Estimated read time: 3 minutes, 29 seconds

While it’s important to focus your efforts on getting your customers to add products to their shopping cart, the toughest part is getting them to complete the purchase. Almost 70% of ecommerce shopping carts are abandoned before conversion, so if you find yourself wondering why there seems to be a disconnect between shoppers showing interest in a product and actually making the purchase, you’re not alone.

Here are a few tips to help you improve your ecommerce conversion rates.

Conversion Tip #1: Optimize Your Ecommerce Site for Mobile Use

When you consider that more people are accessing the internet via a mobile device than through their desktop machines, it becomes clear just how important it is for you to make your ecommerce site mobile friendly.

Ensure that your mobile site is just as functional and attractive as it is on the desktop. Do frequent tests to see that it’s responsive since it only takes a few seconds for people to abandon their effort altogether. By creating a seamless mobile device experience, you encourage your buyer to develop an interest in your product, which can help you turn that interest into a conversion.

Conversion Tip #2: Keep it Simple

21% of shoppers abandon their carts because the process to complete conversion is too complicated. To simplify checkout for your customers, you can:

  • Offer a guest checkout option, so they don’t have to sign in to complete the purchase, which saves them time and speeds up the checkout process.
  • Enumerate the steps in the process, keeping the number of steps under five so your customers can easily navigate their purchase.
  • Clearly display the items in the shopping cart (with images), so the shopper doesn’t forget what they’re purchasing and click away from the transaction to find out, which can lead them to abandon the transaction altogether.
  • Let your customers see what they’re buying, offer your customers the visibility they need by including a shopping cart feature that allows your customers to not only see what they’re buying but also to add multiple products to their cart at a time.

Conversion Tip #3: Ensure Your Site is Secure and Compliant

Today, offering your customers security, monitoring, and additional safety features that come with a full-stack ecommerce platform is a must. Cybercrime is on the rise, and if you don’t give your customers the security they need to complete their purchase, you won’t see the conversions you want.

In addition to protecting their sensitive data, set your customers’ minds at ease by ensuring you’re up-to-date on current compliance regulations. It’s vital that your customers feel safe and at ease while they’re shopping, or they’ll never make a purchase.

Conversion Tip #4: Present High-Quality Product Images and Descriptions

Making an online purchase is something of a trust exercise— your customer is trusting that the product looks like or performs the function that you say it does. Meet customers halfway by offering several detailed, high-quality images of your product, allowing them to get a clearer idea of what they’re buying.

Your product descriptions are also a key component of presenting a great product to your buyer. It’s important that you can describe exactly why a buyer should choose your product to help you not only get them to add it to their cart but also complete their purchase.

Conversion Tip #5: Offer a Variety of Payment Options

Every customer has a payment preference. Whether they’re accumulating reward points with their Visa or MasterCard or they prefer the safety of PayPal, there’s a method they like to use to pay for the ecommerce purchase. If that payment method’s not available, you might have just lost a conversion.

This is where a good ecommerce platform will come into play. Be sure that the platform you choose has the capability to accept a variety of types of payments as well as different types of currency, not to mention the option for subscription or recurring billing. Your flexibility will win you favor with your customers. They’ll be delighted that there are different options available, and you’ll be happy to see your conversions climb.

Hannah Juley
Hannah Juley Author
Hannah is a recent graduate from UC-Santa Barbara. Her prior experience in marketing lead her to the FastSpring Marketing Coordinator role. Hannah assists with content, social media and department expenses. Outside of work, you can find her at the beach either playing volleyball or reading a book.