Introduction
Is your website successfully converting enough visitors into customers? Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the key to converting more Internet users into buyers, and this without necessarily increasing traffic. For online retailers, this can mean more completed purchases, fewer shopping cart abandonments and greater customer satisfaction.
What is a conversion?
Before delving into the technical and strategic aspects of CRO, it's important to clarify exactly what a conversion is in e-commerce terms.
The different types of conversion
We speak of a conversion when a user performs an action on a website. This can take different forms, depending on each company's objectives.
In other words, conversions are actions that represent a step towards achieving a business objective, and they vary according to the sector in which they are carried out.
When we talk about e-commerce, we mainly think of 4 types of conversions:
- Purchases, or the finalization of an order when a user checks out and makes a payment.
- Additions to the shopping cart, without necessarily finalizing the purchase.
- Subscriptions to receive e-mail updates or promotional offers.
- Downloads of resources such as white papers or case studies in exchange for contact information.
E-commerce conversions aren't just a number on a dashboard. In fact, they act as a barometer for assessing the effectiveness of marketing strategies.
A good e-commerce conversion rate indicates that the site is satisfying its visitors and convincing them to take action.
What is a conversion rate?
Now that we've seen that conversions can take different forms, let's take a closer look at the e-commerce conversion rate and its impact on digital strategy.
How to calculate the conversion rate
The conversion rate is an indicator that quantifies the percentage of visitors who carry out a desired action. For example, a purchase, filling in a form or subscribing to a newsletter.
To calculate the e-commerce conversion rate, simply divide the number of actions carried out (such as purchases or registrations) by the total number of visitors to the site, then multiply the result by 100 to obtain a percentage.
To give a concrete example, if a site receives 1,000 visitors and 50 of them make a purchase, the conversion rate would be 5%. This rate may include other actions, such as signing up for a newsletter or adding items to the shopping cart. However, in the context of e-commerce, when we talk about conversions, we're primarily talking about sales.
Thus, sales transactions are the backbone of the e-commerce conversion rate, and this is what differentiates them from other conversion rates.
The average conversion rate in e-commerce is between 2% and 3%. Depending on the sector and type of product, some conversion rates can reach 20% for the most successful sites.
Why track conversion rates?
One of the major advantages of tracking conversion rates is that it can detect problems in the user experience or in the offer. In fact, conversion rate tracking gives us a good overview of the qualitative value of the customer journey on the website.
If the conversion rate is too low, we can then carry out an in-depth analysis of the data and proceed with conversion rate optimization (CRO).
How to optimize conversion rates?
As we've seen, the conversion rate is of vital importance in the e-commerce sector, as it provides insights into a site's effectiveness in converting visitors into customers. Conversion rate optimization is therefore a strategy that every online business should seriously consider in order to boost its performance.
Key factors of CRO in ecommerce:
There are a number of factors to consider that can influence the conversion rate in e-commerce:
- User experience (UX): A well-designed site with intuitive navigation and fast loading times considerably improves the conversion rate, in the sense that users can easily find what they're looking for, and the smooth purchasing process encourages them to finalize their purchases.
- Product type:The type of product offered can also influence conversion rates. For example, high value-added or complex products may have lower conversion rates, as consumers take longer to make a purchase decision, whereas everyday or low-priced products sell more quickly and easily.
- Source of traffic:We find that visitors who come from organic searches or through recommendations tend to have higher conversion rates than those who come from paid advertising, as they are often more qualified and interested in the offer.
- Trust and security:It's important to reassure customers by, for example, sharing customer reviews, security certifications for online payments and establishing a clear returns policy, which will encourage buyers to go ahead with the purchase.
- Pricing and promotions:Pricing strategies such as discounts and special offers influence conversion rates, as competitive prices and attractive promotions encourage visitors to buy immediately.
What are the tools for boosting CRO in e-commerce?
