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As more and more people are shopping online as opposed to shopping at brick and mortar stores, it only makes sense that ecommerce sites would want to do everything they can to ensure that their traffic is converting. In this interview, Khalid Saleh of Invesp Consulting shares the shockingly low number of conversions some ecommerce sites are getting but also shares how they can improve them.
Some ecommerce websites are only converting 1-3 percent of their incoming traffic, which translates into 1 conversion for every 100 visitors. For comparison, sites like Amazon are getting conversions at a 12-14 percent rate.
According to Khalid, conversion optimization is where the real ROI is. There are a few basic assumptions that ecommerce sites need to realize about their traffic. The first is that roughly 25 percent of the visitors to your site are probably there by accident. Secondly, you need to understand that another approximated 25 percent of your traffic are offline shoppers simply comparing prices.
You are now left with 50 percent of your traffic to convert. There are a few quick tips for converting such as correcting headlines and images, but Khalid says you have to take a systematic approach to get the conversions that really matter.
Going back to basic marketing, having a thorough knowledge of your target audience is the first step in this approach. Use your market research and translate the data into personas and then determine how they interact with your website.
Here are several common mistakes that ecommerce sites make that prevent conversions:
1. Neglect to understand what customer is looking for
2. Shopping cart and shipping costs aren’t clear
3. Assume customers are “committed” to shopping transaction
4. Fail to include security seals
5. Insist shoppers complete forms before shopping process begins
What are some other mistakes that ecommerce sites make that you have experienced as a shopper? From a marketing standpoint, what advice would you offer to ecommerce site looking to improve their conversions?
(7 votes, average: 4.86 out of 5)
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Great video , will sit my clients down and force them to watch this where appropriate!!
‘estuadant
Current conversion is about 2% for us. We will employ some of the things discussed in the interview and comments.
Conversion is certainly the key. I am now getting better traffic than before. I am working on improving conversion. I like the comment from Snerdey (adding a toll free number and chat box). I will try this.
[...] Making your E-Commerce Site convert [Webpronews] [...]
[...] a previous post I linked to a video on the same site that talked about e-commerce optimisation and making things as easy as possible for people to make [...]
As ecommerce sales grows and expands, the competition for site visitors is becoming quite fierce. That makes conversion more important than ever. We go to great lengths to ensure our ecommerce websites are well thought out and designed, from search engine optimization to conversion. We recognized many years ago that if you expect to succeed in this line of work, you better have customers who are succeeding.
Great tips. I find the article very interesting in terms of increasing the number of conversion and the mistakes that people make. Any more articles on conversion such as 16 Steps to checkout will be welcomed.
Great video (as usual) and I believe entirely with what is being said, but how can a small business with limited resources but more importantly limited budget do this and do it well.
Thank you so much for Khalid for sharing with us
the best practices and mistakes that people often
make with their websites. I agree with you totally!
I am an eBay Powerseller and specialize in
Search Engine Optimization Strategies and have been
offering my Marketing Services on eBay since 2006.
I also custom design websites and eBay Stores!
If anyone needs any Custom Website Designs or
Internet Marketing, please come and see me! =)
Sincerely,
Tonya’s Dynamic Designs
http://stores.ebay.com/tonyas-dynamic-designs?refid=store
Assume customers are “committed” to shopping transaction
Huh? If you want the shopper to convert you SHOULD treat them as if they will complete the transaction – providing them with ways to get out of the transaction is fatal.
This is great advice we began by branding our store locally and thus expanding out as the exposure grew.
We wanted to build a client base for our brick-n mortar store while also building a brand as an Ecommerce website.
This now leads to brand loyality.
Thank you
Francisco Rodriguez
Proprietor Rainurbana and Rainurbana.com
It’s my first time on this website, and what a great feature to start with. I found it really interesting, especially the low rates of conversion some websites are experiencing. There are some truly basic errors that people are still making… 16 steps to checkout is a classic example. Right… on to the next article!
My company has a new technology which encourages, secures and simplifies the online shopping process, resulting in less shopping cart abandonment and more orders placed.
The SmartSwipe encourages online shopping because it is safer and more convenient – shopping cart fields are automatically filled with encrypted information, this reducing shopping cart abandonment.
Don Power
@donpower
Great tips in the video. Thanks. We improved our cart dropout rate by simply putting the price at the top of the product page, even before they entered the transaction process. It seemed people were getting into the transaction process just to find out the price.
[...] http://videos.webpronews.com/2009/04/13/making-your-ecommerce-site-convert/ [...]
Excellent video. We found that by adding our live chat and a toll free number increase client trust and our conversions are currently 8 sales out of 100 unique visitors. Traffic is key but highly targeted traffic is way better