For what length of time is eCommerce conversion measured?

While there’s no standard answer for this, most businesses come to conclusions about their conversion rate over a period of time. For example, if you’re running a marketing campaign, it may be wise to observe the trends across a minimum of two to three months to come to conclusions about conversions.

Does improving eCommerce conversions need a strategy?

The short answer to this is: yes. The strategy aspect is often referred to as Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). CRO looks at optimizing various key parts of your web and mobile sites to make them more engaging, accessible and relevant for potential customers. Some key aspects that you can consider making more effective through CRO are: - High-intent pages (like the homepage, landing pages, product pages and checkout page) - Overall design and UX - Copywriting - Quality and relevance of visuals - Navigation menus - Product recommendations - Pricing & offers - Returns & shipping

24 Scientific Strategies to Increase your eCommerce Conversion Rate

Q: What are the common misconceptions around eCommerce conversion rates?

Implementing CRO best practices will instantly resolve conversion issues. This is a big illusion because uplifting your conversion rate means a bunch of other things, including having a robust marketing strategy and innovating on product offerings as time goes by, amongst several more. Some branding tweaks here and there, and sales will improve This is a dangerous assumption made by many businesses that think branding is ONLY about the look and feel. In reality, branding is about WHAT you do to make your customers’ buying journey a whole lot easier and enjoyable. Doing what a competitor is doing will change the conversion rate for the better Nothing is farther from the truth. Even in the same category, every business is different - right from their USP to the way they prefer engaging with customers. So no two businesses employing the same techniques can ever have the same results.

How do I increase my conversion rate—the one problem every eCommerce founder grapples with—every day.

And rightly so: over 98% of visitors to eCommerce sites do not buy. (The average conversion rate for eCommerce is just 1.82%.)

But at the same time, there are successful eCommerce stores that convert up to 20% of their visitors.

What do they do differently? Science: they rely heavily on user behavior studies.

We're not saying they don't use hacks, they just use them scientifically:

1. Hustle & get more micro-conversions

2. Sprinkle urgency nudges across the store

3. Simplify your checkout flow

4. Build trust (use labels generously)

5. Improve your site’s “search” experience

6. Promote benefits, not features

7. Deliver better mobile experience

8. Make returns easy and flexible

9. Make your navigation easy

10. Use pricing incentives smartly

11. Feature attractive cart deals

12. Use only hi-res product images (& show multiple angles)

13. Make recommendations super relevant

14. Feature reviews with images/videos

15. Prevent cart abandonment with amazing exit intent pop-ups

16. Make your live chat instantly helpful

17. Incentivize pre-orders

18. Get more people to add to cart (design CTA smartly)

19. Use coupons to draw shoppers across the funnel

20. Create personalization beyond third-party cookies

21. Create loyalty milestone features

22. Offer multiple popular payments (& express CTAs)

23. Simplify all forms (especially the checkout form)

24. Decrease loading time

How To Increase eCommerce Store's Conversion Rate

1. Hustle & get more micro-conversions

The science behind this: The design of micro-conversions falls back on how developmental milestones work—the idea that a set of markers along a journey need to be met before the final maturation or destination (in this case, a macro conversion.)

The small steps that a shopper takes towards finally converting are micro-conversions—after all, it takes an average of 8 touches to generate a conversion.

So, if you can optimize micro-conversions, your chances in turn of increasing your eCommerce conversion rate improve as well.

Here are some of the ways to use micro-conversions to do conversion rate optimization for eCommerce::

✅ Feature a share button wherever you list products on your site

✅ Make discount offers on notification bars clickable

✅ Showcase your social buttons in the primary navigation

✅ Offer email sign-up pop-ups to first-time visitors

For more advice, check out: 11 Brilliant Ways to Get More Micro-Conversions (For 2024)

2. Sprinkle urgency nudges across the store

The science behind this: Urgency is when a buyer feels like they need to act quickly—the bigger principle behind this is loss aversion, the trait people exhibit at feeling twice the pain than they’d have gaining something.

Nudge marketing that triggers urgency in shoppers is essential to improve eCommerce conversion rate.

Such nudges work especially well across high-intent pages including the home page, category page and product pages.

