How to solve low conversion rate in Shopify
Low conversion rate is not good for any business. Your Shopify store is no exception. A good conversion rate is desirable.
Maybe you even have a lot of visitors to your Shopify store, but it doesn’t show any sales. In this case, getting more traffic won’t cut it. You also can’t sit on your palms and wait for a miracle to happen.
In this post, I’ll show you some strategies to make your Shopify website convert better and how to fix low Shopify conversion rates. But first, let’s discuss the possible reasons for low Shopify conversion rates.
Reasons for Low Shopify Conversion Rates
1. You’re Targeting the Wrong Market
As a business owner, it might seem tempting to market your products to just about anyone. Well, newsflash! Not everyone is interested in your products. One of the reasons your Shopify site isn’t making sales is that you’re marketing to the wrong demographic.
That’s why it’s important to research and understand your market. Shopify makes this easy by providing you with the necessary tools to help you understand how visitors interact on your site. With this insight, you can understand which demographic is most interested in your products.
2. Your landing page is unattractive
They say that first impressions count. Nothing could be further from the truth. Therefore, you really need to make a good impression, especially on first-time visitors to your site.
If your landing page is unattractive, you will most likely have conversion issues. No one likes a cheesy design, which will quickly turn off shoppers.
3. You sell a product people are not familiar with
Are you selling a relatively new product? Get ready for an uphill battle.
It’s great to show your visitors your product. But what if they don’t know what it does? If your website is getting a lot of traffic, but not converting as much as it should, it could be because no one is familiar with your product.
If they don’t know what it is, how will they know what it does? How will they know what value they’ll get for their money after purchasing your product?
4. Poor product images
People need to see what they’re buying. If they can’t, they’ll happily go somewhere else. That’s why it’s important to have high-quality product images.
This may explain why your Shopify store may not be making sales.
Bad product images make your store look unprofessional and untrustworthy, so avoid them like the plague.
5. Mediocre Call to Action (CTA)
Sometimes, buyers need a “push” to buy. Your CTA may lack the needed push.
So, if your CTA isn’t clear and convincing enough, sales will be a problem.
6. Lack of Reviews
When buying online, people consciously look for reasons to trust your brand. It is from reviews from previous buyers that they find this trust.
Therefore, your Shopify website should never lack reviews, otherwise you will drive away visitors.
7. Difficult Checkout Process
No one likes difficulty, even when it comes to buying their favorite clothes or accessories. A long and complicated checkout process makes it hard for visitors to buy from your store.
But how do you know if your checkout process is difficult? Lengthy form fields, lack of multiple payment options, etc. are all signs of it.
So, if any of these are present on your website, they can hurt your conversions.
8. No pop-ups
Contrary to popular belief, pop-ups are extremely useful in e-commerce. While they may look unremarkable, the best pop-ups can increase your conversion rate by up to 28%.
So if you’re not using pop-ups on your Shopify store, there’s no reason to be surprised if your traffic isn’t converting.
9. You don’t use an email marketing service
While attracting new visitors is great, retaining old customers is even better. How will you connect with those customers if you don’t use an email service provider like MailChimp or SendinBlue?
Email marketing is extremely important to the growth of your store. So if you haven’t taken it seriously yet, it’s time you did, especially if increasing your site’s conversion rate is important to you.
10. Not testing your strategy
Conducting A/B testing will give you insights into what types of marketing content visitors interact with best on your Shopify store. Not conducting these tests will leave you guessing every time.
So if a particular campaign strategy isn’t working for you, don’t be afraid to try a different one.
How to Increase Shopify Conversion Rates
Increasing conversion rates on Shopify isn’t as difficult as it seems, especially if you use a personalized platform for your e-commerce business. It just involves tweaking some existing elements of your Shopify store.
I want to share some of these tweaks with you. These tips won’t work overnight, but they will work in the long run. Very good.
Here they are:
1. Optimize your checkout process
As I mentioned earlier, streamlining your checkout process will greatly increase your site’s conversion rate. If your checkout is complex and confusing, most customers won’t bother to complete their purchase.
Here are some ways to improve your site’s checkout process:
- Reduce the number of fields to fill out.
