How to Increase Your Shopify Conversion Rate - Boost Sales ASAP

Although there have never been more eCommerce platforms on the market, there are still a lot of reasons to loveShopify.

The platform is extremely popular for being extremely user-friendly.

That popularity means that there is also a massive network ofShopify developers constantly creating plugins, extensions, and apps that make Shopify even more effective.

However, one of the biggest reasons Shopify has remained so popular since its launch in 2006 is that it’s fantastic for conversions. If you want to see how you can increase your Shopify store’s conversion rate even further, I’ll show you the seven best ways I know about.

What Is a Good Shopify Conversion Rate?

How to Increase Your Shopify Conversion Rate

1. Improving Conversions Begins with Your Store’s SEO

2. Convert More of the Shoppers Who Put Products in Their Carts

3. Proveto Your Customers That They’re About to Make the Right Choice

4. Use Urgency to Improve Your Conversion Rate in the Long Term

5. Get on the Chatbot Train

6. Leverage Retargeting to Convert Customers Who Left Your Site

7. Use Shopify Apps Designed to Boost Conversions 

8. Keep Your Checkout Short and Sweet to Boost Your Conversion Rate

9. Embrace the Power of Email for Your Business

10. Add a Guest Checkout to Your Shopify Site

11. Switch to a One Page Checkout for Your Business

12. Add Exit Popups to Stop Customers Before They Leave

13. A/B Test Everything

How to Increase Your Conversion Rate the Right Way 

But first, let’s talk about what a good conversion rate would be for your Shopify store.

According to Shopify’s own research,the average conversion rate for stores on this platform is 1.4%. Shopify advises that if your conversion rate falls below 0.5%, you should definitely invest in conversion rate optimization.

That said, it’s worth understanding whatthe average conversion rate is by industry:

·       Food and beverage: 4.6%

·       Health and beauty: 3.3%

·       Fashion and apparel: 2.7%

·       Entertainment: 2.5%

·       Household goods: 2.1%

·       Electronics: 1.9%

And it also depends on which devices your visitors tend to prefer for visiting your Shopify site. On desktops, laptops, and tablets, the average conversion rate is 3%. On smartphones, it’s 2%. It’s worth understanding this information when you report on your Shopify site’s performance, so you can segment these two sources and appraise them accordingly.

Alright, you have created your Shopify store, and by now, you know the importance of increasing your Shopify conversion rate for maximizing your sales.

How do you go about doing that?

Here are seven of the best tips I’ve picked up over the years for quickly increasing your Shopify conversion rate.

They work for our clients.

They're going to work for you, too.

Right off the bat, I want to focus on one of the biggest mistakes I see companies make when they try to improve a low Shopify conversion rate: assuming each page of their site is equally responsible for it.

As such, they come up with a very general solution, the kind they can apply across as much of their site as possible.

Unfortunately, these kinds of expansive solutions usually result in little – or even no – increase in conversions.

Don’t get me wrong.

Sometimes, you may need to apply basic changes across your entire site.

I’m going to cover a prime example of this next.

For now, one of the most important tips I can give for increasing your conversion rate on Shopify is to take a look at how customers are currently interacting with each page of your store. You can easily do this bytracking user flow through Google Analytics.

If you haven’t already set it up before, Shopify has a great feature forenabling Google Analytics andadding Enhanced eCommerce tracking to your store.  

You can customize your results, so they show your site’s abandonment rates at different stages from visiting a landing page to checkout. You can also track other important visitor shopping behaviors, like how many add or remove products from their carts and much more.

In short, you can track everything that matters where your customers are concerned. This makes it easy to figure out where you’re losing them and, thus, where you should be focusing the most to turn your Shopify store’s conversion rate around.

As I mentioned earlier, all of that tracking may show you that it’s really just a few pages that are actually hurting your Shopify site’s conversion rate the most.

Or it could be a larger problem across the entire site.

However, you should also consider that the way you’re bringing traffic to your Shopify site may be responsible for some of these problems, too.

For example, using Google Analytics, you may discover that you have a sizable bounce rate coming from your organic traffic. That bounce rate, in turn, is killing your conversion rate. Sounds like you need to rethink yourSEO efforts. Though your sessions may look good, that traffic doesn’t seem to be doing much for your bottom line.

One of these things is not like the others…

One of these things is not like the others…

No matter how well-designed your Shopify site is or how great your products are, your conversion rate is always going to suffer if you’re bringing it large amounts of unqualified traffic. At some point, you’ll need to address any lackluster traffic sources.

