Driving traffic to your website without optimizing for conversion is like pouring water into a bucket that has holes in it; the water will just begin pouring out of the holes almost as fast as you can fill it. Similarly, it doesn’t make sense to bring in more and more traffic when you should first be working to make sure you have a site that’s converting, i.e. getting sales.
Unfortunately, no company is immune to oversight on this issue, which we’ll explain in this blog. After working with a wide array of companies for the past several years, we have discovered that regardless of the ad budget they may have, the focus often gets shifted towards traffic, lead generation, and sales without ever questioning if the conversion process can be improved.
First of all, what is conversion optimization?
In a nutshell, conversion rate is a marketing activity focused primarily on increasing the number of people who take a desired action on your page.
You’d actually be surprised how few marketing teams actually split test, or conduct experiments on their lead magnets or front-end offers to improve their conversion rates, whether that’s in the form of click through rate, adding items to their cart, or making a purchase.
Even if there is a marketing element that is working quite well, with the transitional landscape on the internet, most ads and content tend to fatigue and lose their flair — even over relatively short period of time!
It’s important to internally analyze all of the data that we’re given throughout all of our marketing channels. Here’s our top 3 conversion optimization tips for fashion eCommerce businesses, and how they can be implemented.
Lightning-Speed Load Times
This is one of those obvious but overlooked reasons your website may not be converting the way it should. Perhaps, you are getting a lot of people adding items to the cart, but for one reason or another, once they reach checkout they aren’t purchasing from you.
Surveys show that 40% of visitors expect a website to load in 3 seconds or less, or they’ll simply exit out. Load time can quite literally affect your bottom line. A lot of website owners think that they’re website is fast, and they may have only the homepage optimized for speed, but their collection pages or their order forms are taking much longer to load.
It’s safe to assume that every second on the internet is an eternity, and that you need to ensure that your website is optimized for lightning-speed. Whether you like it or not, people expect the same type of experience they receive on the megabrand’s websites, and one of the most highly leveraged actions you can take is increasing the site speed.
Oh yeah, you can test your website speed right here.
The Fortune is in the Follow Up
This is a time-tested way to get your customers to go from consideration to making a decision. If I am on your fashion eCommerce site, I add an item to cart, and maybe I made it the checkout but something came up.
I didn’t have my credit card on me…
My girlfriend got mad at me….
My favorite show came on and got distracted…
I got a message on Facebook and exited out for later…
The dog had to be taken out for a walk…
You get the picture. This is just the reality of most of your customers who arrive on your website will have multiple tabs open, external distractions, or maybe they simply decided against buying for now. But we as marketers need to be mindful of this behavior.
Whenever someone adds to their cart and leaves your site, it’s imperative that you follow up, whether that’s through email or even a phone call. Cart abandonment has become a trillion dollar problem for online retailers in all industries. Yes, that’s T as in Trillion.
That’s a lot of money to be leaving on the table, but it also represents a massive opportunity to significantly improve your cart conversion rates. By sending up follow up emails within the first 24 hours after a cart is abandoned, you can bring people back to the items in their cart at a time that may be right for them.
Use a Security Emblem in Your Checkout
Trust on the internet is and always has been an issue for internet users. It’s very important to demonstrate your credibility and trustworthiness on one of the most important parts of your site: the checkout page.
With the right security emblem, you can establish yourself as a trustworthy company to do business with.
Often times, you’ll see a security emblem on the main pages of the site, but then you make it to the checkout page and — you guessed it — there’s nothing there!
Make sure that you add a credible security emblem to your website, and make sure it’s legitimate. For instance, you don’t want to post about your site having 256-bit encryption if your site only has 128-bit encryption because that’s just deceptive.
We now have the ability to now transcend the barrier that used to separate you from your customers. You will want to continually analyze the flow of your website, and let the data from your results guide your strategy.
At EFashionStarter, we’ll deep dive through your website and plug the holes in your leaky bucket if you ever need us to. All you have to do is sign up for a free 30-minute consultation here.
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