Shopify: Increase Conversion Rate

25 Ideas to Improve Your Conversion Rate and Boost Your Revenue

Welcome! If you're reading this, it's likely because you're not satisfied with your online store's performance. If you were about to call your banker or investor to ask for an extension of your marketing budget, wait a moment.

There are generally two approaches to increasing revenue:

• Increase traffic: more visitors means more chances to generate revenue.
• Increase your conversion rate: to turn more current visitors into buyers.

The first solution is usually the most obvious: multiplying marketing & media expenses means increasing traffic and ultimately revenue.

The second is actually the one that proves to have the best return on investment, is the least expensive, and the quickest to implement. It's not impossible to double a poor conversion rate (and thus double your revenue) in a few weeks with a little elbow grease. Imagine the marketing budget needed to double your revenue...

When you manage to identify and eliminate the weaknesses of your site, you remove all the obstacles that prevent a visitor from buying. You improve the experience and build trust.

When we talk about improving the conversion rate, you need to think with your reptilian brain to get the visitor to checkout. Anything that causes confusion, thought, or work for the user must be banned. Mark out the path for your future customer! Keep in mind that a frustrated buyer's first reflex is to close their browser tab.

Below we have listed 25 checklist points or optimizations to improve your conversion rate.

Applying the marketing principle Keep It Simple & Stupid (KISS) to the web. Keep this title in mind as a mantra!

Homepage

• Limit the number of contents in your first image carousel (slideshow): most of your visitors won't even see the second image! So there's no need to assume that your visitors will browse your images to discover your great promotions and new products...
• Add a call to action to each carousel image: every communication must have a purpose. Don't use the best spots in your store for decoration.
• Clearly announce free shipping if you offer it. If not, consider it (with conditions)! Shipping costs are more than ever the enemy of e-commerce.
• Show your products in context: be in tune with your customers and help them envision themselves with your products. A product in its usage context is much more appealing than a range photoshoot.
• Simplify navigation: use consumer vocabulary, not your internal jargon, even if the marketing team doesn't like it. The goal is to speak to the widest audience.
• Limit the amount of content on the homepage: multiplying content (testimonials, ranges, reviews, brand history...) means multiplying choices for the consumer and thus the risk of losing them. Often, less is more.
• Make hyperlinks look like hyperlinks: meaning at least with a color that contrasts with the normal text color.
• Be explicit in your newsletter subscription forms. Clearly announce the benefit, content, and ideally the email sending frequency. If you can, offer a promo code valid for the first purchase.
• Remove distracting share buttons: your goal is to convert your visitors, not to encourage them to follow you on Instagram. You need to keep your visitors in "shopping mode." They'll find your social links in the footer on their own.

Cart

• Make sure the payment button is prominent: ensure it doesn't compete with other buttons like cart update, quantity buttons, item deletion, etc.
• Remove unnecessary fields if possible, such as "leave instructions for your order". Every additional step, every click, is a risk of the user not completing the purchase funnel. Preferably move specific instructions/options to the product page.
• Remove distracting visual elements around the payment button: especially credit card logos that disrupt the page's readability. If you really insist on including them as reassurance elements, make them grayscale black & white.

Checkout / Payment

• Explicitly name delivery options: be transparent about the carrier and delivery time. For example: "Delivery by La Poste (2 to 4 days)" is much more explicit than "Standard delivery." Remember that delivery options and their price are major reasons for cart abandonment.
• Personalize the payment page: by adding your logo and maintaining your site's style, you reassure your visitor. There's nothing more frightening than feeling like you're paying on a different site than the one you started on.
• Highlight secure payment: for example, by adding a padlock icon on the payment button.

Product Page

• Prefer variants to duplicating items: If you offer an item in different sizes or colors, it is better to offer all options on a single product page rather than on several separate pages. Your customer will have all the information at hand and will not have to multiply clicks (and thus opportunities to leave the site).
• Opt for long content: seize the opportunity to tell your brand's story and create a connection with your consumer. Don't just provide product information. Plus, it contributes to your natural search engine optimization!
• Remove share buttons on product pages: they are just a distraction for the user, and it's very unlikely you'll generate traffic from these buttons. Rest assured, users know how to copy a URL if they want to share content!
• Do not place critical content in tabs: less than half of users click on tabs. Use them for secondary information.
• Overuse photos, especially "lifestyle" photos: your visitor needs to imagine themselves using your product.
• Display shipping and return conditions: you'll avoid unpleasant surprises for your buyer at checkout and can address some concerns here (or by linking to an FAQ page, for example).
• Work on your product page copy: your product page shouldn't just be a series of technical information. You need to add an "emotional" touch to connect with the consumer. It's also a way to differentiate yourself from competitors and potentially your distributors. Draw inspiration from Anglo-Saxon brands (some good examples)!

Learn more – Product Page: best practices

Next Step

If you feel that applying these tips will require lengthy and costly technical developments, perhaps it's time for you to switch to Shopify? Contact us, it's not as complicated as you might think, believe us!

Do you want to work with us to develop an e-commerce site on Shopify, optimize your site for conversion, or set up marketing campaigns? Here are all the Shopify services we offer, we'd be delighted to discuss your project!