Improving eCommerce Conversion Rates – What Seals the Deal?

There’s a huge and important difference between getting your target audience to your site and winning essential conversions. You could attract half the world’s population to your eCommerce site every day, but you’ll still go bust of not a single visitor spends a penny.Here at Pivotal Hosting, we’re constantly being asked why it is that some eCommerce sites convert at much higher rates than others, despite the fact that they’re selling the same products for the same prices. As for our advice, we of course insist that fundamentals like solid hosting and a highly-functional site on the whole make a huge difference, but at the same time there are plenty of subtler on-page tweaks that can bring welcome improvements to conversion rates.    Here’s a quick overview of the Pivotal Hosting team’s top tips for improving eCommerce conversion rates:1 – A Strong and Permanent Search BoxIt of course goes without saying that you need a highly functional and easy to use search function for your site – they won’t stick around if they have to do the hard work for themselves. However, it’s never a good idea to have just a single search box on your primary landing page – it’s much better to have a permanent search box that tags along anywhere your visitors go.2 – Simple and Effective NavigationYou need to think about your navigation bar as if it was the shelves you’re displaying your products on. If you pile all of your products into a single place and categorize them under just a few headers, your readers will get frustrated trying to find what they’re looking for. By contrast, use effective navigation bars to help them find what they’re looking for in an instant and you’re onto a winner. Poor navigation is a leading cause of high bounce rates and lackluster conversions.3 – Keep the Shopping Cart ActiveEach day, millions of consumers head to eCommerce websites, fill their virtual baskets and then decide to come back later. And when they do, they have to start again and might well forget half of the things they planned to pick up. By contrast, using cooking to keep the shopper’s basket full and activate it next time they visit can help remind them what they were looking at and encourage a purchase.4 - Liberal Contact DetailsNo matter how upstanding you are, first-time visitors to your website will wonder if you’re the real-deal or a dodgy crook. One of the only ways of winning their trust is to be liberal with your contact details, which means going far beyond offering a simple email address and listing your name, address, multiple telephone numbers and anything else of importance.5 – Free ShippingAnd finally, offering free shipping is of paramount importance these days – as too is letting your visitors know shipping is free. On your home page, a banner boasting of free shipping on all items is much more likely to win folk over than a link to your “Shipping and Handling” page, which a fair whack of your customers won’t even bother to read.