Tom Lindmeier’s Blog @ MarketPlanB

With average conversion rates running at 2.5%, there’s much work still to be done and plenty of opportunity to improve the shopping experience.  I’ve always maintained that this number is very low because most visitors come to your site ready to buy. To put this in perspective, mortar retailers could not possibly survive if only 2.5% of store visitors made a purchase. To their credit, I have yet to meet a colleague who is satisfied with their conversion rate.

The good news is that the science of ecommerce has matured significantly over past decade and most players have significantly improved the functionality of their sites by adding features and testing to refine performance. Many of my discussions with colleagues have tended to focus on the following list improvements that are designed to remove barriers to conversion:

• Ease and simplicity of checkout
• Address the shopper’s concerns with return policies, guarantees, third-party seals and security assurances
• Ease and clarity of return policies
• Provide shipping and tax totals early in the checkout process
• Offer multiple payment options (pay-by-check, PayPal, etc.)
• Offer estimated delivery times and showing in-stock availability for items
• Customer reviews
• Meet the shopper’s gift buying needs (e.g., gift wrapping, messaging or gift certificates)
• Improve the ease of locating products through navigation and site search refinements
• Improving design elements
• Rich media enhancements

All of these improvements are important steps to increase conversion. The science of removing barriers to conversion gets plenty of attention, but the art of improving the shopping experience is where many ecommerce retailers fall short. What am I referring to? Primarily the production values associated with copy and photography and the efficacy of the brand in conveying confidence. While the enhancements listed above remove barriers, copy and photography close the sale and cannot be underestimated.

Examine your website and ask these questions:

1. Copy– Does your copy answer all the shopper’s implicit questions regarding the product? Does your copy sell? If you’re a multi-channel retailer and are merely importing copy from your catalog, you may need rewrite copy and expand the product specifications.  Catalogs are restricted by space allocation costs that do not apply to web sites. If you need to justify the additional expense, run a copy test on your top selling products to determine an ROI. This is also great opportunity to SEO optimize your copy if you have not already done so.
2. Photography– Rich media applications with zoom, pan, and swatches are guaranteed conversion enhancers for most product lines. But the effective use alternate images can be your most effective tool for answering the shopper’s implicit questions.  Don’t assume that one photo can get the job done. You should insist on nothing but top-notch photography and be willing to invest a few extra dollars to achieve the production values necessary to enhance your brand and sell your product. You should also determine if video demonstrations could help close the sale and be willing to conduct tests to determine an ROI.
3. Branding– What are you doing with your presentation to be different? Do brand considerations affect all of your copy and design presentations? Do you have a cookie-cutter web site that is indiscernible from competitors and non-competitors?

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