eCommerce Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Best Practices

To start with, in most cases, there won't be a better time to start applying these tips than the summer. Sure, you might have missed it, I mean the summer, but you can implement these anytime.

If you don't sell summer products or heat/air conditioning items, your sales will likely slow down during the summer. That's when people spend time outside, go on holidays, and generally don't spend as much free time on their computers shopping.

Even though we all have mobile phones now, eCommerce sales volume in July still tends to be 30% lower than in December.

If your business follows this pattern, you know when to start. If not, analyze your data, and prepare your action plan for conversion rate optimization.

When online shopping is involved, you have to ensure that your eCommerce store appears trustworthy, especially with the skyrocketing cybercrime.

Start by ensuring your store complies with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Consult a cybersecurity expert on the best practices that include SAML, SCIM, and multi-factor authentication.

And don't forget about your eCommerce platform provider: contact them too because they will usually have a set of security apps and tools you can add to your store to make it more secure.

Once you have determined that your store is secure, make sure your customers know it as well: send emails, brag on social media, add badges to the checkout pages, and include it in your value proposition.

74% of consumers research and compare products through search engines before purchasing. That's why SEO is important. And a good sitemap and navigation will help with it significantly.

But not only that, easy and logical navigation and product categories will also help your customer find what they need fast, helping to increase your conversions.

We talked about that in our eCommerce SEO guide that comes with a free downloadable pdf to help you easily share the best practices with anyone on the team.

In a time when people prefer short-form content, you may be tempted to shorten everything on your website. However, while that is the general guideline, don't sacrifice any vital product information.

Good product descriptions will help your customers find relevant information: this is where you should address their main pain points and how the product solves them, as well as key product information such as the dimensions, materials, great 360-degree photos, and more.

Secondly, when written intelligently, these are extremely helpful for SEO.

Go beyond product pages. Today more than ever, it is the story, the promise, that sells your product. Today commerce is as much about entertainment as it is about the use of products.

Do not focus solely on your product's exact match keywords. In The Spongebob Squarepants Socks Example (exclusive to the pdf version of eCommerce SEO guide), we show that a post on Best socks for winter 2022 can help your Size M SpongeBob SquarePants socks page get new visits, new audience, and new sales.

It's the age of the frictionless user experience - even during checkout. In fact, 17% of consumers have abandoned their orders because they found the checkout process too long or complicated.

On a similar note, Shopify has shared data of some of its merchants who have managed to increase their conversion rate by 30% by implementing a custom checkout process.

Go through your checkout process, and see where you can cut down on the friction - but never-ever sacrifice security for user experience. Instead, you can and should have both.

Consumers who visit your website usually want to find what they need fast. That's where a great search engine enters the picture.

Visitors who use search tend to convert at 4.63%, which is far higher than the average conversion rate. To build on that, 43% of your visitors go straight to the search bar when they first visit a website.

The numbers speak for themselves! If you don't already have one, contact your web developer. It's not too hard to implement, yet it will do wonders for your conversion rate.

Consumers tend to read testimonials as word-of-mouth or social proof, and there aren't many things that will help you convert as much as that.

Collect customer, magazine/website, and influencer endorsements, and add them to your website. A product with 5 reviews is 270% more likely to be purchased than one without reviews, and the probability increases by 15% when verified buyers sign the reviews.

We've known for years now that the mobile has overtaken the desktop as the most used device for surfing the internet. But it's important to note that the same is true for online purchases. 

5.7% of customers convert on mobile devices, in contrast to only 3.9% on desktops.

While both are certainly important, if it hasn't already, it's time for your eCommerce store to go mobile-first.

Research shows that 80% of consumers are more likely to buy when offered a personalized experience. And I'm sure you've read an article or two on Netflix homepage personalization.

The thing is, personalization works!

Offering different homepages or product recommendations based on customer demographics, location, or order history should help you increase your conversion rate.

Go beyond product pages … and content. Build a community of like-minded people. The cornerstones of creating a community for a product ecosystem are social media and owned media. A thriving community generates a consistent flow of orders as well as insightful product feedback that can help you refine your offering.