8 eCommerce Tips that Gives You More Control Over Sales and Conversions

If you own an eCommerce business, conversion rates should sit at the top rung on the ladder. If thousands of people visit your site and don’t buy anything, not only does this affect your revenue, but it will stunt your scalability as well.

Conversion rate means the number of visitors who convert into customers, meaning they, ultimately, buy something from you.

The eCommerce market is booming because customers prefer to shop online at their own convenience, and comfort. But a thriving market also means fierce competition. Customers are looking for the best user experience and will easily bounce from your site to another for two reasons:

• They don’t get what they’re looking for
• They find something better elsewhere

You have just a few seconds to capture the visitor, give them the best experience by making sure they not only find the product they came for but also get the service they desire.

We see site owners do everything right and still struggle with conversion rates. So we’ve put together a list of 7 eCommerce tips you could implement to improve your site which will enhance the visitor’s experience and, ultimately, has a positive effect on your conversion rates.

1) Live Chat

Providing your visitors with a Live Chat Support is a proactive step you can take to ensure your visitors get all the help they need. Since you can’t have salespeople walking around the store to help potential customers, you need to give them some options for them to reach out to you. This way, you ensure that they get answers to their queries and don’t leave the site due to a lack of information.

If you choose to implement this, you need to make sure your customer representative is prompt to reply. You could use AI to ensure at least the first few responses are taken care of immediately till a representative can get to the chat. You can go even further and use an eCommerce focused conversational marketing platform. For example, Gobot has a deep Shopify integration, utilizing live chat and eCommerce chatbots, making it easy to proactively address website visitors and grow revenue.

A chat that keeps customers waiting too long can defeat the purpose of it. What customers are looking for is quick responses with accurate answers.

2) Video Descriptions/Trailers

If you haven’t already done this, you’re missing out on conversions for something so simple. It’s a no brainer that potential buyers love descriptions. The modern-day customer likes to be well-informed. When it comes to online shopping, we can’t tell how it’s really going to look or feel. Customers go by reviews and your product description.

Videos may work well for some products like video games, laptops, phones, etc.

You need to keep in mind what your product is and who your customers are. Keep your videos concise and short but include all the relevant information. Your customer is probably not going to stick around for a long slow descriptive video. Videos are a great way to get creative and connect on a higher level with your customers.

3) Cross-sell and upsell

This might just be one of the most lucrative merchandising tactics. Upselling involves suggesting higher-end products, better versions or models to customers that might better fulfill their needs. Cross-selling displays products the customer might also like.

Before you introduce this to your eCommerce site, you should have a good understanding of your customers. You need to showcase products that are relevant to the customer’s search. This would help greatly improve your Average Order Value.

It’s human nature to always want a good deal. Showcasing “Frequently bought together” items with a better price can persuade customers to buy more. Check out a few other examples of eCommerce product recommendations here

Amazon saw a 35% rise in sales when they introduced upsell in 2006 with “Customers who bought this also bought this”. If done right, this is a sure shot at increasing conversions.

4) Messenger Marketing

Even though Messenger doesn’t have the same reach as email, there is one area where Messenger performs better than any other digital marketing channel, and that’s engagement. Nearly all messages will be read and half of them result in a click. This results in immediate revenue increases. Typically, Messenger marketing apps report 7-15% sales increases within 30 days. Getting started with automated campaigns such as abandoned cart recovery could not be easier. For example, Maxwell's Messenger Cart Recovery app runs your campaign on auto-pilot and offers multiple ways to grow your subscribers.

5) Try different formats

Sometimes you might be seeing low conversions simply because your format isn’t appealing, or it’s too chaotic. Just switching things up and getting a more user-friendly layout might be more effective than you think. Customers like things to be easily accessible and quick.

You might just need to categorize your content better so that it makes it easier for customers to maneuver through your site and find what they want faster.

6) Shipping and packaging

Customers have reached a stage of wanting it now. Many websites offer 1-day delivery options and customers are willing to pay more for it. Rather than going out to the store, they’d like it to arrive tomorrow or in the next few days. Getting faster shipping options can be tremendously helpful in convincing the customer to buy your products.

Customers are known to abandon their carts when they see that the product is going to take a long time to arrive. They also bounce when they see high shipping charges and taxes. Unless you’re selling very niche or rare products, free shipping, needless to say, is always a boon.

Apart from this, customers love custom packaging that stands out from others. Eco-friendly packaging is becoming wildly popular now.

According to a study by Dotcom Distribution, 61% of shoppers were more excited about the product when they saw unique packaging. You’re likely to get more returning customers.

7) Don’t be afraid to boast

If your product is better than the competition’s, highlight the aspects that make it better. It’s best not to put someone else down, but there’s no harm in giving yourself a boost.

For example, if you’re selling a battery that you have tested and proven it lasts longer than your competition, put it out there! Customers need to know what you’re better at.

8) Try out A/B testing

This is a way of comparing two versions of a webpage to see which one performs better. Also known as split testing, A/B is essentially a way of pitting two or more versions of the same page against each other and finding out which one works the best. By running these tests, we can simply eliminate guesswork.

So even if it’s a product page or just a blog page, you can test out two versions of layout, format, title and see which ones the customer prefers.

eCommerce can be a tough market to just survive let alone thrive. But playing the game right, strategizing your brand and products, and above all, catering to your customer’s every need can make you one of the top players.

Remember, you don’t have a salesman at the front door or in the aisles of your store to greet and assist your customer. So you need to replicate the same service using other virtual methods. eCommerce merchandising solutions like Tagalys enables you to have something like a virtual salesman. Using predictive technology, Tagalys ensures your website knows which products have high possibilities of conversions and displays it to customers accordingly. It also gives you control of curation, categorization, and customization.

Once you replicate the duties of a great salesman on your online store, you can be sure to see customer satisfaction rise, and naturally, conversions will follow suit!