If Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales reports have left you hungry for sustained high revenues, you’re likely now on the hunt for ways to increase conversions on your Magento website.
Are we right?
Truth is, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will always lead to bigger peaks in sales – if you prepare correctly – but there are easy things you can do to increase conversions on your Magento website all year round.
Ready to find out what they are?
Dive in as we explore:
- How to create personalised shopping experiences in Magento
- Importance of optimising Magento site load speed
- Why you need to simplify the Magento checkout process
- Multiple payment options for Magento stores
- Mobile Optimisation for Magento
- Why you should offer delivery and product discounts
- The importance of social proof
Get Personal with Your Customers
What, ask them how their weekend was? Of course not. When we talk about getting personal, we mean ensuring every element of their shopping experience with you makes them feel like you know and understand them.
How can you actually know every single visitor to your store inside out? Well, you can’t. But you can take steps to develop personalised shopping experiences for them.
A personalised shopping experience is proven to increase conversions – and when you think about it, why wouldn’t it? Putting products in front of them that you know they are interested in can only lead to good things. In fact, research shows 75% of shoppers actually love it when brands personalise products and offers.
So where do you get started with personalising your customer’s shopping experience?
The easiest way to start personalising the customer’s shopping experience is to first collect real data about the people visiting your site. And the best part is, we aren’t talking about collecting their first boyfriend’s name or secret fetish, we are referring to data that is easily and compliantly collected every time a new person visits your site – or least as a beginner’s step.
Some easy ways to collect basic data about customers are done so through free tools such as Google Analytics, which can be connected to your website using a simple code.
Via Google Analytics, you’re able to see:
- Their location and language
- Which pages they visited first, where they went next, how long they spent on each page and at what page they exited
- How they entered your site – e.g social, search or advert
- The time they tend to visit
- The device they use to shop – mobile or desktop
Using Google Analytics to collect this data gives you the information you need to create customer personas – imaginary people that represent different customer categories. These customer persona’s allow you to be targeted with where and when you show different messaging.
For example,
Let’s say you discover that men in the UK prefer to visit your site via their mobile in the evening and they usually do so when they are browsing Facebook and notice an ad. They enter directly to the product page and usually exit before evening seeing the payment options available and discounts.
Using this data, you can create adverts on Facebook targeting men in the UK, which direct them directly to a product page, but the difference being this time that it’s clearly demonstrated that there is a ‘free delivery’ offer and ‘BNPL options are available’.
Magic, hey?
As you see, personalisation can be done at a very basic level without needing a huge investment and still generate results, just from learning about people’s behaviours. But collecting data via Google Analytics is just the starting point – its main benefit in this scenario is you learn more about a customer’s journey on your site.
If you truly want to get personal with your customers, it’s worth investing in third party personalisation software which collects advanced data and allows you to put specific products and offers in front of customers that you know they’re going to love.
Product Discovery Software for Magento
Klevu is our go to personalisation software for merchants using Magento. What is it? It’s an AI powered software used by Magento merchants that significantly improves conversion rates and revenue. It works by collecting intent data which can then be applied to your customer’s product discovery journey and search.
What does that even mean?
Well basically, when you install Klevu to your Magento website, it keeps a track of what customers are searching for and the pages they are visiting. It then uses this data to create ‘usual behaviours.’ These usual behaviours are then used to recommend specific products to customers when they search – you may be familiar with the old ‘Customers also viewed’, that’s it.
Let’s use the previous example to explore further. You’ve driven the man in the UK to your site via Facebook and he’s seen the free delivery and payment options. He lands on the new product that was in your ads, but you don’t have his size. With Klevu product recommendations installed, rather than him leaving the site, he’s encouraged to explore other products based on what you think he will like – which is derived from the data collected from previous shoppers. Brilliant hey?
Klevu has tons of other features to support personalisation, so why not dig a little deeper.
Work on that page load speed
There’s no excuse for a slow loading website in eCommerce and customers know it. In fact, they know how easy it is to make a page load faster and so it really does damage conversion rates – a whopping 70% of consumers have admitted it’s a major downer on their desire to make the purchase.
