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If you asked most brands if they’d want to increase their conversion rate, they’d instantly say “yes.”
And if they had the chance to double it, many would be willing to do whatever it took.
While having some upwards momentum for your eCommerce business is a big factor in doubling your conversion rates, there are also several seemingly small changes that can make an enormous impact in driving sales very quickly.
Do we have your attention yet?
In this post, we’re going to look at 8 ways to double your eCommerce conversion rate overnight (or close to it!), showing you some of the most fast-acting strategies we’ve used to help our clients sell more in less time.
Too many businesses make the crucial mistake of neglecting to set up a digital sales funnel.
Digital sales funnels are designed to offer multiple touchpoints that appeal to users at different stages of their buyer’s journey, nurturing users by discovering your brand to researching it to hopefully purchase (and repurchase!).
A long-time customer isn’t going to care about an ad campaign promising them 10% off their first order, for example, a new cold audience member is typically less likely to convert the first time they see your brand.
Funnels allow you to use the right messaging at the right time and get users closer to purchasing.
While there are plenty of variations of the digital sales funnel online, the basic digital sales funnel is as follows:
Most people need to interact with a business multiple times before they feel comfortable or motivated enough to convert.
It may take the average customer around 7 times to convert, though this depends heavily on your specific industry; someone looking at buying a £15 makeup palette will be ready to take the plunge sooner than someone researching a new car.
This is where retargeting comes in.
Retargeting through Facebook and Instagram Ads is an excellent way to drive a significant number of conversions quickly.
This is particularly true since retargeting is where brands easily achieve the highest return on ad spend, both for the individual campaigns and funnel overall.
Retargeting allows you to reach warm audiences, meaning they’re already familiar with your brand.
Because of this, already somewhere in the research and consideration stages (or even in the loyalty stage) and they’re significantly more likely to convert.
Retargeting also ensures that you aren’t letting anyone slip through the cracks; studies have shown that website visitors who are retargeted are 43% more likely to convert than those who don’t see retargeted campaigns.
Our own work has proven this time and time again.
We recently helped our client Beebombs use retargeting to achieve a 10% conversion rate from clicks to purchases, whereas discovery (cold) ads typically converted at around 5% for us.
This is literally doubling your conversion rate overnight.
You can use retargeting on Facebook Ads to do the following:
Different strategies can be used at different points of the digital sales funnel to build awareness and attract customers, so get creative and consider how to reach users best.
But keep in mind, that retargeting may be most effective when combining it with an offer, a discount code, social proof & more hard-hitting call to actions.
Digital sales funnels can be used for pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, but you can (and should!) use plenty of non-PPC touchpoints, too.
Content marketing and opt-in offers are excellent for lead generation, and email is excellent for lead nurturing, driving conversions, and re-engaging customers.
Ensure that you have campaigns designed to reach users at every point of the digital sales funnel, and you’ll be more effective at driving sales.
Customer reviews placed on every product page will send your conversion rates skyrocketing.
Plenty of research supports this, including the following:
Feature reviews prominently on the product pages, having them listed beneath the product images and description.
If possible, allow customers to upload pictures with their reviews; this is particularly valuable in clothing and beauty industries, but it’s a great tip across the board.
It’s also a good choice to make reviews a core part of product displays, including showing a star rating for each product in the search results on your site.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to add reviews to your site, look for plugins or apps that integrate with your CMS system.
You can find a great list of tools for Shopify here, WordPress here, and BigCommerce here.
Abandoned carts are a massive source of lost revenue if you fail to recapture them.
These audience members are extremely high-intent, and even if they were only adding an item to the cart to see the final cost or in hopes of generating a discount code, they were interested enough in your products to take the time to do so.
Keep in mind that as many as ¾ of all users who add something to your cart will still fail to convert.
This can happen for many reasons, and it’s on you to re-engage them so that they actually complete the purchase.
Autoresponder email campaigns for abandoned carts are a must-have, and they’ll increase your conversion rate significantly.
Studies have shown that abandon cart email rates typically have somewhere between a 10-20% conversion rate, so you don’t want to miss this opportunity.
Have email campaigns ready to go so that within 24 hours of a customer failing to convert, they’ll receive an email that looks something like this in their inbox:
For best results, consider offering coupon codes or discounts to encourage users to convert.
These are high-intent users, and free shipping or 15% off can go a long way.
If you’re setting up your campaigns, here’s a timetable that we recommend following:
Time After Abandoned CartAbandoned Cart Email Content
1hr - Send them an email with the subject line “Looks like you forgot something!”
24hrs - Email explaining the features and benefits of the product that makes it unique, like “Don’t miss your chance at our bestselling, machine-washable jeans!”
