11 Guaranteed Ways To Boost Revenue per Visitor (eCommerce)

An eCommerce store is a goldmine but unfortunately, brands don’t know what to optimize for more conversions. Most eCommerce sites have high traffic but convert less.

With the average eCommerce bounce rate of 45.68%, brands need to turn to Revenue per Visitor as a long-term growth metric. 

Shockingly, only 16% of eCommerce brands use RPV as a key business metric. 

And a sizable number of brands want to increase their RPV but don’t know where to start. 

And it's still not too late to fix this (Pinkie promise)

Here are 11 guaranteed ways to boost Revenue per Visitor featuring examples from real brands.

1. Optimize product pages (not just the way Amazon does it) 

Yes, every marketer and CRO expert is telling you to optimize product pages.

Why? 

Because an eCommerce product page helps a shopper discover product specifications.

How everyone does it

Amazon writes long product names and detailed product descriptions. So most eCommerce brands do the same. They place all the elements on the product page just as other brands in their industry do it. 

If brands want to optimize anything, they add plugins or replicate customizations from established brands, without really understanding why.    

How you can do it differently:

Organize information into neat sections. Product pages are where customers look for information yet most eCommerce brands don’t work on making them reader friendly.

Let’s go through the anatomy of a reader friendly product page with an example from BuiltAthletics. 

Here’s what it gets right — 

Social proof: Star ratings and user reviews have a greater impact on purchase decisions. 88% of customers consider user reviews on par with personal recommendations while 57% of buyers will only buy from a brand having a minimum 4-star rating. 

In-stock and ready for shipping: In-stock alert and ready for shipping nudges arouse curiosity in customers to make the purchase. 33% of last-minute shoppers look for options based on how fast they can get them.  

Recently viewed: Recently viewed is a navigational cue where users can go back and take a second look at the products. This keeps them engaged on the site and not exit. 

CTA: A single CTA that is dominant grabs more attention than two. It also has a floating CTA as the user scrolls down the page using it as a nudge to reinforce the purchase decision. 

Product description: The product description includes specific details such as no amino acid spiking and lists the nutritional information in bullets. This enables cognitive ease, making it easy for users to read. It’s always OK to experiment with formats and show product features via illustrations, emoticons, tables, or bulleted lists.  

Product images: Product images featuring a white background make viewability easy. It is more professional and persuasive. 75% of customers base their purchase decisions on product images. 

So, clarity is non-negotiable. Interestingly, 22% of product returns happen because the product delivered looks different from the one shown in product images. 

Check out 23 Proven Ways To Increase Product Page Conversions

2. More experience driven, less SEO

While traffic is the initial goal, what most eCommerce brands do — Copy, paste, and repeat. 

Copying the competitors may seem to be a genius move, but what’s working for them may not work for you. 

The result? High traffic but abysmal conversions. 

How everyone does it 

Every average brand prioritizes keyword research instead of thinking of an audience-first approach. 

How you can do it differently 

Don’t get complacent with increasing traffic. Make sure your traffic converts into customers. Give them reasons to buy from you. 

Use persuasion to your advantage with:

a) Free shipping 

Including free shipping in above the fold is a compelling nudge to attract customers. 90% of customers will buy more often if given free shipping. 

RXBar includes free shipping in its above the fold. 

Interestingly, 73% of customers are more likely to buy an item if it includes free shipping. 

b) Easy returns 

A convenient return policy reduces the chance of buyer’s remorse and risk aversion. It inspires confidence in the customer to try the product and return if they don’t like the product. 

BOSE has a 90-day risk-free trial mentioned above the fold. 92% of customers will buy again if returns are easy whereas 67% check the returns policy before making a purchase.

c) Key messaging aka Value proposition 

Your homepage creates a first impression about how your business can solve their problems and make their lives easier. 

Adding a value proposition to your homepage can convert the traffic into customers. In fact, A/B testing the value proposition on the homepage can lead to a 35% increase in CTR. 

