11 Brilliant Ways to Get More Micro-Conversions (For 2024)

‍17% of consumers visit your website to make a purchase and only 2% actually do.

When these numbers are so low, how do you count your wins? Let’s take a look.‍

First, a fact - a majority of your eCommerce store visitors won’t be going in with the intent to purchase.

While most people aren’t ready to make a purchase just yet, there are steps you can take to increase the likelihood that they’ll buy in the future.

These steps are called micro-conversions, and they help increase brand loyalty, trust, and comfort the shopper experiences while interacting with your storefront.

You can think of them as low-hanging fruits i.e. steps that lead to the final objective—conversions and sales—known as “macro conversion”.

When you know which micro conversions to target based on your best-performing funnels, getting those larger conversions automatically gets easier. 

This post will also cover:

How can you boost conversion rates by monitoring micro conversions?

4 micro conversion best practices you can’t ignore

A BONUS section (FAQ)

Here are 11 proven ways to get more micro conversions:

1.  Make email sign-ups compelling

Around 81% of businesses credit email marketing as their primary driver of customer acquisition.

From announcing new offers to sending cart abandonment reminders to establishing a connection by communicating brand values, emails are versatile. What’s more, the ROI on email marketing is insanely rewarding ($42 being the return on every $1 spent). 

How to make this micro-conversion happen:

• Add a Hello Bar to your eCommerce page. It doesn’t affect your page speed and comes with several customization options
• Offer to email visitors their shopping carts (helps to retain 24% of abandoned cart visitors)
• Create product pages for to-be-launched products and use the “Pre Order” CTA
• “Coming Soon” homepage with a “notify me” prompt
• Use a product quiz and ask for email to send personalized recommendations
• Flank the “subscribe” prompt with trust signals—just like Chubbies does: 

Hey, you’ll love: 28 No-BS Ways To Get More Email Subscribers in eCommerce‍

2. Get those product page clicks

Product pages are ultimately the one-stop shops for ALL product information—making them one of the topmost reasons why shoppers move from micro-conversions to macro ones. 

And this is why how easy you make it for shoppers to arrive at product pages they’d be really interested in, can make all the difference. 

How to make this micro-conversion happen: 

• Create product comparisons—and make sure to drive value—mattress brand Casper, for example, typically brings in just one or two products for comparison and always labels them attractively:

• Feature highly rated products on the homepage
• Flank product recommendations with good review callouts—highlight appreciation, ease of use etc. 
• Categorize primary categories by intent—for example “for oily hair” will invite more clicks than if you just mention the product name

3. Improve add to cart functionality

The magical (and dreaded) three words that in the same breath are reminders of macro conversions and cart abandonment—the latter being almost 70% for the average eCommerce business. 

The trick here is to ensure this micro conversion makes the shopper want to move towards checkout. 

However, even before that, it needs to be easy for people to add to cart (and visualize the cart as well.)

How to make this micro-conversion happen:

• Feature “add to cart” CTAs on the homepage itself

One eCommerce brand that follows through with this rare but ideal practice on their homepage is Golde—here’s a look:

• Feature “quick add” CTAs on the category pages
• Instead of “shop now” link in abandoned cart emails, use “add items back to cart”

4. Make search bar spotting easy

The good news is that 69% of all shoppers head to the search bar when they land up on an eCommerce site—which means if your search bar is prominent and attractive, the chances of shoppers wanting to stay longer on the site increases. 

If that’s not enough, searchers are also known to generate 60% of all eCommerce revenue. 

How to make this micro-conversion happen:

• Make it the most prominent feature in the primary navigation—like Asos does: 

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• Enable the search bar with a “photo search” option—eCommerce brand Fashion Nova brings this alive by featuring a camera icon
• Use microcopy that nudges shoppers to search—home & decor brand Wayfair, for example, says “find anything home…” on their search bar

5. Improve mobile-first search functionality

A well-highlighted search button and field with a relevant CTA can move visitors to go deeper into the underlying product pages of your website. This is especially relevant for mobile users. 

Check out how Printerland prioritizes the search option on their website. 

Look at how the drop-down menu helps segregate the categories with a clear indication of how many products fall under that category. It doesn’t get simpler than this!

How to make this micro-conversion happen:

• Use filters to help users narrow down on products & categories 
• Include selectable autosuggestions for faster search results
• Show a numbered quantity of products and learning resources like Burt’s Bees does—this is especially effective for eCommerce businesses with limited SKUs:

6. Prioritize simple & intuitive forms

Form abandonment is real. However, you can counter that by keeping your forms simple and intuitive. 

Depending on your goal, you can decide whether to go for short or long forms, single-step or multi-step forms. Research by Venture Harbour reveals that multi-step forms can increase conversions by 300%. 

Surveys are also a great way to improve customer engagement with your brand and record visitor behavior for channeling macro conversions.

