Having high bounce rates is one of the biggest conversion killers on your e-commerce website.
If a lot of users are abandoning your site right on the first page, you can’t convert them into customers or subscribers. There will be a sudden drop in your site’s conversion rates and your bottom line will suffer.
The first step that you need to take is to identify the cause. There are a lot of things that could affect your eCommerce business conversion rate, so let’s explore more about them in this article:
Requiring to register an account
According to the Baymard Institute, 37 percent of users abandon their shopping carts because they need to sign up for an account to continue.
Forcing users to create an account before they can continue with their purchase might be the reason why your conversions are low. The reason this is such a major turn off is that not every customer trusts an online store.
That’s why you must ensure that your site allows users to purchase as guests without having to register.
Lack of social proof
Social proof is what makes people stop and check out your post on social media because it is buzzing with numbers. It even drives them to put their trust in an unknown brand because of the good stuff other people are saying about it.
Social proof is powerful because it helps validate a choice, telling people that it is worth their time, money, and effort by leveraging people’s feedback as proof. Social media is a great way to showcase social proof because it is one of the main places people go to find it.
You also need to focus on campaigns that build engagement instead of just creating sales-oriented content. Create content that will help you generate conversions and gain more followers on social media.
Here are a couple of examples:
- IG stories that use poll stickers to let users pick between two options. Answers are visible in real-time.
- Run contents on social media that allows users to caption a photo, tag a friend, or share photos related to your brand using a hashtag.
Poorly written product copy
How will a user buy from you if your product description is poorly written? Of course, there are those low-quality sites that think that it is okay to place a low-quality photo or copy.
The only way to lure a prospective buyer to purchase from you is to write a high-quality copy and photos.
Hidden costs appear upon checkout
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Imagine placing a $10 product to your cart, only to find out that there is an additional $5 for shipping.
Wouldn’t you just leave the site altogether and perhaps look for the product offline? Well, that is precisely how your customers feel if you do not put the prices upfront.
In fact, 23 percent of consumers abandon their carts because they simply did not know that there are extra costs. So be upfront about it. Place the total cost on your product page to create a better customer experience.
Limited payment options
Another deal-breaker is having limited payment options. The thing is, most people are more comfortable purchasing from an online store if it offers them multiple payment methods.
So, to keep visitors from bouncing off your site, reassure them by providing digital wallets like Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, and Paypal, and other platforms that they often use and trust.
It also makes the entire checkout process a lot easier.
No on-site live customer support
Not having a live chat feature on your site is almost the same as having a brick-and-mortar store with no salespeople in it. It makes the whole online experience impersonal.
Having live customer support on your site will make them stay, and no customer inquiry goes unanswered. In fact, according to research, the majority of customers prefer live chat when interacting with a merchant.
Lack of security assurance
Most people are aware of the risks of shopping online. They will not use their credit card unless they are 100 percent sure that it is safe to purchase from a site.
If your site lacks security assurance, from SSL certificates to accreditation logos, you are already a major conversion killer for any site.
Over to You
There are a lot of things that go with the e-commerce experience, and several issues might trip you up.
Improving the e-commerce rates of your site is a multi-faceted goal, requiring you to take a hard look at your website, current customer experience, and shopping cart to identify the issues that are making your customers pause, and not take the leap.
Although all of these might be challenging at first, through regular, consistent effort, you can easily tackle these issues and create a quality web experience that will keep customers from coming back again and again.