Here are a few ideas to apply urgency to increase eCommerce conversion rate:

✅ Color code a sentence on “X people are viewing this right now” in your PLP

✅ Label images of products that have steep limited time discounts as “flash deal”

✅ Offer a “low stock alert” right above or below a primary CTA

✅ Feature a “final clearance for the next X hours/days” on the homepage

3. Simplify your checkout flow

The science behind this: When shoppers do make up their mind about a purchase, they expect all related information to appear so that the decision seems sound—it’s the principle of transparency at play!

Between what happens once a shopper adds-to-cart and pays has a huge bearing on your eCommerce conversion rate.

Bad checkout experiences result in multiple drops, many of them never to come back—to avoid this:

✅ Make discounts automatically applicable (and take away the option of searching for them)

✅ Feature the option to guest checkout option

✅ Offer a progress bar to show progress from shipping to payment details

✅ Show trust seals within the first scroll to eliminate doubt

4. Build trust fast (use labels generously)

The science behind this: The principle of perceived trustworthiness enables a shopper to bank on your brand and products—not just increasing their intent to buy but also spend on products that are relatively unfamiliar to them.

Two things challenge shopper trust THE MOST:

Quality and payment security—so if you can offer them visual reassurance around these, nothing like it.

To create trust, here are some eCommerce conversion optimization tips:

✅ Feature icons on how you do ethical business—this could involve info around sourcing, use of labor or even the materials

✅ Display your SSL certificate in the footer itself—instead of waiting to show it on later pages like checkout

✅ Bring in payment security nudges across the store—show logos on your footer, feature them around the CTA on product pages and even display them in-cart

✅ Bring any third-party accreditation upfront—this is especially if you’re working for a cause or have sustainability as one of your chief principles

5. Improve your site’s “search” experience

The science behind this: Natural language processing or NLP decides how a search bar “reads” a shopper’s query and throws up results that are closest to what the shopper is looking for.

To improve your eCommerce conversion rates in 2024, here are a few aspects your search function needs to cover:

✅ Hint text to tell shoppers what they can hope to find

✅ Autocorrect & auto-suggest (with strong error tolerance)

✅ In-category and sitewide search results

✅ A list of trending searches

✅ Personalized recommendation results based on behavior, purchase history etc.

✅ Add prompts under the products in search results like

Selling Fast
Only 3 products left
Influencer Faves
Top 10 bestsellers
Editor’s Picks
Currently in 25 carts
7 shoppers are eyeing this right now
10% off until stocks last
Trending on Tiktok

6. Promote benefits, not features

The science behind this: Good writing that also creates a narrative for your products has the ability to light up the neural circuitry in your shoppers’ brains—and this in turn can convince them to buy!

And if you ask us, while highlighting benefits, you’ll have to remember that they include what a product can do plus what the shopper will receive if they buy more.

To improve eCommerce conversion rate, you'll have to pitch your benefits in the following ways:

✅ Mention point rewards on purchases across product pages

✅ Feature referral rewards that make existing customers talk about your brand among those they know

✅ Talk about the kind of trust you’ve built & how that translates into your products being differentiated

See what Burt’s Bees does:

Burt's Bees talks about product differentiation to improve conversion rates

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✅ Use bullets for product benefits, and in easily relatable words (“hydrates your skin on an extra busy day”)

✅ Use icons and one-word highlights to relay the product’s UVP

✅ Create content divisions based on “why,” “when,” “who” and “how” to make it easier to consume

eCommerce brand Fenty Beauty covers brand highlights, product highlights, ingredients, how-to, sustainability info and product impact in their product page content to reduce choice paralysis:

Fenty Beauty product page content example

7. Deliver better mobile experience

The science behind this: Change blindness is a visual phenomenon where shoppers don’t register important changes in their mobile experience journey, creating chances for lower conversions.

A report shows that out of 60% of eCommerce traffic, 53% of sales are through mobile commerce sites.

Here’s what to do on mobile when you’re wondering how to increase eCommerce conversion rate::

Here are a few key aspects to cover:

✅ Highlight CTAs upon hover

✅ Use only forward & backward pointing arrows to indicate moving forward & going back

✅ Keep your error messages short and sweet

✅ Feature product filters at the top of the page

For more actionable advice, read: eCommerce Mobile UX: 27 Ways to Get More Conversions & 35 Tactics to Increase Mobile Conversion Rate

8. Make returns easy and flexible

The science behind this: Reciprocity often seals the deal between eCommerce businesses and customers because the latter get convinced the business is there to help them beyond purchases.

