In one of our earlier blog posts , we covered some of the important factors to improve conversions on Ecommerce Product pages. This week we look at some more elements to help you convert visitors on your Ecommerce website.
Cross-Selling / Up-Selling
Cross-selling is when you want to entice the customer to buy related products to the one they are currently purchasing. For example, if a buyer is browsing a silk shirt and you also show them some ties that would look good with the shirt, this is cross-selling.
Up-selling is when you show the customer a higher priced item with more value added features or a better model for the item he or she is currently browsing. For example, if a buyer is looking for a women’s wrist watch and you show them a higher priced wrist watch with colour changing straps, this is an up-sell.
If done in the right way, cross-selling and upselling on your product pages can help you increase revenues and average order values. However, there is a fine line between being pushy and being helpful. Bombarding customers with more expensive choices might just push them away from your site. Instead, a clear thought process on selecting the right products based on best sellers and reviews can be a better option when deciding which products to show for cross selling and up selling.
Amazon is a good example of how this is done tastefully so as not to irritate the buyer.
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Source: amazon.co.uk
Creating a sense of Urgency / Scarcity
Creating a sense of urgency and scarcity is a sure-fire way to improve those conversion figures. Whether it is the last few items left, or last day of your summer sale or last few hours of free shipping, make these stand out on your product pages. Shoppers have the tendency to not miss out on such stuff and it is in your best interest to capitalise on this shopper behaviour. You can also play on shopper sentiment by “creating a sense of urgency” by having statements like “Don’t miss out!” “Hurry! Once they are gone, they are gone!”. This creates a fake sense of urgency but is still very effective in catching the shopper’s eye.
Below is a typical example of urgency being used on Booking.com.
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Source: Booking.com
Product Variations
If you have product variations, try to show thumbnails for all variations and if possible also have model images for each of them to show how they look.
Here is a good example from American Apparel where all variations are modelled in images.
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Source: americanapparel.net
Social Share Icons
Build your social fan base. Encourage users to share your products via popular social media channels. They can be your online brand ambassadors and might help you gain free social media PR.
Shipping Charges and Times
Let’s be honest about it, no one wants to pay for shipping. If you do have to charge for shipping, mention the charges upfront, rather than wait till the checkout page. Shoppers might be more inclined to abandon the cart and not come back to your site if you lead them to the checkout page and highlight your shipping charges which might not be what they were expecting!
Shipping times are also critical, especially when it comes to gifting or festive occasions. Shoppers would like to have the confidence that their items will arrive on time. If you meet or exceed the shipping times, you will have gained brownie points and your customer is sure to come back to you, the next time he or she wants to shop online.
Returns Policy
Every online shopper will have a niggling worry about returns. What if the product does not fit well? What if it is a gift that needs to be exchanged? What if they don’t like the product once it is physically in their hands? Be clear about your returns policy. Give the shopper enough confidence to shop online and be able to return the products if required. If you do not have a returns policy, make this clear as well.
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Source:schuh.co.uk
Page Speed
No one wants to shop on a site that is slow. Shoppers expect online shopping to be quick and you need to meet this expectation. Make sure your product pages load and respond quickly. You are sure to lose out on conversions and future orders if your pages are heavy and do not load fast. Keep product page speed in mind while designing your e-commerce website. According to this interesting statistic by kissmetrics, a 1% delay in page load time can result in a 7% reduction in conversions!
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Every website is different and not all of these may be applicable to your e-commerce site. However, use these tips and tricks as a starting point to improve your existing website and test and measure against your own benchmarks. If you have any other good tips or ideas worth sharing, please feel free to share them in the comments section below.