How to increase conversion. The title should reflect the potential outcome. What are these pages?
Warning: longread, multiple letters.
Conversion rate reflects your retail business's ability to handle incoming traffic. “According to the mind,” it is calculated as the share of buyers in the total number of visitors. But most companies simply divide the number of checks per day by the number of visitors per day according to counter indicators, which, in fact, is not true. Therefore, before thinking about increasing conversion, I suggest first correctly calculating this indicator. And then you can think about ways to increase it. So how can you increase your conversion?
Method 1. More receipts – higher conversion
The first method is fraudulent, breaking checks. You can do nothing, but instead of processing 3 purchased goods with one receipt, enter each of them separately, and the conversion will “increase”. This can happen either due to the malicious intent of the staff or at the initiative of management. Often, under the terms of a promotion, checks are forced to be broken, for example, when accounting asks for “promotional” goods to be stamped with a separate check. Naturally, this method of increasing conversion is completely unprofitable for the company and is “compensated” by a decrease in the “average bill.” Therefore, it is worth making sure that checks are never broken.
Method 2. Cut off unnecessary visitors
Method 3. Introduce a motivation system based on “personal selling”
Transfer staff to " personal selling" No matter how much they say that team sales provide more high level service, that the client is served by several shift workers at once, no matter how much they warn about the negative consequences in the form of competition between sellers and a tense atmosphere in the team, I still believe that personal sales ultimately give better conversion. Of course, provided that you can manage the team in the right way. In my practice, there was an example of an increase in conversion from 5 to 11% when changing motivation from collective to personal. True, at the same time it was necessary to replace almost the entire original composition of salespeople, who responded extremely poorly to the change in the motivation system. But, as you can see, it was justified economically.
Method 4. Low price strategy – every day Arrange “Everyday low prices”.
This pricing strategy, first tested in supermarkets in the USA, allows you to whip up the desire of visitors to buy something, focusing attention on the most advantageous offers. It consists of displaying products with a very attractive price in the most visible place. You can see it in action, for example, in stores, New Yorker or H&M. The very first sweatshirt on the hanger is at a ridiculous price of 599 rubles (the rest, however, are already 2 times more expensive). This creates an illusion for the buyer affordable prices and removes the psychological barrier that prevents spending money.
Method 5. - Entry products
Placement in the focal zone (“market zone”) of so-called “entry products” - inexpensive “little things” that do not require major expenses and stimulate spontaneous purchases. For example, a luxury brand has designer phone cases for 39 euros in its focal area and this offer attracts many buyers who are not ready to spend more significant amounts of money right now. If the boutique administration had placed bags for 3,999 euros in the same area, it would have cut off spontaneous purchases and the conversion would have been much lower.
Method 6. – “Active” sales
Get “Active Sales” from sellers. The idea of active sales is for sales consultants to independently offer their services to customers, without waiting for them to ask for it. Despite the fact that many buyers really don’t like it when sellers impose themselves and “don’t give them a pass,” it is a proven fact that active sales increase conversion. Here I propose to implement the minimum, which, however, is difficult to achieve for most companies. Make sure that your salespeople, after waiting the required 3-minute pause, come up and talk to the buyer on their own. This seems quite easy, but is actually not that easy to implement. You will need either regular mystery shopping (mystery shopping research) or the implementation of video surveillance systems and recording analysis. It’s good when sellers, after starting a dialogue with a buyer, know how to continue it, but this is a topic for a separate article.
Method 7. – The product sells itself
Merchandising. If sellers fail, merchandising is a reliable safety net. Many large format stores do not rely on the professionalism of their consultants (their number is simply not enough for a huge area) and place attractive POS (Point of Sales) materials and are very attentive to the placement of goods. If your sales floor contains bright and noticeable: promotional price tags, “hot offer” zones, thematic compositions and groups of mannequins, attractive sets on tables in the entrance or checkout area, then all this will imperceptibly add up to a higher conversion rate.
Method 8. - Psychological pricing.
Take care of correct design price tags. Firstly, use correct rounding: 3950 rubles is perceived better than 4050 rubles with a negligible difference in the markup. When applying for discounts, always follow the rule, indicate: “starting price, % discount, final price.” If the % discount is small, then stick to the “starting price, final price” scheme or use the additional “special price” label.
