There are more and more e-commerce sites on the web, but not all of them have a good conversion rate. In this ultra-competitive context, increasing the conversion rate becomes a priority for e-commerce sites. To improve your conversion rate, first, it’s necessary to calculate and analyze it to implement effective actions and levers that attract and retain the user. What are the tips for understanding visitor behavior and increasing your e-commerce conversion rate?
E-commerce conversion rate: what is it?
E-commerce conversion rate: definition
The conversion rate, also called the transformation rate, is expressed as a percentage. It corresponds to the number of Internet users who go from visitors to buyers or participants (product purchase, registration, download, contact request, etc.).
For an e-commerce website, calculating its conversion rate allows you to define your sales objective, manage your website and optimize it. It is an important indicator that measures the performance and success of the website. For any e-merchant, the main objective is to increase its conversion rate by transforming more visitors into buyers and succeed in boosting its sales.
E-commerce conversion rate: how to calculate it?
The e-commerce conversion rate is the ratio between the number of visitors and buyers. You don't need to be good at math to measure a conversion rate! It is calculated as follows:
Number of buyers/number of visitors = conversion rate (in percentage)
Depending on the activity, the size and the type of website, the conversion rate can be very different.
E-commerce: increase your conversion rate
What is a good conversion rate in e-commerce?
In France, the average conversion rate of e-commerce sites is between 2% and 3% (the wide range being between 1% and 5%, according to Bigcommerce). The different sectors do not all have the same conversion rate and the same competitive environment. The indicator varies according to the online activity, the companies, the media used (mobile, tablet or desktop) and the pace of product launches. The cosmetics sector, for example, is regularly in the lead, with an average rate of 5.3%.
In addition, you should know that the average e-commerce conversion rate linked to social network traffic is low (around 0.74%). The conversion rate linked to organic traffic from natural referencing (SEO) is higher: about 2.08%.
Overall, we consider that a conversion rate below 2% is not satisfactory. Therefore, it is urgent to optimize its e-commerce site and find solutions to increase its conversion rate.
Why increase your conversion rate?
The increase in the conversion rate is not always proportional to the rise in the traffic rate. In e-commerce, beginners think that the more visitors and traffic a site has, the more sales and turnover it generates. However, it is not enough to increase the number of visitors to your e-commerce site to see its conversion rate explode. Some poorly targeted acquisition campaigns will cause your visitor base (and acquisition costs) to explode and your conversion rate to fall.
To develop your sales, you need to define your objectives and think about the factors that can increase the conversion rate of your e-commerce site. It is necessary to capture visitors and attract customers, build loyalty and encourage them to act. It seems essential for e-commerce sites to know their strengths and weaknesses and, in particular, the obstacles to converting visitors into buyers.
5 levers to increase your e-commerce conversion rate
Lever 1: design and ergonomics
The image of a website is essential in the Internet user's experience. The design and ergonomics of an e-commerce site have a tangible impact on the conversion rate. To improve them, several possibilities are available to you:
- Create an attractive design;
- Reduce loading time;
- Have a responsive site (PC, smartphones, tablets) ;
- Propose intuitive and meaningful navigation for the visitor (tree structure, navigation menu, organized catalogue, etc.);
- Implement a powerful and intelligent search engine;
- Work on the product sheets;
- Work on the positioning and wording of the call to action.
Lever 2: Reassurance and benefits
A site that gives off a professional image is more reassuring for visitors. To gain their trust and loyalty, it is recommended to reassure them and attract them by highlighting the advantages, guarantees and promotions available. In this objective, an e-commerce site can :
- Create a FAQ ;
- Suggest a chatbot;
- Mention the T&Cs, TOS, etc. ;
- View customer reviews;
- Provide guarantees on delivery and returns;
- Offer delivery from a certain amount;
- Multiplying delivery methods;
- Offer promo codes.
Lever 3: cart abandonment management
The conversion rate is directly linked to the cart abandonment rate. Several reasons can be at the origin of a high rate of abandoned carts: distraction, lack of time, doubt, lack of confidence, preference for a competitor... To reduce these abandonments and, therefore, increase your conversion rate, it is possible to :
- Identify cart abandonment (e.g., movement of the pointer towards the site's closure) and intervene in real-time with a pop-up offering alternative products, if possible, that meet your visitor's expectations;
- Relaunch email the abandoned cart;
- Limit additional costs for the buyer (e.g., by reducing delivery costs);
- Offer to buy without creating an account;
- Reduce delivery time ;
- Create a sense of urgency.
Lever 4: the payment tunnel
On average, 69% of shopping baskets are abandoned by Internet users (again, this should be weighted according to the sector of activity), 20% of which are due to a lack of confidence in online payment security. It is therefore essential to optimize the payment tunnel to increase the conversion rate and reduce shopping cart abandonment. Several tips are possible:
- Simplify the payment experience;
- To propose a fluid course;
- Communicating payment security ;
- Offer a variety of payment methods in different currencies.
Lever 5: the individualized customer-centric approach
Today, the relationship created, and the service provided to consumers play an essential role in developing an e-commerce site and increasing its conversion rate. Visitors to a site expect to be pampered and benefit from a real customer experience to make a purchase. To optimize your customer approach and motivate the purchase, it is thus possible to :
- Analyze the context, the behavior and the psychology of the visitor to propose a customized experience to encourage their adhesion;
- Focus on marketing personalization to offer a genuine service to the user;
- Adopt an individualized customer-centric approach to meet visitors' real needs and expectations.
By adopting this requirement to understand your visitor's expectations at the moment, you will have 3 levers at your disposal:
- The onsite pop up we talked about above but instead of simply presenting alternatives in the same range, will highlight the alternative products most likely to be purchased by the current visitor;
- The abandoned cart email with the same logic: propose the 3 or 4 products that you have identified as being of interest to your abandoner among the 25 or 30 products of the same family;
- The differentiated welcome when returning to the home page or the My Account page of your site with a proposal, individualized there again, of alternative products where a post-purchase return visit will be exposed to more recommended products complementary to these last purchases.
Thanks to its 3rd generation of artificial intelligence technology, Netwave is a powerful and custom-made solution that allows you to increase the conversion rate of your e-commerce site without any additional efforts. Netwave's inductive AI offers individualized advice to each site visitor (unlike machine learning technologies that make suggestions averaged by segment). Netwave's approach, using 232 trackers, allows you to understand your visitors when they are on your site, their behavior and their psychology, and concretely analyze their needs and expectations at the moment with each of their clicks. You can thus offer a tailor-made service to your visitors by meeting their real needs. Do you have a question or a project? Contact us now!
