50 Tips to Increase Conversion Rates of Ecommerce

You can convert more of your traffic into sales without having to spend a lot of money. There are hundreds of ways to improve your conversion rate and the persuasiveness/stickiness of your website, many of which can be done very quickly and most will cost you close to nothing to implement.

1. Use real customer testimonials with authentic customer photos…no stock photography. Shoppers can quickly tell the difference. That specially required for service industry. Though in product industry  with reviews people will not like to buy the product. So either you can outsource that work or you can add the same from your end. Once the website generate sales then you donot have to add more. But till then the sales not generating it required.

2. Make sure your marketing effort attracts qualified traffic. Example, if you sell Digital cameras, don’t advertise that you sell macro lens just to get more traffic to your site. This may drive more visitors, but they are visitors with no intent to purchase, thus decreasing your conversion rate. You might give those as an add on products but not need to change your focus on add on products.

3. Get a toll-free number and make sure the placement of that number on your site is prominent and consistent.If you donot have any toll free number then you can choose

4. Include “points of reassurance” at every “point of action”. Example – if you are requesting that a viewer provide you with their e-mail address, clearly state that privacy is very important to you and that you will not share that information with any other party.

5. Use SSL (secure server certificates from a well known SSL authority) and make sure that the user knows you are using it. Display a prominent “Secure server” note at the top of the page. https:// become so mandatory in user prospective and search(SEO) prospective. Website without https:// infact not get the first 20-30 results of the google search.

6. Build trust, subscribe to a service like VeriSign, Thawte or ScanAlert and Prominently place these logos to reassure your customer that you care about the security of their information. The more trust you build with your customer can bring better sales output.

7. Have a clearly defined privacy policy and link to it from all pages.

8. Include a physical address on your site. You can also use getresponse. Know how getresponse help to increase ecommerce sales.

9. Don’t always concentrate on just making the “buy now” buttons the most prominent on every page, but rather concentrate on styling the “primary action” buttons the most prominently on every page. Example – you sell books, and you provide the customers with the ability to select a few related books and compare them before they can buy now. Make that “compare button/link the same style as you would the “buy now” button/link on a page in which the “buy now” button exists. This will help herd customers through your sales funnel.

10. Clearly Define your return policy. Keep no confusion to your customers mind. Take time to write or re edit the policy proper way along with your terms for return.

11. Make sure to include an “About Us” section on your site. The majority of my customers will visit or look for that section before making a purchase.

12. Make your site load fast, easy to navigate and user friendly. No need for horizontal scrolling, excessive vertical scrolling, large animation files or intrusive pop-up windows.

13. Keep your “buy now” button consistently and prominently placed on all product pages. The closer to the top of the page…the better. ”Above the fold if you want it sold” & 2. “Eye level is buy level”.

14. Provide clear good quality images of your products with an “enlarge image” option.

15. Make your checkout process as usable, intuitive, reassuring and simple as possible. Losing a shopper during your checkout process is a CRITICAL loss.

16. Don’t make people type their e-mail address twice. Get the site to remember and do it automatically.

17. Don’t force people to install crazy plug-ins just to make a purchase from your site. Stick with JavaScript, Flash and the other breads & butters.

18. Read your copy, make sure its compelling, yet not exaggerated and too loud.

19. Identify your unique selling proposition and exploit it. If you are the only seller of medium-sized green widgets in the USA, clearly state that and be proud of it. Not need to be globalized your local market or country based eCommerce also work well.

20. Implement a “site search” box and make sure it is accurate. Not only it will allow users to find what they want quick, it will give you an insight as to what they are shopping for and what terminology(keywords/key phrases) they are using so you can tailor your copy (and ad campaigns) accordingly.

21. Don’t just focus on the many features of your product, but rather on the benefits those features will provide you customers with. Don’t just say “folding ladders”, say “Our folding ladders will save you valuable garage space”.

22. Display your prices, shipping charges and tax clearly before the checkout process is completed.

23. Don’t use a drop-down for the “country” or “state” list over your order form. Many people are using scrolling mice these days, many are sure to accidentally scroll off of their correct state.

24. Let customers copy their shipping info to their billing info if they are identical, with one click.

25. Remove distractions as much as possible from the final checkout process such as the main navigation that existed during the shopping portion of your site.

26. Clearly provide a checkout process indicator. If your checkout process has 3 steps, clearly indicate at the top of the page what step they are on and how many steps there are to complete the order.

27. Clearly identify what info you really require during your checkout process. Eliminate unnecessary text fields/questions.

28. Use easy to understand, friendly error messages. No “INCORRECT USER INPUT IN STATE FIELD!” messages.

29. If your checkout error messages occur on a page other than the page with the errors, preserve the information that the user has already input and get the site to input it automatically.

30. Double check the spelling on your site. And the spelling on your error messages. “Ers in input filed” would look very unprofessional.

31. Try and get good reviews from shopping authority sites (shopping.com, epinions.com, bizrate.com, etc) and from previous shoppers.

32. Don’t use complex formulas for shipping price calculations, Example – ‘if you buy 13.5 kilograms worth of x”, then multiply that weight by y shipping rate. Get the site to do the calculations and show the shopper the price.

33. Consider shipping the product free. This is often a very good selling point with online shoppers.

34. Display the stock status of the selected item and do so BEFORE the user puts the item in their cart.

35. If you don’t sell or run out/discontinued an item, remove it from the site.

36. If you are offering a lot of products, users should be able to sort them by important criteria…price, size, color, etc.

37. Provide an easy way for shoppers to compare details of similar products.

38. Use a custom 404 not found page to link people back to the important areas of your site.That also help in seo. Without proper 404 pages the site heath damaged too much.

39. Give a clear estimate of the delivery time.