Are your ecommerce conversion rates low? We see that the significant traffic to some of our clients online shops convert into as little as 1% in sales. This small conversion rate is often easily rectifiable with some simple independent usability testing and even search engine optimisation efforts that have been largely ignored by the website designer.
[ compare your conversion rates here (opens a PDF) ]
A small investment in usability testing always gets a return in increased sales. And – sadly enough – most New Zealand online shops are not even search engine optimised to attract google searchers using keyphrases that convert. The result: a significant loss of revenue when the customers are really just a click away!
It is wise to maximise return on our marketing assets that we have already spent money on. Our websites are a great place to start. How can we do this? Easy, just contract with a search engine optimisation expert to:
- thoroughly research the keyphrases that will convert into sales for your business
- analyse your website and recommend alterations to optimise for these keyphrases
- build links back to your website using the targeted keyphrases
And, hire a website usability consultant to do a usability review of your shopping cart experience. Some simple ease-of-use modifications may turn more of your visitors into buyers.
A recent article by www.hitwise.co.nz states:
In tough economic times companies are often looking for ways to stretch their online marketing budgets further. However, the path to riches can often lie on your own doorstep.
Ask yourself this simple question, would you rather double your traffic
or double your current conversion rate?Let’s say your current traffic is 100,000 unique visits per month and
your conversion rate is 1%:200,000 unique visits x 1% = 2,000 conversions
100,000 unique visits x 2% = 2,000 conversionsIt’s probably no surprise that the outcome is the same. However is the
cost of reaching either goal proportional? No.For example, it may take two years and cost $200K in advertising and
marketing initiatives, to double your websites traffic. On the other hand it may only cost $50K to hire an expert to work on your website’s
usability and analytics which will improve your conversion rates within a few months, setting you up for your long term goals of increasing
traffic.In our next article we will examine some of the barriers to entry
existing on websites, which when removed will increase user interaction and conversion rates.
In summary: increasing conversion rates is easy. Spend a few peanuts on website usability evaluation and search engine optimisation of your ecommerce website. Your return could be a pot of gold.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
