If you sell online, you’ll know the feeling. You’ve been checking again and again to see if your sales curve hits the roof today. Chances are that you’re not seeing that beautiful spike-out-of-nowhere you’ve always dreamed of… but why?
Most of your visitors don’t convert. Most of everyone’s visitors don’t convert; 1-3% conversion rates are common. On average 68% of ecommerce customers abandon their shopping carts, according to Baymard Institute.
As a company providing a solution or service for your customers, your main end goal is to convert those viewing your website into paying customers.
So, what’s some of the possible reasons your visitors are stopping buying from you? Here are just a few areas where you could take a closer look if you’d like to increase your sales.
Your images are too small
Put yourself in your buyers’ shoes. Prospective customers want to have that thing they’re buying right there in their hands before they buy it. One of the biggest hurdles facing online retailers is the inability to make products ‘real’ for their customers.
Using large, professional photos of your products that fill the screen can have a demonstrable effect on increasing your sales. A good web development team can enable these larger images in your store – like the 360° product images we’ve enabled for The Jewel Hut, or our full-screen product previews for inov-8.
Appeal to your customers’ senses and make products feel more real, they’ll be more confident that they’re getting what they’re paying you for.
Customers don’t trust your site
Back in 2006 a survey by market research group TNS found that customers abandon 70% of online purchases because of a lack of trust. With the rise of ecommerce over the last decade, trust badges from brands like Norton, McAfee, GeoTrust and Comodo go some way to establishing trust for your store, but they’re not the whole story.
Arguably the best way to establish trust for your brand is by growing your community. If you’re untrustworthy, people won’t trade with you. However, if you’re reaching out and engaging your crowd through social media, marketing outreach and word of mouth – and growing your following with a strong reputation for good products and services – then you’re building the kind of trust that can’t just be bought.
Your site isn’t mobile-responsive
80% of internet users own a smartphone, and mobile users have been outpacing desktop users strongly since early 2014. Mobile ecommerce is a gigantic market to miss out on if your online store can’t actively adapt its layout and functionality for each device.
A site that lacks responsiveness is harder to use, harder to buy from, and tempts your customers towards competitor sites which offer a better shopping experience – so it’s in the best interests of your business to ask about responsive design.
There’s no option to checkout as a guest
23% of shoppers will abandon their purchase if they need to create a user account before they buy, according to KissMetrics. Chances are that you’ve been there yourself more than once too; there’s nothing like the need to sign up to stop a quick, easy online purchase in its tracks.
The fix here is to implement a guest checkout option in your online store. This functionality, added in development, enables your new customers to buy anyway without having to create an account first.
Your site’s too slow
According to Website Setup, a mere one-second delay in your website’s load time can create a 7% loss in conversions. 40% of visitors will abandon websites that take longer than 3 seconds to load, and “51% of U.S. online shoppers cite slow site loading times as the top reason they abandon a purchase.”
A faster site ranks better in search and boosts your conversion rate, but most importantly it gives your shoppers a better experience of your store. Higher-performance web hosting with features like SSD storage and CDN serving can speed up your site to help increase your conversions.
No one’s measuring your conversions
The better you understand your audience, the better you can solve their problems, alleviate their concerns, and help them. But if no one’s measuring your store’s conversions – and looking for those small changes you’re making that do improve your conversions – then it’s still really just guesswork.
Appointing a dedicated user experience analyst and chief of conversions (or outsourcing this expertise to a digital agency) could be the best decision you ever make for your online business – because it gives you the ability to spot areas to change in your store, to measure the impact of those changes over time, and to open up your store’s potential for growth.
The bigger picture
These are just a few considerations that can have significant impact on increasing sales for your online store – but there are many more that make up the bigger picture in ecommerce, ranging from single-page checkout testing to establishing greater cost transparency.
It’s tempting to find that one magic fix yourself that will save you time and money, and suddenly send your online sales through the roof. If that’s the approach you’ve always taken though, and you’re still not seeing the results you want, then it could be worth asking externally to find out what a dedicated digital agency could do to increase your sales.
Outsourcing your store’s design and development to a certified team could be the greatest investment you ever make in increasing your sales and expanding your business online – but if you don’t ask, you may never know what your company could become.
To find out what our team could do for your online store – and expanding your business – check out our portfolio and get in touch.