Find out why investing more into your marketing efforts isn’t necessarily the answer when it comes to increasing sales in your online shop.
If you’re a small business owner with an online shop, you may notice people are visiting your website, but they leave before they make a purchase. Obviously, this is a problem; however, it’s fixable once you understand your true issue is with conversion.
In this episode, I’m sharing 3 steps you can take to determine the real reasons your online shop visitors aren’t buying. You’ll walk away prepared to make positive changes and help ensure your future visitors become customers.
Step 1: Analyze Your Data
There are a few things you need to know to better understand why your webshop visitors aren’t following through on purchasing:
- Conversion rate: To calculate this, take your total number of sales (also known as conversions) and divide that by your total number of visitors. The resulting number is your conversion rate. For example, if you had 50 conversions from 1,000 visitors, your conversion rate would be 5% because 50 divided by 1,000 is 5%. A “good” conversion rate depends on your specific industry and the products you are selling, but I aim for a conversion rate of at least 3%.
- Bounce rate: How many people visit your shop and immediately leave without clicking on anything? This is your bounce rate, and you want it to be as low as possible. If your bounce rate is under 5% or above 70%, something is probably wrong with your website. Much like conversion rates, ideal bounce rates will vary based on your products and customer base, but most websites’ bounce rates land somewhere between 20% and 70%.
- Cart abandonment rate: It’s important to know how many people are filling their carts but leaving before they purchase — this is called the cart abandonment rate, and you obviously want it to be low. If people are leaving before completing the checkout process, you may be able to recover some of them with abandoned cart emails (friendly reminders sent to people who left your shop without clicking “buy”). However, the real problem may have to do with your website and the purchasing process you have in place.
Step 2: Eliminate as Many “Doors” as Possible
“Doors” are opportunities for your webshop visitors to leave your site before going through the checkout process, so it’s important to eliminate as many “doors” as you can. In other words, you want to make it as easy, seamless and intuitive as possible for people to complete their purchase — otherwise, you run the risk of losing them as customers.
A “door” could be a website that loads very slowly, for example, or it could be a checkout system that requires a customer to create a log-in for the shop before they can click “buy.” These both stand in the way of a sale, and unless someone is determined to buy what you’re selling, they will likely leave your website out of frustration — after all, you’ve given them an open door, and it’s easy for them to walk through it (and possibly never come back).
To ensure your shop doesn’t have these “doors,” put on your consumer or client hat and go through your own checkout process. Experience exactly what a potential customer would experience when attempting to move through the buying steps. Even if your marketing is amazing, your visuals are on point and the price is right, you’ll still run the risk of losing the sale if there’s a barrier (or a “door”) in the way.
Step 3: Avoid Overwhelming Your Customers
When you confuse, you lose — so make sure you aren’t overwhelming people when they visit your webshop, whether that’s with your product selection or in your checkout process.
There’s a reason why major online retailers have specific, clear categories on their websites; they want to make the purchasing process simple. Shoppers who are overwhelmed are far more likely to leave without buying anything, so cut the clutter on your site and make it as easy as possible for people to navigate to what they are looking for.
For example, if you sell clothing, consider creating a different category for each type of garment — shirts, pants, dresses, etc. — rather than asking people to scroll through all of your items to get where they want to go.
If you aren’t sure whether your website or checkout process is overwhelming, ask a friend or family member to go through the process of purchasing a product, and get their feedback. This is something you can do, too, as a business owner — but you’ll have to pretend you’re new to your site, and sometimes that’s challenging. Train yourself to view your shop with fresh eyes, and you’ll be amazed at the things you notice.
To learn more about sales, increasing conversions and growing your business so you can live a freedom-based life, join my live webinar: 5 Sales Mistakes Causing Clients to Ghost You. In this training session, I’ll show you how to make easy tweaks and improvements so you can ensure you’re closing more deals (and getting the financial results you want). Follow the link fastforwardamy.com/5salesmistakes to register for my English training on June 28 or my Dutch training on July 1!
RECAP
When people aren’t buying, it means you likely have a conversion problem — not a marketing problem.
I’ve included a quick recap of all 3 steps so you can screenshot this article and take it with you as you focus on improving conversions in your online shop!
Step #1: Analyze Your Data
Step #2: Eliminate as Many “Doors” as Possible
Step #3: Avoid Overwhelming Your Customers
Watch this episode on YouTube, or listen via iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and search for episode 133 of The FastForwardAmy Show.
PS: If you want to work with me but aren’t sure where to begin, head to fastforwardamy.com/findyourfit and answer the questions — we’ll point you in the right direction!
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