Why isn’t your ecommerce converting?

Why the convert rate of your ecommerce is so low? If your potential clients are converting very little (or not at all), or you are noticing a general decrease of your online sales, not despair. You still have the opportunity to recover most of your lost revenue. It’s time to step back and analyze the situation more closely. The first step is try to identify the cause: there are various reasons that can justify a low conversion rate and, in this article, we will see the main ones to understand how to improve your online sales.

1 – Your website makes a terrible impression

The number one reason that explains why your ecommerce is not converting, is that your website is giving a negative impression. This means that your visitors don’t like what they see, or, even worse, that they can’t find the information they’re looking for. One of the “symptoms” of this problem is receiving a lot of traffic to your site, but then not converting. Paying attention to the aesthetics and decency of your website is an obvious aspect to consider, but also caring about its user experience, meaning how easily users can perform actions and access important purchase information, is crucial. We will address the most common design issues that negatively impact the conversion rate in this article. However, while having a good-looking site is important, it’s even more crucial to focus on usability so that people can get essential information and complete the desired actions without any problems. Keep an eye on your site metrics and bounce rate to understand where the problem is.

2 – You don’t know your audience

If you really want to improve the conversion rate of your ecommerce, it’s important to have a clear understanding of who your customers are. If you’re not doing marketing in the right way or not targeting the right people, you’re sales will never be satisfactory. Analyze the data you have to understand how they behave, keep an eye on your social media to see what they share, and pay attention to online reviews. Use all the information that you gather to create “personas” (ideal customer profiles) and target them in the most efficient way to maximize your chances of making a sale. Focusing on a targeted and tailored approach for your different customer segments rather than “shooting” at the crowd will definitely prove to be a winning choice.

3 – You website is not optimized

Ok, your ecommerce is not converting, but… are you sure that your website is optimized for search engines? SEO involves optimizing the structure, texts, and multimedia content of your pages so that they appear in Google search results when a user searches for your product/service or a related topic. If your pages don’t appear, your traffic will clearly be lower. That’s why it’s crucial to research the most important keywords for your market niche and ensure that your pages answer your potential customers’ questions. Do you have an ecommerce on WordPress? Take advantage of the potential of Yoast SEO plugin to keep track of the main on-page SEO parameters and maximize your chances of being found.

4 –  Your product images are not attractive

Imagine this scenario: you’ve taken care of your marketing activity, you’ve optimized your website and made it beautiful and user-friendly, but your product photos are terrible: there’s still work to be done, right? There’s no getting around it – images are crucial to maximizing conversion on ecommerce sites. The better the quality of your product images, the greater the likelihood that your product pages will convert. Avoid small, low-quality, blurry, or out-of-focus photos: always choose large, clear and especially eye-catching photos if you really want to improve your conversions. Videos can also be a fantastic idea. Add your product or service in a short explanatory video and you’ll capture even more attention from your potential customers. Remember: the more you engage the user, the higher the likelihood they will convert into a customer.

5 – Your text is not convincing

Are you really sure that the text is not important to increase the conversions on your ecommerce? The text (or copy) must be informative, well written, error-free, descriptive, and persuasive. Persuasion is a particularly important factor. Take care of it and you’ll increase your conversions. Create your texts by remembering what you read just above: tailor each message, each description, thinking about the person who might want to buy. Your text should include keywords, triggers of needs, in order to evoke the right feelings and trigger the desire to purchase. Last but not least, always check the spelling and grammar of your text: people notice mistake, which compromise the perception of professionalism and your reputation.

6 – You are not taking care of mobile users

Did you know that according to research by Casaleggio Associati, in Italy, the access to the internet via smartphone surpasses desktop with around 37,5 million of users? Additionally, that the value of Italian eCommerce revenue last year was estimated (and growing) at over 35 billion of euros? Now that you know this, you can understand why having an ecommerce optimized for mobile devices it’s crucial. The data we refer to demonstrates that people use their smartphone and other devices to research and search products, even if mobile conversions are still behind desktop. This means that you need a cross-device marketing strategy and ecommerce to attract, retain, and inform your potential customers regardless of where they are browsing or purchasing.

7 – Checkout is too complex

One of the most common reasons for abandoning the purchase process is the fact that checkout procedures are way too complicated. Always make sure that it is clear to the user where they are in the payment process, for example with a progress bar or well defined steps. Remind potential customers what they are purchasing, by displaying product images also on the final pages. Highlight the logos of secure payment methods, such as credit card or PayPal, and specify shipping information and costs, so that they know exactly what they are paying for and when they can expect to receive it. Also, not forcing users to register on your site to make a purchase could be another valid point to facilitate the purchase. If you manage to simplify the procedure enough to recover even a part of the visitors who have abandoned it, you’ll have already increase your site’s revenue.