A value proposition is a message that helps position your business around the buyer’s pain point. 

Squatty Potty conveys its value proposition in a simple way with ‘You were designed to squat’. 

The value proposition is a suggestive cue pointing toward the person in the image. This is a visual cue that subtly draws attention without making it obvious. 

Squatty conveys its value by offering its stool as a solution to constricted bowel movements. 

3. Celebrate milestones to make shoppers HAPPY

While customer acquisition may seem to be the hardest part, for some its customer retention. 

Given the dozens of options to choose from, 88% of customers opine that it takes two to three purchases to develop brand loyalty. 

How everyone does it 

Many stores are obsessed with new users and often end up paying less attention to getting repeat customers.

How you can do it differently 

Make customers feel at home. You want them to feel happy while they shop from you. And they’ll come back to buy from you again. 

The first step is to offer savings options to customers. Terra Origin offers savings options for its customers. Savings triggers a subconscious urge to make use of them. 

According to the Rule of 100, shoes priced at $50 become appealing with a 30% discount as opposed to $15 off. On the other hand, $600 sunglasses are more attractive at $180 off than 30% off. 

This is primarily due to the framing principle which changes perception. Summing up, a percentage discount works better for items under $100 whereas a dollar-off discount is more compelling for items priced over $100. 

Offer emotional benefits 

Beauty Insider, Sephora’s flagship loyalty rewards program is free for all. For every dollar spent, you earn 1 point. The program has three tiers — Beauty Insider, VIB, and Rouge. 

The program works on emotional drivers as opposed to incentive-based. Customers get special perks like birthday gifts, free standard shipping, and access to brand multiplier events. 

With experiences such as rewards bazaar, same-day unlimited delivery, exclusive and product launches, Sephora gives an opportunity to be part of an elite community. 

The rewards community has 17 million members in North America alone and is rapidly growing. With 80% of its sales coming from Beauty Insider, the loyalty rewards program has taken personalization to a whole new level. 

4. Let customers *choose* their product bundles 

Nearly 10-30% of eCommerce revenue comes from product bundling. The problem, however, is that most eCommerce brands aren't creative with these bundling tactics. 

How everyone does it

Most eCommerce sites are lazy with their product bundling strategies. They offer non-editable product bundles. 

How you can do it differently 

Start offering two or more products having a single price range. Chewy offers a product bundle of 3 items with an option to remove items. There is also a DIY and customizable option for customers to pick items of their choice. 

With the discounts offered on product bundles, customers will stop and think for a while about the benefits of buying the bundle. This is similar to BOGO except customers get to remove the items. 

This is effective as it doesn’t come across as pushy. 

Next, combine high-priced and low-priced items that have intrinsic value. 

MyProtein has a Protein Starter Pack consisting of a Vegan Protein Blend and a free shaker. 

The utility value of the protein blend is enhanced by the shaker. The shaker is a major incentive for customers to buy the product. 

Lastly, offer different types of products at a hard-to-beat price. The bundle must reinforce customers and influence their purchase decision. 

Here is an example of MyProtein offering a pre-workout, whey isolate, and a shaker. All three are essentials for a regular gym goer. 

Need help with product bundling? Read 13 product bundling examples that convert (& 10 proven ideas)

5. Make product recommendations smart (omnichannel + browsing activity) 

Product recommendations may not seem significant given it comprises a mere 7% of the search traffic but contributes to 26% of the eCommerce revenue. 

Proven to reduce cart abandonment rates and increase AOV, personalized product recommendations aren’t difficult with users consenting to share behavioral data. 

How everyone does it 

Most product recommendations are made with an intention to upsell without having any data to back it up. This is more based on guesswork hoping people will buy. 

How you can do it differently 

 Make product recommendations using WhatsApp to keep the conversation going. This ensures that the interaction is smoothly transferred from your website to the customer’s phone. 

