Anyone who owns an online store wants to boost sales as much as possible. The question is: how can you actually do it?
While you could make sweeping changes to your marketing strategy or your online store, sometimes all it takes is changing and testing a handful of small elements on your website.
This process is called conversion optimization. The goal of conversion optimization is to increase the percentage of site visitors who become customers. For businesses that are new to the web, conversion optimization is critical, because it helps you make the most of every visit to your website. The more of those visits you can turn into leads or customers, the healthier your cash flow becomes.
This guide will teach you how to increase your online sales through a few basic site changes that you can apply quickly while doing conversion optimization. Every one of these tips is grounded in statistics or case studies that have demonstrated an increase in sales.
The Essential Metrics for Increasing Your Online Sales
Before you work through this guide, it is best to review the different types of metrics you will use to measure success. Naturally, you will need web analytics software such as Google Analytics (with e-commerce tracking set up), because you have to know your current metrics and how your changes will be measured.
Here are the essential metrics you need to be familiar with:
Leads
Leads are simply people who have shown active interest in your products or services. Unlike a typical site visitor, they have given you their name or contact information, along with permission to send them additional information. They are the crucial first step in your online sales funnel, which you can learn more about in this tutorial:
Sales: How to Set Up Your First Online Sales Funnel — Rocky Cellin
Here are some of the ways you can use to count your number of leads:
Email subscribers. If you collect email addresses for a mailing list or newsletter, your number of subscribers is your list of leads.
Registered users. You can invite users to register on your online store or website even before they are ready to buy. For example, if you create an account at one of the online retail stores such as Amazon, Etsy, or Walmart without ever buying anything, you are already one of those leads.
Contact form data. If your website has a contact form that users tend to fill out to ask you more questions about your business or to begin making purchases, these are considered leads.
Quote requests. Quote requests usually apply to services. If you provide maintenance, development, or landscaping, potential customers may contact you trying to get an estimate of what their project would cost. These prospects are leads.
A combination of the above. You can use all of the methods above to collect leads. Just make sure that with every channel you use, you have a way to easily track how many leads you get from each channel.
If your online store is new, it will be easy to count and track these leads manually. But as your customer base grows, you will need to find specific tools to measure leads depending on how you collect them. This could be through your email marketing software or your website analytics software.
Conversion Rate
Your conversion rate is based on what you want users to do on a particular page. It is the number of visitors who take the action you want, divided by the number of visitors who do not.
Let us say you are looking to improve conversions on a specific product page. To calculate your conversion rate for this month, look at the number of visitors who clicked the "Buy Now" button on that page throughout the month. Then divide it by the total number of visitors to that page for the same month. If your product page receives 200 unique visitors but only 10 click the "Buy Now" button, then your conversion rate is 5 percent.
You can also reach your goal by increasing the number of leads. If you are measuring email subscribers to your newsletter, you can create a squeeze page to capture email addresses. Get your overall conversion rate by comparing the number of subscribers you get from that page with the total number of visitors to that page.
Since your goal for each page on your website will be different, you have many options for measuring your conversion rates.
Bounce Rate and Exit Rate
Your bounce rates and exit rates will give you an idea of how many people are leaving your website or a specific page. It is important to know the difference between the two so you can determine which one you should use for each case.
Bounce Rate
Your site's bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who view only one page on your site and then leave. For example, a squeeze page with a high bounce rate and a high conversion rate is a good thing. It means that as soon as a user lands on the page, most of them take the action you want them to take, whether that is making a purchase or subscribing to your mailing list. But if your goal is to get visitors to browse through your product catalog, a high bounce rate indicates that most visitors probably did not dig deeper into your products.
Exit Rate
The exit rate of a page, however, is the percentage of users who leave your website from that page, regardless of how many other pages they visited beforehand. You can make sense of your exit rate by looking at user behavior across your entire website and seeing how they navigate through it. If you use Google Analytics, you can find this under your "User Flow" report.
How to Increase Your Online Sales (Quickly)
There are many simple ways to improve your online sales. Now that you are aware of the metrics you need to track to improve your online sales, here are ten changes you can make right away:
1- Use a Personalized Call to Action
Since measuring conversion rates is fundamental to increasing sales, it is important to optimize the place where that conversion happens: your call to action.
A call to action (CTA) is an element on the page that tells the reader to take a specific step. For example, on product pages, this could be a button labeled "Buy Now" or "Add to Cart." But a CTA can also prompt a visitor to do other things, such as subscribing to a mailing list, following a social media page, or sharing content.
A "personalized" call to action is more specific. While it does not necessarily address each individual visitor separately, it takes into account where they are in your sales funnel. In a study of more than 93,000 CTAs, HubSpot found that tailoring CTA text based on whether the visitors were users, leads, or paying customers increased conversion rates. This approach led HubSpot to convert 42 percent more visitors into leads. Remember where users belong in your sales funnel so you can customize your CTAs to their needs.
