In a world that is getting increasingly more competitive, ensuring your eCommerce business is attracting visitors is not a one-time task; it is an ongoing process. eCommerce conversion rate optimization can help.
Conversion rate refers to the proportion of visitors or browsers on your website who completed a purchase.
Getting the visitors or browsers interested in your website, encouraging them to navigate the website to locate the products or services they need, making it easy to look up product details and additional information, and having them successfully complete the purchase are all different elements that lead up to conversion.
According to a report on nasdaq.com, by the end of 2020, 82% of small businesses embraced digital technology to meet evolving consumer behaviors. Nearly 37% of small businesses were most concerned about a continued shift in consumer behavior while nearly 75% expressed concern about health and safety issues that are keeping consumers away in 2021.
According to IRP Commerce data, the average conversion rate growth in eCommerce markets decreased from 2.31% in April 2020 to 2.12% in April 2021. Online conversion is a result of multiple factors. An attractive and engaging eCommerce business website is only one of these.
Apart from a completed sale, the eCommerce conversion rate is measured using several metrics, including:
The process of eCommerce conversion rate optimization (CRO) involves understanding what motivates website visitors to navigate and what encourages them to complete actions such as buying something or signing up to receive communication. This also includes identifying factors that discourage them from completing these activities, understanding where these factors originate (for example, fear of sharing information and fear of online hackers) and eliminating them. Applying this understanding to CRO can help increase the actual conversion.
Typically, most visitors behave at an eCommerce website in this way:
Visit #1: Navigate the website. This is similar to browsing at a store. At this point, the visitor may complete specific searches or simply look around the store to see what is available.
Visit #2: Complete specific searches. The visitor may check out the content that is available. They may make a single, small value purchase and then leave the website. This is counted as a conversion.
Visit#3: Visit the website and look around some more, and again make a purchase. This is counted as conversion. However, even if the visitor purchased multiple items, it would still count as a single conversion.
If a visitor to your site makes a purchase, or subscribes to receive communication, this is called a conversion. Divide the number of conversions by the number of visits a user makes to the website.
Number of conversions (complete sales) ÷ Number of unique site visits = CRO.
Understanding the factors that contribute to a user converting can help businesses learn how to drive business through their eCommerce website.
The process of eCommerce conversion rate optimization can help identify elements that are working towards conversion, and help outline patterns that lead to visitors leaving without showing interest in the website or declining offers to sign up for email, or to explore a particular deal or discount, or abandoning the shopping cart. Some of the reasons that can discourage visitors from converting into customers can include:
One of the best ways for businesses to optimize CRO is by understanding the target audience, their expectations, their fears, and what is relevant to them. It is critical to gather facts and take necessary action based on those facts to reduce wasted efforts. Here are some ways in which CRO contributes to a successful eCommerce business:
Insightful application of CRO can help businesses gain higher returns on investment. Also, there is minimal waste of effort or money as action is taken after studying what actually works and what does not.
Conversion is mostly about the visitor: what they find relevant, how, and why. The process of CRO can help businesses become enlightened about what they need to focus on, if they want to ensure long-term growth and success.
By driving a safe and strong user experience, CRO helps your business to stay aligned with what actually matters to your customers. This sets into motion a consistent process of visitors who are potential customers finding your eCommerce website useful for their requirements.
Because a significant amount of eCommerce insights are dependent on analytics and accurate retrieval of data and user behavior, businesses need to have access to tools for analytics and reporting, as well as the capability to interpret information and design business solutions around the reports.
A professional eCommerce website development partner can benefit your business and give you cost savings, while helping boost your business conversion rates.
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