Using WhatsApp Business to suggest product recommendations or cart abandonment reminders can result in more sales as text messages have an open rate of 98%. 

This can help cross-channel customer interaction go from your website to the customer's smartphone. This helps touch various touch points in the customer journey to make omnichannel commerce possible. 

Featuring ‘Frequently bought together’ generates interest as it evokes social cognition. According to this principle, customers are highly likely to buy products that are purchased by people similar to themselves. 

Bodybuilding.com features ‘Frequently bought together’ on its product page. 

Using a customer favorite product badge on your product category page can help in conversions. American Tourister does it well. 

Using the right product badges can mark a 55% increase in conversions. 

Explore eCommerce Product Recommendations: Strategies, Examples, Do's/Don'ts

 6. Price optimizations to the rescue (Implement decoy pricing) 

Pricing for most eCommerce brands includes a spray-and-pray approach such as setting too low prices, setting prices solely based on competitors’ pricing, and not updating as per market fluctuations. 

How everyone does it 

Price Anchoring has a psychological effect on the customer’s mind but strike-through pricing is becoming more common. And that’s not bad. However, there are other ways to visually present price optimization which increases the perceived value of the product. This can boost your conversion rates by a large margin. 

How you can do it differently 

Here are a couple of price optimization practices that are known to work better:

a) Price drops 

A price drop is a psychological pricing strategy where customers seem to show an interest in response to a subconscious trigger. It works as a nudge for customers to browse products and act on impulse. 

Price drops are effective in converting first-time visitors into paying customers. It reduces cart abandonments. 

ASOS uses price drop badges showing percentage drops in the category pages. 

Remember, use price drop badges on your category and product pages to see major improvements. 

b) Decoy pricing 

Much like a magician using a prop as a decoy to perform magic tricks, decoy pricing is a tactic where a low priced product is used to increase the perceived value of a higher-priced product. 

Built Athletics uses decoy pricing on its product page where three different products are priced differently with different flavors. 

Observe how the middle product is higher priced with 6 options whereas the second and third products are priced lesser with fewer to zero options. 

This is decoy pricing at its finest. Customers are led to believe that the middle product being the expensive one, has a higher perceived value. 

Become a pro at pricing. Check out Pick the right product price: 8 eCommerce pricing best practices

7. Make checkout hospitable (Go beyond guest checkout) 

Checkout abandonment is a problem that’s been increasing at an alarming rate. 

Reasons include high shipping costs (48%), account creation(24%), and long and complex checkout processes (17%). There are still no full-fledged strategies to arrest checkout abandonment rates. 

How everyone does it 

Lengthy account creation—people drop off. Guest checkout, but you lose out on customer data. 

How you can do it differently 

a) Say hello to OTP 

The good thing about OTP is customers don’t have to enter passwords and email IDs which makes them highly vulnerable to cyber fraud. With OTP, customers are less prone to cyber phishing attacks as there is no call or email. 

You can also offer biometrics or QR code scanning for account creation. 

b) Offer social signups 

 Making life easier for your customers is the sole aim of offering social signups. 77% of customers prefer social login as an ideal solution to account creation. Primarily, as they don’t have to fill in long-form fields to create an account.

Customers are willing to share their social media data as it's easier for them to sign up. With this, you get their email addresses for sending personalized offers and content for your marketing campaigns. 

c) Incentivize account creation  

There’s nothing a free shipping nudge can’t do. 66% of customers expect free shipping and they will do what it takes to avail the same. 

Case in point, UnderArmour offers free shipping in exchange for creating an account. 

The reason why it works is because of the high reward and low effort ratio. The other benefits a UnderArmour account offers are easy returns and exchanges and instant order tracking. 

You'll love this. Read Guest checkout: Still a good choice? (+16 way BETTER alternatives)

8. Mention the stock alert by the second (Real-time stock alert) 

Driving urgency with stock alerts is an age-old practice by eCommerce practice that has failed to evolve with changing consumer behavior. 