Create a policy that has room for seasonal variations, customer preferences as well as some unusual events (like the product is intact but the packaging is lost.)

Here are a number of aspects you’ll have to:

✅ Clarify the date of return and how you will refund their money through an email

✅ Link your returns policy alongside your product info

✅ Keep customers informed about the status of their returns (through email, SMS or both)

eCommerce brand ASOS is known for their detailed and flexible returns policies, which are further broken down for the shoppers’ convenience:

9. Make your navigation easy

The science behind this: You want to reduce your shoppers' cognitive load. Make things so simple that they take the next step almost automatically (don't make them work hard to understand).

A simple navigation with limited featured categories and well-organized sub-categories makes for happy shoppers—it’s because a great navbar reduces cognitive load.

Here are a few steps to check for while enhancing your eCommerce conversion rate:

✅ Do links change in appearance when you hover over them?

✅ Is every navigation option less than 3 words? (Men’s Jackets is good, Hoodie Jackets for Men is not)

✅ Are you featuring “new arrivals” or “bestsellers” on the nav bar?

✅ Is the search icon visible? (btw, always use a magnifying glass - saves space

10. Use pricing incentives, smartly

The science behind this: Psychological pricing hits the “sweet” spot the shopper finds agreeable (based on competition, perceived value etc.) and convinces them to buy more.

What pricing strategy you set for your brand to improve conversion rate largely depends on your business goals. For example, while cost-plus pricing may be ideal for a smaller eCommerce business, a larger one may benefit more from competition-based or value-based pricing.

No matter what pricing strategy you use for conversions, here are a few pricing hacks you can try:

✅ Discounts: feature a subscription or quantity discount (like BOGO), declare a seasonal sitewide discount or even announce a discount just on select categories in your store

✅ Limited time deals: Also called flash deals, these can be effective when you apply them on bestsellers or fast-selling clearance items

✅ Free shipping: You can consider offering free 2-day or 3-day shipping and incorporating a shipping calculator for express shipping based on location (especially if you’re into international eCommerce)

✅ Membership perks: Drop special email-only surprise prices for your loyal customers or announce members-only tiered

11. Feature attractive cart deals

The science behind this: The Fogg Behavior Model talks about three steps to making an individual perform a behavior: motivation, ability and trigger (to buy, in the eCommerce context.) Ask yourself: Are you forgetting to remind shoppers to perform any of the three?

When you’re toying around with eCommerce conversion best practices, you’ll have to consider the number of people who add-to-cart and then drop off.

Research shows the average cart abandonment rate across all industries is around 69.57%.

Here are a few ideas for your mini cart / cart page:

✅ Showcase last-minute quantity discounts

✅ Feature gift-wrapping at zero cost

✅ Help them earn membership points when they spend a certain amount

✅ Feature a free gift (but include it in the product price)

BONUS RESOURCE: 10 Unusual Ways to Boost You eCommerce Conversion Rate

10 unusual ways to increase eCommerce conversion rate

12. Use only hi-res product images (& show multiple angles)

The science behind this: The design principle of context comes into the picture here, because in an eCommerce scenario, shoppers can't really touch and feel the product before deciding.

How much detail you can show of a product will decide how much of it will sell.

So, to get more conversions through product imagery make sure you:

✅ Visually represent the uniqueness of similar types of products

✅ Highlight multiple contexts of use (for example if a bag can be used both for travel and partying, show how)

✅ Create a modal to offer deeper context (like how the bag would look based on shopper’s height, body type etc.)

✅ Always offer at least 3 images of the main product in various angles (before you show it as part of a look)

13. Make recommendations super relevant

The science behind this: Information framing is a principle that allows an eCommerce business to frame a set of recommendations within a narrative that the buyer is likely to take seriously—based on a target segment’s biases and preferences.

Since every eCommerce site features product recommendations across high-intent pages, shoppers are jaded—and you gotta be smart.

Here are some ways to get the emotional triggers, social influences and cognitive biases come together to make your recommendations more attractive:

✅ Place your star products in the middle (to trigger the central fixation bias)—that’s what eCommerce brand Beer Cartel does:

✅ Recommend products “just for you” (the exclusive angle will always make ‘em pause)

✅ Highlight top selling products from that specific category in individual product pages

✅ Offer suggestions under “We’ve curated the highest-rated (insert product category) you’ll love”

14. Feature reviews with images/videos

The science behind this: While reviews are all about driving social proof, enriching them further with visuals & videos uses the principle of customer-centricity, that is, putting the customer at the center & understanding their core needs.