For help honing in on the right type of traffic, check out our post on theShopify SEO checklist we use to help sites rank or learn about how we can help as a Shopify SEO agency.

As I mentioned a moment ago, sometimes, the reason your Shopify site's conversion rate is so low really is because of a problem that touches every page.

Site speed is a good example. If your site is slow, traffic to every page will suffer. And many of the people who do show up won’t stick around to convert if your site’s speed makes it difficult to get around.

However, a far more common example of a sitewide problem is if you’re seeing a high shopping cart abandonment rate. I say it’s a sitewide problem because, no matter where someone enters your site or what product brings them there, they have to go through your checkout page before they can make a purchase.

This is why shopping cart abandonment is such a serious problem. You can spend countless hours and dollars improving your site a million different ways and securing plenty of traffic for it. Ultimately, if your checkout page drops the ball, your Shopify site’s conversion rate is going to fall, too.

Recently, I went through20 ways to reduce cart abandonment. I think you'll find it helpful, but, for now, let’s tackle some common culprits that lead to unimpressive conversion rates.

The first is simplywriting better product descriptions.

Your customers may be getting cold feet just before they convert, which is why you want to write product descriptions that excite them about the prospect of purchasing your products. They shouldn’t have time for nagging second thoughts once they’ve read over your store’s descriptions.

A similar problem can happen with images. I’m all for leveraging the power of good product descriptions, but, as the saying goes, “a picture is worth 1,000 words.” If your product images aren’t good, those 1,000 words your customers think of won’t be, either. Just like with effective product descriptions, use images – or even videos – that arouse excitement in your customers.

Finally, check your pricing. Do you:

• Offer competitive prices?
• Free shipping?
• Some type of guarantee?

I know it’s not always realistic to check all three of these boxes, but the truth is that customers have come to expect these accommodations where prices are concerned (thanks, Amazon). So, I’d recommend making as much of an effort as possible in order to boost conversions.

And, if you’re already doing these, maybe your Shopify site needs to do a better job of advertising it. Put “Free Shipping” right in your Title Tags, so people see it in organic search results. At the very least, put that in the meta descriptions. Draw attention to that perk and your guarantees on every page.

Lastly, be clear and upfront about your prices, so customers don’t find out right before they buy that there are hidden costs. Something as simple as surprising customers with shipping costs is enough to convince56% of shoppers to leave a site.

I already touched on this a bit when I talked about taking the time to create really high-quality product descriptions, but I want to expand on that concept a bit and give it its own section.

That’s because really proving to your customers that they’re going to love whatever they buy from your site is always going to be worth the extra effort.

To get you started, I’ll give you a handful of examples that I know have worked for our clients.

Nothing instills confidence in customers as much as seeing that other customers who bought a product absolutely loved it. An amazing91% of shoppers read online reviews and – maybe even more astounding – 84% trust them as much as they would the words from an actual friend.

If you’re looking for inspiration, you don’t need to look any further than the largest retailer in the world:

A good eCommerce rule-of-thumb is, “Do what Amazon does.”

For an even bigger impact, don’t stop with product reviews, though. Leverage the power of social proof to make the products on your Shopify site irresistible.

Simply put, social proof refers to the idea that people are more likely to want something if they see other people do, too. When you see a long line outside a restaurant, you want a table at that restaurant, too. When you see people wearing the same brand, you’re more likely to imagine what it might be like to wear those brands, too.

As social animals, this kind of “social proof” is extremely powerful stuff. So, take full advantage of it on your Shopify site to increase the likelihood that shoppers will want your products by showing other customers who already enjoy using them.

This can be images, videos, or both. While social proof obviously makes a lot of sense for your store’s social media page, be sure to infuse your Shopify store with it, too, and you’ll see your conversion rate reap the benefits.

Amazon actually takes things a step further, too.

They tell customers when a product is one of their best sellers. This is just one more way the world’s largest retailer manages to keep shoppers on their site and, of course, converting at impressive rates.

Consider doing the same on your Shopify site. You could even add just how many shoppers have purchased a product to further convince them that they’ll be happy with their decision.

I’ve always found it really interesting that eBay actually does a version of this with their listings.

The reason why I find this so interesting is that, because of the temporary nature of eBay’s product listings, the number sold doesn’t necessarily correspond to the number of satisfied customers.

In the example above, eBay isn’t saying, “31 customers bought this product and loved it.” They’re just saying, “This product listing provided enough information for 31 people to feel comfortable making a purchase.”

