An e-commerce conversion rate (also known as Conversion Rate or CR) is a very important value to determine if you have a virtual store.
This KPI, in fact, establishes the exact number of people who buy on your virtual store compared to the visits received in a given time period. Determining it allows you to understand whether your e-commerce sales are increasing, which products are converting the most, and whether the strategies you are employing are really working.
Before giving you some useful tips for optimizing it, it is helpful to know how it is calculated and what values you need to refer to in order to understand sales are going well.
Let’s get going right away! Find out in the article:
- How to calculate e-commerce conversion rate
- Google Analytics’ utility for calculating CR
- When is the conversion rate to be considered good?
- 7 tips to improve e-commerce conversion rate
How do you calculate e-commerce conversion rate?
The formula for determining e-commerce conversion rate is very simple, here it is:
Number of orders placed in “period x” / number of visits to the site in the same “period x” * 100
To understand better, let’s take an example and calculate the CR for the month of March of your e-shop. Assume that your online store received 3,000 visits against a sale of 100 items; in this case, following the formula, the result will look like this:
100 / 3.000 * 100 = 3,34%
Therefore, the conversion rate for March is 3.34 percent. Simple, isn’t it?
Also check the result in Google Analytics
Actually, there is also another quicker and more immediate way to check CR, which is to consult the “Acquisition” area on Google Analytics (of course, e-commerce must be linked to the service).
What does Google Analytics offer more than manual calculation? A complete overview of the individual sources that, from social or the web, lead to sales or just to the e-shop. This way, you can understand how many users land on your web store from the search engine, from emails, from direct access or from Facebook and Instagram, either organically or with specific advertising operations.
Not only that. This tool also allows you to identify the different devices that bring you traffic (and sales), including smartphones, tablets and PCs, which is very useful data for setting your strategy.
What is a good conversion rate for e-commerce?
Consider that the average CR value for European e-commerce is 2.9 percent (source: Smart Insights), but each product sector has a different KPI to refer to.
These are also not universally recognized absolute figures. In fact, they are disseminated through industry studies and research and vary from year to year based on trends, country, target market and consumer behavior. Certainly, they are a good starting point for understanding how to modify one’s marketing strategy to sell more, but always they must be interpreted in the context of the target market.
7 tips to improve e-commerce conversion rate (and sell more)
Whatever conversion rate your ecommerce business achieves, consider that there are always improvements you can consider to increase sales and the user’s shopping experience.
Therefore, we have identified 7 methods to do this:
- Simplifies steps related to online sales
- Improve product descriptions
- Make your site responsive and fast
- Offer multiple payment methods
- Make targeted advertising
- Leverage call-to-actions
- Invest in security and optimize checkout
1. Simplify steps related to online sales
If you want to increase CR optimizee-commerce. It must be easy to use, with well-defined, clear product categories and intuitive search options. The portal should be tailored to the user so that they can find what they are looking for effortlessly.
2. Improve product descriptions
Informative, persuasive and empathetic texts convert more. That’s why you should invest in creating comprehensive product sheets full of useful information, such as the features and benefits of items for people.
3. Make your site responsive and fast
91 percent of consumers use smartphones to shop online (Source: Sap). Therefore, e-commerce must be responsive, able to adapt to every device and ensure a pleasant shopping experience.
4. Offer multiple payment methods
Credit cards, PayPal or ApplePay, prepaid, installments, advance transfer, cash on delivery… offering people different payment methods is a trump card that increases the chances of sales on the platform. All modes to be made usable even to the guest user who preferred to avoid registration.
5. Do targeted advertising
One useful action to improve e-commerce CR is to invest in advertising campaigns aimed at converting. How? For example, you can use customer profiling and analyze the right data to reach the online target audience in line with what you propose. In this sense, extremely suitable are tools such as Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads.
6. Take advantage of calls to action
A persuasive and well-placed call-to-action (CTA) on the platform can direct the customer to take the desired action, enticing them to purchase. Make sure, then, that CTAs are highly visible and attention-grabbing.
7. Invest in security and optimize checkout
Those who buy online always make sure that the portal is safe and secure to avoid scams and frauds. Check, therefore, that all your company information is present and correct, as well as all security certificates, https protocol and pages dedicated to privacy policy and GDPR (regarding the protection of personal data).
On the other hand, as far as checkout is concerned, optimizecustomer data entry as best you can (trying to request only those that are essential for the order to be shipped) and offer different shipping and payment methods to earn people’s trust.
Did you know that checkout is one of the causes affecting cart abandonment rates? Find out how, read on:
Reduce your e-commerce shopping cart abandonment rate
Increase your e-commerce conversion rate with Isola
The best solution to increase e-commerce CR? Work consistently on the portal. Monitoring the data, comparing it with industry trends and the needs of your audience is just the first step in determining the best strategy for your business.
As we anticipated, each e-commerce conversion rate must be studied in its own right to determine the effectiveness or failure of the actions taken. This is an ongoing work that is tailored to the goals one wants to achieve, and therefore requires the intervention of an expert in the field with up-to-date marketing skills.
A competent figure who can put together a precise work plan with clear, measurable goals to be achieved step by step.
At Isola we provide you with a full team to help you grow. We can analyze your site, see if there are any improvements that need to be made, and check the best actions to put in place to get your brand known, improve your authority, and sell more.
Do you want to increase your commerce conversion rate? Ask us now for a marketing consultation: let’s build your success together!
