10 quick changes to your ecommerce website to ensure better conversions

Tell me one painful situation you encountered in your ecommerce business. Let me guess- 

• Is it higher cart abandonment? 

• Is it a low conversion rate?

• Is it less time on the site?

• Is it a low add-to-cart rate?

If you are nodding to these questions, the situation is critical. 

The situation might get worse when online buyers land on your product page but do not make any purchases. This is the plight of every ecommerce website that fails to optimize its online store for conversions. 

Have you ever researched why the expected outcome is not coming? Well, let me introduce you to the main problem i.e. poor website design and less user-friendly UX. 

And conversions only happen, when a user finds your website informative, error-free, that also loads quickly within 2-4 seconds. 

So, to eliminate your guesswork, I am here to tell you 10 quick changes you need to implement to multiply your conversions. 

10 changes that will convert your Ecommerce Website into Conversion Machine

1. Add SSL certificate to prove Trustworthiness:

SSL certificate can help you gain profits. Didn’t understand? Here is why-

• It is a sign that shows your potential customer that your website is secured and is not involved in payment data frauds.

• In return, customers will happily submit their personal and payment information with trust.

Next, is how to enable an SSL certificate on your website? Well, in most of the ecommerce software you need to pay an additional fee. However, StoreHippo gives you a free SSL certificate. When you build online store using StoreHippo ecommerce software, you can install an SSL certificate for secured payment transactions. 

2. Change your current theme to a feature-rich theme:

Before changing your theme, you first need to know how to select themes. Keep in mind 5 factors to make a wise choice- 

• Device Responsive i.e. fits mobile and tablets screen and loads quickly

• Easy to edit, customize, and supports real-time updating.

• Drag and Drop feature to add buttons, text, and other elements on a page.

• Supports third party plugin Integration

• Social media Friendly 

• SEO Friendly to increase ecommerce website visibility 

Does the chosen theme have all of the above features? If yes, cheers! No? Then you definitely need a replacement. 

StoreHippo has 100+ custom themes that possess all the qualities stated above. Here is a bonus from StoreHippo - blending the feature of the old theme into the new theme is also available.

3. Optimize Images and Video for Fast Site loading:

Customers will leave your ecommerce website if it takes more than 3- 5 seconds to load. To combat the situation, you need to compress images or videos. Optimization becomes a priority if your customers use smartphones for shopping. 

How to reduce Images or Videos?

• Reduce Image dimensions or pixels without hampering image quality

• use online tools or software like TinyPNG or Photoshop for images and Shotcut or VideoSmaller for video. 

Tip: Compressing multimedia affects quality. So, always attain a balance (not too much or too little) between image quality and size. 

4. Display Customer Reviews and Ratings:

Do you always prefer doing product research before buying? Do you look for testimonials or ratings? This behavior is similar to your customers. They also run behind proof, credibility, and reliability of a product. 

Benefits of showing Reviews & Rating on Ecommerce website-

• Helps in making purchase decisions

• Add flexibility and builds trust

• Enhances customer buying experience 

• Instantly boost sales and attracts returning purchases

StoreHippo lets you add a separate element of customer reviews and ratings on your page, which is available in your website theme. 

5. Use Notification for personalization:

Call back the lost customers, using personalized notifications by tracking customer’s purchase history. Let’s explore notification types and benefits. 

Type of notification-

• Push notification: To convert mobile app users 

• Email notification: To convert customers by sending emails about cart abandonment, sale, discount on wishlist products, product reviews, and give delivery status, 

• SMS Notification: To attract mobile users by sending relevant notifications on best deals, delivery, orders, etc

• Web notifications: To convert desktop buyers by sending alerts on the latest deals based on purchase history.

Benefits of Personal Notifications-

• Re-engage inactive users into active users

• Create a sense of urgency to buy instantly

• Freedom to target location-specific customers

From StoreHippo’s dashboard, you can send relevant notifications by adding time, date, frequency, images, call to action text, and more. So easy!

6. Make your website Mobile responsive:

Before a mobile users buy from an online store, they look for 3 things- 

Fast loading websites

• Easy to find content and to navigate

• Easy and fast payment with easy checkout

Great news: Mobile sales is predicted to be 53% of total ecommerce sales.

Now you know how important it is to make your website mobile responsive i.e. easy to load, fits mobile screens, simple page structure, and optimized images

7. Build a Navigation Menu Bar

Ecommerce Website menu tells users about you and your products. Your menu is a shortcut to product categories. Not meant to publicize your brand. To make a user-friendly menu, follow the suggestions-

• Use a drop-down menu with categories and subcategories. For example- Women> western wear> Jeans

• Should provide filtered navigation. Example: Shop by concern, shop by size, shop by 

• Properly linked with category pages

• Include categories like bestsellers, latest deals to attract attention.

On StoreHippo, you get ready-made, custom menus in the theme. You can add categories and subcategories in just a few minutes.

8. Not to forget Discounts & Coupons:

Discount and coupons! The word itself is a conversion magnet. It is the best way to bring shoppers to your ecommerce website. Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, and other big ecommerce brands have used such offers in the past to earn millions. Let’s explore further. 

4 Proven Benefits from Offers

• Boost customer interest and loyalty

• Help in converting customers

• Fast clearance of Stocks

• Meets annual sales objective

Types of Discounts to offer

• Percentage-based discount i.e. 60%, 30%

• Flat discount i.e. Rs 500 off

• Free delivery 

• Free samples or gifts

StoreHippo discount helps you create similar discounts and coupons to attract and convert customers. Just create discounts on your dashboard and make it live on selected products. 

9. Offer Multiple Payment options:

Customers look for flexibility and comfort during online buying. You need to build online store that offers multiple payment options to complete a purchase. To select the best payment gateways, research below 3 aspects-

• Target Customer location 

• Customer preferences and Psychology

• Widely used payment mode and platform

For example- If your customers are from India and your target buyers are between 18 years to 30 years, then you should enable mobile wallets and credit cards/debit cards on your web store. 

However, you have mixed audiences and locations. You should implement COD, wallets, net banking and UPI, etc.

StoreHippo ecommerce software provides 50+ integrated payment gateways that you can configure on your site for quick checkouts and order placing. 

10. Internal Linking for Easy website navigation:

To improve the customer shipping experience, your website should be linked properly to direct customers from one page (home page) to another(product/category page). 

Internal linking also helps in SEO and conversions. Watch out for the key steps to build online store more effective-

• Link your homepage to the category pages of the website. 

• Link your category page to all the products it includes. For example- a women western wear category page should have links to products like tees, tops, shirts, dresses, skirts, pants, etc. And also links to the brand page(if someone is interested in a particular brand).

• Link your product pages to the cart page and checkout page. 

Final Words

I hope now you have the correct idea- why your website is not getting the required conversions?. You might be amazed to find that there is no one factor but many factors that prevent your customers from buying. 

How to rectify those errors? To rectify, let’s quickly understand from the below pointers.

• Build an online store that is quick to load on mobile and desktops

• Choose a responsive and high converting theme

• Offer festive discounts on selected popular products.

• Focus on easy website navigation to lower customer confusion.

• Send push messages via emails, SMS to push customers towards checkout.

Build online store that gives your users an ultimate buying experience and makes them returning customers. 

Don’t know where to start? Try Storehippo ecommerce software to build a conversion-friendly website in a few days. Sign up for a 14-day free trial!