Method 9. – Hold promotions and sales more often
Promotions and sales. Most promotions involve time-limited discounts. And there are several techniques that can significantly increase conversion during their implementation. The first way is to fuel the “urgency” effect: buyers must be sure that the offer will end soon, and they need to buy here and now. Second: to create a stir; for this purpose, merchandising techniques are used that introduce slight chaos into the presentation of the product, and some stores even hire “fake” buyers who create queues and crowds. If successful, buyers will buy up even the most stale and seemingly useless inventory leftovers. By the way, an increase in conversion or a lack of positive dynamics is a clear indication of whether your promotion worked or not. Good promotions and sales should increase conversion by 30-40%.
Method 10. Keep track of inventory.
Sort items into stores more often, and “transfer” items between stores. It’s strange to expect an increase in conversion if the size charts are “broken” and the most popular items are sold out. A common situation: conversion failure on Sunday, after successful Saturday sales. All office employees are resting, the goods are being sorted into best case scenario on Monday evening. And instead of having a good trade on the second day off, the store greets visitors with empty shelves. Deliver seasonal goods in advance, do not allow a situation where the frost hits, everyone runs to warm up, and your store will receive knitwear and outerwear in 2 weeks.
Method 11. Create a comfortable atmosphere.
Keep the customer in the store. There are many studies that find a correlation between time spent in a store and the likelihood of purchasing - the longer a customer spends on the sales floor, the more likely he is to buy something. But how can we stop him? Provide a comfortable atmosphere. Everything is important here from proper lighting to ventilation, pleasant smells, background music, friendliness of employees, security guards, product placement, etc. Something as trivial as an unpleasant odor or stuffiness in the summer can cause visitors to leave your store faster, ruining any hopes of increasing conversions. The technology of analyzing touch points (“Points of Contact”) with the buyer helps to track all irritating factors.
Method 12. Hone your purchases
Buy what the visitor requires. This is of course easier said than done, but, in fact, correct procurement is the main factor and ensures high conversion and ultimately the success of your retail business. To understand the tastes and preferences of your customers, pay attention to analyzing your customer base. The “Customer Profiling” technique and analysis of unmet demand will come to the rescue. Keep a formal record of requests from customers that your stores could not satisfy, make it the duty of buyers to respond to them (note, of course, you should not try to purchase everything that is asked). - conduct interviews with buyers. Buyers must, from time to time, interact with customers directly on the sales floor or during special events.
Afterword
In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about the usefulness of monitoring the conversion rate. It is not necessary or important for all stores. The rule here is: the higher the store traffic, the more important it is to monitor conversion. If your boutique has 20-30 visitors per day, then forget about conversion and pay more attention to working with client base and VIP service. If several thousand visitors come to your department store every day, then this indicator will be one of the most significant for you.
The first impression determines everything. What product do you offer, what are the benefits, how to use it. If the visitor does not see this on landing page, he leaves and you lose a potential client.
Popular social media management platform Hootsuite learned how to increase conversions with one question for visitors. How - read in this article.
How to find out that a landing page needs improvement
When Hootsuite designed the landing page, it was assumed that the visitor knew how the platform worked. Graphs and illustrations on the page demonstrated the services in detail.
Specialists from the Hootsuite development department analyzed visitor behavior and measured the CTR of the link to the order page. When potential clients landed on the landing page, they continued to hesitate. Reason: They couldn't find information about the product's value proposition and capabilities.
To test this hypothesis, Hootsuite specialists posted a short survey on the landing page using the online survey service Qualaroo: “Do you have enough information to order a service?”
The results confirmed the hypothesis. Of the thousand visitors, 65% responded that additional information was needed to make a purchase.
People are familiar with the name Hootsuite and have been referring to search engines with the corresponding request, but did not understand what the company actually does. Landing page did not contain a value proposition.
If people don't know what the product does, it doesn't matter how many feature descriptions you put on the page. No exhaustive basic information- there will be no conversions.
How to use survey results to redesign your landing page
The company formulated a clear plan for restructuring the landing page. What prevented users from understanding the essence of the proposal:
- On the official website of Hootsuite they claimed that the platform collects social networks in common space, but the landing page didn’t say how to use the product for this.
- The examples on the landing page are too abstract, without an image of the control panel. It's unclear how Hootsuite interacts with other services.