48hrs - Offer the user a discount code to encourage purchasing. (10% or £X off their purchase)
72hrs - Send an email campaign with reviews and testimonials of the specific product, including snippets of reviews next to the product image and UGC.
96hrs - Leverage urgency by offering an ultimate 20% off but reminding users that it’s their last chance.
The last thing you want to do is get a potential customer all excited about purchasing and then lose them just because the checkout process is a giant pain in the rear.
Believe it or not, this happens more often than you’d think.
One study found that 28% of all abandoned carts happened due to a long or complicated checkout process, and 8% of abandonments happened as a result of “not enough payment options.”
You want your checkouts to be quick, easy, and flexible.
Give users the option to log in and save their information for future purchases, but don’t require it (as requiring a login can actually cause abandoned carts, too).
Try to only ask for key information needed, and offer multiple payment options, including credit cards and instant payment options like those from PayPal and Visa.
Is your site fast? Is your mobile site fast? If the answer to either of these questions is no, we’re positive that you’re bleeding customers.
The vast majority of users expect near-instantaneous access to whatever they’re viewing online.
This threshold is lower than you’d think to; almost half of all users won’t wait more than two seconds while waiting for an eCommerce site to load.
Yep, you read that right: Two seconds.
You need to ensure that your site loading speed is up to scratch, meaning that it’s loading in two seconds or less.
This may require you to compress your images if you haven’t already, or eliminate any auto-play videos that could be slowing down desktop and mobile load times.
You can use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to learn more about your site’s speed on mobile and desktop, and see what factors may be slowing it down.
Plenty of social media platforms have their own unique features designed to help you sell more.
Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest particularly take the lead here, each of which offers strong selling features meant to promote in-app purchases for your brand.
Take advantage of these features; they can help you increase visibility, showing your products to both existing customers and new potential followers.
A few features, in particular, to look at include:
Look at the platforms you’re already working with, and consider using these features in conjunction with paid ads for maximum visibility.
If you’re tired of hearing the younger generations shout “FOMO!” before they do something stupid, you aren’t alone.
That being said, FOMO-based approaches in marketing can also increase conversion rates overnight.
FOMO stands for “the fear of missing out,” and it’s all about scarcity-driven urgency.
If people think they might miss out on the next big thing (whether that’s this season’s “in” lip stain or a limited-edition tent that holds up even during a hurricane), they’ll want to act now.
That goes for product availability and great sale prices, too.
You can use these strategies with your opt-in messages and popups on your site.
They can help convert tentative users, especially when you’re offering “only good for ten more hours!”-styled discounts. The promise of “exclusive” and “insider” benefits for email subscribers can also work well.
Some businesses will use pop-ups that show up as soon as they are on their site.
Others will set the pop-ups to show up when the site has cues that the user may be on their way to leaving the site. Test them out to see what works best for you.
Whenever you’re running any marketing campaign, make sure that you’re using audience segmentation to the fullest.
Audience segmentation is exactly what it sounds like: The practice of dividing up your audience into different distinct niches, categorising them by unique buyer personas.
A makeup brand like Sephora, for example, may have the following audience segments:
Each group would respond to different types of messaging.
Individuals with sensitive skin, for example, want to see testimonials about how that foundation is eczema-friendly, while makeup artists may be more interested in “Buy £200 get £50 off” copy.
The more relevant your messaging is to each user, the more effective it will become, doubling your conversion rate instantly.
Targeting the right audiences with the right messaging will significantly increase your success overall.
To be successful with this strategy, you need to invest time and energy into understanding exactly who your audience is and what segments they can be broken down into.
Some analytics platforms can give you information about your audience’s demographics. Even Facebook’s Insights can tell you about their basic interests, but this will be something you need to spend some time doing on your own.
Think about your existing customers and why they’ve chosen your brand.
What products are they drawn to, and why do the specific features and benefits they value matter so much to them?
Sending out a survey to past and existing customers is always valuable here, as you can get feedback into who they are and why they chose your product.
You can use this when creating buyer personas moving forward, which will help you target the right people at the right time with the right messaging, creating marketing campaigns that hit home and drive conversions.
Driving sales online can be difficult, but any of these 8 easy changes can help you take the momentum you already have and run with it, increasing and even doubling your eCommerce conversion rate overnight.
You’ll have more visibility, your campaigns will become more effective, and your messaging will resonate more with your audience, benefiting you in every way.
While it may seem a little overwhelming, pick just one or two changes and implement them right away. You can add one at a time as you have the capacity to do so, and continually watch your conversion rate go up.
Interested in faster growth for your eCommerce business? Get in touch with us to learn more about how we can help.
