Tips on improving conversion rates
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- Stian
We opened a webshop for our family business in november. The visitor stats are overall satisfying with a clear positive trend, and marketing has been successful in regards to gaining visitors.
The "problem" is that the conversion rate is a bit low, averaging on 0.7%. Both payment and shipping options are up to the standard that the big stores here in Norway are providing.Any ideas?
- detritus0
How far through the discovery/order process do your visitors get? Do you know what page they 'fail' on? That might indicate whether it's a problem with your site, with your product or with the offering format of your product.
Is your site complex/heavy/technical? If your visitors are failing early on, then perhaps it's just a matter of fixing your site - too much JS making things too slow or cludgy? Hard to access products.. or at least, the variants of your products that your visitors might be expressly interested in?
If your visitors are failing mid-way on, perhaps it's simply a problem with your actual product or in its pricing?
If they're failing later on, perhaps it's a problem with your cart or payment soution?
I don't know - it's kind of a huge question!
(and one I'm intersted in myself right now, as I'm going though a client's site, trying to work out much the same thing...)
Presumably you've got some kind of analytics in there, charting progress? That'd be the first step!
- crillix0
Also where is your traffic coming from and why are they coming to your site. Quality of traffic and what keywords you are showing up for will definitely effect conversion.
- Stian0
There is no clear trend on which pages they exit on. The average visit is 3.30 minutes and 6.19 pages per visit (with a 41% bounce rate). To my knowledge this isn´t that bad.
The page was designed deliberately clean, as the target audience are women 20+. The most advanced object on the site is a automated photo gallery on the landing page.
We did a lot of research before we started and both products and pricing are "better" than the competition. As a photographer myself, I´ve been taking a big part in product presentation and photography and this should not be the issue. We have gotten a lot of great response to the store, and people are blogging, facebooking etc about it. That is surely a good thing, but does not do a lot for the conversion rate.
- Stian0
Traffic is mostly direct and keyword-based (direct to products) from Google. There is some from social media, but we haven´t put our main efforts there yet.
- detritus0
One thing I'd suggest is - make it much more obvious that something is happening when you 'add to cart'.
By not speaking Norwegian, I am totally reliant on what's going on in front of my eyes and it was only after a few repeated clicks I worked out where my cart is.
How are your platform stats distributed - do you have a lot of traffic coming in on iPhone/Mobile? Have you tested those platforms? Would I be wrong in thinking that perhaps a lot of female traffic comes in from mobiles? Just that I'm on a big screen an dthe cart mechanic wasn't obvious - wonder how it would appear on a small screen?
Gorgeous site otherwise, man - you've put your photography skills to very good use there!
- detritus0
erm.. hold on - now it's clicking straight through to your cart when I added a product... I swear it didn't do that for the first two items I added!
- link?monospaced
- I changed it before letting you know.. :)Stian
- Stian0
Thanks for taking a look at it! :)
I changed the settings that when you click "buy" (or Kjøp) you a directly sent to the cart. What I will do, is maybe moving the cart from the left side bar to the top.
I´ve done some testing on mobile devices, and it performes ok. I will look into making a mobile version of the site, but I really don´t have the skills for now..
Thanks for your kind words! :)
- haha, thank God for that - I thought I was just making things up as I went along!detritus
- 23kon0
Presentation is definitely an important factor when selling things.
Even when i'm punting stuff on eBay I take the best photos I can and as many as I can, host them externally and embed them on the sales page. This has managed to get me prices for things MUCH higher than the average for the same items other people have got.With regards to sales conversions, is it perhaps your cart isnt obvious enough or that the ordering (login?) process is a pain?
We overhauled the ordering process for one of our clients online shops and saw a MASSIVE increase in sales just by simplifying things and making calls-to-action more obvious.If the average time on your site is 3.30m then people are obviously interested in what you are selling and if your prices are competitive then surely it MUST be the buying process that's putting people off.
- Stian0
Thanks, 23kon!
One of the issues are definitely the cart. I´m looking into it now, and will probably rebuild the ordering process. I would gladly send you the link if you have the time to quick look at it?
- 23kon0
Yeah fire over the link. If i dont get a chance this afternoon i'll reply tonight.
- monospaced0
It's really, really weird to share the website privately and then talk about it publicly. Why don't you just keep all of this in private email conversations instead of for everyone to see, especially when the website seems private enough not to post here?
- I figure the advice is still useful, and the dialogue best kept here. *shrugs* you can just ask for alooksee, like i diddetritus
- and, your order is wrong - it was talked abot publicly, then i asked privately - for reasons I'm sure you can appreciate.detritus
- ie. QBN , although mostly healthy, does have a population of thoughtless vicious trolls who Don't Give A Fuck.detritus
- I appreciate. Calm down.monospaced
- I am calm, I'm just pointing out the chip on your shoulder.detritus
- Stian0
Monospaced, agreed. My intention was to hear if there were some general rules or tips on this subject, and the discussion became more specific on the site itself. I will gladly send you the link, but I´m hesitant to put it out in the open.. Is the email listed on your profile the real one?
- sine0
share with one, share with everyone...