Boost Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization – A Complete Guide!

By | Date posted: | Last updated: December 29, 2020

If your retail store is packed and sales are falling, you want to know what’s wrong, right? The same phenomenon occurs in ecommerce stores, but also on PR and image sites, news portals, etc. It’s just not that everyone immediately notices it. This also involves potentially massive business losses. After all, people obviously visited your website with a certain interest – only to strike elsewhere. That usually means: the competition makes the profit. It doesn’t help if your site administrator proudly wags daily visitor records. The conversion rate and remains the decisive factor. Here you can read how you can earn more online with simple conversion optimization and relatively simple sales psychology.

What is the conversion rate and what does it depend on?

Briefly explained: Conversion rate (also CR, conversion or conversion rate) describes the ratio between the total number of visitors to a page and the number of those visitors who have actually done what you as the site operator wanted – that is, ordered, subscribed, downloaded or yourself registered. For example, 70 purchases from 1400 site visitors would result in a conversion rate of 5 percent. Most of the time, it makes sense to use unique visitors as the total number, i.e. the same person is only counted once, even if they have accessed the page several times.

You can get fairly accurate information about your own conversion rate using the analysis tools available for your website. The best known is Google Analytics. Smaller companies that use WordPress.com, for example, cannot incorporate analytics, but the information from the Google Search Console gives them helpful tips.

Why is my conversion rate bad?

Here you can roughly differentiate between technical and sales psychological problems when it comes to why even a good quality offer does not “pull” on your website. This post is primarily about sales psychology. Most of the technical optimization measures fall under the keyword SEO (search engine optimization).

12 tips for applied sales psychology – how to boost the conversion rate to 2x or 3x?

If you consistently implement the following guidelines, you will kill several birds with one stone. Because the desired end effect – more orders, customer addresses, newsletter recipients, etc. – is closely related to several other factors for the success of your marketing, whether online or offline. In this way you generally improve the customer experience for visitors to your website, make valuable contributions to the image of your company, you probably need to take fewer measures against returns of your ecommerce store or improve your placement on the search results pages of Google & Co.

  • Avoid irritation:

    People unconsciously feel uncomfortable when they do not understand something. So, make sure that everything you present is as understandable as possible, with images as well as texts and, above all, the correspondence between image and text.

  • Address the feeling:

    Most decisions are made emotionally. At least an uncomfortable feeling can wipe good rational reasons for an offer off the table – and vice versa also make a possibly not absolutely necessary product appear desirable. So, present your offer objectively, specifically and soberly.

  • Make it easy for customers everywhere:

    Life is complicated enough. So, make sure that the navigation on your pages is completely fool proof – an absolute must for conversion optimization. Structure the pages clearly – this is especially true for the display on small smartphone screens; the impatience of the users is particularly high here. Order forms and requirements for which customer data you want should be kept minimal. During the actual ordering process, for example, a clear display of the process in one of the usual progress bars (“You are here”) is very helpful.

  • Speed kills – also with the conversion rate:

    You can’t repeat it often enough! Website visitors get impatient after three seconds at the latest if the page is still loading. In the worst case, they then leave the ecommerce store entirely and look elsewhere – conversion for free! So mercilessly speed up your website.

  • Arouse curiosity:

    Even small children pick up objects if they suspect something interesting underneath. The object discovered in this way is always more attractive than if it had simply been visible. That means: A nice offer that is only available after clicking a button.

  • Cares the creature of habit:

    This is not a contradiction to the previous tip, at least not in sales psychology! There are things that curious people need in order to feel safe: familiar processes, familiar symbols, etc. Tests have shown, for example, that innovative designs for the “Add to cart” button regularly fail in comparison with the traditional shopping cart icon. But a button with the simple label “Add to shopping cart” works best. So, especially in the decisive final phase of the sales funnel, orientate yourself on widely used and proven elements: order forms, fill-in fields, payment options, etc.

  • Use the play instinct:

    Don’t be silly everywhere, but if you tickle the childish side of your ecommerce store visitors here and there, it can certainly stimulate the buying mood.