But why is this? Well, most of us humans want to be able to do things quickly. We’re impatient and we know that technology exists to speed things up. If a page doesn’t load quickly enough, we’re forced to believe that the retailer hasn’t developed their site properly – translating into them not caring about our experience as a customer. And none of us want that assumption to be made about us, do we?
Good news is, it’s pretty easy to stop that from happening. A popular notion is that the first five seconds of page load time are the ones that matter the most. That doesn’t mean to say you should aim for your pages to load at 5 seconds though because studies show that every one-second delay makes conversion rates drop by 7%.
TIP: It’s thought that anywhere between 0 -2 seconds is the ultimate page load time to aim for.
Tips for reducing page load speed
There are basic and complex things you can do to reduce the time it takes for your pages to load. As we know you’re feeling determined about increasing conversions right now, we’ll give you the basics for now*.
- Optimise all of your images by resizing them appropriately and reducing the file sizes – you can do this using an online tool such as Tiny PNG.
- Get rid of unnecessary videos and animations
- Enable full page caching using Varnish or a paid for service like Fastly
- Implement a content delivery network (CDN) like CloudFlare (it’s FREE) so content is delivered from a server closer to your customer’s location.
Then of course, there’s the most obvious solution which is migrating to Hyva Themes. It’s the front-end solution that prioritises site performance out of the box. Scoring up to 100/100 across Google’s Core Web Vitals, it really is the solution to your performance issues.
*Want more advanced tips? Why not drop us a line with your questions.
Simplify the checkout process in Magento
Even as a merchant it must frustrate you when you try to make a purchase and the checkout process is either too long, requires registration or looks a little dodgy. Well, know that if you’re subjecting your customers to any of these, you’re giving them the same level of frustration and it’s impacting your conversions.
In a recent survey, 17% of shoppers said the reason they abandoned their cart during checkout is because the process was too long/complicated. What gives you a further reality check is the fact that an additional 24% also abandoned their cart because they were required to create an account to purchase.
Taking these reality provoking stats into consideration, it’s clear to see that if you want to increase conversions on your Magento website, you need to be looking at how simple your checkout process is.
Our top tips for creating a simple checkout process are:
- Allow guest check out
- Provide a postcode lookup service so customers don’t have to type in their address
- Collect only the information you need and don’t ask unnecessary questions. Age and gender aren’t required to place an order.
- Disable all promotional pop ups on your checkout page. Keep the customer focused on placing their order.
- Delay asking the customer to sign up to newsletters or for an account until the order success page.
- Provide confidence boosters to reassure the customer that they are in safe hands at checkout.
If you start with these simple changes now, you could be witnessing a significant reduction in cart abandonment this side of Christmas.
Give customers multiple options for payment
Customers today want a choice about almost everything – and quite rightly too. But the one choice they expect to have is the choice about how they pay for their shopping. Payment methods have advanced so much since eCommerce first became a thing and those merchants who still haven’t responded are going to get left behind.
How can you ensure you’re not one of them? By creating a Magento store that offers multiple methods for payment.
Our top picks for payment options are:
- Buy Now Pay Later – a payment option that allows customers to purchase items now but pay for them later. It gives them the ability to get the items they want now without having to pay the full cost up front. The best part is, usually these methods don’t incur interest either. We’ve written an awesome guide to Buy Now Pay Later where you find out everything you need to know about this super flexible payment option.
- PayPal – an ultra secure payment method that’s trusted worldwide. Customer’s love to use PayPal because of the security and guarantee it provides over their transactions. If anything was to go wrong, PayPal usually has them covered. As a merchant, using PayPal means you also get peace of mind that transactions are handled securely and quickly. It’s a win, win situation.
- Apple Pay – one of the speediest ways for customers to checkout and perfect for the mobile shoppers out there. When Apple Pay is integrated with your Magento store and a customer goes to checkout, they can select the Apple Pay option and pay for their goods via fingerprint verification – as long as they already have all their details added to their Apple Pay account. Not only does this make it super easy for the customer, but it also makes for a more secure transaction.
- Google Pay – a super easy way for customers with Google accounts to pay for items – as long as they have saved cards within their Google account. It’s not as quick as other methods as some details still need to be entered, but this is usually just the CVV of the chosen card. That being said, it still shortens the checkout process, which we know is a contributing factor in checkout completions.
