The importance of conversion rate optimization in eCommerce

With ever-increasing competition in the eComemrce arena, marketers must get creative when it comes to finding ways to attract more visitors to their stores and beat out their competitors. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a non negotiable for marketers in 2022 who seek to enhance their customer’s experience and persuade them to take action on their storefront.  

If you are not aware of what conversion rate optimization is, then let me put it in simple words for you. CRO the process of increasing the percentage of conversions from a website (eCommerce store) or mobile app.  CRO often involves generating ideas for elements on your store that can be improved, and then validating those hypotheses through A/B and multivariate testing. The required call to action can vary from business to business , but mostly includes making a purchase, signing up for a service, filling out a form, or signing up to an email newsletter.

High Vs Low conversion rate

Having a high Conversion Rate means that your store is designed in a user-friendly manner with effective UX Design and an attractive layout to lure your target audience. Whereas, a low conversion rate can be due to a series of reasons ranging from to slow page load times to poor UX Design and a confusing layout that is not user-friendly and ends up frustrating users or visitors. 

Measuring conversion rate

You can measure the conversion rate of any website by dividing the number of visitors who took the desired action - ie: made a purchase -  by the total number of visitors who visited the website and multiplying the result by 100 to get the answer in terms of percentage. 

Conversion rate optimization = Number of conversions / total number of visitors * 100

Importance of conversion rate optimization

The importance of conversion rate optimization in eCommerce and digital marketing is unquestionable. Marketers need to ensure a high conversion rate  in order to scale their eCommerce business and rule the eCommerce arena. Here are some factors to consider that will highlight the importance of conversion rate optimization in eCommerce Marketing.

• CRO helps to measure performance - Conversion Rate is literally the number one performance metric every eCommerce business should strive to continuously improve. Through conversion rate, you can effectively contrast your past and current performance to evaluate your current market standing and improvement in performance. 
• CRO helps to identify possible issues - The process of conversion rate optimization doesn’t only share the number of desired conversions, but also shares the underlying information about related actions, like the number of visitors who tried to add an item to their cart, or users who were unable to complete the desired action on your store. Such information helps eCommerce strategists marketers to understand the flaws around why users were unable to complete checkout and the other actions they tried to take on the store. By evaluating the reasons for these flaws, strategists can deal with all the user-interface and UX Design issues that prevent customers from actually converting.
• CRO helps to identify valuable customers - by analyzing the underlying issues as discussed earlier, you can identify your businesses most valuable customers who wish to use your products, but didn’t purchase, perhaps because of some technical error. You can then retarget these valuable leads in order to win them back as customers and enhance your overall conversion rate. The probability of converting these leads is much higher as compared to targeting net new users who have no history of interaction with your store or brand. 
• CRO helps to conduct competitive analysis - it is quite easy to compare your store conversion rates with that of competitors and market averages for your industry. This should give you a sense of  your market position relative to your competitors. Analyzing your market position is important for business growth and for crafting winning strategies that enhance your customer base and conversion rate. 
• CRO helps to prioritize problem areas - The CRO process helps to highlight current issues and their effects on your store’s performance. Certain issues need urgent attention while others can be dealt with at a later time. Having a robust CRO process helps you make a priority list or roadmap to continuously improve conversion rate over time. 

Conversion rate optimization strategies

There are various effective conversion rate optimization strategies that can help you to increase your conversion rate. Below, we outline some of these strategies that can be implemented to boost conversion rates:

• Include a text-based call to action in your blogs - many marketers make the mistake of adding a call to action at the end of their content and blog posts. In reality, few visitors make it to the end of a blog post. They typically give more attention to the start of the blog while skimming through the remainder.  To increase conversion rate, you should add a call-to-action right after the introduction in a text-based format to capture visitors’ attention and drive them towards a desired action.
  
  
• Adding lead funnels to your blog - lead funnels are pop-up messages or other non intrusive CTAs that show up on the blog or page to attract visitors’ attention. You can add strategic information in the pop-up message (to highlight it) that visitors have to take a small action on in order to see the content of your blog.
  
  
• Test the landing pages of your website - always run tests to refine the UX Design and layout of your landing pages. This helps to identify possible issues and flaws in your user funnel. Conducting these kinds of A/B and multivariate tests also enables you to choose the UX design with superior performance.
  
  
• Automated workflows to upgrade your performance - You can create automated workflows to enhance the conversion rate and overall performance of your store. Automated workflows include all the automated actions your store will take in order to win the visitors’ attention and persuade them to take the desired action. 

For example, if a visitor abandons a filled shopping cart then you can send an automated message or email to remind them to revisit the store and complete their checkout process. Or if a person adds any item to their wishlist, then you can send a reminder message when that item is restocked. These types  of automated messages give a positive image of your eCommerce business as they realize that you deem your customers important.

• Add interactive features to high-performing pages - To boost your conversion rate you can add interactive features like live chat to your high-performing landing pages on your store. Removing the purchase barrier as much as possible will make the user experience more enjoyable. Giving them access to live chat where they can ask questions to remove their concerns will lead to improved conversion rates.

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