- The difference between the tariffs is unclear.
- Reviews say that Hootsuite helps manage workflows and does not work with social networks.
Potential clients didn't understand what Hootsuite was for.
This is what the landing page looked like before the redesign:
After making the edits, we emphasized key features platforms. What exactly did they do for this?
- Specific language explained how to use Hootsuite in daily practice.
- The control panel images showed how the tool worked.
- A clear description of the characteristics and differences of tariffs.
There are a lot of recipes and tips on increasing conversions on the RuNet, as well as cases of how simplifying the registration form or changing the color of a button increased sales on the site. Many marketers use someone else's or their own past experience without doubting that it will work. I did this too, doing Internet marketing in IT companies. We even argued with him a couple of times general director about whose option home page will show better conversion.
But this approach doesn’t work well; more often than not, the hypotheses that I put forward and tested were a waste of time and money. Why did this happen? I didn't consider increasing conversions as a process and only used part of the methodology. One thing you need to understand simple thing – there are no magic templates, designs, wonderful buttons, which will increase conversion on the site. For every case that tells how introducing a video on a landing page increased conversion by 20%, there is a case about how a video reduced conversion. Personal experience and hypotheses based on expert opinion are only a small part of the process.
You can put forward hypotheses with a high probability of successful testing if you consider increasing conversion as a continuous cyclical process consisting of 4 steps:
- Data collection and analysis.
- Compiling a list of hypotheses.
- Conducting A/B testing.
- Making changes to the site.
STEP 1. Data collection and analysis
All hypotheses must be supported by data. The diagram shows 5 main sources for data collection:
Technical analysis
This is the first stage of data collection and includes:
- cross-browser and cross-platform testing,
- conversion rate estimate different browsers/on different devices,
- site speed assessment.
If you have installed Google Analytics, go to Audience > Technologies > Browser and OS. If you've set up goals, you can see your conversion rates for each browser here.
Go to Audience > Mobile devices and you will see from which devices users open your site, and what the conversion rate is on each device. This way you can quickly find serious problems in different browsers and on different devices that prevent visitors from completing the target action.
Evaluate overall speed site and loading speed individual pages You can use the same Google Analytics. In chapter Behavior > Site loading speed You can identify problematic pages and evaluate overall loading speed. In chapter Speed up downloads you can automatically get recommendations using PageSpeed Insights.
Heuristic analysis
Eureka! - Archimedes shouted, discovering the fundamental law of hydrostatics. “Heuristic” comes from the Greek “to find.” The essence of heuristic analysis is that the development of hypotheses is based on professional reasoning in the process of analyzing the site, and not on strict conclusions from the data obtained. This is where it comes in handy own experience and expert opinion on increasing conversions.
On at this stage It is useful to involve designers and usability specialists who, based on professional standards, will be able to identify obvious problems and offer ideas and solutions. If it is problematic to involve experts, you can conduct such an analysis yourself - this is better than not conducting it at all.
5 stages of heuristic analysis:
1. Write down the main tasks that clients solve on the site.
Examples:
- Find information about the most popular products.
- Find the store closest to your home.
- Place an order on the website.
- Register to leave a review.
- Contact technical support via online chat.
3. If you have a ready-made checklist for analysis, go through it and also write down all the shortcomings. An excellent checklist for conducting expert usability analysis was made by Dr. Pete Myers (moz.com), use it.
4. Make a report, record all problem areas in the summary table.
5. Rank all problems in order of importance. This will help, at the stage of formulating hypotheses, to concentrate on those improvements that will have a greater impact on conversion and increase sales. Everyone knows the “20/80” rule, right?
User testing
Research on how the target audience uses your site - one of the most effective methods obtaining data to put forward qualitative hypotheses. The essence of the method is that you create specific set tasks (scenario), and real users solve them by commenting on their thoughts and actions out loud. Sounds like heuristic analysis? Yes, but your site will be tested by your target audience.
Google Analytics shows pages where visitors are dropping off. Form analytics in Yandex.Metrica points out fields that cause difficulties for people. The web viewer can show all the actions of a potential client on the site. Why then test the site on users? To find out the answer to the most important question- Why. Why didn't the visitor complete the target action? Why did he order from a competitor?