While the approach they used was a bit more technical, you can follow the basic idea by segmenting visitors whenever possible. For example, if you have an email marketing campaign, you could have a separate campaign directing paying customers to a landing page designed specifically for them, while unconverted leads get a link to a different page. The idea is simply to keep the customer journey in mind when designing your CTAs.
2- Write Clearer Headlines
Headline text is also a fundamental factor in increasing your sales. Whether it is a headline for an article, a product page, a squeeze page, or your homepage, the headline is usually the first thing your site visitors will read. It has to capture their attention enough to keep them reading or browsing your website.
First, make your offer clear in the headline. Who is the target customer for your business? What can you do for them? According to a study by Conductor, an SEO technology company, clarity resonates with readers. The clearer the headline about what the content offers, the more people preferred it.
In one case study, an investment company was able to increase its conversions by 52 percent simply by clarifying what they do and who they do it for. The original headline read "Wilson HTM Priority Core Fund" — a simple statement of the product name. By writing a clearer headline, the investment company immediately increased its leads.
The image above shows the headline they tested that brought in higher conversions. It states the target audience (investors) as well as what the fund is (for managers who are always trying to outperform the market). By rewriting the headline with a clear offer, they are now getting more leads.
Review the headlines on the main pages of your website, including your homepage and product pages. Identify who the target audience is, what you do for them, and what they can hope to achieve with you. If you have not done this, rewrite your headlines and watch for any changes in your conversion rates.
3- Declutter Your Site Navigation
Since you want your call to action to be the main focus on most pages, it is important to declutter the navigation menus on your website. By minimizing the navigation elements on your main pages, your visitors' eyes will be directed toward your CTA. This will make them more likely to follow your CTA rather than needlessly bouncing from page to page.
In one online store experiment, MECLABS found that removing the top navigation and sidebar on checkout pages increased checkout rates by 10 percent. Similarly, a nursery website nearly doubled its conversion rates by hiding the main navigation. These experiments appear to align with some classic research from "Marketing Sherpa," which found that removing navigation from key landing pages can lead to an increase of 10 to 50 percent in conversions.
This does not mean your entire website should have no navigation elements at all — only that these elements should not distract from the main purpose of the page. Look at the example below from "Hummingbird Hammocks." There is minimal navigation at the top of the product page, but the product image and the "Add to Cart" button are both far more prominent.
4- Optimize the Text Near Your Call to Action
Just because your call to action is the center of attention does not mean you have to ignore the other elements around it. Usually, the text around or near your call to action can significantly affect your conversions.
Several studies show that optimizing the text near your call to action can positively affect your conversions. In a split test for an online betting community, Unbounce saw a 31.54 percent increase in conversions simply by changing the text around the CTA. Online retailer Zalora also changed the product text near the CTA and found a 12 percent increase in checkouts. Another case study for the company SpaceMace found that changing the text directly above the contact form increased the number of leads by 69 percent. Addressing a user's pain point can help improve conversions.
What these studies show us is that writing copy in the space near your CTA should not be random. Be deliberate in writing about the concerns, goals, and needs of your target audience. The following guides can help you improve your copy in this area:
Copywriting: How to Increase Your Online Sales with Psychological Triggers — Brad Smith
Sales: How to Structure a Successful Long-Form Sales Page — Julia Melymbrose
Marketing: How to Write an AdWords Ad That Grabs Attention — David Masters
5- Use Popup Offers
It is easy to hear the word "popup" and think of an annoying distraction that jumps out at you while you are browsing a website. But when used wisely and strategically, popups can help reduce shopping cart abandonment rates and increase your conversions.
Sumo, a company that provides lead capture solutions, found that popups had an average conversion rate of 3 percent. But the top 10 percent of the highest-performing popups had an average conversion rate three times higher.
Make sure your popups also provide something relevant and useful to the user. If your offer is a discount or giveaway that visitors are happy to use, then the popup will be perceived as a gift rather than a distraction.
Kootah, a company that sells health bands online, saw a 187 percent increase in its sales conversion rate simply by adding a discount price popup. If it is more leads you are after, you can follow the example from Thief Box below, which encourages users to give their name and email address in exchange for a 20 percent discount. The popup above offers a discount in exchange for joining the mailing list.
6- Add Ample White Space to Your Website
There should be enough "room to breathe," or white space, between the various elements of your site and online store. Otherwise, your elements will look crowded, making it harder for your visitors' eyes to navigate between the different elements of your website.
In a series of case studies, "The Good," a conversion rate optimization company, found that decluttering online stores led to higher conversion rates and more sales. In one particular example, they more than doubled a product page's conversions by removing unnecessary elements and increasing the use of white space. Adding some breathing room between the elements of a product page can increase conversions.