- Show checkout progress as a bar graph, or simply break your checkout into stages so customers know how far along they are in the process.
- Make it easy to review your shopping cart before buying.
Optimizing your store’s checkout process is the first step to increasing your Shopify store’s conversion rate.
2. Offer multiple payment methods
Another way to increase your Shopify conversion rate is to offer multiple payment methods. Don’t limit yourself to just paying through PayPal.
Make it easy for your customers to pay via Visa, MasterCard, credit cards, American Express, and other methods. Do this and you’ll see your Shopify conversion rates soar.
It’s extremely frustrating and disappointing for potential buyers if they can’t make a purchase simply because they don’t have an accepted payment method.
3. Improve the mobile experience
Not taking mobile seriously yet? Well, here’s an interesting fact you need to know:
OuterBox conducted a 6-month survey in 2018. One interesting thing they found was that 79% of online sales during that period came from mobile devices. That’s huge, isn’t it?
This clearly proves that optimizing your Shopify mobile store can have a positive and incredible impact on your conversion rates.
Be aware that this trend is not going away and purchases made through mobile phones will increase. Redouble your efforts to optimize your Shopify to work seamlessly on mobile devices. Otherwise, you will lose sales opportunities to those who prefer to shop on the go.
4. Enable guest checkout
Imagine you are shopping in a shopping mall. After picking up the items you want, you push your cart to the cashier to pay. But what shocks you the most is that you are asked to fill out a membership form before that.
Wouldn’t that be annoying? If there was another store nearby, you’d probably just leave in a hurry.
First-time visitors will feel the same way when they have to create an account on your website to complete a purchase.
What to do? Enable the guest checkout option. This will allow new users to make purchases without having to create an account on your Shopify store.
5. Combine incentives with FOMO
An easy way to win the hearts of your visitors is to offer them freebies: coupons, discounts, price cuts, gift cards, etc. By doing so, you will give them a reason to buy your product. This means better conversions for you.
Want to make your freebie marketing even more effective? Combine them with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) strategies. Did you know that 60% of people make a purchase within 24 hours due to FOMO? With this approach, you are not only giving away freebies, but you are also getting your visitors to take action quickly.
So, how exactly can you create FOMO? The most common way is to add a countdown timer to your campaign. If done correctly, this will definitely get your visitors to take action quickly.
Below is an example of a pop-up marketing campaign that leverages FOMO. As the timer counts down, it gives a sense of urgency to web visitors. This sense of urgency motivates them to sign up for the event as soon as possible.
6. Use Live Chat
Live chat allows you to interact with your visitors in real time and provide instant support when they need it. Think of it as a customer service line and you as an agent.
Live chat helps you build a more intimate connection with your customers and assure them that you can meet their needs. It makes it easy for your visitors to browse your store, find products, and ultimately make a purchase.
Need some inspiration? Jewelry retailer Goldsmiths deployed live chat on its e-commerce site.
With this, customers can get all the help they need to create a seamless shopping experience.
Looking for the best live chat solution for your Shopify store? LiveChat is a sure bet!
7. Eliminate Extra Costs
Your customers perceive extra costs like shipping, taxes, and other incidentals as unnecessary.
While you may not be able to eliminate all extra costs, eliminating them as much as possible will help. Potential customers find it annoying to finally find a product they like, start the checkout process only to be stopped by extra costs they didn’t foresee.
8. Offer free shipping
Did you know that offering free shipping can also increase your conversion rate and sales? According to a Statista survey, 62% of consumers are more likely to purchase an item if shipping is free.
Even if you offer free shipping with conditions, make sure your visitors know about those conditions early in the checkout process. If you can’t offer free shipping at all, make sure to highlight your shipping costs.
9. Make your store easy to navigate
A bad user experience can ruin your website and ultimately hurt your sales. One way to avoid this is to make your website easy to navigate.
No one likes shopping in a cluttered store.
Categories or groups of your products make them easier to access.
Need some inspiration? Take Nordstrom, for example. It does a great job of displaying its product categories in a top bar on its webpage.
You also want to make sure all text elements are legible and placed where visitors can easily see them while browsing your store.
Another inspiring example is Walmart. It uses a hamburger menu to make navigation easy for users.
