25 Effective Ways to Increase Online Store Conversions

In today’s e-commerce world, conversion plays a crucial role in the success of promoting an online store. Conversion is the percentage of website visitors who take a targeted action such as buying a product, subscribing to a newsletter or filling out a contact form. Increasing conversion has a direct impact on profit growth and business success.

Types of online shop conversions

Online shop conversion converts visitors into customers or takes a desired action on a website. Depending on the business’s goals, website conversion can have different types. Here are some basic types of website conversion:

Sales Conversion;
Conversion to subscriptions;
Conversion to registration;
Conversion to download;
Conversion to form filling;
Conversion to survey participation or voting;
Conversion to social interaction;
Conversion to a call or callback.

To understand where your site’s conversion rates stand, here are the average numbers for sales conversions that you can target.

Retail sale of goods	2-5%
Wholesale of goods	1-2%
Sale of services	0,5-2%

In this article, we will not talk about search engine promotion of an online store to increase traffic but specifically about turning total traffic into conversions.

Ways to increase the conversion rate of an online shop

There are many ways to improve your online shop conversions. The Around Web team has compiled a list of 25 effective strategies that will help you increase your online shop’s conversion rate and bring in more customers.

Load Speed Optimisation. Fast page loading speed is one of the critical factors in increasing conversions. Optimise images, minimise the use of scripts and third-party plugins and use caching and data compression to ensure maximum loading speed of your online shop. Visitors will appreciate the fast performance of the site and will be inclined to stay on it longer.
Use sales texts and unique product descriptions. Your texts should be convincing and selling. Properly organised SEO copywriting will help tell about the product’s advantages: give examples of its use and point out special features and benefits for customers. Avoid copying descriptions from other sites, as unique content is of great SEO value and convinces visitors of the uniqueness of your offer.
Provide attractive product images. Photos impact increasing shop conversions and play an important role in grabbing visitors’ attention. Provide high-quality images that allow you to view the product from all sides and in great detail. Add the ability to zoom in on images and provide alternative views and colours of the product, if applicable.
Implement product reviews and ratings. Customer reviews are a powerful persuasion tool. Customers often rely on reviews from others before making a purchase decision. Include a reviews and ratings feature on your website, and encourage customers to leave feedback after a purchase. This will build trust and convince other visitors of the quality of the product.
Simplify the buying process. Make the buying process as simple and convenient as possible. Minimise the number of steps to place an order, simplify the registration process, and provide an opportunity to place an order without mandatory account registration. A simple purchase process can increase conversion rates several times.
Provide video reviews and instructions on how to use products. Video reviews help visitors better understand and evaluate products. Create high-quality video reviews that demonstrate the functionality and features of the products and provide detailed instructions on how to use them. This will help to increase trust in the online shop.
Implement a chatbot or online consultant. Chatbots and online advisors allow you to communicate with visitors in real-time and answer their questions. This helps to remove doubts and increase trust in the shop. Provide prompt and quality support to your visitors to help them make a purchase decision.
Develop promotional offers. Create attractive promotional offers such as discounts, gifts or free shipping. Promotions can encourage visitors to make a purchase, especially if the offer is limited in time or number of items. Consider seasonal or holiday promotions. This can help increase sales.
Optimise your site for mobile devices. Currently, more than 60% of users make purchases using mobile devices. Ensure your website is fully adapted for mobile platforms and provides a great user experience across devices. Check page loading, ease of navigation and ease of checkout on mobile devices.
Add a quick order feature. Give visitors the ability to place a quick order without filling out a lot of information. Develop a “One-Click Purchase” option that allows customers to place an order with minimal effort. Simplifying the purchase process reduces the risk of abandonment and increases conversion rates.
Create an email newsletter strategy. Organise regular emails to your subscribers. Use email to inform about new products, special offers, discounts and promotions. Create personalised messages, considering customer preferences and purchase history to increase Email marketing conversion rates.
Implement a loyalty programme. Create a loyalty programme to reward loyal customers. Offer reward points, discounts, promo codes, exclusive offers or free shipping for loyalty programme members. This will help retain customers and encourage them to make repeat purchases.
Offer a variety of payment options. Provide visitors with a wide range of payment options to suit their preferences. Include different payment systems such as credit cards, e-wallets and cryptocurrency payments.
Optimise meta tags and page titles. Meta tags and page titles are important elements for optimising your site for search engine optimisation. By making them more attractive than your competitors, you can increase conversion rates in people visiting your site, even if you are lower in the search engine rankings.
Conduct A/B testing of different design options. A/B testing allows you to compare the effectiveness of different designs, texts and page layouts. Create several page versions and experiment to determine the most effective elements. Use the data from A/B testing to optimise your site and increase conversions.
Implement a “Share” feature on social media. Add “Share” buttons to product pages so visitors can easily share information about your shop and products on social media. This helps to expand your reach and attract new potential customers through social media.
Provide a variety of delivery options. Consider the needs of different customers by offering a variety of delivery options. Include fast delivery, self-delivery, postal delivery and other available methods. Allow customers to choose the most convenient and appropriate delivery method for them.
Implement an upselling and cross-selling strategy. Use an upselling strategy by offering customers more expensive and premium product options. Also, apply cross-selling by offering additional products that complement the customer’s purchase. This will help increase the average cheque and conversion rate.
Create pages with answers to frequently asked questions. Organise FAQ pages to provide visitors comprehensive information about the shop, products, delivery, payment and returns. This will help reduce visitors’ questions and doubts, improve their experience and increase their likelihood of buying.
Add a “similar products” block. A “similar products” or “recommendations” block will provide users with alternatives to the product they seek. And in cases where the user does not fit the product in question or is no longer available, he can consider similar options.
Add sorting and advanced filter. If the online shop has many items, it is worth adding a filter and sorting to the site so that the user does not leaf through all the products and does not waste time searching for the right one. Product search should be simple and clear, so you do not need to add hundreds of search criteria so as to make sure the user understands. In the filter, it is better to display the main characteristics, and in the sorting, add the ability to sort by name, by price, by popularity, and display products in alphabetical order.
Provide an opportunity to buy directly from the catalogue. Add a “Buy” button directly to the catalogue so that, if necessary, the user does not need to go to the card of each product he decides to buy. This saves time and does shopping in the online shop more convenient, especially for users who come in with a clear understanding of what product they are looking for.
Explore opportunities to offer free shipping. Paid shipping can reduce conversions by almost 50%. And that’s because users expect shipping to be free regardless of the amount of the purchase. And the shipping cost they see at the last stage of checkout can lead to the fact that the order is never placed. Therefore, many shops offer free delivery: under certain conditions (for example, the purchase of goods for a large amount), permanently (by including the cost of delivery in the price of goods).
Make cart progress indicators clear and visible. Controlling the situation and understanding what is going on is important for the user, as they want to understand what stage they are at and how much more time they will need. Therefore, the checkout steps should be indicated so that the user can clearly see what stage they are at. They should also be visible so that the user does not have to waste time on unnecessary searches.
Create quiz surveys. Quizzes are questionnaires that will help you collect information about users (preferences, contact details). Many online services allow you to choose a format that is convenient for you and create a survey that will increase conversions to your online shop. Thanks to quizzes, you can recommend products to users based on their answers, calculate the cost of buying a product or service, or simply offer entertaining content, increasing loyalty to the site.