7- Replace Your Images
If you are currently using stock images in your online store, do not feel too bad. Most new companies often cannot afford to have professional photos taken of their products or team. But the cost or effort of using your own images can be justified, because real images of people and products have a positive impact on conversions.
A series of experiments by Blush, an e-commerce solutions company, found that having product images used generated at least twice as many conversions as just a stock photo. In other words, you should not only show your products against a white background, but also show them "in the wild," being used by others.
The company "Best" gave a good example of mixing typical product photos with images of these products in use. Their product pages have large images of the complete product shown from different angles, as well as close-ups of small details. But they also have an "in the field" section to display the product being used or worn in the right setting. Include images of customers using your products.
The same applies to photographs of people. Instead of showing stock photos representing your team or your customers, it is better to choose images of real people. A truck driving training company saw a 161 percent increase in conversions simply by swapping out stock photos of truck drivers for images of real students.
8- Improve Readability
The previous points emphasized the importance of the text content on your online store, whether it is in the headline or the sales copy on your CTA buttons. Apart from the content itself, the readability of the content also matters. If the content is not compelling to read in the first place, you will not get the chance to convince users to buy from you.
Here is how to make your sales copy easy to read:
Increase the Font Size
If your online store's text is set in a 10-point font size, then it may be too small. ClickLaboratory, a design company specializing in conversion rate optimization, found that increasing the font size on a software company's website reduced the bounce rate by 10 percent and led to a 133 percent increase in conversions. Even though the original 10-point font size looked better, increasing the size to 13pt and improving the spacing between characters and lines led to better results for the business. Testing a larger, more spacious font led to 133 percent more conversions.
Simplify Your Language
If you want to check your site's language for readability, you can use tools such as the Readability Test Tool and Readable.io.
An example of a website that does all of the above elements well is Basecamp. The Readability Test Tool indicates that their main copy can be understood by a 10- to 11-year-old. The font sizes are also large, making the text legible even from a distance. The bullet points and the hierarchy created by the different sizes also add to the readability of the page. A large font size and simple language make this page easy to read.
9- Prove Customer Satisfaction
To encourage more sales for your online store, you also need to prove that your business has a history of satisfied customers. Your proof can come in the form of industry awards, a list of past or current clients, case studies, and testimonials.
This type of proof is especially important for new companies that want to quickly establish themselves as a trusted brand. In fact, a survey by BrightLocal found that 84 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
Also, the more reviews a product has, the better it is for your conversion rates. Having more than fifty product reviews can increase conversion rates by 4.6 percent.
If you have not collected testimonials or reviews yet, now is your chance. The guide below includes tips on how to request testimonials, the tools you can use, and a list of sample questions you can ask customers when soliciting feedback:
Market Research: How to Use Customer Feedback (in Your Small Business) — Rocky Cellin
One example of an online store that does social proof right is Casper. Every one of their product pages displays star ratings and reviews. When you hover over a product's star rating, a small window appears displaying the distribution of scores, as well as a link where you can read all the reviews. This product page displays a breakdown of review stars and a link to view all product reviews.
10- Display Prominent Guarantees
You can also increase your e-commerce conversions by providing visitors with guarantees that your products or services are high quality. You can do this in the following ways:
Security badges. These are badges indicating that transactions on your website are private and secure. The digital marketing company "Blue Fountain Media" saw a 42 percent increase in conversions by adding a security badge from VeriSign. Not all badges are created equal, however. According to a study by XL conversion, consumers only tend to trust badges coming from familiar brands such as Google, PayPal, and Norton.
Return policies and money-back guarantees. This earns the trust of potential customers, because you have assured them that if they are not satisfied with your product and service, they can get a refund. A case study from "Visual Website Optimizer" found that adding a badge indicating a 30-day money-back guarantee led to a 32 percent increase in conversions.
Industry-specific badges. These badges are specific to your industry or field. They may be industry rankings, awards, accreditations, or memberships in organizations. The online retailer "Serving Bag" saw a 72 percent increase in conversions simply by displaying an award it had won.
The following example from "Crofters" shows industry-specific seals that its target customers find important. These seals include labeling the products as organic, GMO-free, and gluten-free. The seals above quickly tell visitors about the quality and safety of the product.
While the same information can be conveyed through text, it is faster to see and interpret images. Key information will not get lost between the product description and its details.
Increase Your Online Sales Using Minor Adjustments
As the tips above show, you do not need to overhaul your entire website to maximize your sales. Sometimes, running simple tests on different elements of a website — such as the call to action, the images, and the navigation — can be enough to increase your profits. At the very least, run one or two tests every few months so you can make sure your small business is getting the most out of your online store.