Nonetheless, providing this extra detail will help your Shopify site keep customers from leaving. If they think, “I need to do more research”, this information tells them, “No. You don’t. Plenty of other people didn’t.”

Combine that with customer reviews and watch your conversions explode.

Do you sell a unique product, one that isn’t like anything else on the market?

If so, one of the best investments you can make to increase your Shopify store’s conversions is to use videos to show your product in action. This way, your customers know exactly what to expect after they decide to order.

Sphero’s marketing department does a great job of this. Take a look at theproduct page for the Sphero BOLT, a product that helps children learn “STEM at home.”

Have you ever heard of a product like that?

Probably not, which is why Sphero includes a number of videos to help parents better understand what makes this unique toy so cool.

Don't rely on your customers' imaginations. If you think it's possible that they'll misunderstand what makes your product so great, don' tell them. Show them.

Like social proof, another psychological trigger you can use to really drive sales is to instill a sense of urgency when shoppers come to your Shopify store.

This works for a few reasons, but the obvious one is that if you tell shoppers a product is only available for a limited time, they’ll be more likely to buy right NOW rather than decide to wait and shop around a bit more. After all, the product may not even be available the next time they visit your Shopify site.

However, urgency can also operate as a powerful form of social proof, too.

For example, if it says, “5 left” next to a product on your Shopify store, it tells shoppers that a lot of other customers have already clicked the “Buy” button.

If you have a product you plan on discontinuing, reminding customers of this can also be a very impactful way to increase your conversion rate. Let them know that if they don’t purchase this item now, they’ll never be able to get to again.

And, of course, you can also offer all kinds of sales and other deals that will increase the sense of urgency. Maybe you’re only offering free shipping for one week or you could do a buy-one-get-one-free for one day and one day only.

We’ll talk about email marketing a bit later, but these kinds of deals can be a great way to build your list, as well. While urgency is phenomenal for conversion rate optimization in the short term, these added sales can also provide new opportunities to add customers to your email list. And once they’re on your email list, you can get even more conversions from them in the future.

More and more, it seems like just about every company under the sun is using some form of chatbot to improve its conversion rate.

Are you doing the same?

While live chat is the best option, the power of chatbots has been extremely impressive for converting customers and boosting revenue.

Don’t underestimate something just because it’s so simple and – nowadays – extremely affordable. There’s a reason this feature has become commonplace across Shopify stores from every single industry.

To really skyrocket your Shopify store’s conversion rates, though, be sure you’re reviewing what people are asking and where in the buyer’s journey they’re asking it. The idea is to use this information so that shoppers don’t necessarily need the help of a bot – or your salespeople – in order to feel comfortable making a purchase.

If you zero in on the pages that are losing you the most customers and overhaul your entire checkout process so that every step encourages customers to complete their purchase…

Well, unfortunately, some of them are still going to leave.

Sorry.

You can literally lead a horse INTO water, but you still can’t make it drink

But don’t worry!

There are still two great ways you can convert those visitors into customers, even after they’ve left your Shopify site.

The first option is to use retargeting to bring cart abandoners back to your Shopify site to convert.

“Cart retargeting”, as it’s often called, is a strategy whereby a cookie is generated once a visitor takes a specific action. If you’re looking to improve your conversion rate, that action is usually going to be that the visitor placed something in their cart.

Thanks to that cookie, you can now run ads to remind that shopper of the fantastic product of yours that they left behind.

The great thing about cart retargeting is that your ad spend is going solely to people who have already shown so much interest in a product that they actually put it in their carts. These potential customers are as qualified as they come.

If you’re new to cart retargeting, let me assure you that it’s worth learning the ropes (or just hiring a paid search expert – hint, hint). Check out these retargeting case studies if you need more convincing. As just one example, Total Wine increased its revenue by 20.7% year-over-year just from investing in cart retargeting.

Furthermore, it’s never been easier to retarget your Shopify customers thanks to Shopify-specific retargeting apps.

Cart remarketing is a similar tactic. The difference is that you approach your customers directly via email. So, instead of using cookies, you use their email address. Obviously, this means you need to already have that address on file for cart remarketing to work – one more reason to add lead magnets to your blog posts.

However, any time you have a cart abandoner’s email address, it is always a good idea to email them a reminder that they haven’t completed their purchase yet. Worst-case scenario, they still don’t buy, but you also didn’t spend a penny on the reminder.

Check out our post on how to execute an effective abandoned cart email strategy to better understand why this is such a great way to increase your company’s monthly revenue.

As I touched on at the beginning, one of the many reasons I love Shopify is that its popularity as a platform means there is no lack of apps designed with it in mind.

