In a couple of decades, e-commerce has evolved from being a mere luxury for certain “internet savvy” individuals to being a necessity for just about anyone connected to the internet.
And the rise of smartphones has only added to the e-commerce juggernaut. Today, there are online stores for everything imaginable. And all these stores are vying for the same set of customers.
Therefore, it becomes important to understand what to with the people visiting your store. Today, it’s not just about how much traffic your get (SEO, SEM) its also about how much sales you can generate off whatever traffic you are getting (Conversion Rate Optimization).
“The ultimate goal of any e-commerce business is sales, not increased traffic, so a general thumb rule is to optimize every single customer interaction on your website to maximize conversion,” explained Issa Asad Florida entrepreneur and businessman since 1996. Mr. Asad is the CEO of Q Link Wireless, Hello Mobile, and Quadrant Holdings, all located in South Florida. He is also the author of 4 e-commerce and marketing e-books that can be purchased on Amazon.
Here, Issa Asad Shows How to Increase Ecommerce Conversion Rates:
Perfect the Home Page
Your store home page is the most important page of your shop and the most potent weapon in converting strangers into customers. How you structure and design the home page creates the first (and quite often) the last impression.
So apart from aesthetic design, showcase your bestselling product on the home page. If you have the technology, personalize the home page based on the visitors browsing history and past purchases to show highly relevant products to them. If you have product videos, this is the page you showcase them.
Perfect the Navigation Tools
Creating an intuitive and user experience focussed navigation structure for product categories is perhaps the most important step in e-commerce conversion rate optimization. Structure your navigation in such a way that it makes it super easy for your customers to find their favorite products. Some of the steps in this regard include – creating category names based on what people are actually searching, using a mega menu to display all categories in a platter, using category images as a visual aid in right category identification.
Perfect the Search Tools
Search is another area which contributes a lot to the user experience of an e-commerce website. The objective of a good e-commerce search functionality is not only to provide accurate search results but also reduce as much human effort as possible and make the search as simple and quick as possible. Test your search results for accuracy. Provide auto-search functionality where users get category and product suggestions as they type in the search box, build your search functionality to include misspellings and plurals by default
Perfect the Product Page
Once you have successfully made the customer come to their desired product page, it’s now time to impress them like your product. Use your product page layout and information to convert the visitor into a customer. Use high-quality product images, take images from multiple angles and add an image gallery. Add product videos if available. Have an information product description and product page title. Clearly display things like product price, any applicable discounts, shipping charges, if any, and delivery time.
Also, allow them to select delivery dates, show related products and product reviews. You can even show all reviews on one page to make reviews more accessible. All these are must have information that can seriously hamper conversion if not presented well.
Perfect the Checkout Process
This is the last mile hurdle that every e-commerce site must overcome to succeed. Even if you do everything else right and make your customers add product to the cart, you will still end up with abandoned carts if the checkout process is not smooth and hassle free. Make sure you guide the customer through the process with the right information related to contact information, shipping address, billing address, payment methods, etc at the right place in the right manner. Don’t make customers enter the same information more than once and don’t confuse them with too many options.
About The Author
Issa Asad
Issa Asad is a well-respected entrepreneur, best-selling author and marketing strategist from South Florida. With over 15 years of experience in the telecommunications, technology and marketing industries.
