5 ways to increase conversions on e-commerce websites 

For the past few months, you’ve been running digital ads to drive paid traffic to your e-commerce website. You’ve also been investing in search engine optimization (SEO) and email marketing to boost organic traffic – and it’s working. Congrats!

You’ve successfully increased traffic to your site. But you’re not done yet. Now you have to turn those website visitors into actual customers. 

There are many ways businesses can drive conversions on e-commerce websites. Let’s explore five of the most common techniques for boosting online retail sales.  

1. Promotions, Discounts and Free Shipping: This may seem like an obvious one, but it is effective at driving sales. Offering limited-time promotions creates a sense of urgency and can quickly turn browsers into buyers. Even if deep discounts don’t align with your business’ pricing strategy, promos such as free shipping, gifts with purchase, or bundle deals may be worth considering to incentivize purchases.  

2. Multiple Payment Options: Providing more payment options, including payment platforms such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay (and perhaps even financing if that works for your business), makes it easier for shoppers to pay you, which in turn can make them more likely to purchase from you. 

3. Clear Content and Navigation: Don’t underestimate the importance of detailed product descriptions, quality images, clear calls-to-action, simple navigation, and an effective site search. Help your customers to easily find what they’re looking for and to clearly understand the product offerings on your site. Ideally an e-commerce website should provide a seamless user experience (UX) and an intuitive user interface (UI). If these areas are lacking on your existing site, it may be time for a redesign — or at least a refresh. 

4. Cart Reminder Emails and SMS: Sending a cart abandonment email is one of the most effective techniques for increasing e-commerce conversions. One study by software company Klaviyo found that the average open rate for an abandoned cart email flow is 50.5%—significantly higher than a typical open rate for marketing emails. The study also found that the average purchase conversion rate from those emails was 3.33%, with the top 10% of performers seeing an average conversion rate of 7.69%. Sending SMS messages can also help coax would-be buyers back to the point of purchase. 

5. Customer Testimonials/Reviews: When a customer has moved past the awareness and consideration stages of the sales funnel and is closer to making a decision, seeing written or video product reviews or testimonials from satisfied customers can help them to feel more confident with their purchase decision. That’s because testimonials and reviews provide social proof, a psychology-rooted concept in which humans look to the behavior of others to guide their own behavior.  

Getting traffic to your e-commerce website is important, but it’s just the first step. Try the techniques above to boost your business’ retail sales by converting more of those visitors into customers.