If previously it was necessary to rent a room (laboratory), prepare special equipment, look for people to conduct focus groups, and control the process itself, today web services have appeared for conducting user testing, which make the process tens of times cheaper and faster:
Feedback can also be collected and analyzed using other channels:
- standard forms feedback,
- online chats,
- forums, communities, social networks,
- call centers,
- personal communication with clients.
Never trust user feedback 100%
Of course people can share great ideas to improve the functionality of your project, even participate in its development. But very often, users' ideas can be misleading. Buyers are unlikely to understand the intricacies of your business, and decisions that are obvious to them may not be beneficial to you. You won’t give away products for free because users want it, will you? And they want it.
Therefore, always compare user feedback with data from other research methods. If visitors' opinions coincide with analytics data, for example, users are asking to add more products for women on the shelves, and gender and age analysis shows that women from 25 to 35 years old bring you 80% of your income, this is an excellent reason to conduct experiments and, possibly, expand the range for this audience.
STEP 2. Compiling a list of hypotheses
So, after the first step, you have found all the problem areas on the site and received enough data to make correct conclusions and formulate hypotheses for the next experiments and A/B testing.If you find critical problems (that do not allow users to complete the purchase process, text errors, obvious bugs, etc.), you must immediately make changes to the site, bypassing A/B testing.
1. Simplicity of the solution.
If a problem takes several months to solve and requires spending a lot of resources on programmers, it is obviously not a problem that needs to be solved in the first place.
Pip uses the following table to analyze problems (I've simplified it a bit):
Transform problems into hypotheses
Each hypothesis should be based on the data obtained and contain recommendations on what to do next. The better the hypothesis is formulated, the greater the likelihood of achieving a positive result.
Let me give you an example. During user testing at the checkout stage, several people were confused by the lack of ability to contact a consultant. Google Analytics showed that there is a high bounce rate at this stage. Hypothesis: introducing an online chat for consultations to the checkout page will increase conversion by 20%. It's time to do A/B testing.
STEP 3. Conducting A/B testing
A/B testing is a study that allows you to determine which version of a website page will provide the best conversion.Most often I have enough for work free tool, which is built into Google Analytics: Behavior > Experiments:
There are of course more functional services(usually paid), which allow you to conduct complex multivariate testing, integrate with analytics systems, allow you to segment traffic and have a bunch of other useful features:
STEP 4. Making changes to the site
At this step, you need to make changes to the site based on the analysis of A/B tests. If your hypothesis is confirmed and the A/B test shows that new page increases conversions - that's great. Make changes. If the results of an A/B test are questionable or your hypothesis was not confirmed, this is normal, this is why testing is needed. Move on to the next hypothesis.Don't forget that changes may increase conversion in the early stages of the sales funnel, but not bring the final result (money). I'll give you an unsuccessful example from my experience. For the last 5 years I have been marketing a SaaS product. After the redesign, I felt that the registration form was too complicated and was reducing conversion rates. I looked at Yandex.Metrica (form analytics) and it turned out that some fields cause difficulties for users. I decided to remove them or simplify them as much as possible (I removed the “Describe your tasks” field and the field for entering a phone number, reformulated some fields more clearly). Testing showed that the conversion at the registration stage increased by one and a half times, I was happy, and we changed the registration page. What happened in the end? Indeed, the number of registrations has increased. But have there been more payments? No. There were more untargeted registrations that were not converted into sales. For those who really needed the product, it didn't really matter how many fields there were in the form. The change only increased the workload on the support and sales departments.
Therefore, always analyze the end result - what economic benefit did the change on the site bring you?- Internet Marketing
An attractive website design is important attribute, but don’t forget about site conversion. To answer the question of how to increase website conversion, you need to understand what functions your website actually performs: converting visitors into clients, encouraging phone calls and visits to the company, ensuring registration of applications, as well as providing the most complete information about services and products.
The absence of these points will lead to a decrease in website conversion and, as a result, to a loss of business income. Naturally, the more transitions to your website, the more revenue the company will generate.
Just recently, over a cup of morning coffee, a friend of mine suggested that I audit his company’s website. Conversion rates remained extremely low, and he wanted to improve this situation at all costs. The result of our conversation was the development of the 6 tips presented below, thanks to which the site will increase conversion and its conversion indicators.