  • Encourage the customer:

    A powerful psychological mechanism is the urge to complete things, to “get things done” – hardly anyone voluntarily ends a process shortly before the “end”. Such an end can be, for example, with the shopping cart that only a small amount is missing before you grant free shipping. This can significantly contribute to conversion optimization.

  • Rewards are worthwhile:

    Our psyche is designed to strive for rewards – so much so that they can be addictive. The idea in social media of collecting likes is based on this. There is nothing else behind the small “goodies” (surprise packages, bonus points, etc.) that you can offer for orders, second buyers or on other occasions. The same applies here: Let the users decide for themselves whether or what they want to receive. In general, every moment is advantageous when your customer can internally say yes and a corresponding interaction follows.

  • Avoid your customers’ fear of loss:

    No matter how advantageous an offer may seem, the fear that all of this is not right never goes away completely. It is known from psychology that, for example, the fear of losing a certain amount is always stronger than the stimulus to win exactly the same amount. You can counter this with guarantees; However, extensive testing options are even more effective, wherever this is possible for the product or your margins.

  • Show that things could get best:

    This trick is as curious as it is proven – an even more expensive product next to an expensive one helps to sell the expensive product. There is an understandable reluctance among not all, but many people, to actually choose the most expensive from several similar products. But you often choose exactly this product if there is one next to it whose price is even higher. So do not leave the valuable goods alone at the price peak – in the ecommerce store as well as in the retail store!

  • Don’t screw it up in the last few miles:

    The most annoying thing for ecommerce store operators are shopping cart abandoners, i.e. potential customers who end the order process before paying for a variety of reasons.

Bottom line: Conversion optimization isn’t rocket science!

Much of what applies in online marketing strategy actually requires the normal thinking of a good salesperson – whether in the online store, in-store, in the field or on the customer phone. The whole thing is only enriched by a few technical aspects. Of course, this can be turned into an art form with artificial intelligence and other tools, but most online retailers or companies that do other online marketing can already achieve noticeable improvements in the conversion rate with these tips.

If you do some research yourself: You will come across tricks that are quite effective, but fall under the “questionable” category. You should use sales psychology to better understand your customers – not to cheat them.

Do you need further support in setting up your ecommerce store? We are here for you! If you are looking for an ecommerce website development, shopping cart development, online store development and ecommerce store marketing, Please explore our Ecommerce Solutions! We also provide ecommerce website maintenance services, online store maintenance services and web application security audit. For more information, please visit our Ecommerce Maintenance Services!

If you have any questions or would like to know more about how Skynet Technologies can help your business to reach one step ahead, Reach out us through below form & We'll get back to you soon!

The Complete Ecommerce Marketing Guide

By | Date posted: | Last updated: December 29, 2020

What you should know when acquiring new customers in ecommerce store?

You take care of your employees, a new product, manage the bookkeeping and an urgent customer service request, while new and happy customers simply store online with you. You save the advice and purchase process and can take care of many other things. A dream? It doesn’t have to stay that way! If you offer suitable services and products and are willing to invest some time and preparation in a successful ecommerce store. We explain the questions you have to ask yourself what makes a successful ecommerce store and give you tips to help you with this.

A good strategy is needed to build successful ecommerce store!

Before you set up and operate an ecommerce store, you should think fundamentally about

  • Services and products to be sold in your ecommerce store
  • The target group that should acquire it
  • Opportunities to address your target group online and to guide them to your ecommerce store and
  • Your ecommerce store itself

Use the advantages and potential of ecommerce compared to traditional retail: In the best-case scenario, lead generation and new customer acquisition mean that the customer’s path from product interest to shopping cart and checkout is just a few clicks and only a few minutes pass. Your services and products must be suitable for this type of consumption. They must therefore neither be particularly costly, nor require a lot of explanation or advice. We can’t say it enough: define your target audience and act strategically. This is the only way you can effectively design your online communication and meet interested parties who can become customers. When generating leads for ecommerce stores, you should carefully separate the qualify your leads. Do the age of the user and the motives for interest match and can lead to a purchase? Because not every lead wants to buy from you. A student who “only” subscribes to your newsletter to sneak up a seminar is very likely not to become a new customer.

