cheaper and easier to create. However, sometimes the easiest way is not the most rewarding.
Some would say if you want to potentially lose one-third of your customers, just use product images. According to Wyzowl, 33% of people prefer to learn about products by watching a video. Even if your product is as simple as a pair of shorts, you´re much better off showcasing it on video.
The video could show the different angles of your product and how people would use it. Product videos have many benefits. Here are some:
Improves site engagement and builds trust
Can boost organic search rankings
Increases add-to-cart to purchase conversion rate
Animoto reports that 73% of adult U.S. consumers are more likely to purchase a product after watching a video. Additionally, ThinkwithGoogle found that 64% of online shoppers watch a video to make an informed purchase decision.
Two great examples of using product videos are Patagonia and Tula. One in the apparel and the other in the skincare niche.
Bundle Your Way To Higher AOV
Next to customer lifetime value (CLV), average order value (AOV) is one of the most important metrics for any business. The higher your store´s AOV, the more you can afford to pay for traffic and deal with potential advertising cost increases.
You know they´re coming, it´s just a matter of time.
Bundling has more psychological effects on the consumer than you would imagine. This is actually the magic behind product bundles. Here´s what this magic can lead to:
Increased sales due to higher perceived value and the feeling of getting a good deal
Blurs the focus on individual pricing, preventing the buyer from overthinking the purchase
Reduce surplus inventory by adding them to bundles
Gives the customers a chance to try a product they wouldn´t have bought as a standalone
Boosts brand loyalty by allowing customers to try many products at once
You can also use bundles for up-sell or cross-sell. Sometimes, retail brands package their products in a unique way, for example, as a gift box. This is seen more often on holiday periods but can be a great tactic to boost sales year-round.
Not Too Many Reviews
This might come as a surprise.
You probably already know customer reviews are essential to boost ecommerce sales. But how much social proof is too much? And is there such thing as too much social proof?
In a study, Oberlo found that products with between 11 and 50 reviews project a higher sense of trust amongst consumers. What´s more interesting is that only 4% of consumers feel they can trust products that have between 501 and 1,000 reviews.
You thought more was better, right? Maybe it isn´t, at least when it comes to product reviews. So, if you´re going to use reviews to improve your conversion rate, try to include only the best ones, that specifically touch on the benefits of using the product.
Also, if you can use video reviews, even better. BOOM is a great example of using video testimonials to build trust and drive more ecommerce revenue.
Ecommerce Conversion Rate And ROAS
As you were reading this article, you might have been wondering: “well, why don´t you talk about the latest digital advertising tactics?”
That´s a great point. Truthfully, getting clicks from advertising platforms is the easiest part, even though it takes a lot of planning and effort. But what happens after the click is paramount to you as a brand owner or ecommerce marketer. Driving traffic is a small piece of the puzzle.
The best targeting, ad copy, and creatives won´t matter much if you don´t have a solid website experience, a strong value proposition, and attractive offers, backed by exceptional customer support. Although not easy to do sometimes, if you can improve the after-click experience, your return on ad spend will most likely follow, as a by-product.
The interesting thing about ecommerce is that you can spend the same amount of money on traffic and actually generate more revenue, simply by focusing on these strategies I´ve shared with you.
Pedro Campos, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Pedro is a Portuguese-born who fell into the media buying world by chance after watching an ad online. Despite being mentored by some of the best advertisers in the world early on, his first attempts to succeed at digital media left him bankrupt three times. He then realized in this industry, there was a bigger price to be paid to obtain mastery. That's the price he's helping companies avoid. He's the founder of Advertongue, a native advertising agency helping global brands grow and scale efficiently online. Over the years, he's been responsible for million-dollar budgets and made appearances in publications such as Content Marketing Institute, G2, and Funnel Magazine, to name a few.
