5 CRO Strategies to Boost E-commerce Website Conversions

5 Proven CRO Strategies to Boost E-commerce Website Conversions. With these 5 changes, your e-commerce website conversions are sure to see a significant jump.

CRO stands for conversion rate optimization. It’s basically the act or process of doing something to improve the conversion rate on your website. For many websites, a conversion could be filling out a form, downloading a piece of content, submitting your email, calling a number, and so on. But when it comes to CRO strategies that boost e-commerce website conversions, a conversion is typically making a sale.

There are many aspects and areas of your website that you can improve to boost your e-commerce website conversions. In this article, we take a look at 5 proven CRO strategies that can give your site the boost it needs.

CRO Strategy 1: Revamp Your Copy

Survey Depicting That 15% of Shoppers Value Product Descriptions (after reviews & price)

With all the hard work it takes to get a user to land on your website, you’d hope the job was done. Well, unfortunately, it has only begun. You need to move your user through a seamless journey right into a conversion. A huge part of this journey is the copy on your website. If the copy is too long, not detailed enough, repetitive, disjointed, or uninteresting, you could lose customers somewhere on the journey.

According to a 2020 shoppers survey (after reviews and price), 15% of online shoppers care most about product descriptions. That’s right, the old written word. So, how can you jump in and spice up your copy? Try approaching writing your website copy like telling a story. And we don’t just mean on a single page. Look at the entire user journey, from your SEM ads right on down to the product descriptions on your product pages and right through to a conversion. Each page should build on the next in terms of copywriting.

By writing a copy on each page that builds on the last and leads the user to the next page, you ensure that the user isn’t reading through the same points over and over again. More so, the user will go through a natural progression diving deeper into what your product offers. Your copy could flow like this:

Ad with an attention-grabbing headline that addresses the user’s problem.
Homepage that gives the high-level points of your business and product.
Category page that details the user’s options.
Product page that dives into the specifics of a single product.
The user can either dive deeper into the product details or move toward a conversion.
Checkout page that gives some final points on how the product will solve the user’s problem.

This is a rough sketch of a user’s journey. But as you can see, the copy flows naturally, never appearing redundant, lacking detail, or overly expansive. This is how you can approach revamping your content.

CRO Strategy 2: Showcase Your Site’s Security to Alleviate Customer Concerns

According to a 2021 survey done by the Baymard Institute focused on customer reasons for abandoning a purchase during checkout, 17% of respondents named “I didn’t trust the site with my credit card information” as the number one reason. There are some relatively easy ways to visually showcase your website as a secure place to make a purchase. Here are some methods to consider:

Add Trust Seals at Key Points, CRO Strategies to Boost E-commerce Website Conversions

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Results to a Survey by the Baymard Institute on Which Trust Badge Denotes the Most Trust

A great way to visually build trust is with a site seal.

These are graphics (typically in a stamp type design) that denote your website has been “stamped” with a trust of approval by a trusted 3rd party source.

These are great to display on your footer and on your checkout page.

Another study by the Baymard Institute shows that Norton Secured and Google Trusted Store are two of the top badges that give a sense of trust to e-commerce shoppers. The Norton Secured site seal is included with DigiCert SSL certificates, while the Google Trusted Store badge is no longer available.

Upgrade to an EV SSL Certificate, CRO Strategies to Boost E-commerce Website Conversions

SSL certificates are obviously vital to a user’s security. They ensure that a hacker can not intercept a user’s communications. But an SSL certificate can do more for your website than offering a secure HTTPS connection.

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Example of an EV SSL Certificate When You Click on the Padlock Icon

If you are only using a DV SSL certificate, which means you only had your domain validated when your SSL certificate was issued (DV SSL is what you get when you use a free SSL certificate as well), then you should consider upgrading to an EV SSL certificate.

An extended validation (EV) SSL certificate is a certificate you can only get when you go through a lengthier validation process. This process includes items like a phone call verification and enrollment form, but it often takes less than 5 days to get your EV SSL certificate.

These certificates are a little pricier, but also come with the best benefits -such as the largest SSL warranties-. But maybe the greatest benefit of an EV SSL certificate is that users can verify your company’s information right in your certificate details through the padlock icon next to your URL. Studies have found that this additional trust can really boost your conversion rate, especially if you educate your customers on how to verify they’re shopping on an official website.

