5 E-Commerce Conversion Hacks for 2017

Are you satisfied with the number of visitors to your e-commerce site who convert into paying customers?

Even if you think sales are OK, there’s always room for improvement, right? Here are e-commerce conversion hacks to boost your bottom line.

#1. Make Your Life Easier. Use WooCommerce.

There’s a reason why we work with WooCommerce: it works!

WooCommerce is the web’s leading e-commerce platform. Because it’s made for WordPress — itself the world’s most popular website software — it’s easy to customize.

The basic package comes with a selection of storefront themes to complement your product line(s) and plugins/tools to manage your inventory, generate reports and bill or invoice customers.

#2. Blog About Your Products.

As we discussed in an earlier e-commerce blog, WooCommerce is user-friendly for blogging. A blog can be your secret weapon for e-commerce conversion.

Blog about topics your customers care about. It underscores your expertise and that you’re on top of customer concerns.

Data generated in your WooCommerce reports will show customer interests and areas for potential blog topics:

• Products with repeat purchases — Blog about their superior performance.
• Products popular during a particular season or holiday — Generate interest in the weeks or months ahead.
• Product upgrades — Write about new and improved features.
• Product maintenance — Offer insights to extend product life.

Examine your email inbox. If someone took the time to communicate about a product (whether good or bad), blog about it. The same applies to returns. Discuss what happened, why and how it can be avoided. Your customers will appreciate the honesty.

In addition, emails contain keywords and phrases that translate into SEO. Put them in your posts to boost your SEO efforts.

#3. Email Marketing Supports E-Commerce Conversion.

Email marketing is a very effective tool to drive customers to your site.

Keep in mind that e-commerce conversion can take time. According to Arnie Kuenn of Vertical Measures, it takes an average of seven outreach attempts.

This doesn’t mean you need seven different email campaigns. Make a good impression from the start by sending post-purchase email receipts that clearly outline the cost for each order, including shipping and tax breakdowns. Customize receipts for each product or product line with a useful message. Examples include additional instructions, return policy or an upcoming sale.

WooCommerce offers an inexpensive email tool that’s as robust as any stand-alone package and includes unlimited attachments and the full range of WordPress language capabilities.

#4. Make Sure Your Site is Optimized.

We can’t say enough good things about Yoast, a WordPress SEO plugin that optimizes each page and post. (There’s a specific version for WooCommerce stores as well)

Yoast’s free version helps you identify a keyword or phrase, lets you know if you’ve used it before, checks keyword density and reminds you to do things like create snippets and photo captions.

#5. Check Your Site on Your Smartphone.

It’s a safe bet that your customers will visit your e-commerce site and make purchases by smartphone.

WordPress and WooCommerce incorporate mobile-friendly design. But it’s up to you to make sure the content you add — in blogs, product descriptions, emails — are mobile-friendly.

White space, short paragraphs, and user-friendly language will all be factors in mobile SEO. Good SEO boosts e-commerce conversion rates.

Bonus: Check Our Blog!

We blog about e-commerce topics. Be sure to sign-up for our e-newsletter to be notified each month about new articles, blogs and more.