How to make this micro-conversion happen: 

• Ensure that it’s mobile-friendly as per Google. Here’s a handy test to help you with that
• Allow users to fill only sections marked with an asterisk
• Make it less daunting by turning into an experience—Tiffany & Co.gathers client details in steps for their customer assistance process, highlighting one major step at a time:

7. Enable page discovery from the main menu

As per Littledata’s 2020 research, the average number of pages browsed per session was 2.8. Moreover, if the number was above 4.4, that would mean the website fell within the top 20% of sites. 

So, you can imagine that if a visitor opens more than 3 of your website pages, it’s a good sign. That said, it is best to be wary of high engagement but low conversion pages. It often means there’s some problem with the site. 

Let’s look at an example. Suppose a visitor lands on The Perfume Shop’s website. They browse multiple pages from the top bar. All of these will reflect valuable micro conversions. 

How to make this micro-conversion happen:

• Come up with interesting category names such as “Just In,” Limited Sale” and “One Day Exclusive”
• Color code options that you want shoppers to see first—for example, some top eCommerce sites highlight “SALE” in deep red as a best practice
• Use a countdown timer band if you want a single page to get all the attention for a limited period—this is what Solo Stove does with a notification bar:

8. Make way for easy account creation

If you head over to Camper’s site, you’ll see find an option for account creation on the right. Upon clicking, this is what you see. It’s short, simple and cuts out all the fluff that may put off shoppers. 

How to make this micro-conversion happen:

• Articulate the advantages associated with account creation—talk about exclusive discounts, member-only product drops, free content from experts etc. 
• Make the form-filling process more interactive—IKEA, for example, ensures to feature some of their lifestyle brand photography alongside the sign-up form to trigger happier & warmer feelings: 

• Make only the most necessary fields evident—Patagonia, for example, asks only for name, email and password

9. Let live chat actually help

A live chat is a wonderful feature to embed if you want visitors to act towards a bigger conversion. What a live chat with a representative does is that it takes away the hassle of a long wait over call to resolve an issue. It also removes the non-human element from automated chats.

However, be sure to keep the live chat feature non-invasive. You want it to be available for your customers in case they need help and not in their way at any point.

How to make this micro-conversion happen:

• Label the chat icon for greater clarity: “Here to help,” “Talk to Us” and “Let’s Chat” work well
• Leave clickable actions as part of the chat window—so that if a representative isn’t immediately available, shoppers can still create self-help; check out how Bear Mattress makes this possible:

• Clearly mention timings for business hours 

10. Attract more video clicks

Customers are 64-85% more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it.

A study by Biteable revealed that 52% of marketers rely on videos to build trust among their customers.

By developing compelling video content, you already place your brand with one foot in the door.

But first, how do you get them to watch a video?

How to make this micro-conversion happen:

• Include a video in the main image gallery
• Enable shoppers to upload videos in reviews—that’s what watch brand Fossil does:

• Feature hyperlinked text right beneath the product name (on product page), which leads to the product/brand video on Youtube 

11. Highlght your social channels

According to Hootsuite’s Social Media Barometer Report, 90% of brands use social media channels for brand awareness.

When people engage with your business on social media, they’ll be more likely to make a purchase from you down the road. 

How to make this micro conversion happen:

• Feature your most popular social media icon on the top right side of the primary menu
• Feature your social handles under “Share” after the first fold on every product page
• Display your social icons prominently across emails 

How can you boost conversion rates by monitoring micro conversions?

1. Pull out data on visitor activities

In short, focus on where each visitor is spending most of their time. 

For example, if a visitor is spending more time on your Blog page, then it’s evident that they aren’t looking for a sale immediately. On the other hand, if you find a visitor repeatedly going to a specific product page or browsing similar & related products, you can say they’re more likely to move towards a purchase. 

2. Optimize key conversion areas

Once you analyze drop-off rates in comparison with the total website traffic at each stage, you can optimize them to drive more conversions.

For example, if there’s an issue with form signup (and it’s an important part of your conversion funnel), then that’s a key area to focus on.

Do check out: Convert More Paid Traffic—9 Strategies That Always Work(eCommerce)

3. Offer value to your customers

If there’s a lead, the idea is to be able to nurture it through the smaller stages of the conversion funnel. 

For example, Ashford does a great job of catching the shopper’s eye with an offer (with urgency) that’ll nudge them towards a purchase

4. Track the performance of your communication channels

When you’re assessing the micro conversion factor, there can be multiple markers of visitor interest: signing up for your monthly newsletter, subscribing to your RSS feed, frequently commenting on your YouTube channel, etc.  Consistent customer engagement will reflect higher conversion rates. 

5. Build an air-tight conversion funnel

For example, this chart shows the exact journey a customer makes on an eCommerce website before the final macro conversion of product purchase.

So, let’s say you have shoppers coming up to the product page, adding to cart but leaving items behind, you may have to look into what’s happening within the mini cart and the cart page. 

Micro-conversions help eCommerce businesses learn more about their friction points and optimize based visitor behavior. 

Want to know more? Here are 5 stages of an eCommerce conversion funnel (+ways to improve each step)

4 micro conversion best practices you can’t ignore

1. Figure out buyer intent & readiness

This is a big one if you have to ensure you get enough micro conversions and are also able to track the right ones. 

