5 Ways to Increase your E-Commerce Conversion Rates

Having a store with a low conversion rate is a real kick in the teeth. You know you have great products, you know they should be flying off the shelves… but what is happening?

Follow these 5 simple rules, and you should see your conversion rate improve dramatically.

1. Offer a guest checkout option.
The last thing you want to do if you are buying something simple is to have to become a member. It is one of the leading causes of cart abandonment. Always offer your users a chance to checkout as a guest and you’ll see your conversion rates soar.

2. Keep your content and products up to date.
If you walk past a shop in the high street, and they have the same window display for a year – what would you think? It’s the same for your online store – change it up regularly, highlighting certain products.

3. Be honest with your delivery costs.
Don’t hide your delivery costs away to users, make sure they can see up front how much it’ll cost them to have it delivered. Even better, do you best to build the delivery costs into your products, offering free deliver where possible – this will dramatically improve your conversion rates.

4. Don’t over-do it on up-sells or cross-sells.
This one is a fine line – it is dependant on your product – but usually, if you try to up-sell or cross-sell too much, you may lose the sale. The user begins to browse other items and may eventually lose interest in the whole cart. Be sensible with your cross-sells, only offer items that add value.

5. Make it SIMPLE.
I cannot stress this enough. Make the whole process simple. A user should be able to get to the checkout with minimal fuss. They see a product, they view it in detail, they add it to the cart and they checkout. No fancy-pants stuff is needed here. If your product is good, they’ll follow through.