Choosing a responsive design to increase conversions
1 Approximately 31% of all traffic, according to American research US Digital Future in Focus, is provided by owners mobile devices. This number, already quite significant, will continue to grow. If your site is not adapted to the resolution of mobile device screens, then it itself is tightening the noose around its neck. Increased conversion due to mobile adaptability the sacred duty of any webmaster.
Website created using the method responsive web design(Responsive Web Design - RWD), is able to adapt to the screen resolution of any device: desktop computers, laptops, smartphones and tablets. Usage adaptive layout when creating a website, it allows you to preserve all its functionality regardless of what devices the user is viewing the site on. You are not going to do a lot of manipulations with mobile screen to somehow read the contents? Of course not. In the same way, none of your clients will do this, reducing conversion.
Increase conversions with simple design
2 Many years ago, the main trend in web design was to have large number animations and lighting effects. Today, simpler designs are popular. Product brands try to impress with unusual details, while visitors prefer simple and calm design. Time has passed, and now everything is different, so take it from your heart, simplicity in everything is the way to increase conversion.
Attract users with the content and convenience of the site. Availability unnecessary elements not only irritates them, but also slows down the page loading speed. The pursuit of simplicity is an important component of any commercial project that strives to increase conversion.
Don't use stock photos
3 First, let me say that stock images are quite great for your blog posts, for example. By posting them on the “About Us” page of the site, you will feel that they do not belong to you and are a sham. With such photos, you will be no different from the mass of other dubious companies and it will be difficult for you to increase your conversion.
I generally cringe when I see a site that uses such stock fakes describing the activities of a company and its employees. If you want to add a photo of your team, it's best to hire a professional photographer. Consumers do not trust a company that tries to demonstrate its experience and professionalism through stock photos.
Create convenient and simple navigation
4 When users land on your site, they should be able to find what they are looking for within two seconds. If you have to search longer, the visitor will become frustrated and find another website.
Make the navigation menu as simple as possible; this simple step will significantly increase website conversion, especially for online stores. Know that visitors are literally inundated with large amounts of information when a website opens before their eyes. You need to provide them with a simple and clear path to action, whether it's submitting an application or registering.
My company is in the middle of the pack for website redesign firms, and we really make it easy to navigate while still packing the functionality and information of 15 pages into one. The end result is much more easy way to our goal - the feedback form.
Don't make it difficult for customers to contact you
5 Telephone calls have not yet lost their relevance, but many consumers contact the company through website forms, especially if they are interested in the level of service or some details. They don't want to be sold something right away - they just want to get some information. These are people who study before buying something. Simplify for potential clients ways to contact you.
My company's contact page structure provided two options: a registration form that had 12 fields, and a general feedback form that had 3 fields. Now we only have the second one left and the conversion has increased. The consumer no longer has to choose between two forms. Every time a visitor has to make a choice, he spends time on it, and every new choice slows down the client and distances him from the order. Make sure that the client has to make as few decisions as possible on the site, this will significantly increase conversion.
Remove posts from your social media groups on the website
6 When the idea of the Internet as a media channel was still fresh and popular, many website owners posted links to their posts on social networks. Now users can visit your profiles themselves if necessary. Placing posts from Facebook and Twitter on the site only distracts the attention of visitors.
Place sprites of such channels and a link to your account in them in the footer or sidebar. If the user wants to view them, he will do so. After all, you want the visitor to familiarize yourself with the content of the site, fill out all the necessary forms and make purchases, and not scroll through your previous tweets and posts.
Perhaps you will say that you have an ideal website, perfectly optimized, there is no better place. Congratulations! But maybe then we should shift the site’s attention and look at ? Using it wisely, you can find new growth points for your business.
One of key aspects increasing the conversion of your website is business intelligence. If you do not analyze which traffic sources are the most profitable, then you can lose more than half of the budget allocated for promotion, regardless of the design. Why? Because, as a rule, one source can provide the lion's share of successful conversions, and if you increase the type of this traffic, you can significantly increase the profit of your business.
Perhaps everything is already in order with your site, and you are trying to improve what is already perfect. In my opinion, the Roistat service perfectly copes with the task of traffic channel analytics, which collects all the data in one place and provides accurate reports from which a decisive conclusion can be drawn.