For this, tracking activities that happen right before a shopper adds to cart or clicks on an abandoned cart email, becomes crucial. 

The reason behind this is: buyer intent & readiness is typically a spectrum. For example, someone who is clicking on an expandable product description to read and consider certainly has more intent than someone who is browsing through multiple product pages but not viewing shipping information or clicking on the gallery. 

2. Improve personalization

If you don’t already have a customer journey map, this may be difficult to do. 

Once you’re able to map what the customer’s actions are saying about what they would prefer, you’ll be able to make tweaks to your micro conversions. 

An example would be the offer and messaging you showcase on your exit intent pop-ups—what you show to a new customer would have to be different from what you show to someone who may have bought from you earlier. In this case, without personalization the chances of a macro conversion taking place goes down considerably. 

3. Offer the right incentives 

Assessing your list of micro conversions will also help you look into what nudges shoppers towards a macro conversion. Do they convert right after they click on a link that features a special membership price? Or do they go ahead with a purchase after receiving a discount on a cart abandonment email?

A/B testing multiple incentives for the same micro conversion stage can help you come away with sharper answers. 

4. Narrow down on performing channels

At no point is it wise for an eCommerce business to try and maximize micro conversions across all channels. 

Based on customer & behavioral segments, you’ll see patterns emerge—while newer buyers might be spending more time on your website, loyalists may be engaging more with your emails, newsletters and even more immediate channels like WhatsApp. 

These distinctions can help you reduce friction across points that are more likely to bring you macro conversions. 

BONUS: 

What is the key difference between micro and macro conversions?

The main difference that sets apart micro conversions from macro conversions is the fact that the former are steps to a larger goal—for example, a newsletter sign up is a step towards a shopper getting interested in purchasing a product recommended in the newsletter at a later date. 

Macro conversions, on the other hand, represent the end goal that all micro conversions are meant to enable—a purchase, an upgrade or even a bulk buy. 

Some of the common examples of micro-conversions are:

• Email newsletter signups
• Browsing through home, product, or category pages
• Blog comments
• Social engagements such as shares or follows
• eBook downloads

Macro conversions refer to the final product purchase or sale. For an eCommerce store, it’s when the customer finally orders the product. 

The customer generally follows through with micro conversions before eventually moving onto a macro conversion. 

What are the types of micro conversions?

There are 2 types of micro-conversions you should consider: 

a) Process milestones

Process milestones are the conversions that directly lead to a primary macro conversion. These help to identify the critical junctures where UX improvements are required. A/B testing these to measure changes in the final macro conversion outcome can be helpful.

Some examples for an eCommerce store are:

• Navigating to a category or sub-category
• Viewing a product page
• Adding a product to the cart
• Progressing further in the checkout process

b) Secondary actions

Secondary actions are conversions that don’t lead to the primary macro conversion goal—they lead to potential macro conversions in the future. These conversions require a lot of engagement from the visitor and help build trust in their minds.

Some examples for an eCommerce store are:

• Using the search button on the site
• Comparing different products
• Watching a video review
• Signing up for an email newsletter
• Adding a product to the wishlist
• Creating an account on the site
• Social media engagement

How can you choose the right micro conversions for your brand?

Any micro-conversion—in order to be effective—has to enhance existing KPIs, improve leads, and contribute to the final macro conversion.

To create micro conversions that’ll readily help reach your set business goals, you need to consider 2 factors: efficiency and effectiveness.

a) Efficiency

These key performance indicators (KPIs) usually measure how many visitors are lost between each step of the conversion funnel. This will help identify the micro conversions that have the greatest impact on your business goals. 

b) Effectiveness

These KPIs focus on the key activities that can lead visitors to become paying shoppers. The idea is to compare various long-term strategies and identify the one that works the best for your business goals. 

Here’s another bit of advice—you’ll know it’s an important micro-conversion to track when it meets any of these 3 criteria:

• Connects to a macro conversion
• Reinforces your KPIs
• Generates more leads

How are micro conversions helpful for low traffic eComm websites?

One of the key issues that low traffic eCommerce websites face is lack of data. 

Since the virtual footfall they receive is low, they don’t get enough traffic to study for further improvements—so for such sites micro conversions can mean:

More data to consider 

If high traffic websites count more conversions, the ones with lower traffic can consider smaller interactions along the customer journey. This can help them prepare for higher traffic & macro conversions as they scale through marketing and branding efforts. 

Friction & pain points show up clearly

With data on micro conversions available, low traffic websites can then identify what’s not working and what can be instantly improved. Typically micro conversions in such cases can reveal which pages are most problematic and what about them shoppers are finding difficult to negotiate. 

Do read: Convert Organic Traffic Into Customers: 16 Ideas for eCommerce Stores

One MAJOR factor to make or break your micro-conversions

That would be user experience, alright.

98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.

Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

And this is the problem ConvertCart solves.

We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.

How we can help you:

Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.