Have a Clean Checkout Process, CRO Strategies to Boost E-commerce Website Conversions

Having bugs or strange quirks can stick out as red flags during a checkout process. This is especially true with users who most would consider not technically savvy. If your checkout process looks dated, we suggest you modernize the design.

The way to look at this is some users will see layout bugs as some type of glitch that denotes a hacker is trying to take over the site or has taken over it. You could call it the Matrix Effect if you want.

Basically, make sure your checkout process is built with a nice, clean layout and the process is a smooth sequence, and this will build trust.

Show Customers What’s Behind Your Website, CRO Strategies to Boost E-commerce Website Conversions

Customers want to know that your online store is backed by a dependable and trustworthy real-world business. Besides showing off your cybersecurity precautions, you can build trust by showing off what (and who) is behind your site. Showing photos of your warehouse, team, and offices can assure customers they’re buying from a real company, not a fly-by-night mirage.

CRO Strategy 3: Interactive Content

Reading the written word is great and it shouldn’t be ignored, but how about upping the user experience? One way to do this is with some type of interactive content or interactive user experience. Interactive content is basically anything that invites a user to participate in some way. Even if it is just clicking a play button on a video.

According to Go-Gulf’s State of Interactive Content Marketing Statistics and Trends Report, “93% of marketers agreed that interactive content is effective in educating its buyers versus just 70% for static content – whereas 88% of marketers said that interactive content is effective in differentiating their brand from their competitors.” With stats like these, it’s easy to see why more and more website admins are testing interactive content.

Here are some ideas that might fit your site:

Video – As we mentioned earlier, video is considered interactive content. According to a Video Marketing Statistics & Trends report, “52% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with best ROI.” Video is great for explaining elements of your product that might appear complicated or uninteresting via written text.

Leave a Review – Allowing users to drop a review not only gives them the opportunity to interact with your website but a chance to learn about your product from past customers. According to a recent Local Consumer Review Survey, 73% of consumers only pay attention to reviews written in the last month. By allowing users to leave a review, opens the door for more users to leave more recent reviews, and so on.

Interactive Infographic – Creating some type of graphic that engages a user and provides information is a great way to make the user journey more interesting while selling your product. An example of this would be if you sold watches, and you had a graphic of a watch where users can turn the hands of the watch and the graphic will tell your company’s history as the hand turned.

Social Media Plugins – This is an easy way to add an existing interactive content element that ties into something that people use every day. An example of a social media plugin would be where a user can click a button that allows them to share your product on their social media accounts. If you have a WordPress site, there are many easy-to-install plugins.

CRO Strategy 4: Add a Live Chat

Did you know that nearly ⅔ of buyers expect a response within 10 minutes to any marketing, sales, or customer service inquiry? And 52% of consumers are more likely to remain loyal to a company that offers live chat support?

Interesting stats. What’s more interesting is that when you break this down, live chat is an obvious addition to your CRO strategy.

People want help fast, attention spans are dropping, competition levels are rising, and you need a way to help serve customers fast and with ease.

Throw in the fact that people are less and less accustomed to talking to others on the phone then this is a no-brainer add.

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Screenshot of a Live Chat “Start Chat” Opening Page

So, you might be thinking, “okay, I am interested in adding a live chat to my site, but how do I pick from the endless amounts of software available to me?” The biggest component of a chat feature you need to decide between is using a chatbot vs an actual live chat.

Here is how you can break it down.

Budget – Using a chatbot will always be cheaper than using a 3rd party vendor that uses real, live agents. And immensely cheaper than your own in-house team of agents.

Range of Questions – If you expect a bevy of complex questions, then a chatbot might be a huge failure and anger for your customers. You have to remember that they can only say what they are pre-programmed to respond with. However, if you anticipate the same repetitive questions, then a chatbot may be perfect for your site.

Response Time – A chatbot will be quicker than human response time. So, if this is a high priority to you, then a chatbot may be the way to go.

CRO Strategy 5: Add Shopping Cart Abandonment Emails

Nothing is more frustrating than having a customer in your clutches and then decide to abandon their cart. Well, don’t let that customer leave so easily. Try creating a personalized automatic email message that is sent to the user after they abandon their cart.

According to Salesforce data, “60% of shoppers who received personalized content after abandoning their shopping carts returned and made a purchase.”

It’s simple human psychology. People want to buy, they’re close, but they don’t pull the trigger. They need a little nudge. An automatic email response that mentions the products they left and maybe some additional content about what the products do, can push that conversion through. It could also help if you threw in a small discount with an end date just to create a little more sense of urgency to buy.