Redesigning an existing ecommerce site is much harder than you may think. However, there are a couple of things that you can do to organize your ecommerce site that will immediately increase your conversion rate.
1. Browser, engaged, determined: What type of visitor?
In our personas series we talk about the four different types of personas that can visit your site and how to appeal to them. Before you can effectively appeal to all four personas you must understand who your target market is so that you can narrow down the types of personas that you need to appeal to. This is the key and first step to knowing how to balance the content on your page.
When a visitor lands on your site, he is one of four types:
- He knows exactly what he wants and is ready to place an order
- He knows that he has a need and is looking for a solution
- He is browsing, might have interest if presented with the right information
- He is there by mistake
For each of the three first users, it’s up to you to convince them to take the plunge and convert from a visitor to a client. So, balance the content on your page to make sure that you appeal to each of these visitors.
2. Keep it simple
Don’t bombard visitors with too much information. Make sure everything is well organized and easy to find. Visitors should not be searching through your page to find what they need.
3. Lead them to the finish line
Make sure that each step or click that the visitor makes takes them closer to the “finish line” or where they want to end up. It should be very easy for them to know more about a desired product or to hopefully checkout. If the visitor does not find what they need easily, than you can count on them to navigate somewhere else where they can and not waste time trying to figure out your site.
4. Make sure everything is relevant
Every person who visits your site will unconsciously ask themselves the following questions. You need to make sure that the content presented is organized in a way to answer these questions immediately and effectively.
a) Where did I land?: Tell them who you are.
b) Am I in the right place?: Make it clear what kind of business or company you are.
c) Does this site have what I’m looking for?: Show the visitor what you offer.
d) Can I afford this product or service?: Clearly indicate cost or where to find out more information on cost.
e) How can I make a purchase?: Clearly outline the checkout process.
f) What if I’m not satisfied?: Clearly exhibit refund policy or satisfaction guarantee.
Making sure that your visitors can answer these questions will help you increase your conversion rate. Any additional information may be too much or irrelevant and might distract your visitor from the purchasing process. It’s important not to bombard the visitors, but instead to let them know the necessary information to keep them on your site and moving forward towards check out.
5. Categorize your products/services.
Categorizing your products or services will better organize your site and help the visitor find what they’re looking for quicker. It’s even more effective when you allow the visitor the option of how they want the products organized (i.e. by price, color, location, etc.) depending on what you offer.
6. Don’t “lose” your visitors.
When prospects feel lost in your site, you’ll lose your sale. Make sure that visitors can easily navigate through the site and find what they are looking for. Anticipate navigational errors and make sure that they can get back to where they want to go no matter what page they’re on. A visitor should be able to find the checkout button right away and when at checkout they should be able to go back and add more products if they decide they have not completed shopping. A good way to encourage this is to add similar products on a side navigation bar to entice visitors to continue shopping.
7. Optimize the check out process.
A red flag should immediately go up if you’re able to get your visitors to the check out page and then lose them at that point. A high exit rate at the checkout page means that there is something there that is scaring your visitor to “seal the deal.” Make sure that you have a secure page and link to the refund policy or satisfaction guarantee. Review your personas and address the issues that they may have from completing the process.
These 7 steps can be worked the right away without drastically changing the content or images on the site. If you’re struggling with conversion rates try a couple or better yet all of these tips and I’m sure you’ll be seeing better results very soon.
