Your conversion rate will tell you how many visitors are taking a certain action; It could be completing a purchase (obviously the end goal), but it could also fully include a contact form, signing up for a newsletter, etc. You can measure this by setting targets within your analysis program. This will give you valuable statistics and metrics that you can use to measure and help improve your business.
You need to optimize the functionality of the cart. The more clicks a visitor takes to get to the final result, the more likely they are to leave without doing anything. “Abandoning the process” is a big problem in Ecommerce.
Below are ways you can optimize and improve the cart and shopping experience for the customer:
- Simplify the login/registration page
- Rephrase blocks of text to make the user think less
- Remove unnecessary information when registering (date of birth, phone, etc.)
- Reduce the number of clicks it takes to sign up, increase white space, and create a better flow for the process
- Remove the success screen of creating an account
- Just add another click. After registering, take the user directly to the next screen they expected to visit
- Make Add to Cart, View Cart, Checkout, Continue and Submit Order buttons/links more visible, prominent and attractive
- Self explanatory. You want to make sure these important buttons stand out from the rest of the website. It will draw users’ attention and make them unconsciously follow the process you want them to follow.
- Clearly indicate that an item has been added to the cart and do not send them to your cart after adding an item.
- By default, the user will be taken to their cart when they add a product. You want to skip this and let them continue shopping and adding more products
- Simplify the shopping cart page
- Remove unnecessary text such as “Visitor carts are being merged with member carts” etc. Just confused people. Remove the estimate shipping button and add that section directly to the page, it reduces clicks and confusion
- Make changes to the payment submission page
- Change the language
- add white space
- Show payment button prominently
- Make changes to the checkout page
- Same steps as above with checkout shipping page
- Reformulate the payment confirmation page
- Change the language so that the user does not get confused. Make sure they know that one more step is needed to complete the transaction.
- Add the word “Edit” to images.
- Modify the design of the credit card information screen
- Optimize the thank you page
- The only time you have maximum user attention is on the “thank you” page. It is a page that people not only read, but read carefully and take note. Why? Because they want to know what the next steps are to receive the product they just ordered.
- With the information above in hand, this is the page where we should ask them to refer friends and add incentives: receive a discount if you refer a friend, etc.
- You can also provide a customer service survey on this page, so you can collect data that will help you continually improve your cart.
- Create an impulse offer – FREE SHIPPING
- Studies have shown time and time again that free shipping promotions are powerful offers that almost always result in increased sales.
- Simplify navigation where possible
- Whenever possible, you should reduce the number of clicks it takes to find what the user is looking for.
- Build customer trust
- Prominently display secure and SSL images/certifications, return policies, phone numbers, etc.
- Add as many payment methods as possible
- CyberSource reported that retailers that offered three or more payment options saw an average 14% increase in conversions. And Forrester Research claims that alternative payment methods help increase sales and reduce shopping cart abandonment.
The following modules/plugins are recommended:
- Amazon Inventory Uploader
- This will allow you to export the products to an Amazon account where we can list and sell products.
- best sellers page
- This creates a page that will list the best selling items.
- contest system
- By installing this, you can add a contest registration side box and offer the customer a chance to win something in exchange for their email address, which you then upload to your email marketing program.
- Google Frog Feed
- Same functionality as Amazon Inventory Loader, this adds the products to Froogle for sale
- Better together
- Allow cross-selling at a discount; a product can be linked to another specific product, another product in a specific category, or any other product, with an associated discount (in dollars or % off) if both are purchased together
- order steps
- Create a graphical indicator of where you are in the checkout process
- free shipping rules
- This shipping module allows you to offer free shipping when more than one requirement is set. These requirements include order total, total weight, and total items. For example, if the minimum order total is set to $1000 and the maximum weight is set to 5 pounds, free shipping will only be granted for orders that meet BOTH requirements.
- Tell a friend – Free shipping
- This module will give the customer free or reduced shipping if they tell a friend using the form on the website
By implementing the above changes, you should see a significant increase in your sales and conversion rates. For help implementing these changes, and for further assistance with Zen Cart, please contact iBot Web