Five quick ways to speed up your ecommerce conversions

The retail ecommerce revenues are predicted to grow to $4.88 trillion in 2021. But many ecommerce stores struggle to boost conversions because 75% of people abandon the cart never to return.  

Fortunately, there are techniques to reduce cart abandonment and increase conversion rates. Let’s have a look at five quick and lesser-known ways to speed up ecommerce conversions.  

1. Understand and fill the need gap – Scarcity, urgency, and exclusivity 

Understanding scarcity, urgency, and exclusivity can be one of the best ways to influence your potential customers to make a purchase. 

While the three terms are related to one another, the way they are implemented is different.  

In scarcity, you inform customers that there are a limited number of items of a certain product left in the stock. And that you’re not sure when the product will be available next.   

In urgency, you simply add a timer that says “order within the time limit to avail the offer”. Once the deadline is over, the customer won’t get additional benefits, such as a discount or free shipping.  

Here are four ways to work around scarcity and urgency

• Let customers know that the product is exclusive and is manufactured on small batches so they might miss a unique item by not buying it right away.  
• Highlight that the offer ends in a few hours/days.  
• Let shoppers know how much time is left before they miss same-day shipping.  
• Indicate how many people have bought the product (and are viewing it in real-time) to indicate that the item is in demand. This will make buyers feel a greater urgency to purchase before it gets sold out.  

In exclusivity, you reward the customer if they make a purchase within a set timeline. Sephora, for instance, promises a free exclusive gift to customers on their birthday month. When the customer purchases something either online or in-store, they are entitled to receive a birthday gift from the brand.  

2. Reduce price shock

Most of the people abandon carts during checkout because the extra costs, such as shipping and tax, are too high. To reduce cart abandonment and improve conversions, reduce price shock.  

Is the shipping free? No. How much will it cost? Is there any tax associated with the purchase? Yes. How much will the customer have to pay?  

Let your customers know all the other prices associated with the product upfront. Don’t just add these at the time of checkout. You will need to calculate the volumetric weight for each product to display an accurate shipping price. If you ship your products internationally, you will also need to know import fees for each country you’re exporting your products to.  

You can reduce price shock by a couple of ways

• Avoid increasing the product’s price at the last moment, that is, during checkout.  
• Highlight shipping costs and taxes on the products page. If you can’t calculate taxes or shipping fees up front, add a disclaimer stating “shipping and tax will be calculated during checkout”.

3. Allow guest checkout

More than 26% of shoppers don’t complete their purchase because the checkout process was too long or complicated.  

Having people register on your site is great, but it can negatively impact your conversion rate. Sometimes all a customer wants is to place the order as soon as possible.  

You will have their name and email address when they complete the transaction anyway.  

Major ecommerce sites offer guest checkouts to streamline their checkout process.  

Apart from allowing customers to purchase without an account, they have also added the option to “create an account” on the checkout page.  

If you are sceptical about completely eliminating the need for the registration to complete the purchase, you can test the option for a few days to see how guest checkout impacts your conversions.  

4. Follow up on abandoned carts

It is essential to follow up with customers who browsed products, added it to their cart, and left without completing the transaction. That way, you will be able to understand the reason for cart abandonment.  

One of the best ways to follow up with potential customers is by sending emails to remind them that they have left something in their cart.  

Around 45% of people open cart abandonment emails, 21% of them click on the link, and 50% of people end up buying something. 

ThemeIsle, a sister site of CodeinWP, sent a series of three emails to users who abandoned their cart over a period of five days.  

They changed the subject line every time and saw a surge in email clicks.  

• After 60 minutes: Subject line “Forgot something? It looks like you have items in your cart”. 
  The result: 50% of emails were opened, out of which 21% received clicks. 
• After 24 hours: Subject line “What’s that in your shopping cart?”
  The result: 41% of emails were opened, out of which 3% received clicks.
   
• After 5 days: Subject line “Are you sure? One last reminder about the items in your cart (including a 10% welcome discount).”
• The result: 39% of emails were opened, out of which 8% received clicks.  

When sending emails to potential customers, follow the best copywriting practices to increase the chances of conversion. Also, add the images of the products and offer incentives, such as a discount coupon or free shipping, to entice users into taking action.

GoDaddy sent me an email when I saved a domain in my cart but didn’t purchase it. The email had a promo code offering 30% off on anything new for a limited time to tempt me into purchasing a domain immediately.  

5. Highlight Your Return Policy 

Many ecommerce stores don’t highlight their return and refund policy, but you should. More than 50% of customers read the return policy before buying from a website.  

Customers want assurance from ecommerce stores that if the product isn’t as they expected, then they would get their money back. So, ensure that your return policy is clear and concise. It helps in building trust with your potential customers.   

There are two ways to highlight your return policy: 

• Adding it on the product’s page.  
• By creating a separate landing page that contains everything you would like your customers to know about the return policy.  

It would be great if you can leverage both ways. There is a limit to what you can include on the product’s page, so people who want to know more about the policy can visit the landing page.  

Final thoughts

Speeding up your ecommerce conversions seems hard, but it isn’t. Using scarcity, urgency, and exclusivity to influence your potential customers into buying can significantly improve your conversions.  

Allow prospects to checkout without having to create an account to streamline their buying process. Show all the price (shipping, tax, and others) right on the product’s page to reduce price shock. Follow up on abandoned carts through email and highlight your return policy to build trust and confidence with customers.