Traditional retail is disappearing. By 2040, 95% of retail purchases are likely to be made online. Having a well-optimised ecommerce website could be the difference between success and obscurity. So if you’d like to optimise your ecommerce website for sales success then keep reading!
In this comprehensive guide, I’ll be taking you through the key strategies and techniques to optimise your ecommerce website to help you drive high-value conversions. From enhancing the user experience to using social proof, I’ve covered all bases!
Enhance the User Experience (UX)
Designing or tweaking your ecommerce website to ensure a smooth and intuitive shopping experience is the key to positively influencing user engagement and conversion rates. There are several ways you can enhance the UX on your site including:
- Make it Responsive: Your website should be mobile-friendly as most people shop via their smartphones these days and Google prioritises websites that are mobile-friendly in their search listings.
- Make it Easy to Navigate: Organise products into clear categories and make sure your website has a search function with filters to help users to find what they are looking for quickly and efficiently.
- Speed it Up: Encourage possible buyers to stay on your website by making sure it loads quickly. To do this you’ll want to compress images, minimise server requests and use caching features. Slow-loading websites lead to high bounce rates due to frustrated users. You may wish to speak to a digital marketer or a web developer to help you with this.
- Simplify Checkout: Don’t make your customers jump through a million hoops to buy something from you. Give them multiple payment options and the ability to checkout as a guest to minimise abandoned carts.
Use High-Quality Imagery and Descriptions
There’s nothing more off-putting than low-resolution photographs and vague descriptions on an ecommerce website. Your potential customers want to get a realistic view and feel for what they are buying before they click ‘add to cart’. Help them obtain it by:
- Using High Res Images: Try to provide as many different angles as you can (especially if it is something like furniture or clothing) and offer a zoom function too if possible. Consider showing the contents of any products that might be obscured by their packaging too.
- Offer Clear Descriptions: Write informative and concise product descriptions that highlight key features, benefits, and specifications like colour, sizing and weight.
Implement an Effective Search Function
Enabling users to find what they are looking for in as few clicks as possible will help you to secure more sales on your e-commerce website. This is where an effective search function comes in. To enhance user experience consider implementing:
- Autocomplete: Enabling an autocomplete feature allows users to get to what they are looking for quicker and reduces typos that could see them navigate away from your website.
- Search Filters: Add filters that help users to narrow down their preferences from size to colour, category to price.
Showcase Your Social Proof
Sharing reviews on your product and website pages provides important validation also known as ‘social proof’ to your brand. Showcase your social proof by:
- Encouraging Product Reviews: When people purchase from your website encourage them to rate and review you – on your website and external websites like Google Business Profile or Trustpilot. Display these reviews on your websites to persuade others to shop with you too.
- Sharing User-Generated Content (UGC): Share photographs and videos of customers with their purchases to indicate quality and satisfaction with your products. UGC content is extremely useful to any business – it shows your product or service being used by its target audience and is therefore a powerful marketing tool.
Personalise the Experience
Tailoring the shopping experience for individual users can have a great impact on your sales. You can personalise the user experience by:
- Personalised Recommendations: Implement software or link to related products to give users recommendations based on what they have looked at on your website.
- Retargeting: Remind users of products they’ve previously looked at or added to their carts by not yet purchased.
SEO Optimise Your Website
If you want your products to appear in search results (well duh!) then you will need to SEO optimise your website to make the most of organic traffic and drive more sales. I could write a lot on the intricacies of ecommerce SEO but here are some key points for you to act on:
- Keyword Research: Identify relevant keywords that your target audience will most likely be typing into search engines to find your products. Ideally, you’ll want to do this before you upload them so you can ensure the whole listing is optimised from the start.
- On-Page SEO: Incorporate your keywords into your product titles, descriptions, meta tags and URLs. Ensure you optimise your alt text on all product images too.
- Site Structure: Make sure your website is easily crawlable by search engines. Implement breadcrumb links for ease of navigation.
- Useful Content: Write high-quality informative blog posts, guides and how-to tutorial content related to your industry or products. Ensure any content you produce adds value to your target customer and you’re sure to improve your website’s SEO.
- Google Merchant Center: Sign up to Google Merchant Center to ensure your product feeds are synced and applicable to be displayed in Google’s shopping tab. Having your products displayed on Google increases your exposure and could encourage more sales.
Offer, Promote and Reward
Engage and entice potential customers with deals and rewards to encourage repeat purchases and inspire brand loyalty for sales success by:
- Running Flash Sales: Limited-time offers and flash sales can serve to create a sense of urgency amongst your audience, inspiring them to convert.
- Reward Loyalty: Reward repeat customers with exclusive discounts, pre-sale access or points for purchases.
Optimising your ecommerce website for sales success involves paying attention to your user experience, product presentation, SEO and how your market your products. By tweaking these elements with your ideal customer in mind, you can create a compelling online shopping experience that answers these 8 questions and drives higher value conversions, satisfied customers and ultimately,business growth.
It’s really important to note that ecommerce optimisation is an ongoing exercise that involves constant monitoring, testing and tweaking to stay ahead of competitors and ensure that each new product is perfectly primed to be found by your target customer.
If you’d like to optimise your current ecommerce website or would like help setting one up – I’d love to help! Get in touch here to discuss your needs.