If you click on the menu, a list of product categories will appear on the website, like this:
The easier it is for visitors to navigate your Shopify store, the easier it will be for them to make a purchase, and the higher your conversion rate will be.
10. Optimize your search bar
Another way to increase your Shopify conversion rate is to optimize your search bar. The search bar is vital to your visitor’s shopping experience. When integrated correctly, the search bar will help your potential customers find items in seconds.
Studies show that people who search for products in your store are most likely to make a purchase. In fact, they are 2.4 times more likely to buy than someone you just browsed.
Optimize your search bar so you can convert this intent into sales.
Take Amazon’s search bar, for example. It’s optimized to show related products as you type in a product name. This makes it easy for customers to find the product they’re looking for.
You can optimize the search bar to allow users to filter products based on specific features like price and brand. Additionally, you can allow for spelling tolerance so that misspelled product names don’t prevent visitors from finding what they’re looking for.
11. Upload quality images and videos
Seeing is believing. The first thing a potential customer will do when trying to buy is check out an image of the product. Or maybe a video.
It shows your visitors what they need to know about the product. This is especially important for them since they can’t touch the product like they can in a physical store.
Therefore, you should upload high-quality images that are eye-catching and showcase the main details of your product. They should also be “zoomable” so that your customers can take a closer look if they want.
Even better, you can use videos instead. Videos are just as important and help show details that pictures may miss. Plus, they also have better visual appeal.
12. Write good product descriptions
Writing good product descriptions is essential for selling online. The description you write should include important information, such as the dimensions of the item and the material it’s made of.
Your product description should accurately describe your product to customers. It should also explain how it works, what features it comes with, and why they should get it.
Here’s a great product description from DollarShave Club:
If you can’t do this yourself, find a good copywriter to do it for you. It will be worth it.
13. Use Email Marketing
It is vital to stay connected with your customers. Doing so will encourage them to come back and make more purchases from your Shopify store. It is equally important to stay connected with people who almost bought something from your store.
One of the ways to achieve this is by employing an efficient email marketing service. You can remind every abandoning visitor of the products they left in their cart simply by using their email address.
When sending emails, add a link to your cart so that your visitors can complete the checkout process more easily. You can also add a list of items in the cart and a limited-time offer to motivate them to complete their purchase quickly.
14. Notify customers about products
It’s frustrating to want to buy a product only to find out it’s out of stock. However, you can solve this problem simply by integrating the “Notify Me” feature in your Shopify store.
This feature will alert your customers when the product they are interested in is back in stock. This will help encourage them to buy quickly and increase your Shopify conversion rate.
15. Customer Reviews
Authentic customer reviews can help you win the trust of your visitors and increase your Shopify conversion rate. Reviews from previous buyers will reassure potential buyers that they can trust the quality of your products and encourage them to buy.
Encourage customers to leave a review after they purchase your product. A good way to do this is to send an email asking for a review or rating. Include a link directly to the review page in the email.
16. Publish great content
Creating and publishing quality content on your Shopify blog page will go a long way toward attracting more visitors to your store. It can also help you rank better on Google and other search engines.
What to do about this? Shopify stores come with a built-in blog editor. Use it to the fullest. Create and publish content that your target audience will find helpful.
By doing this, you will not only increase traffic, but also grow traffic. You will also become a thought leader in your field.
Thought leadership demonstrates your expertise and makes your visitors trust your brand more.
BioLite is an outdoor sports gear e-commerce store, and they have a blog that shares valuable content with their audience. Their posts also answer questions that customers may have about using their products.
Bonus Tip: Offer Free Shipping
Offering free shipping can help significantly increase your conversion rate. But to do that, your customers first need to know that you offer free shipping. And what better tool to do that than Adoric’s Free Shipping Bar Tool?
With Adoric’s Free Bar Tool, you can create eye-catching floating bars to promote your free shipping offer.
You don’t even need to start from scratch; just choose a floating bar template and edit/customize it to your liking.
Ready to try out our free shipping bar feature? Sign up for an account today.
Summary
There you have it: tips and strategies to increase your Shopify conversion rate. Apply these techniques and your conversion rate will steadily increase.
