7 Steps To Optimise Your E-commerce Website
No matter what you sell online, if you have an e-commerce store, you are competing with people with a common goal—sell more and sell often.
Conversions are the driving force for any e-commerce business. If you are able to meet your benchmark conversion rate, your online business should have a great chance of success. However, it’s easier said than done, especially when you have hundreds of e-commerce stores offering similar products. So, how do you ensure that your store stands out from the lot?
1/ Analyse Product Pages
Spend some time to analyse your product pages and pin down the elements that need work. In order to provide the best possible user experience, you need to first understand what your visitors want:
Check whether product pages load fast and
That they engage your customers
Provide all the necessary information in order to make a purchase
Present your products in a seamless way
Feature high-quality product photos (see guide below)
Provide an enjoyable customer experience
2/ Use High-Quality Product Photos
An image speaks a thousand words. The images on your e-commerce store are no different. How can you trust an online shop that fails to present their products well?
High-quality product photography will help your store create a great first impression. Product photos are one of the major driving factors that enable your customers to decide whether to keep looking.
Want to learn how to take great product photos? Check out this great guide on product photography from our friends at ThreeColts.
Use high-quality images that show your products the right way. Many stores opt for a white or light-coloured background that can draw the attention of the visitors towards their products.
3/ Increase Credibility with Customer Reviews and Ratings
Product reviews and ratings are a great way to build brand reputation and trust, both of which are required to increase conversions. They answer questions and doubts that potential buyers have about a product and enable them to come to a decision.
It’s been found that 85% of consumers look at online reviews and consider these to be personal recommendations from existing product users. People often like to know about the previous buyer’s experiences and what they have to say about a product.
4/ Write A Great Description
Short paragraphs, a bulleted list, a short product video and some photos will give a quick insight into what customers are buying. In order to optimise your own product descriptions, follow these steps:
Write unique, high-quality descriptions that inform customers about the products
Never copy content from other stores or manufacturer’s websites (you may end up getting penalised by Google)
5/ Make Simple, Engaging Calls to Action
Junk email and un-subscriptions are a nightmare for e-commerce store owners. People may increasingly be shopping online, but they are still wary about giving out personal information—so don’t ask for too much.
Stick to just ‘name’ and ‘email’ fields at most for fill-in forms. Although it’s good to have as much user data as possible in order to understand the buyer’s persona, asking for too much information is a big turn-off for visitors.
6/ User-friendly Navigation
User-friendly navigation is what your visitor needs the most. It is a well-known fact that if your store lacks clear navigation, visitors will be confused and look for better alternates.
User-friendly navigation starts with sane categorisation of products—so think about your ‘information architecture’ (IA) carefully. For established stores, it might be time to revisit this to see if it can be improved. Seek outside help if needed.
7/ Product Page Speed
The speed with which your e-commerce product pages load can make or break your online store. This is a challenge for every website and the maximum time visitors are prepared to wait is decreasing. According to Akamai, a 100 millisecond delay (1/10th of a second) in your page loading time will result in a 7% drop in conversion rates.
Keeping the necessary media elements on your product pages while retaining the desired page speed can be difficult. But, if you can pull it off, you will see great results in your conversion rates. You can check on your page loading speed and get actionable insights with Google PageSpeed Insights. Along with complete details of the page loading speed, you will also get actionable suggestions for improvement.
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