Ecommerce has changed the way we do business for good. The internet and online retail websites forced businesses to develop a whole new approach. We now have to consider different aspects of business such as data analytics, social media, and digital marketing.
One particular area of ecommerce business that is extremely important is CRO (conversion rate optimisation). This article looks at exactly what CRO is and why it is such a vital part of online business.
What Is CRO?
Conversion rate is a statistic that is regularly used in ecommerce to measure the success of a particular function or element. When measuring conversion rate, you are looking at how many customers actually made an action or completed a goal after visiting a website.
For example, you may have a goal of making a purchase after clicking on a product link. Let’s say you had 10 customers click on a product link, and only 5 of them made a purchase. This would be a 50% conversion rate, as only 50% of the customers achieved your goal of making a purchase.
Why Is CRO Important?
CRO is an important measurement of the success of your eCommerce website. Analysing CRO allows a business to see how effective its website is and which areas of are performing well. They can use CRO statistics to see if advert campaigns are paying off, or if things such as product buttons and backlinks from other websites are performing well.
In short, you can basically look at what areas of your ecommerce operation are falling short so you can take corrective actions. CRO allows you to become much more efficient and to create a streamlined online retail store/website.
How Can You Improve Your Ecommerce CRO?
There are many different hacks and tips you can use to optimize conversion rates. To start with, you must ensure that your ecommerce website is as user friendly and easy to use as possible. If customers struggle to use it, find the products they want, or make a purchase, they will quickly become disenchanted and frustrated and ultimately leave the web page.
The following are things you can do to improve the usability of your site:
- Ensure page loading speeds are quick
- Eliminate downtime and strive for 100% uptime
- Ensure your navigation is clear and logical
- Ensure your website is responsive (i.e. it displays correctly on mobile devices)
These are just a few examples, but there are many more. Aside from ease of use, you can also incorporate many tricks and features to boost conversion rates. For example, allowing your customers to purchase goods as guests is a huge plus.We all know the frustration of having to register an account to make a purchase!
Alternatively, adding something as simple as a PayPal buy now or checkout button can boost conversion rates greatly as it makes your website more convenient to use. To provide more info about the ways in which you can improve your conversion rates, check out the infographic below:
