Tips for Increasing Conversion Rates
On ecommerce sites, visitors are converted to buyers at a dismal rate of 1.8%.1. Conversely, Amazon's conversion rate is over 9%! 2.
Why? Simple, really. On many websites, customers can't find what they're looking for, and when they find it, they can't figure out how to buy it. Follow these tips to turn your lookers into bookers.
1. Make it easy for customers to find products
- Provide featured products and promotions on the home page, above the fold. Include the price of the items and allow customers to add them to the shopping cart right from the home page.
- Ensure product categories make sense to customers. Customers should be able to easily find the most popular items. Test this with potential customers before launching the site.
- Provide a keyword search feature on every page.
- Don't force or encourage customers to register before allowing them to add items to the shopping cart. Instead, include registration fields within their first checkout process, making registration invisible.
- Allow customers to modify their shopping cart. For example, allow customers to change quantities and remove items (provide a remove button). Make the item name a link so customers can go back and read about the items in their cart.
- Write error messages so they are clear, consise and polite. A message should tell users whats wrong and how to fix it in simple and polite language. For example, many people are confused when asked for their email address, and don't provide all of it. Include an example of a valid email address next to the email field and in the error message:
"Please enter a valid email address, in the following form: john@xyz.com."
1 Shop.org and Boston Consulting Group, The State of On-line Retailing, April 2000.
2 PC Data Online, 2000