Tips for Successful Ecommerce Marketing

You have selected the right products and services for your store. With the following tips for lead generation you will get the visitors and turn them into happy customers and, at best, repeat offenders.

The way of selling:

  • Create content with added value:

    Convey and disseminate your know-how as a provider in easily understandable formats such as blog posts, social media posts, YouTube videos, podcasts or the like. Research which aspects users are interested in about your product or the product environment. Then refer to exactly these topics in your content. Tip: Do research in specialist forums or communities, look at competitors or use online tools. Collect questions and prepare them as blog topics, podcast series, video tutorials or infographics, for example, and distribute them regularly as social media posts. High-quality content brings more new prospects to your ecommerce store. Tip: You can make even more of your content if you also think about lead generation and lead qualification here. For example, you can use a data or payment barrier for your current podcast episode.

  • Form partnerships:

    Find companies, brands or influencers whose topics suit you and with whom you can cooperate to disseminate your content. So, you can benefit from the mutual reach of followers and prospects. But also, to use cooperation offers, coupons or the like in the ecommerce store.

  • Use the advantages of cookies:

    They are annoying for the user, and are still useful in ecommerce. Because with you can make use of the advantages of the fast sales cycles in ecommerce and you can use so-called “retargeting” to target returners. Important: Note data protection, cookie guidelines and laws such as the GDPR.

  • Lead generation via social media:

    Followers on your social media channels are often just a few clicks away from buying. You should therefore use those channels for your content that are used by users who fit your target group. Tip: You can also use so-called Shopify plugins and insert your social media links with clickable icons in newsletters or email campaigns in order to gain new followers and potential new customers.

  • Discounts, offers & coupons:

    Convince your leads (e.g. a new newsletter subscriber) by sending a discount code for their first purchase in the store. A consideration for the visitor’s e-mail address could also be free shipping or a useful additional product for the next order. Tip: You can also use appropriate popups via Shopify apps for your special new customer specials.

  • Preparatory work in terms of SEO:

    Discounts for collecting e-mail addresses only work if you also attract (new) visitors. Search engine optimization is therefore of great importance for the increased number of visitors, who can be converted into leads and hopefully also into sales. An SEO-optimized page, good product descriptions, well-kept metadata and high-quality blog entries are the lead magnets.

The design of your ecommerce store:

  • Order process and design content:

    Make the order process as short and simple as possible: You should only need a few steps and clicks to enter payment data and complete the order process. This requires a suitable and beautiful design surface that focuses on the products and services and guides the visitor quickly and easily. Tip: Use catchy CTAs (Call-to-Actions), a good search function, cross-selling options and an appealing shopping cart design.

  • Mobile first:

    Of course, right? That should be mentioned again, for the sake of completeness. Think of a mobile-optimized structure for your site. Tip: Test your presence in advance with tools such as the mobile friendly test from Google or with real test users.

  • Customer account as a barrier:

    Your visitor has stocked in shopping cart and has successfully covered most of the way. Remain mindful of how you “take care” of the visitor on the final steps from now on. Give the visitor the option to open a customer account or to order as a guest. For many users, an obligation to disclose data is an obstacle on the way to placing an order. However, if the data is more important to you, you lose potential customers that close to the conclusion.

  • Trustworthiness:

    Pick up your customers and don’t leave them alone, even if you only advise them virtually and not personally. User must also have the feeling of being in the right hands with you online. Think of detailed, but easily comprehensible and creative product descriptions. Do not just describe products and services with graphic texts, but use high-quality video or image material from the documentation with other customers. Show your products in good light from different perspectives or even in “movement”, if it makes sense. Think of all your senses in order to let the customer experience your offer. Last but not least, think about cancellation, shipping and return information. Make the shipping costs transparent. Provide easy contact and ensure quick and friendly service. To facilitate customer service, it is advisable to include the most important questions in the ecommerce store using a list of the most important FAQs. Simple payment options are also important. More is not always better, but the right combination. By the way, your reputation is helped by working with well-known and trustworthy providers.

