When it comes to online stores, you know that it’s all about the conversions – the percentage of shoppers who take action on what they saw on your website and convert into paying customers.
If your store isn’t generating enough conversions, you’re not getting enough sales, which means your business is failing somehow. But the question is, why aren’t people converting?
Here are Effective Reasons Your eCommerce Website Maybe Losing Out on Conversions & What You Can Do to Fix Them
1) Poor Website Design
Issue: A study conducted by Forrester found that approximately 57% of users who land on a poorly designed ecommerce website leave before even viewing a single page. Even worse, they never come back. Think about how much money you’re losing in potential sales with these statistics in mind.
Solution: One way to prevent customer abandonment rates from skyrocketing is to make sure that your eCommerce website pages are mobile-friendly.
54.8% of Internet users browse primarily from their smartphones and tablets, so you must develop mobile websites or optimize existing ones for optimal functionality on mobile devices.
This way, no matter how a consumer gets to your site, they will be able to find what they want without getting lost in a sea of links.
Another important note when creating or updating website pages: images speak louder than words! When images are used strategically in landing pages, they own the potential to increase conversion by 80%, as per Failory.
Many factors are involved in determining exactly how long potential customers spend on each web page within your site before making a purchase decision; keeping visual elements fresh is likely one significant factor affecting sales.
2) Website Takes too Long to Load
Issue: Online shoppers have a meager attention span and don’t want to wait for a page to load. According to Failory, 56% of mobile users abandon an eCommerce website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Solution: You can speed up your eCommerce website loading time by using responsive web design.
Another strategy involves hosting all images on CDN servers (Content Delivery Networks). Another technique you can improve user experience is by optimizing images properly.
All these strategies help with SEO as well because search engines prioritize websites that load quickly.
3) Unattractive Checkout Process
Issue: One of e-commerce’s biggest challenges is minimizing cart abandonment. The checkout process can make/break a potential sale, and shoppers will abandon carts when it’s not convenient to pay. A survey conducted by Business Insiders says that 40% of online shoppers surveyed cited frustration with payment options as a primary reason for cart abandonment.
Solution: To optimize for conversion, avoid complicated checkout processes that don’t let users proceed quickly.
For example, requiring credit card information upfront may be too much friction in some cases—many customers won’t continue if they have to enter data immediately.
Instead, offer them an option to store credit card info so they can check out later without losing their place in line.
4) Hard-to-Find Contact Information
Issue: Many eCommerce websites and apps do not place conspicuous customer care numbers or points of contact for matters related to ordering placement. The thing we know for sure about new customers, they want to talk to a natural person! Knowing how to get in touch with you will help them develop trust and feel confident about buying from you.
Solution: Provide contact information in every area of your site so visitors can get in touch with you without wasting time.
Make sure contact information includes location, phone number, email address, and an address if possible. Consider using a toll-free number, so customers don’t have to pay long-distance charges.
And if you already have a physical location that sells products or services, include a Google map link or directions from major cities in which you do business.
5) Selling Products that Do Not Solve Problems
Issue: There’s a particular reason why some stores fail to convert even though they have invested heavily in branding, design, and marketing. It’s not that their products aren’t great—it’s just that people don’t have problems they need to be solved.
For example, for an online store selling wedding dresses, it isn’t going to matter how cute or expensive your dresses are if no one needs a wedding dress right now.
Solution: You can optimize your site for conversions by asking whether people need your product or service. What problem does it solve?
Second, ask yourself whether you are solving a problem of high enough value that will motivate someone to buy from you & not from a competitor.
And lastly, be sure you invest enough time and money into marketing so that your store becomes well-known among potential customers. After all, your best solution to conversion woes may be getting more customers through other channels before they ever get onto your website.
6) Lack of Calls to Action
Issue: Your business can do amazing things, but it needs to be given an opportunity to wow prospective customers. A lack of clear calls to action puts that opportunity in jeopardy.
According to Markets & Markets, 80% of shoppers read nothing more than a single line of copy when they’re shopping online. In many cases, that’s not enough information for a customer to take action.
Solution: If you want them to purchase from you instead of another retailer or make a donation rather than move on, make sure it’s easy for them. You can do so by including multiple calls-to-action in strategic locations throughout your website and specifying what they can expect if they choose one action over another.
