Why conversion rates are important
Your e-commerce conversion rate is the number of visitors to your website divided by the number of them who buy something. It is essential to know this figure if you want to grow your business. Why, because if you know this figure and you know how much to spend to get each customer to your site you know that by increasing the conversion rate you will make more money per visitor. If you can do this then you don’t need to spend more on advertising to generate more income.
When you know you have got your conversion rate as high as you can you can start to increase traffic knowing that more visitors means more money for less investment.
How do you find your conversion rate
There are numerous ways to find your conversion rate. You could do it manually and work out how many visitors your site has then divide by the number of conversions. You can find out how many visitors you have by checking Google Analytics or if you use Shopify the report is already generated for you.
There are so many ways to check it, it is worth finding the one that suits you best. If you are using Google Analytics then select the date range you require ( a longer period is better because it evens out the lows and highs of the week) and select “Acquisition”. Scroll down and look for E-commerce by Acquisition. This report on the app will give you your conversion rate and tell you where those conversions come from.
Watch our video on how to simplify Google Analytics…
How to improve your conversion rate using Shopify Editions?
Improving your conversion rate is a never-ending task but at least it isn’t thankless. The more work you put in the more money you get out. There are so many ways to improve your conversion rate that you should start with the easiest wins then drill down to more complex options.
Begin with things like website speed. If your website is slow you will lose customers. Follow our website speed guide here. Then look at the checkout. What platform are you on? If it is Shopify then you are in luck. Shopify Editions, a release of 100 improvements to the platform has been released and includes lots of conversion rate optimisation tools.
Shopify improvements include:
- Faster checkout
- Shop Pay improvements
- Better global performance
- Tipping and Receipt options
- Better shipping integration
You can also look at how your navigation is set out. Is it easy to find products? Are you concentrating on the wrong products and not making the most of your best sellers? Placing them in the headlights of visitors will encourage them to buy faster and more often.
Never stop trying to increase your conversion rate.
Once you have started you should never stop. Keep an eye on your competition and find out what their conversion rate is. How are they winning.
- Look at your reviews programme, are there bad reviews putting customers off buying from you? Are your images the best they could be? A bit of professional photography will go a long way to increasing your conversion rates.
- Making your products look stunning will encourage customers to convert. Is the spelling on your website up to scratch, a lot of simple things can put customers off like basic grammar.
- Is your website secure? If there are warnings in place you need to sort them out. An SSL certificate is a must for any e-commerce website.
- What payment systems do you use? If it isn’t the one the customer likes they will buy elsewhere.
Ensuring you take a variety of payment options means you will convert more customers. Using Buy now pay later schemes will help to increase your conversion rate. Think about how you shop and what makes you convert.
Have you got Klarna or Clearpay on your website? Check out our Klarna vs Clearpay blog to see which one you should use.
What is a good Conversion rate for my website
Conversion rates tend to differ between stores and industries. There is no hard and fast rule. If your website generates a lot of organic traffic for people researching information you may have a terrible rate but huge volumes so be aware of mitigating circumstances. There are some excellent articles with information about conversion rates. This Conversion rate by industry report is very useful if you are in the furniture or pet trade.