How everyone does it 

eCommerce brands add stock alerts without further cues or prompts that make users buy. This no longer drives FOMO as everything is left to chance. 

Including numbers that may or may not be real is a trick that a sizable number of companies use to this day. 

How you can do it differently 

You don’t always have to limit stock alerts to online. Bonne Guele includes options for in-store stock availability. 

This is a strong reinforcement to ensure that customers don’t leave without buying in-store. It's a smart revenue per visitor trick that leverages omnichannel experience. 

In-store pickup reduces returns and offsets shipping costs which is a win-win for both the customer and eCommerce brands. 

The benefit of curbside pickup is placing the order online and picking it up from the store saving shipping costs. 

The rise of curbside pickup is on the rise as 85% of customers chose curbside pickup options since the onset of the pandemic. 

9.  Wishlist optimizations: Add experience to the wishlist  

Wishlists are an underutilized feature by eCommerce sites. With the revenue that can be generated, there’s a lot to be done other than the bare minimum.

How everyone does it 

The most common wishlist mistake brands make is bland copy such as “Add to Wishlist”—stuff that everyone’s conditioned to ignore. A better alternative would be to name “Favorites” or “My List.” 

How you can do it differently 

Instead of just adding the wishlist option, pairing it with a share option to make referrals is the smart use of real estate. 

BlackMilk includes a Drop a Hint option for customers to share the products with their friends. 

Customers seek recommendations from friends and family because of a high level of trust. In fact, 82% of American buyers seek recommendations from friends and family before making a purchase. 

Another hack that is going to make life easier for customers is the use of filters in wishlists. This will help them sort out product items of different kinds such as clothes, shoes, equipment, etc. 

This is not it. 

Add low-stock alerts in wish lists to compel users to take action. Customers normally add products to wishlists when they want options to compare. A low stock alert will goad them into making a purchase. The perceived value is high in case of low stock situations. 

Thank us later. Check out Order Wishlist Page: 9 Ways to boost conversions (and lessons from Amazon)

10. Offer more than ‘Free’ shipping 

There’s no such thing as free lunch. The economic cost of free can hurt a retailer’s margins by far and large. One might argue that free shipping might just be a case of grapes gone sour. 

Is it really the case? 

Let’s find out!

How everyone does it 

Every brand’s playbook consists of free shipping as the main nudge. The problem is free shipping is not always feasible. 

The costs of shipping tend to fluctuate making it tough on the eCommerce brand’s pocket. Most eCommerce brands include the shipping costs along with purchase which compensates for the costs. 

A sizable chunk of online brands take the economy shipping route where customers have to bear a portion of the shipping costs. While this may provide some relief to brands, customers don’t really like it since the speed is much slower than normal shipping. 

How you can do it differently 

With alternative shipping hogging the limelight, this could well be the alternative to free shipping. 

In alternative shipping, the shipping agent drops multiple packages at one centralized location such as the retail store, warehouse, or a small kiosk. The customer is responsible for picking up the designated location. 

The benefits include saving on fuel costs, reducing gridlock, with the customer receiving the goods earlier than doorstep delivery. 

In-store pickup is a great incentive for last-minute shoppers looking to buy products sooner. 

Anthropologie offers a free in-store pickup option on its product page. 

As a matter of fact, 47% of customers opted for in-store pickup because the shipping costs were high while 25% did so to get the product sooner. 

Customers don’t like long waiting times which makes in-store pickup a must-have option. 

Curbside pickup beats doorstep delivery as its time saving. You research online and make the payment and pick up the product from the store, warehouse, or other location. 

In an NRF study, 43% of customers have taken to curbside pickup with 81% eagerly waiting to try curbside pickup. 

Remember, every step of the customer experience is dictated by convenience. Make it easy for customers and you won’t be disappointed. 

11. Make your size guides as accurate as possible 

Customers, more often than they care to admit, are in limbo as to what they want. Unsure about sizing leads to purchase hesitation dampening conversion rates. 