At a glance

So, draw attention to yourself first and let yourself be found well. Then confirm your choice and make them happy with your products and services. Tip: In order to optimize all the paths and processes described, it helps to keep your own behaviour or wishes when buying online. Play through all the stations and situations in your head and on paper. Do market research yourself and get the opinions of your employees or loyal customers. This is how you put yourself in the shoes of the target group and different users. It will then be easier for you to make attractive offers to new visitors, to reward returners or to convince doubters of themselves.

Do you need further support in setting up your ecommerce store? We are here for you! If you are looking for an ecommerce website development, shopping cart development, online store development and web application development, Please explore our Ecommerce Solutions! We also provide ecommerce website maintenance services, online store maintenance services and web application security audit. For more information, please visit our Ecommerce Maintenance Services!

If you have any questions or would like to know more about how Skynet Technologies can help your business to reach one step ahead, Reach out us through below form & We'll get back to you soon!

How to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment?

By | Date posted: | Last updated: December 29, 2020

The other day in front of the checkout in the supermarket: three customers have their goods on the belt, the cashier quickly scans the prices, so far everything seems good – but what is it? There are seven more shopping trolleys, full of cart with the most beautiful products, but all alone and apparently no customer far and wide who belongs to them. The only fake in this scene is the location of the action: What happens here rarely takes place in the supermarket, but has remained unchanged for years in web shops around the world.

Abandoned Shopping Cart – Customer flight at a high level!

In any case, more than two out of three customers on average break off the order process prematurely. In other words, they selected products, moved them to the virtual shopping cart – and were no longer seen from then on. Somewhere between entering personal data and confirming the payment, they are fed up and close the online store page. Only with luck – and intelligent programming – will you come back at some point and find your shopping cart again. The losses in conversion, i.e. the conversion of visitors into customers, are enormous.

Top reasons why the checkout fails!

The check-out process in the ecommerce store is a very important factor because very few people are big fans of forms. And the payment process itself is hardly ever felt to be pleasurable. If there is also the slightest complication, it is only a fraction of a second until the order is cancelled.

Most of the reasons for a failed check-out are easy to understand for anyone who has already ordered in an ecommerce store – if the check-out process was user-unfriendly. With best-practice order pages that shine with every imaginable convenience, intuitive buttons and fields and minimal effort for the customer.

Thoughtlessness or misguided investment decisions that provoke a shopping cart abandonment. Because it is easy to imagine the annoyance of a customer in advance if the high additional costs for shipping or the like only appear in the order overview for a supposedly cost-effective product. And even if the customer only preferred payment method does not work after entering three pages of data for the order, yes, then it is understandable that user is leaving the ecommerce store with a slam.

The checkout process in the online store is the high school of successful customer experience – this is where customer experiences take place that determine conversion rates and sales more directly than anywhere else. Many measures are relatively easy to identify and implement with good will and the trained eye of the experienced salesperson; here and there it’s about technology and a little effort in service, but it’s not rocket-science and every step is worth it.

10 tips for simplifying online store checkout process!

To give you peace of mind: you are never abandoned shopping carts, if you even have that many! – responsible. Quite a few users are simply undecided at the moment and may use the shopping cart like a wish list; or you want to compare even more and have simply found a more suitable product elsewhere. However, much you can optimize your check-out process, you have no control over it. So, let’s look at the points where you can effectively start.

  • Individual causes for abandoned shopping carts:

    General statistics are only a first clue. You can only optimize efficiently if you know at which point your customers can exit their check-out early. Your options for doing this result from the analysis tools of your shopping cart statistics. The ecommerce store basics, for example, offers a compact introduction to metrics and formulas. The targeted keyword on the Internet for the store that may differ depending on the online store technology is conversion tracking.

  • Transparent shipping costs – Trouble shooter #1:

    Free shipping has become normal to a considerable extent – at least to the extent that customers generally expect to be advised of shipping and packaging costs when selecting a product. In any case, this should not only happen at the end of the ordering process! If you have to calculate shipping costs at least below a certain order value, the most elegant and most motivating tactic for additional purchases. The shipping price should also be specified in the shopping cart and, if necessary, supplemented with a note such as: “For free shipping only with a value of… continue to order”.

