E-commerce: how you can increase your digital store conversion5 min read
Having an e-commerce is not enough. Inserting your products in a digital store and waiting for customers to arrive is not sufficient: for a digital project to be successful, it is essential that it converts.
If you’ve opened an e-commerce, or you’re planning to do so, you’ll have as your primary goal that your users turn into customers. But often e-commerce struggles to make numbers. The reasons? First, your e-commerce might have optimization issues, so Google doesn’t reward it. Or you might not have worked on content marketing: you’ve built the e-commerce and left it to its fate.
But don’t panic, these are mistakes we’ve all stumbled into sooner or later. If you continue reading you will discover how to get your e-commerce off the ground.
How to increase e-commerce conversions
How much do you need to sell to have a successful e-commerce? We’ve all wondered this in front of our e-commerce business, but there’s no single answer to this question.
It usually refers to the conversion rate, that is, the percentage of visitors who buy, compared to the total. In addition, other factors are taken into account: how many visitors return, how many put products in the cart or save a list of products, how much they sign up. In fact, these are visitors who show interest, prospected to become customers anyway: the purchase is not immediate, but only postponed to the future.
The success of an e-commerce also depends on the type of product and the investment made in the digital project. An example: with the same product, the same conversion rate can be very low for those who have invested budget in advertising, but high for those who have not.
In any case, there is an indicative value to evaluate the conversion rate: in the B2B sector, it is 3-4%, in B2C it is 1-2%. Having established what are the starting points for an analysis of your e-commerce, let’s see now how to improve it.
The importance of User Experience
Do e-commerce visitors arrive at your website, but then abandon the navigation? Or do they start the checkout process and then stop it? You may have offered an unsatisfactory user experience (UX): the customer’s browsing experience was more difficult than it should be. Maybe it wasn’t intuitive, simple.
The critical points can be many: product cards written in a superficial way, categories not so much clear, search box not very visible, purchase process complicated by too many steps, related articles not in evidence. Remember that the visitor who “lands” on your e-commerce could be looking for a specific product. For this reason, it is essential to offer him two things: filters and a list of best-selling items.
If the user has entered the e-commerce site to find the product he has been told about, he must have all the necessary tools to find it again: the list of the best sellers, where the item could be, and the possibility to search by entering the right filters.
In general, in a website the user must find all the information he needs. That’s why we have referred to product cards written with approximation: an accurate description will have a greater impact than a not very detailed one. The more the user will know about the article, the more he will be tempted to click on “buy”: that is to convert.
Optimization
So far we’ve talked about user experience. Another factor that can penalize your e-commerce is the optimization. The optimization of a website concerns both the content and its technical aspect: it is a series of elements that make a site in line with the demands of Google’s algorithm. An optimized site is a site that is rewarded by Google, i.e. shown before competitors among the search results.
What does it mean that e-commerce must be optimized? It means that the contents must be organized by keywords that describe them and place them in precise product categories. Let’s take the case of a beauty shop: a user looking for pearl eye shadow cannot be directed to a series of products that fall under the generic description of eye shadow.
As for the optimization from a technical point of view, check if the e-commerce is navigable from smartphones (the site must be mobile first) and if the loading of pages is not slow.
Content marketing
Speaking of search engine optimization, a blog can be a great way to rank for the right keywords. In addition, a blog allows you to place a call to action and push the user to take an action.
Offering content is also an effective strategy to bring the user closer: making yourself known through content allows the user to get closer to us. At that point, when he will look for an article like the one we sell, he will buy from us. It is a bit like the user had made friends with our company.
This is what content marketing does: it sells through content. Another valuable ally is the newsletter, a tool that allows you to reach the user directly by calling them by name.
Bonuses, discounts and coupons
Do you have an e-commerce but no “hook” to attract the user? Then it’s time to have one. A discount for new subscribers, a coupon to spend in the next few days, shopping points, free shipping: it’s hard to resist it all, especially if the offer is limited time. Urgency is the ultimate lever to make the purchase: knowing that an item cannot remain saved or in the cart until a later date, is the decisive push.
If you propose an offer, communicate it by email and put it in evidence in the home of the site.
E-commerce for your business
Now you have all the information you need to increase conversions and get your e-commerce project off the ground. Do you need product sheets or content for your blog? We at Contens.com can help you develop your e-commerce: discover our services, from data analysis to content creation and product sheets.
Contents is an innovative, high-performance marketing tech company that has developed a proprietary software platform that analyses, produces and distributes original content. Contents also uses the Natural Language Generation system, based on Artificial Intelligence, which allows us to create natively multilingual and personalised content in seconds, without the need for human intervention. Our services are designed for e-commerce, editors and web agencies. Sign up for free!
