How to Increase Conversion Rates
on Your Shopify Store in 2020

8 Min. Read

Conversion rates are the magic numbers that tell you all the secrets about the performance of your e-commerce website. The process of having a potential customer click on the buy button takes several steps – landing on the homepage, browsing the product catalog, getting used to the pricing, adding to cart, after which comes the buying button. 

With each step, you’re inching the customer ever so closer to a purchase on your Shopify Store, giving yourself one extra point on the conversion ladder. 

If you micromanage these stats and consider each step on the purchase process a conversion, from click-through to buy, you’ll know what you need to do to improve buy rates. This process is what is also known as Shopify conversion rate optimization

In terms of eCommerce the ability to micromanage is a strength!

When you walk into a brick & mortar store, you’ll have a salesperson tailgating till they come to guilt-tripping you to at least try something. But when it comes to e-commerce, the chaperone is missing, and that’s why it’s really important to take a close look at your conversion rates on Shopify

With website dynamics changing constantly, it’s important to understand the latest trends, so that you stay on top of your game. 

Here’s everything you need to know to increase your Shopify store Traffic and conversions in 2020. 

Table of Contents

Homepage Optimization

While getting someone to click on your homepage, is in itself an important factor on your conversion rate stats, the real rat race begins once the customer is here until he clicks on the buy button. It’s important that your homepage tells everything a customer wants to hear, but nothing more. Here’s how:

Coupon codes, real-time purchases and more

A very important step in keeping your customer engagement rates high is to offer a coupon in exchange for the juicy data – an email ID to run your marketing campaigns. Place your coupon code subscriber list strategically – when they’ve reached your homepage through SEO and are just browsing, let it linger before the pop-up opens. But discounting doesn’t end there; for mobile-users, using coupon codes entails multiple steps that could potentially turn them off. So, use real-time discounts that are automatically added at the end, and simply provide a pop-up to emphasize on your generosity for first-time purchasers. This process is highly likely to increase your order value. 

Simplify the experience

A very important part of the shopping experience is to have clear cut signboards that direct you to the right aisle. Same way, navigation must be extremely simple when it comes to homepage performance. Don’t compromise on UX while building your UI. A large pleasing header with a clear CTA is all that it takes. 

Another point to note – for far too long, ads click through to the homepage. When Google has already done the hard work of finding you a potential customer, why take them through the winding maze of going through the homepage to reach for something they just want to grasp. Let product-specific ads land on product pages directly and ‘simplify the experience’.

Add testimonials to build trust

Before you provide social media links and contact forms, it’s important that they see reviews upfront. Make your testimonials stand out, right after your star product features are explained on the website; that way you will provide an incentive for a customer to stay on the page and take the rest of the contents on your website just a tad bit more seriously.

Product Discovery

Okay now that your homepage has done its job, the next step is to allow your customers to find products easily. Product discovery deals with website navigation and ease-of-use with respect to finding new or similar products is imperative. Here is how to go about it:

Use intelligent search

Say you have an ad online, and one of your many showcased products has caught your customer’s attention. They want to find the exact same product on your site. How can they do that easily? Integrating apps like Findify, Instant Search and Topshop is your best bet to increase conversions through a user-friendly intelligent search bar.

Organize categories effectively

While this seems like something obvious, too many websites confuse users between the products and the solutions page. Keep things simple and don’t go beyond 4-6 categories. A never-ending drop-down menu is an unpleasant sight to the user.

Use 404 to increase click-rates

If a product or category is no longer available, the chances are that a customer would land on a 404-page error. Instead of leaving them hanging there, direct them to other parts of the website that may likely seem interesting to them.

Shoppable feeds

There is no doubt that Instagram has done wonders for the e-commerce community in terms of ecommerce marketing. Use apps like Foursixty, Springbot or SocialPhotos and make complete use of shoppable Instagram feeds. The best part about shoppable feeds is that it eliminates the need to make all the above conversion processes to be efficiently optimized!

Product pages Optimization

The crux of your website, so to speak, product pages require a clear and immersive tone. Once your customer has reached this page, it’s no longer about what he clicks on, but about how long he’s willing to stay and browse.

Use high-quality images

Another obvious one that often goes amiss, in a bid to increase page speeds, well-executed product pages don’t just have one high-quality image of the product. Make use of several angles and try to show a short clip of your product in use. Research shows that clear-cut product images are more important than ratings and reviews for customers.

Be upfront about everything

Whether it’s shipping charges, delivery time or out of stock products get the information out loud and clear. Misleading is a big no-no in the e-commerce universe as it automatically switches on the no-trust trigger in your potential customer. If you do it well though, out-of-stock products are an opportunity to onboard your customer to your email marketing list, using apps like Restocked Alerts.