  • Generous Payment Options – Trouble shooter #2:

    Okay, every credit card company cost; PayPal cost; Your own billing department cost too. But you can work out for yourself how many customers who prefer or only want to pay with XYZ will amortize the respective fees for you. Apart from that, it just makes a good impression if you have a wide choice in this point in your online store – including partial payment or full payment on account, of course with corresponding failover.

  • Be hospitable – Registration only on request:

    Always think from the customer’s perspective. The customer now want product; the customer not going to marry you! So, allow unrestricted guest access without registration – especially if registration does not offer highly attractive advantages. But of course, you can if necessary – without disturbing the ordering process! – point out such advantages. As short and convincing as possible!

  • Order details short and painless:

    The fact that you only ask your customers for the data that is necessary of course under data protection law. If there are reasons to ask for more than name and address: Write directly in the appropriate input field or link “Why we ask you about it”. When designing your website, make sure that there is no possibility of misunderstanding how to fill out an input field. And Automatic error messages (in red) should appear immediately after the entry and directly next to the information and clearly state how to do it correctly.

  • Clear checkout process:

    Shopping cart, personal data, payment and shipping details, order confirmation, final OK – what must be, but don’t make a maze of it. You need robust online store that, for example, allows the customer to jump from the credit card number to the delivery address with the back button of the browser without being thrown out of the system or without input being lost. A status bar is also useful, which not only shows where the customer is right now (and that will hopefully be finished soon), but also let’s navigate the ordering process.

  • The whole order is short and painless:

    All efforts to make it easy for your online store visitors are. Loading times of over 3 seconds are generally considered to be risky for an increase in the bounce rate, even if there is some hope of a little more patience with someone who has already invested time in data entry. Don’t strain them.

  • And all of this also for mobile orders:

    Most of purchases from online store are increasingly being made via smartphone. This means that all optimizations of the check-out process must also be as user-friendly as possible on mobile devices. Take into account that the tendency to cancel an order process for someone who is on the move with a cell phone increases significantly faster than at the desktop in the office.

  • Safety first – Data security is a sore point:

    Consumers are repeatedly unsettled by news of data theft. Remember that entering credit card details, for example, is a great sign of trust. On the one hand, you should therefore clearly communicate why and how you are processing personal data. And the least you should guarantee to earn the trust is an SSL certified online store or ecommerce website.

  • No disruptions:

    No matter how great the temptation, don’t hit your prospective customer with pop-ups, advertising banners, not even a cross-selling offer in the sidebar. Yes, the customer is already in the home stretch of customer journey, so one of the hopes for your sales, but just don’t do it. Let the customer complete the order undisturbed.

After the order is before the order!

There are many approaches to not only keep customers happy after placing an order, but also to motivate them to make follow-up purchases. But first of all, the most important thing is that the customer knows when their goods are coming. Do everything to offer user-friendly shipment tracking. Reliability and security of delivery are to a certain extent more important than pure speed.

Retargeting by email? Some advice pages deal extensively with asking a customer who has aborted the order process after entering e-mail address via this contact channel to still complete the order.

The question of the admissibility of such mailings is controversial, but very clear: data such as the e-mail address may only be used with the verifiable consent of the person concerned, and only for the purpose for which it is declared were. The fact that the online store visitor has consented to such sending is not given, if only because you have not received a confirmation. In addition, the fact that the visitor cancelled the order creates doubts as to whether visitor agrees to be contacted directly.

Conclusion: Test your checkout process from the customer’s point of view!

Ease of use at checkout doesn’t have to be like rocket science. And you can hire a web design expert to identify the roughest stumbling blocks in the checkout process. You can also simply get some customer feedback first and let anyone who is not particularly internet-savvy go through your ordering processes – and be careful where these “normal” testers fail or have to try things out.

One thing is certain: Each of the points mentioned will immediately help to improve your check-out process and thus your entire business.