It gets messier as 83% of apparel sites don’t provide the necessary sizing information.

How everyone does it 

Only relying on alpha sizing (S, M, L, XL) and proving numeric sizing such as waist size 34 and Length 32. 

How you can do it differently 

An accurate sizing guide is the first step. You raise the bar higher by including a fit predictor.  

Here’s how FarFetch uses a Fit predictor to help unsure customers choose the right size. 

Unlike asking for standard measurements, users are asked to select a designer brand that fits them well. 

Once the user selects the category and size, the result appears like this. 

It also saves this for future reference to personalize product recommendations for you. 

This fit predictor makes use of heuristics, the approach to problem-solving using mental shortcuts and other hints. 

Here’s a tip to make your size guides better! 

Provide an image to help customers take measurements just the way UnderArmour does here. 

With 65% of the world's population being visual learners, this helps customers in decision-making. 

A welcome addition would be a fit guide showing how sizes would typically look on a person. 

How to calculate RPV? 

Revenue per visitor (RPV) is calculated by dividing the total revenue in a period by the total number of visitors for the particular period. 

For instance, let’s say your total revenue for December is $12,000 and the number of visitors is 1500, your RPV would be $8. 

Why is RPV imp? / RPV vs AOV 

RPV is a metric that measures the revenue every single visitor brings into the store. It’s a metric that gives a clear picture of the eCommerce store’s health. It helps analyze how well the sales efforts are coming through and what needs to be done to bring it on track. 

While AOV is a metric that does give an estimate of the store's health, the end result is inclusive of all deductions like shipping costs except sales tax. Though your AOV might have increased, it would bleed your profits. 

RPV includes AOV and conversion rates to give the optimum picture of an eCommerce brand’s health. 

Summing up, an increase in revenue can either happen by converting more visitors into customers or increasing the average spend per person. 

RPV doesn’t overlook any of the anomalies. 

Ending thoughts

RPV is a north star metric for eCommerce brands. It offers a holistic picture of the business’s health and includes all scenarios. It has an advantage over AOV and CR because — 

•  CR tracks all purchases as the same when the purchase price is different. This doesn’t give an accurate picture of the customer’s actual spending. 
• AOV, on the other hand, doesn’t track the purchases made by an individual customer. It only measures the overall purchase which is not enough to have an aerial view of the brand’s performance at a micro level. 

For a metric to be North star, it has to satisfy all three prerequisites — measure revenue, mirror customer value, and quantify long-term progress. 

Revenue per Visitor(RPV) satisfies all of the above making it a truly north-star metric. 

Revenue per Visitor 101 

1. What is Revenue per Visitor?

Revenue per Visitor(RPV) is the measurement of revenue earned every time a customer visits your eCommerce site. It is calculated by dividing the total revenue for a period by the number of customers for the corresponding period. It gives the revenue each individual customer brings in. 

2. What is the visitor rate?

Visitor rate is the traffic your site receives on a daily, weekly, and monthly period. The visitor rate includes important metrics such as the number of sessions per user, pages per session, average session duration, and bounce rate. 

It tracks new and returning visitors, session duration buckets(0-10 seconds to 1801+ seconds) pageviews, and User-ID status. 

Concluding, it refers to the percentage of visitors who left the site without making any purchase after spending significant time on the website.

3. How do you calculate average revenue per session? 

The average revenue per session (ARPS) is the average amount of money earned by each unique session on the website. ARPS is calculated by dividing the total revenue earned in a specific time frame by the number of unique website visits. 

Calculating ARPS can help identify the gaps and weaknesses that are hindering conversions. An incline in the trend means more high-intent customers are buying while a declining trend means high visitors and fewer conversions. 

4. How do you calculate revenue per conversion? 

Revenue by conversion(RPC) is calculated by dividing the average revenue generated by visitors who bought because of an experience by the number of conversions.