Conversion rate optimization has been a huge point of emphasis for eCommerce marketers, but it continues to be a big source of confusion and frustration for many retailers. If you asked a retailer “Would you like to convert more traffic?”, their answer would obviously be yes. If you follow that question up with “How would you go about achieving that?”, the answer is not so clear.
In this article, we’ll define what conversions and actions you should be optimizing as an eCommerce retailer. Then, we’ll cover 3 ways to optimize for conversions on your site and how to automate them – freeing you up to focus on other aspects of your store.
What’s The Goal?
Conversions of course! But there are specific actions that, as an eCommerce retailer, you want to focus on. If you can increase these three types of conversions, you’re going to see more success, hands down.
- A Sales Conversion: The ultimate goal in eCommerce, but don’t forget about the rest of your sales funnel.
- An Email Opt-In: The most valuable top of the funnel conversion. Automate email capture to fuel your sales funnel.
- A Specific Page View / CTA Click: Drive traffic to high-converting product and landing pages. These micro-conversions usually lead to larger conversion goals. Don’t forget about them!
Focus on these 3 Key Areas of Marketing
Now that we have the goals of our conversion optimization campaigns, let’s take a look at the three key areas of marketing that we need to focus on. These are:
- Traffic Conversion and Email Capture
- Sales Conversion (also includes Cart Abandonment)
- Website Messaging
1. Traffic Conversion and Email Capture
eCommerce retailers need to complement the effort they put into driving traffic with a solid traffic conversion strategy. The most accessible and applicable traffic conversion tactic for eCommerce retailers is through email capture. Focusing on building your email list is going to increase traffic conversion while adding new leads to your sales funnel.
Use an Email Pop Up
Source: BRAVE Leather
This is a marketing practice used frequently in eCommerce because it works! Using an email pop up allows for consistent engagement of shoppers and collects emails in the process. That being said, there are ways to improve email opt-in rates by implementing optimal design and display practices. The best advice when it comes to email pop ups is to focus on providing value and making it unique. Shoppers see email pop ups all the time, so make yours stand out! Here’s some high converting pop up design inspiration.
Run a Contest
Source: evo
A stronger opt-in incentive is going to convert more traffic. Discounts and free shipping are excellent incentives for eCommerce, but contests convert traffic at an incredibly high rate. Offering shoppers a chance to win something of high value is going to result in a bunch of new emails. Here’s a great use case on how this wallet retailer captured 18,000 emails in 14 days with a contest.
Take It a Step Further
Target Specific Audiences with Different Offers
If you want to get more targeted with your email capture promotions, you can serve up different offers to audiences based on visitor behavior, traffic source, location on-site, geolocation, and much more. Targeting your promotions also provides list segmentation at the point of email capture, which works well for follow-up campaigns.
Don’t Forget About Mobile
Source: Joybird
Mobile traffic continues to increase, which means it’s a great lead capture opportunity – also one that many retailers are missing out on. Use a mobile-specific email pop up or banner to capture mobile traffic.
Note: Google does have unique mobile pop up display policies for visitors arriving through organic search traffic. Use this mobile pop up cheat sheet as a guide so you’re in compliance!
2. Sales Conversion
Source: Startup Drugz
We’ve covered a simple top of the funnel conversion strategy, now it’s time to dive into the bottom of the funnel. There are a lot of different things you can do to optimize your checkout process, which will, in turn, help conversion.
The one thing that many retailers overlook is the reason why most shoppers don’t end up converting: Price. This could be in the form of cart total, shipping costs, price shopping, or coupon hunting.
You can make an immediate impact on your sales conversion by adding an exit pop up with a promo code to your cart and checkout pages. Then, when a shopper goes to leave their cart to price shop or find a coupon, you’ll fulfill their needs immediately, and they can continue with their purchase. Try it out, and you’ll be amazed how this simple tactic can impact your sales conversion!
3. Website Messaging
Another overlooked aspect of conversion marketing is website messaging. Inevitably, shoppers are going to have questions, get confused, and come to a dead end. For these reasons, live chat (which can be automated with chatbots) is a must, but you also need automated messaging that can be changed quickly to fit your marketing campaigns. This is imperative as we start thinking about the holiday season.
Here are a few of my favorite onsite messages that eCommerce retailers can implement today:
Sales Banners
Source: Watches.com
Let shoppers know of your current or upcoming sales and provide a call to action. This could be a “Shop Sale Items” button or an email form to prompt a sale date reminder. The Unobar from Justuno gives you total control and customization over your sales banners.
Shipping Thresholds
Source: Justuno
One way to increase order value is to offer shoppers a shipping incentive for reaching a certain ticket value. This also gives you some flexibility when it comes to offering expedited shipping or free shipping because you can set a minimum order value that works with your margins and shipping costs.
With Justuno, retailers can either display a simple message about the shipping threshold or engage shoppers with a dynamic message encouraging the addition of more items to the cart. Here’s how to implement shipping thresholds.
CTA Pop Ups
If one of your goals is to drive specific audiences to a product page, collection, or another landing page, using a CTA pop up will get the job done. Say you’ve launched some new products and want to funnel traffic to that page. Add a CTA pop up prompting shoppers to check it out.
Take it a Step Further
Add a Countdown Timer
If you can create a sense of urgency throughout your store, this is only going to spur more action from your shoppers. Use a countdown timer to put a time limit on certain offers or to create urgency for an upcoming sale. Pair any of these messaging tactics with a countdown timer for a powerful website message!
Reinforce Email Marketing/Traffic Source Messaging
Sometimes, you need to deliver specific messaging to audiences coming from specific traffic sources. If a shopper is clicking through from an email, present messaging consistent with the email’s message or provide a relevant next step. If a shopper comes through from a Facebook ad, it may make sense to present a promotion aimed at yielding higher conversion rates. Remember, you’re paying for this traffic so capitalize on it! Here’s a tutorial on traffic source targeting.
Don’t forget about retargeting visitors as well – a task that can also be automated with apps like Shoelace.
Optimize Your Store Today!
Whether you’re an established eCommerce business or just starting out, these three categories of conversion optimization can and will help your business grow.
All of the marketing tactics in this article have been implemented by eCommerce retailers using the Justuno platform and you can too! Get your free plan and start optimizing your store today!
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Author Bio
Grant Thomas is the Director of Marketing at Justuno. He spends his days cooking up fresh content for the Justuno blog, crafting email marketing strategy, and converting buckets on the mini basketball hoop in the office. In his free time, Grant enjoys exercising, eating well, dabbling in film photography, and diligently practicing his Mark Wahlberg impression.
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