The average conversion rate for an E-commerce store is between 1-2%. If you can move from the bottom to the top of this range, you’re doubling your total number of sales. If you can exceed 2% then you’re going to be growing significantly faster than your competition.

To show you how to increase your conversions we’re going to look at everything you need to know, step by step.

Create a stunning series of images for each of your products

If you want to master product photography you may think that you need to hire a professional and pay hundreds of dollars a day. Fortunately, this couldn’t be more wrong.

Your customers aren’t there to see artistic shots — that’s what your company Instagram is for. What they care about is being able to see your product up close, and from every angle.  One of the drawbacks of shopping online is that your customers can’t handle your products to get a feel for how well they’re made. Always opt for high quality images on a clean background, and zoom in wherever possible.

Offer your customers something for nothing with a coupon code

By adjusting your listings to include coupon codes that can be redeemed at the checkout you can add value instantly.

Your customers will be tempted by coupons in a way that they won’t be by static prices. Coupons help create a sense of urgency because customers understand that they can be withdrawn at any minute. When you want to seriously start converting, urgency is one of the tools of the trade that you need at your disposal.

Use aspirational text in your product descriptions

If you want to really sell your products, you need to create an image in the mind of your customers. Use aspirational language that shows your product is something to be desired and sought after, rather than simply listing its features.

Be evocative, descriptive, and compelling if you want your products to standout from the crowd. By painting a picture of them wearing the clothes you sell for example, you’ll be able to let their imagination do the rest for you. Once the image is formed, they’ll begin to want the product even more. And before you know it, they won’t be able to do without it.

Once you get to this level of buy-in you know that you’re going to clinch the sale.

Use bullet points to list features: don’t bury them away in the text where no one will look

When crafting your text you need to get the balance right between listing every feature you can think of, and being descriptive and compelling. Bullet points are a great way to get around this dilemma because they allow you to add a list above or below your descriptive text. Keep to 3-5 points, and no more than one sentence each.

That way when people want to see what you offer at a glance all they’ll need to do is skim the bullet points. They also give customers something tangible if they want to compare the specifics of your offering to another product in your range, or to one a competitor’s product.

Show your customers that your checkout is secure

There are plenty of people who are cautious about typing their card details into a new website for the first time. If you want to remove this piece of friction and increase your conversions, then you’re going to have to make your customers feel secure.

“We display pictures of major credit cards and PayPal so that our customers know we accept these methods of payment. It helps them to make a purchasing decision based on trust because they see that we use the leading payment encryption providers” — says Susan Thomas, Content Creator at Trust My Paper.

It’s a simple addition, but one that will allow you to tap into the psyche of your customers and increase their confidence in you.

Grab attention in the first 3 seconds with a highly desirable title

3 seconds isn’t just the amount of time people are prepared to wait for your product page to load. It’s also how long you have to grab their attention once the content appears in front of their eyes.

A great image will go a long way, but the title is just as important. Go for something short and sweet that includes the key point about your product. Try and avoid the keyword stuffed tittles that some sellers use for SEO purposes — they’re a real turnoff for buyers. Take the time to boil your product down into a 5-10 word headline that you can use as a title. Make it memorable, informative, and compelling; you won’t go far wrong.

Use cross-selling to boost your conversions by lending a knowledgeable helping hand

Picture a customer shopping for a BBQ in time for the summer sun that’s predicted next weekend. They want the BBQ, but do they know everything else they need with it? Would they be more likely to buy the BBQ from you, if they could get everything else as part of the same order?

Of course they would. This is why cross-selling other add-on products is a great way to boost the conversions of larger products. Online shopping is different to heading to a physical store, because you want everything available to you at the click of a button. Drop in the use of additional products in your descriptive text and it will become obvious to the reader they’ve forgotten they need a few other bits and pieces.

If you then have links to these items directly below your description you’ll be far more likely to sell them as add-ons.

Sweeten the deal by offering free shipping just like Amazon

There are so many tens of millions of Prime members who are used to free shipping that adding shipping costs on at the checkout isn’t an option anymore. You might think that the only way to do it is to cover the costs yourself and hope for the best, but there’s a lot more strategy to it than that.

If you want to know how to offer free shipping then the first thing to consider is raising prices to cover costs. This may sound like it will lose you customers, but it won’t! What it’ll actually do is make your customers think that they’re the ones who are getting something for nothing.

 

Allow your customers to leave reviews after purchasing: turn them into free marketers

The final thing that is really worth implementing are verified purchase reviews. The online space is awash with paid-for reviews that add nothing to the customer experience, and your customers are becoming increasingly wise to them.

Add a verified purchase logo next to the title of each review to help build confidence in what the writer is saying. Combine this with a proactive approach to asking for reviews and you’ll soon have dozens of them at the bottom of your product pages. Ideal if you want to turn your customers into free marketers, and you next batch of browsers into long-term repeat customers.