If you are looking for an ecommerce website development, shopping cart development, online store development and web application development, Please explore our Ecommerce Solutions! We also provide ecommerce website maintenance services, online store maintenance services and web application security audit. For more information, please visit our Ecommerce Maintenance Services!

If you have any questions or would like to know more about how Skynet Technologies can help your business to reach one step ahead, Reach out us through below form & We'll get back to you soon!

Ecommerce Usability Best Practices – The Complete Guide!

By | Date posted: | Last updated: April 20, 2021
Ecommerce Usability

Usability is an integral part of holistic SEO. Influence factors such as:

  • Bounce rate
  • Time on the page
  • Conversion rate

and many of these metrics influence the SEO of your website. For all sites, optimising usability is important, but even more so for ecommerce sites. Check out the guide on how user experience and SEO can boost your Website Conversion Rate.

User testing is one way to optimize your ecommerce site, but a lot can be done simply by looking at best practices, comparing them to your site, and making improvements. This article help to ecommerce websites walks you through the testing process and goes over everything you need to give your visitors the best possible experience.

Ecommerce Usability Best Practices

Focus on your target audience

The first step in ecommerce usability, even before setting up the graphics, is to understand the needs of your target audience. You need to investigate the search intent. Are your potential customers looking for the best deal or are they interested in reading a dozen reviews before they buy? Are there any cultural differences that you need to take into consideration? These things determine the configuration and layout of your store’s home page. Do you need to highlight items on sale? Are you targeting a particular niche? If so, it will need to be clarified from the start.

If one of the pillars of your mission is to provide the best possible price, the sales banner should probably be the most prominent feature on your home page. But if you sell high-quality products that people are willing to pay a little more for, feelings and emotions should be your focus. You can use larger images and focus on the main features and benefits of the product.

Usability of the ecommerce website homepage

Have you ever looked closely at the home page of your ecommerce site?

Chances are you’ve picked a theme that your designer introduced you to and implemented with the options available. While most of these themes are well designed and set with the user in mind, they may not be the best for your particular target audience.

Call to action on the ecommerce store home page

Your homepage’s job is to guide the visitor to your products. Your ecommerce store home page shouldn’t necessarily be set with SEO in mind, but should instead focus on the user. This also means that you will need to create a killer call to action on that home page.

Not having a good CTA (call to action) is one of the most common SEO mistakes.

Here are some helpful tips for setting up your call to action:

  • Make sure the design stands out. Use a different button color or shape.
  • Make sure it looks like a button. No ghost buttons!
  • Write live text, so your button doesn’t just have to say “Submit” but rather a variation of “buy our stuff.”
  • Use lots of white space around it or reduce clutter.
  • Using a Hero image is a popular strategy and it is for good reason: it creates an atmosphere.
  • Do not use sliders.

Once you’ve welcomed the visitor to your website, you can guide them where you want them to shop: product pages. Before tackling this part, let’s see how to optimize internal search and category/destination pages.

Advanced Search

Advanced search is the most important navigation option for your ecommerce store and you should optimize it as much as possible. You will notice that major brands and ecommerce stores focus a lot on their advance research. The explanation is simple: You can buy it if you can find the product you’re looking for!

In addition to optimizing the advance search option, you need to make sure your search results pages are targeted and offer a great overview of the results. You need to show the price and even an “Add to Cart” button next to the product name and image, and a comparison option might come in handy.

Filter options

After the search query, online clothing stores will allow you to filter by size, gender, color, age, brand, etc. Filtering options like these or sorting by price or availability will help your visitors to find the product they want, as quickly as possible.

Conclusion

Ecommerce Usability is a Job in Its own. Work hard to optimize the usability of your ecommerce site. You will find that a better user experience will take your ecommerce store’s SEO and conversion to the next level.

If you are looking for marketing opportunities for your existing ecommerce store or want to create a new ecommerce store or require any type of ecommerce solutions, Please explore our ecommerce solutions! We also provide ecommerce website maintenance services, online store maintenance services and more. For more information, Please visit our ecommerce maintenance services!

If you have any questions or would like to know more about how Skynet Technologies can help your business to reach one step ahead, Reach out us through below form & We'll get back to you soon!