- Credit and Debit Card Payments – who doesn’t have a debit card these days? That’s why it’s important to still offer the option of paying by credit or debit card. Whilst it may seem basic, some customers simply prefer this method. What they don’t like, however, is long forms to complete and unsecure payment gateways. So when you’re offering the option of paying by credit or debit card, it’s wise to use a verified and trusted payment platform. Our favourites include Stripe, Braintree and Mollie.
Optimise your Magento store for mobile devices
More than 50% of all users browse the web on mobile. That’s 50% of the online population that could potentially want to shop on your site via their mobile. Not optimising your Magento store for mobile is therefore a risky game.
Let’s look a little deeper.
In 2021, 72.9% of all online sales were done via mobile. This alone suggests that not only do customers prefer to shop that way, but they’ve come to expect it. The big issue is, Magento isn’t exactly known to be the fastest of eCommerce platforms on mobile.
But there’s good news.
Since the development of Hyva Themes, Magento mobile optimization has become easier than ever. Out of the box, it’s clunk free and ready to roll. Why? Hyva themes are refined, easy to use and are optimised for reactive design implementation.
Check out our complete guide to Hyva Themes for more reasons why Hyva Themes needs to be the next phase of your Magento development journey.
Offer Discounts and Free Shipping
There’s no denying that the number of competitors a brand has is increasing. What comes with this is the need for brands to do more to not only attract customers but keep them too.
Some simple ways you stand out is with the offers and discounts you make available to your customers. Obviously, you don’t want to be running promotions to the extent that you’re not covering your overheads, but promotions around specific calendar dates are an option.
For example, January sales are always a good time to run offers. Likewise, peak shopping periods such as Back to School and Summer holidays are ideal.
If you are going to run offers and discounts, it’s wise to ensure they are advertised across your site. In Magento, you have the ability to create bespoke promotions which can be easily implemented across your site via things such as banners and pop ups – though be careful not to over do it. You can even take it a step further and show the savings at checkout, further encouraging purchase at the point of checkout.
On top of offers and discounts, you can also consider free shipping which is more of a way to increase order value rather than prevent cart abandonment. But still, an effective way to increase your revenue.
Free shipping therefore is certainly up there as a ‘must offer’. According to a 2021 trends report, a massive 80% of shoppers expect to be offered free shipping when their total order value reaches a certain amount. But that’s not all. A whopping 66% expect all online orders, regardless of value, to be shipped for free.
If you can’t possibly offer free shipping across the board, don’t panic. There are a number of things you can do.
- Set an order value to qualify for free shipping. It’s been proven that the average order value increases when thresholds for free shipping are in place and advertised on your website.
- Make sure it’s advertised ahead of checkout what your shipping fees are. As long as you make your customers aware in advance that shipping will be charged, you can reduce the risk of cart abandonment.
Show your customers they can trust your products and your business
With so many scams on the market and the increasing cost of living causing more attention to be paid to where money is spent, customers are prioritising trust when it comes to the brands they purchase from. One-third (33%) of consumers have indicated that trusting the brands they purchase from has become a priority because they can no longer afford to waste money on bad purchases.
As a merchant, where customer relationships can’t necessarily be built face to face, it’s vital you find ways to show you can be trusted online. Our top recommendations include:
Product reviews – nearly 95 percent of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase. What’s more, the likelihood of someone making a purchase increases by 270 percent when more than five positive reviews are visible. It’s therefore a no brainer.
But, whilst this seems like an easy way to increase conversions, it’s not as simple as just asking anyone to give you a 5-star rating on Google. Product reviews must be credible and of great quality and they must apply to a certain product.
Company reviews – Unlike product reviews, company reviews are more of a testimony of your company’s treatment of customers and the way you do business. The best way to collect company views is through trusted platforms such as reviews.io and Yotpo – both which are compatible with Magento – because they themselves are trusted companies and require authentication of all reviews given.
Give your customers the chance to build their opinion of your company based on these two methods of social proof and watch those conversions increase.
Need a helping hand increasing conversion? We’ve successfully helped multiple merchants increase conversions with Magento.
Get in touch and let’s do great things together.