Showcase your product reviews

Product reviews are the last little bit of nudge a customer requires to check before he finally pushes the buy button. Product reviews that are not just positive but also informative help entice your customer into trusting your platform better.

Add a curated Instagram feed

For products that affect health and vitality in general, product reviews on the page itself may not suffice, and shoppers like to look for more solid evidence. Instead of them having to look around for it online, add Instagram feeds to your product pages and gain the trust right away. More than half of US consumers prefer user-generated content over any other form of content.

Checkout Experience

Congrats! Most of your hard work is done once your customer lands. You would really have to try hard to mess it up at this point. But if you are wondering about your staggeringly high abandoned cart numbers, then here’s what you need to look out for:

Prefill your customer’s information

A crucial aspect for completing the transaction, allowing your customers to prefill information through social media accounts is key. Giving your customers the option to check out as a guest is also important, but give them a chance to save information for their next purchase as well.

Send abandoned cart email

The abandoned cart phenomena are one that every e-commerce store owner is no stranger to. Send out abandoned cart emails at the right time, especially during the weekends and holiday season and do your bit to lure them back in. Abandoned cart email tools also allow for personalization, making it that much more effective.

Optimize thank you/confirmation mails

Customize your order confirmation mails in the notifications section of your Shopify admin account. Use the confirmation mail to engage in more banter after the sale; plug in your sign up for a newsletter, offer discounts or simply link them to your social media profiles and blogs and hit the follow button.

Shipping and returns

An end-to-end experience is one where you take off the process from the beginning until the package has reached your customer. The anxiety that follows after a new customer decides to trust your portal is quite significant, and dismay at the end of this process is going to show up on your Twitter handle in less than pleasing ways. Here is how:

Offer free shipping

Shipping costs often turn down customers even if they are willing to pay the same amount for the product itself. Again, it’s the trust factor that counts. Offset the balance between the two, and offer free shipping for first-time purchases to increase conversions.

Clear-Cut refund policy is key

When it comes to any item that may have sizing concerns, customers often look out for the refunds policy. Make it easily visible and don’t have them searching for it. Using a ChatBot really comes in handy for such concerns.

Additional information

While you may want to get rid of a contact page for the sake of simplicity, it might actually do more damage than actually having one. Several platforms have gotten creative on their “about me” or “the team” section, and it seems to really work in terms of bringing a human element to the whole experience. This is how:

The about page

Designing a short and sweet message for the “about you” section goes a long way in helping you sell the USP of your platform. An about page can do many things that a homepage cannot. Get charming with your stories and include short video clips to really drive your motivation message across.

Create a comprehensive contact page

Whether positive or negative, allow your customers to find you first when they want to talk to you. If not, you’ll end up in a soup when what they have to say comes out as a tweet on a fine Sunday. A contact page that includes a contact form and links to social media is key in building a safe space for engaging in conversations with your customer (especially if you don’t have a brick and mortar store).

Website Speed and Performance

Research says that 40% of visitors automatically leave if your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Your website is your top salesperson online, and he needs to be attentive and in tip-top shape at all times. Imagine if you were to go to an ice-cream shop, all excited to try the new flavors and the person behind the counter is taking forever to just get the spoons out. Would you still go for the ice-cream? Here’s how to combat the same:

Make sure your site is responsive

Mobile responsiveness is key to make full use of your social media campaigning. The larger percentage of people who find you through social media are more likely than not, coming from a mobile device. As a Shopify customer, you are privy to having every theme automatically optimized for every device.

Optimize your website loading times

Google Pagespeed Insights is the go-to tool to check how fast your website loads. You can also use tools like WebPage Test and Pingdom to derive further insights on page loading times. Image optimization is the most important part of increasing your page speed. Compress your images, but don’t go too far in compromising quality. You can also use tools like ImageOptim to help you automate this process. If you’ve purchased apps on Shopify that you are no longer using, delete them as they contribute to increased page loading times. Most importantly, use a good host for your domain.

The End Note

If your social media handles are working well and paid to advertise seems to be charging you quite deftly for clicks, but you aren’t seeing similar numbers on your accounts book, the chances are that you need to pay attention to any or all the above pointers. Now that you have a checklist to use for improving your Shopify conversion optimization rate, get started with your website work. Try new apps that can help you achieve your goals faster. Most of the above suggestions are easy to implement and bring about much wider changes in terms of the analytics you see on your dashboard. But most importantly, have fun, take it one step at a time and don’t forget to experiment.

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Guest Post by AdNabu

Guest Post by AdNabu

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