Sometimes it seems like the business struggles never end. Once you finish setting up your website, you have to shift the focus to improving it. This fact especially holds true when it comes to e-commerce websites.
Keeping them updated and running smoothly is hard work that can feel pointless if they are not as profitable. Such a feeling is especially true for eCommerce sites with low conversion rates.
If you need a quick boost in motivation, and a few hacks to keep you on the right track, you are in the right place. The following list contains some proven hacks and ideas, so be sure to read it carefully.
1. Take advantage of powerful plugins
There are a lot of great plugins for WooCommerce that will unlock more power for your online store and we would like to mention two of them: WooCommerce Order Export is a back-end plugin that allows you to set up automatic cron schedules to have your orders exported to a file or to have any new orders that come up emailed to you at regular intervals. This is a very powerful tool that can help you to both keep your orders organized as well as forward them to your shipping staff for example.
Another awesome plugin that allows you to create advanced shipping rules and make your customer experience more tailored is WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping. This plugin gives you the options to create shipping rules based on the logged-in status of the visitor, the cart contents such as weight, item count, and more.
2. Improve ease of use
Let’s get the obvious tip out of the way. Having an easy-to-use website can do wonders in increasing your conversion rates. If you look at the big players in the e-commerce game, you will notice a few common, shared by all of them.
The most important one being ease of use. By having your visitors jump through the least amount of hoops, you increase their chances of landing on the checkout page. People love the convenience and respond positively to it. Look no further than at Amazon for proof.
Many people advocate for the usage of pop-ups and cluttering the screen with many products in order to increase exposure and potentially land an additional sale. Generally, this has a negative effect on conversions, as people will spend more time scrolling and looking through your website than actually purchasing your products.
3. Honesty
The last statement made brings us nicely to our second point, and while it is less of a hack and more a design philosophy, it still holds true. We know how hard it is to consistently generate sales. We know how tempting it is to add certain design elements to our websites that are considered distasteful to boost those sales. Popups, annoying CTAs, redirects, timers, and fake sales are all good examples of this.
The addition of these elements might increase sales, but it will only function in the short term. People will easily realize that a website is being pushy and they will go to an alternative. The people that will shop on your website will mostly be one-time buyers, which will do you more harm than good, as the cornerstone of any good online e-commerce store is creating a loyal group of users.
4. Increase E-mail signups
If you adhere to the last two pieces of advice, you will surely have no problem creating a community of users that keep coming back. But in order to attract new users, you need to firstly sweeten the pot.
This is, of course, easier said than done, but by using a few of these hacks, you will most definitely get more email signups. These, in turn, will increase conversions. First and foremost, make sure to keep your email signup short. The less information that your users have to input, the better.
This process can be further streamlined by enabling people to subscribe via social media. Once that is done, make sure that people know that they can subscribe and that there will be benefits if they do.
By offering subscriber-only benefits or a reward for first-time subscribers, you will give people the additional push needed to give you their e-mail.
5. Offers
The next hack is pretty straightforward. People love offers, from limited-time sales to coupons. No matter the type of deal you offer people might be tempted to buy it even if they don’t need it. The fear of missing out, FOMO, is a real thing, and you should capitalize on it.
Another thing worth considering is creating and using targeted offers. This is something that Walmart has been doing successfully for a long time. By creating a user profile you can easily track what are your customers buying, and then further tempt them by creating personalized offers.
6. Add a review section
When you create your own eCommerce site, make sure to add a review section. Doing so can help increase your conversion rate and sales. Having a review section will create and reinforce the sense of legitimacy, which will make new customers feel at ease. It will also embolden your regular customers with additional social proof.
The review section will create a tighter sense of community, which will in turn engage your visitors, pushing them to further interact with your website. This will make them more likely to purchase your products again.
7. Better product descriptions
Creating clear product descriptions will lead to an increased sales by a pretty decent margin. Of course, this depends heavily on the type of product being sold. In any case, giving more detailed product information won’t hurt you or your sales in the slightest.
Furthermore, if you have the available funds you can opt to create a product showcase video. Experience teaches us that adding a product showcase video to your page can increases sales up to four times.
Conclusion
Taking advice from the internet can sometimes be a risky endeavor. Things that sound good at first might be pretty harmful to your website.
For instance, people are still advocating for the usage of pop-ups. Because of this, it’s a good idea to take any and all advice from the internet (including ours) with a grain of salt. Make sure to do your own research and to look at multiple information sources, before taking action.
Having said that, the hacks that we have shared with you have been pretty general. This doesn’t mean they aren’t effective, however. Time has shown that good business practices consistently beat out intrusive or annoying fads that people come up with.
By building a good foundation and putting your customers first you will slowly but surely create a functioning e-commerce website that is in the green. Hopefully, we gave you at least one good idea you could act upon. As they say: “Strike while the iron is still hot”.