7) Exorbitant Shipping Charges
Issue: It’s natural to get caught up in what you’re offering, but other factors are likely to come into play when customers consider making a purchase. If your shipping costs are too high, for example, shoppers may head to a competitor.
Source: Statista Shipping Charges
Solution: Be sure to factor all aspects of order processing into your budget, so you don’t get stuck with products no one wants to buy. We, at PixelCrayons, recommend keeping shipping costs below 10%—if it falls above that, you might want to reevaluate how competitive you are with other online stores.
8) Unplanned Marketing
Issue: Most new businesses think that they’ll develop a brilliant marketing campaign that will ensure their success, but that rarely happens. According to Statista, poor marketing strategy leads to the failure of 14% of eCommerce businesses.
The truth is, people want to do business with brands they know and trust; to achieve that end, you need to invest time in small steps of growth.
Solution: Start with these three ways to get discovered by customers:
- Focus on usability
- User experience has become increasingly important for online stores.
- Ensure your site’s design keeps customers engaged and encourages them to interact with you via social media accounts, contact forms, and email lists.
9) Zero Investment in Updates
Issue: Multiple things could be hindering a site’s conversion rate. Sometimes, a site will do everything right and still struggle to bring in sales. If you have been doing everything you can think of to increase traffic but aren’t seeing any results, consider investing in a redesign of your existing site.
Solution: An update could make all the difference! Today, online shoppers don’t want to do business with sites that look dated and unprofessional.
Even if they’re visiting your site because they found it through an ad or Google search, potential customers lose interest in no time if they see that you haven’t put enough effort into creating and maintaining an attractive website. Hire eCommerce developers for researched updates of your eCommerce portal.
10) Lack of Transparency
Issue: Many shoppers get turned off by unclear product descriptions. For some people, As-Seen-On-TV products are an easy decision—because there’s no product description to sift through. That makes it clear that you’re getting what you see on TV.
Solution: Make shopping faster and easier for customers who don’t have time to read or want to decipher marketing jargon. For other customers, too much of a sales pitch can be off-putting.
They might not be ready to buy yet. Still, shoppers might visit again to find information about similar products more valuable than information about why they should buy from you specifically right now.
11) Neglecting SEO
Issue: An online business that lacks effective optimization for search engines (via SEO) will never attract many potential customers. Please make sure you have strategies to optimize your content and structure it, to be visible at or near the top of Google searches for specific keywords or phrases.
Source: Statista
Solution: SEO isn’t a one-time event—it must be addressed continually as website content and structure change over time. In other words, you have to keep up with SEO just like any other ongoing marketing task, such as maintaining a social media presence or running email campaigns.
12) Trust Issues with Your Website
Issue: One of the main reasons people abandon their carts while checking out is trust. The product they’re trying to buy isn’t trustworthy enough, or it doesn’t seem like you offer good support.
Similarly, users drop the idea of shopping at the last moment when they smell a rat in the Payment Gateway. Remember, trust isn’t just about security; it’s also about putting users at ease by making sure all questions are answered and addressing any doubts.
Solution: Try showing off your product with visuals like customer testimonials and other user-generated content (UGC).
If you sell food, show pictures of other customers enjoying it; if you sell cars, show pictures of satisfied customers driving them; whatever it is, don’t be afraid to share. If you are offering solid support for your product, prove it by answering user questions in detail.
When users feel comfortable doing business with you, they’re more likely to make purchases at all stages of checkout – even if it’s at 3 am on a Sunday! If your checkout process feels long or complicated (with lots of steps), simplify it.
Wrapping Up
First, identify why people aren’t coming to your site. Is it that they can’t find it? Are they leaving just as soon as they get there? Once you know where you’re falling short, work to fix those issues. If fixing them seems impossible, maybe it’s time for a new approach altogether.
Do you need to alter your marketing plan or alter your product line? It doesn’t matter how wonderful a product or service you offer if no one knows about it or has an easy way to buy it.
Set up conversion tracking so that you can understand what customers are doing once they reach your website, and then make sure that everything on your site supports these goals.You will be surprised at how impactful changes from an eCommerce development service can increase sales and improve conversion rates. Read More Here – https://magazinewatches.com/dos-and-donts-of-ecommerce-shipping-for-small-businesses/
