On our Facebook group, we hold regular webinars about e-commerce and online advertising. Feel free to join our group here, if you want to take part in our next live! In the meantime, you can catch up with the previous talks.

In one of the last webinars, we analyzed a Shopify store. We broke it down into pieces and proposed a strategy to optimize it. I write we, because two great conversion rate experts, Kristian and Andrew, joined me for the webinar and shared their experience. On the example of a specific Shopify store that was available on Shopify exchange, they showed the methodology we use with our clients to optimize conversions.

You can see the full video here, and if you prefer to read a summary, I also prepared that!

Okay, let’s start from the basics, shall we?

What does it mean to improve conversions?

By improving conversions, we mean all the actions that we take to reduce the number of people that don’t actually follow through to make the purchase. It’s eliminating issues with navigation, viewing site, or purchase process, as well as boosting trust and social proof signals

The conversion optimization process aims to smooth the path so that visitors can be motivated and easily follow through and make a purchase.

Navigation, layout, and a homepage – best practices

• Does the website pass the three seconds test?

 

The three seconds test requires you to respond to a few fundamental question:

–          Is it immediately clear what the site is for, what does it sell?

–          What’s the value proposition?

The homepage should clearly indicate what you sell and why you’re different. Typography needs to be legible, and it should be contrasting with the images and the navigation menu.

 

• Don’t use the slideshow

 

Multiple studies, as well as our experience, show that people tend to sit and watch slideshows, and don’t take any action. So the best practice here is not to use a slideshow but actually to have a single image that features a best selling item or best-selling collection with a very clear call to action to encourage your purchase.

 

• Search is key for any store

 

People that search are much more valuable than almost any other type of visitor because they have intent. They know what they’re looking for. So you really need to make it as easy as possible for them to find the search function.

 

• Don’t overload your customers on the homepage

 

Show them three or four of your best selling products, ideally just at the end. You really want them to click to move on to the next stage of the journey.

 

• Footer is a valid part of the homepage

 

Remember about contact details, information about accepted credit cards, relevant security & trust badges, reviews, etc.

 

• Contact us page is a good idea

 

Customers want to know that there are people behind a store. Just showing a phone number reassures people that somebody’s there. It’s an indicator that again, you’re a legitimate business, and it builds confidence.

 

• Loading speed is a critical part of conversion rate optimization

 

You have a lot of drops out if people have to wait too long. The loading time of three to four seconds is sort of a maximum for the majority of people that are willing to wait. Make sure that the images that you’re loading are the right file format, that they’re optimized and they are loading in the right dimensions.

 

• Avoid immediate pop-ups on the main page to not distract people. 

 

The preferred way to show pop-ups to collect email addresses or recover sales is by using exit-intent pop-ups. We recommend the app called Privy for that.

Three quick golden nuggets around testing your website

1. When you’re testing your site, make sure that you’re using a VPN. This way, you can see what your customers from other countries see.
2. Make sure that the site is actually working correctly before you start thinking about how easy to use and how persuasive it is. Remember about having users test the site.  The best way of doing that is to go to UserTesting  (you can create a single user test on there for $49).
3. Look at your Google Analytics. We use an app called Blisk, which allows you to see what your site looks like from different devices. So it’s a rapid way to understand what happens on a desktop and a mobile

Dos and don’ts of categories pages

1. If you think the homepage has got one mission, and that’s to drive people to either a category page or a product page, your category page has got one mission, and that’s to drive your visitors into the product pages.
   •  Make sure your site pricing is working.
   • Make sure you’ve got just a very brief description under each product.
   • Don’t forget about the visible call to action button below every product.
   • The call to action needs to be relevant. On many pages, we see something like “Buy now”, underneath the products. It’s not a good idea because customers want to learn more about the products before buying them. The button should say “View more”, “Learn more”, “See this product”, etc.

How to improve product pages?

1. In a retail store, customers can walk in, pick up a product, smell it, touch it, feel it, or try the product on. Obviously, it’s not possible in e-commerce. So, you have to present the product in other ways.
   • Make sure that you’ve got super clear and high-resolution images. And there should be a lot of them. It’s great when customers can click on them, see them in great detail, and zoom in.
   • Show available versions of the product.
   • Introduce the principle of ownership. In other words, people want to see lifestyle images, and other people actually wearing the product.
   • Remove distractions and lower friction points.
   • Product descriptions are super important. Have a brief description, use some bullet point formats to describe the product, but then, by all means, have a more detailed description further on.
   • Not every customer is going to land on the homepage. They might land directly on the product page (especially if they come from PPC traffic). So include reviews on the product page as well.
   • Make sure the reviews are real. If you haven’t gotten any yet, give away a couple of your products (it may be even to friends and family) and ask them to leave feedback on your website.
   • The best would be to have reviews with photos. We recommend the Loox app for that.
   • Call to action buttons should be in a contrasting color to everything else on the site and as large as viable.
   • One of the quickest ways of cleaning up your product pages, but also making sure that all necessary information is there is to use tabs. I recommend Easy Tabs for this purpose.
   • One of the ways of decreasing bounce, and encouraging people to further shopping is adding related products section to the product page.
   • Must-have of a shopping cart are payment options, a reiteration of your value proposition (e.g., free shipping), and the total amount of the order. It’s good to add trust badges close to the call to action buttons as well.

How not to lose customers at the checkout page?

1. Minimize the amount of information to fill in (you can customize it within your Shopify store).
2. Explain why you ask about particular information (e.g., phone number).
3. Make sure not to require customers to create an account. It should be optional.
4. As an addition to that, we recommend offering post-checkout up-sales. It works pretty well for our clients

 

Check out the end of our webinar to follow a short questions & answers session – we mentioned the structure of the conversion optimization process, its costs, and the importance of the testing stage.

Hopefully, this session was helpful for you, and you learned a lot. Make sure to join our Facebook group to take part in the next webinars! We are happy to share our experience!