65% of the world population happens to be “visual learners”—and this makes reviews that carry visuals more convincing.

Here are a few ways some of the best brands optimize conversion in eCommerce through reviews:

✅ Highlight a call-out for each review (usually when you highlight a benefit, it’s most effective-”solved my skin eruptions in 2 months”

✅ Use a “verified buyer” badge to build trust

✅ Feature a “did you find this helpful?” nudge to gather data for the future

15. Prevent cart abandonment with amazing exit intent pop-ups

The science behind this: The psychology of FOMO when leveraged, triggers both anxiety in a shopper as well as offers them a reward to ease that anxiety.

Rest assured, the same X% off exit-intent pop-up won’t work for everyone—if you’re trying to improve your online store conversion rate, you’ll have to target shoppers across the conversion funnel.

And to do this, you’ll have to fix what content you feature on the pop-up:

✅ Offer an extra X% off over the existing sale for first-time customers

✅ Offer a quantity discount to cart abandoners (make it a limited time offer for FOMO)

✅ Offer a refill reminder along with a bundle saving suggestion to a repeat customer

✅ Highlight your brand newsletter by talking about the kind of content shoppers can expect (improving confirmation bias)

✅ Feature a “wishlist it before it runs out” pop-up nudge

✅ Offer an email signup nudge promising an exclusive discount on the products in the cart

✅ Send a cart abandonment reminder (& feature a free shipping offer when they order within X minutes)

Check out: Cart Abandonment Pop-Up: 14 Amazing Examples (That Actually Work)

16. Make your live chat instantly helpful

The science behind this: The principle of interactivity, which is especially relevant in web 2.0, treats clear & real-time communication as a cornerstone of customer experience.

Amongst one of the most underrated eCommerce conversion best practices is to make your live chat be more accessible & helpful—research has proven that 43% of customers spend more on the brands they feel loyal to and support creates loyalty.

Plus, 42% of customers prefer live chat compared to just 23% for email and 16% for social media or forums.

To increase website conversion through live chat :

✅ Use a text label that’s welcoming (something as simple as “Hi! How can we help?” can be effective)

✅ Offer a way to attach pictures (this is especially helpful for faulty products)

✅ Offer tappable links for finding products, checking the stock and confirming email address

eCommerce brand Endy calls their live chat “the comfort concierge” and features links to resources that can answer vital questions by shoppers:

17. Incentivize pre-orders

The science behind this: Pre-orders relate to the psychology of hype that blows up any announcement of a scarce kind, and that becomes a marketing tactic on its own.

If you’re wondering how to improve eCommerce conversion rate, making pre-orders attractive for potential customers can be a leading strategy.

While it’s commonly thought that pre-orders are relevant only for eCommerce product launch scenarios, in reality, they can also be applied to:

- Limited time products

- Seasonal bestsellers

- Popular out-of-stock products

Here's how to increase your conversions through pre-orders:

✅ You’re sure about the existing product but not sure how a new variant will do in the market

✅ You’ve come up with a product based on customer feedback and will need to check real-time response

✅ You’re launching a line / product in collaboration with another brand

18. Get more people to add to cart (design CTA smartly)

The science behind this: It’s not enough to get your CTAs to look great from the UX standpoint—they’re worthwhile only if they’re able to drive the principle of desire in a shopper to complete the purchase action.

Wondering what your CTAs need to feature apart from a relatable shape and color—here’s a quick list:

✅ Create context around the CTA—you could do this by featuring microcopy that talks about easy returns or even a money-back guarantee

✅ Relatable messaging—yes, the end goal is to get them to shop, but how do you get their interest going first? Loeffler Randall, for example, features its founder and her picks through a compelling CTA:

Loeffler Randall CTA design to drive interest and conversions

✅ Use cues along with CTA text—and that’s mainly because cues offer immediate direction to the action-orientation of shoppers—think of those right-side pointing arrows that people click on instantly!