To maximize conversion rate (CRO) in e-commerce, several tools are essential to fine-tune your digital strategy. Google Analytics and Hotjar, for example, help to better understand online user behavior and identify friction points.
Analytics platforms
Google Analytics focuses on quantitative data and provides statistics on site traffic, traffic sources, user behaviors and conversion rates, the latter enabling metrics such as number of visits, bounce rate and conversions to be tracked through customizable dashboards. Google Analytics is useful for analyzing performance, as it allows you to understand who is visiting the site, which page is being viewed and what their journey through the website is.
Hotjar is designed for qualitative analysis, with features such as heatmaps, user session logging and direct feedback via surveys. This makes it possible to understand user behavior and visualize how they interact with elements of a page, identify friction points and gather feedback on user experience.
In short, Hotjar answers behavioral questions that Google Analytics can't, and vice versa. A combined analysis of these two tools therefore provides a detailed view of user behavior on the site, and combines quantitative and qualitative data to optimize the user experience and improve conversion rates.
A/B testing tools:
In the e-commerce sector, A/B tests are comparison tests used to optimize the performance of a website or marketing campaign. This involves comparing two versions of the same element to determine which performs better against a defined objective. Using tools like Google Optimize or Hotjar, we can test several versions of pages to see which generate the most conversions. This allows us to make changes based on hard data rather than assumptions.
Customer assessment tools:
No one is better qualified to judge the user experience than site visitors. That's why it's vital to conduct satisfaction surveys and collect feedback.
In this case, Hotjar offers tools to easily create online surveys to be deployed on a site to understand why users abandon their shopping carts or don't make purchases. This direct feedback helps identify obstacles to conversion and adapt the user experience accordingly.
DID YOU KNOW?
The shopping cart abandonment rate in e-commerce is a key measure that assesses the proportion of consumers who put items in their shopping cart without going through with the purchase. In 2024, this rate will average around 70.19%. This means that for every 10 customers who select products, 7 do not complete their order.
Mistakes to avoid in CRO
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is essential to maximize the effectiveness of a website, however, several mistakes can compromise this procedure namely:
Neglecting mobile optimization:
With the increase in mobile usage, it's important to offer the user a fluid experience on all types of device, to this end we recommend that the site is responsive and that all elements, including buttons and forms, are easily accessible on mobile as failure to optimize for mobile results in a high bounce rate and a loss of potential customers.
Ignore user feedback:
Through user feedback we can gain insights into what works and what doesn't on the site. Hotjar makes it possible to gather feedback in real time and adjust strategy according to the needs expressed by users.
Testing without an endgame
A/B testing must be carried out with a clear strategy, and without a plan, the results can be unreliable. We therefore recommend taking full advantage of conversion rate optimization by deploying a clear hypothesis and strategy first, and testing only one element at a time to isolate its impact.
Modifying too many elements at once
Analyzing results becomes tedious, making it difficult to identify what really influenced user behavior. For example, if you change two factors at the same time, such as the color of a button and the text of the call to action (CTA), it becomes impossible to determine which change has the greatest impact on the e-commerce conversion rate. We therefore recommend limiting yourself to a single change per test to obtain clear data.
Ignore other conversion actions
Even if sales transactions are the keystone of e-commerce CRO, other types of action such as newsletter sign-ups or content downloads remain valuable indicators. Indeed, these actions contribute to long-term growth by enriching your sales funnel. We therefore recommend a balanced approach that targets all possible conversions for a globally optimized digital strategy.
Conclusion
Conversion rate optimization is very important for online businesses seeking to increase sales and improve visitor experience. For optimum performance, it's essential to understand the user journey and analyze behavior to identify friction points. This is a continuous process, requiring a great deal of experimentation to evaluate the strategies implemented.
At Eminence, our team of dedicated experts will work with you to optimize your site's conversion rate (CRO) and establish strategies to not only increase sales, but also build long-term customer loyalty.
Source: * https://www.convertize.com/fr/taux-conversion-e-commerce/
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