With 2020 coming to a close, we thought we would check up and find out how your eCommerce business has been doing. Whether you are a startup or have been in business for a while, we can all agree that it has been quite a year! Most eCommerce businesses have absolutely boomed during the pandemic, while others have struggled to find their footing in the uncertain times.
Research has shown that COVID-19 has actually changed the face of eCommerce forever. The Stay Home and Stay Safe slogan has driven millions of consumers to the world of digital shopping, opting rather for the safer and more convenient option of filling their shopping carts. In fact, during the first levels of global lockdown, a large percentage of eCommerce stores were comparing their sales to that of Black Friday.
The good news? These changes to eCommerce are here to stay! Not only are more people starting to trust their online suppliers more, but technology is allowing the experience to become more convenient, swifter, and more enjoyable.
With this in mind, we thought we would go over a few quick features for you to include on your site to really create that wow factor, and start increasing your conversion rate even more. Let’s get started!
What Have You Done For SEO Lately?
One of the most overlooked elements of most websites is SEO. In most companies, it seems like a complicated, resource attentive exercise that “can be postponed for later”. Sound familiar? Well, we are here to tell you that it doesn’t need to be that complicated! And, if you plan it correctly, you can actually schedule time to regularly do SEO boosts on your site. So, where do you start?
The first thing to look at is doing regular keyword research for your brand. It is a quick and easy exercise for you to ensure that you are on the right track when it comes to your content and ranking. Yes, you might have the generic words pegged, but keep in mind, with different seasons and world events, different trends and keywords will start popping up. So, you should keep up to date with that as well.
Remember too, if you update some content on your pages, and include some new keywords, Google will re-scrape that page and re-rank you. So, keep updating your key pages with some new, relevant content. If you really don’t have time to do this, look at hiring an eCommerce SEO company to help you out. The ROI is incredibly high and you will start seeing results almost instantly.
How Are Those Customer Touchpoints Looking?
The next thing that you can look at is including more ways for your customer to engage with you and the types of customer service points you offer. Keep in mind that modern customers are looking for instant gratification and ways to communicate with you immediately. Customers also differ greatly in their communication preferences.
Research has shown that over the last five years, live chat preferences have grown from 38% to a whopping 58%. Not only is it an instant way of troubleshooting, dealing with questions and complaints, but for most customers, it means that they don’t have to spend money contacting a company and do not need to be on hold for hours.
We advise that you include touchpoints at every point of your customer journey. From chatbots on your landing pages and as support for check-out, to instant messaging on your social platforms, making yourself available and present will increase the trust factor with your customers.
Look at also making them available 24/7. If you are a smaller business, this might be a bit tougher, but still doable. Most chatbot and instant messaging systems have auto-response features, and you can get away with answering basic questions, and elementary chats before handing the conversation over to a real human.
Who Is Still Filling Out Your Contact Forms?
Contact forms are a lot like pop-ups, we love to hate them. Even though we loathe those forms that pop up when you go onto a site, they are a key part of the customer journey and sales cycle. Not only can you increase your database but you will be able to receive key information from your customers to get to know them better.
By asking the right questions on contact forms, you can acquire relevant information from customers to be able to accurately segment them and market to them. Customers respond more favorably to messaging that appeals directly to their interests and behaviors. But actually knowing this information means that you have to have more data than just an email address.
So, try and be creative with your contact forms, keeping in mind that the simpler contact forms work best. Incentivize visitors to fill out your forms. Provide them with a discount or reward for providing you with their contact details.
Look at also making the form entertaining and fun. They are on your site for a reason, so create fun, quirky content that will seem non-threatening and create a sense of trust. Remember – the simpler, the better!
Are Your Product Pages Optimized for High Conversions?
Product pages can be tricky. You need to have a ton of vital information squeezed into one page without it seeming cluttered and over-the-top. You want it to be eye-catching without bombarding your customer with too much information, while also giving them as much information as they need to convert.
Sounds like a catch-22. But it is possible. Create a checklist for yourself to ensure that you have all the vital information and then go back to neaten it up for the visitor. You will need the following:
- Product heading (keyword and SEO-optimized);
- Product description (simple, yet descriptive with relevant keywords included);
- Main image with several other images showing various angles and aspects of the product (Images need to be optimized for SEO too!);
- Reviews from other customers;
- Similar product carousel;
- Details of the payment process, shipping fees, and payment protection details;
- High-converting CTAs.
Creating drop-downs or hidden tabs with the full product descriptions will certainly neaten up the page, while at the same time still allowing Google to rank you. It will also mean that customers can still read up on further information about the product should they be really interested in it. Lastly, keep that CTA optimized at all times. Attractive colors and text with high-converting text will certainly make all the difference to your sales.
Wrapping Up
It is important to remember the rule of thumb when it comes to adding and removing features on your site. No matter what you do, make sure you test, track, and measure the changes. Do A/B testing to see which additions are more favorable. Track how many clicks you receive on each CTA you add. Measure your traffic for each page and monitor how the traffic flows on your site. The more you know about how your customer behaves and performs on your site, the more you will be able to optimize each feature for a fully optimized and high-converting site. Remember, never add a feature without testing it thoroughly first!
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