✅ Orient messaging tone & color to your brand—this cuts out the mundane language while safeguarding the trust your brand is building—one look at eCommerce brand Perky Jerky’s CTAs and you’ll know what we mean:

19. Use coupons to draw shoppers across the funnel

The science behind this: The trigger stage of the Fogg Behavior Model, which often rides on high ability (to buy) but low motivation—this is why coupons give that extra impetus to buy!

How well you use coupons across your site for visitors across your funnel, decides how your online store conversion rate improves.

Here are some evergreen coupon ideas we’ve seen work in our eCommerce conversion tactics:

✅ In-cart referral discounts (ask for the referral code and make the discount applicable)

✅ Free shipping coupons

✅ Free trials on upgrades for high-value customers

✅ Extra X% off for members

✅ First-time buyer email opt-in discount code

eCommerce brand Whistlefish, for example, urges email subscribers to move towards their first-time order but with a limited time offer:

Don't forget to check out: Promote Your Online Store in the USA - 17 Unique Ideas

20. Create personalization beyond third-party cookies

The science behind this: Using zero-party data for hyper personalization falls back on the principle of purpose limitation, that is to use the information that’s compatible only with an agreed purpose.

Since third-party cookies are all set to phase out by mid-2024, your eCommerce conversion rate strategy now has to depend on first-party data.

The idea is to look at more avenues that can offer you quality data about your customers—here are a few ways:

✅ Ask for feedback (limit the number of questions to revolve around product recommendations, navigation, search results and product descriptions)

✅ Send content over emails that reflect their preferences and the problems they’re likely to want to solve

✅ Check patterns from questions asked and problems mentioned on customer service calls & requests

21. Create loyalty milestone features

The science behind this: Milestone offers and deals connect back to reinforcement theory, which has to do with customers getting more of what they want by doing certain tasks (in this case, engaging with a brand longer, buying more etc.).

First things first: knowing your customer journey map becomes crucial in creating milestone offers that customers will in fact want to redeem.

To create milestone offers that really count:

✅ Feature surprise perks—for example, if someone has already bought twice from you, feature a surprise discount for them on a new product launch

✅ Offer an upgrade for every X points—this can drive their loyalty to increase AOV—a win-win!

✅ Replace your social wall with a loyalty wall—and make sure to mention how long each shopper has been around!

eCommerce brand Ulta is known to honor a number of important customer milestones including birthdays, purchase anniversaries as well as spends:

ULTA features customer milestones in this email

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22. Offer multiple popular payments (& express CTAs)

The science behind this: Featuring multiple recognized payment methods drives the theory of inclusivity, which is all about creating choices for a wider audience based on geography, cultural norms as well as behavioral tendencies.

For improving eCommerce conversion rate, it’s important that you feature a number of payment alternatives—audit your target audience preferences and also see what competitors are doing.

Next, check factors like payment compatibility with the platform you’re using as well as geographic location of your shoppers.

You'd love to read: eCommerce Conversion Rate Audit Checklist (+ Ideas For Improving Conversion Rate)

23. Simplify all forms (especially the checkout form)

The science behind this: The idea of priming ensures a shopper is gently nudged with a course of action that finally ends in the purchase closing without friction. And this is what well-designed forms in eCommerce are supposed to do—guide towards closure without becoming an effort!

Here’s a list of functionalities that we’ve seen the best eCommerce forms drive action with:

✅ Limit number of fields when you’re asking for key info—if it’s about a guest checkout, make sure you ask for nothing more than the phone number, for example

✅ Feature limited questions (especially if it’s a funnel quiz)—for more detailed personalization, you may need an extra edge of gamification to keep things interesting

✅ Display a progress bar when multiple steps are involved—ideal in that checkout form especially

✅ Bring in auto-functions such as date & address pickers (associated with a number or email)

24. Decrease loading time

The science behind this: 47% expect websites to load within two seconds—this relates to performance-related stress that can lead to shoppers experiencing negative emotions, which in turn can affect their engagement with an eCommerce brand.

47% expect websites to load within two seconds.

The fastest hacks to reduce website speed to enhance eCommerce conversion rate include:

✅ Choose an image compression plugin that does not hinder image quality

✅ Reduce redirects while building internal links

✅ Disable plugins you don’t use / that have overlapping functionalities

For more, there’s: Smart Ways To Speed Up Your eCommerce Store (Top 5 Platforms Covered)