Specifically, there are a lot of great apps that will help you increase your site's conversions. Here are a handful worth exploring:

• Yotpo – Aside from being a fantastic product-review app that offers a lot of versatility, Yotpo is also “an official Shopify Plus Technology Partner” and has even “helped the fastest-growing Shopify stores increase sales with customer content.” So, you know. It’s not bad. (If you’re interested in learning more about Shopify Plus, check out this article: “What Is Shopify Plus?”
• InstantSearch+ – If your Shopify store has a large inventory, this is a great app for ensuring customers can easily search through it. You only have15 seconds to show visitors what they want before they bounce, so an effective search bar is essential to keeping your bounce rate low and your conversions high.
• Privy – You can leverage this user-friendly popup software to help convert shoppers who are leaving your site emptyhanded and to grow your email list, too – something you can use to boost conversions even further.
• Our Shopify Product Review App – Alright, I’m a little biased here, but I really like our product review app for Shopify. We drew on years of experience working one-on-one witheCommerce companies when we developed this app. And, best of all, it’s 100% free!

One final word about using apps like these.

It might be tempting to just download all of them, so you can start seeing as many conversions as possible right away.

I’ve seen other companies try to do the same thing, but here’s the problem: as great as they are, each app will slow your site speed down. That’s not just bad for user experience.A slow site will hurt your organic traffic (and if you can’t attract visitors, you can’t convert them).

So, run a few pages from your site throughGoogle’s free PageSpeed Insights tool to see where you currently stand and then add one app at a time and run the tests again to see what kind of effect they have.

I can’t place enough importance on the role your Shopify store’s checkout page plays in your site’s conversion rate. And while there are all kinds of ways to optimize this all-important page, one of the most important is to keep yours as simple as possible.

The easier it is for a customer to move from the start of your checkout process to the order confirmation page, the better your conversion rate will be.

Fortunately, Shopify makes it very easy to customize your checkout page so you can quickly boost your conversion rate.

We’ve also made out own solution, which is worth checking out. Take a look at Dominate Checkout to see for yourself.

Speaking of email, this is one of the best ways you can easily increase your conversion rate in the short term.

Sure, it’s not going to improve the conversions that happen on your actual store, but they will absolutely increase your monthly bottom line.

eCommerce email marketing should bring you your business’s highest ROI.

But that’s only going to happen if you use your Shopify store to build a profitable email list.

Many companies accomplish this by offering a newsletter throughout their website, so visitors are given multiple opportunities to sign up for ongoing emails. Of course, you can then use these emails to increase your conversions for your store.

However, you can also add the option to your checkout page, giving shoppers the option to receive newsletters, sales notifications, announcements about new products, and more.

While the ins and outs of successful email marketing campaigns are a topic for another post, here are some eCommerce email tips to get you started.

One of the most underrated ways to increase your conversion rate is actually incredibly simple: add a guest checkout option to your Shopify store’s checkout.

The concept is simple enough.

While many eCommerce stores require customers to log in with an account before they can make a purchase, a guest checkout will let your Shopify shopper purchase their product as a “guest” – no email or other login credentials required.

Anything that makes it easier for your customers to complete their checkout is going to have a positive impact on your store’s conversion rates.

And once again, Dominate makes this extremely easy to do. It’s completely customizable, so you can add all kinds of extra features to your Shopify checkout, including the option for guests to make purchases.

Yet ANOTHER way you can use your Shopify checkout page to boost conversions is to trim it down to just one page.

The reason this will work to improve your conversion rate is similar to the one we just covered about guest checkouts: you remove SO much friction from the transaction.

And it’s not just that more pages add more time to how long it takes for a customer to make their purchase from your Shopify store.

Each time you make a customer fill out another page to complete their purchase, that page has to load. If that load time isn’t fast enough, each page involved in the checkout process will reduce the chances that a customer completes it.

While a single page checkout may not work for everyone, it’s worth exploring the benefits of a one-page checkout and, one more time, how you can use Dominate to skyrocket your Shopify conversion rate practically overnight.

Here it is.

The BIG one.

If all you do is implement this one idea, your Shopify site’s conversion rate could literally QUADRUPLE.

Arguably, the best way to improve your Shopify site’s conversion rate is by usingexit popup ads that are only triggered when someone is about to leave your site.

I love this approach because – just like cart retargeting and remarketing – you don’t really stand to lose anything.

There’s just no real downside. As with those other two tactics, the worst-case scenario is that you still don’t make the sale.

I know “popup ads” tend to be a four-letter word in our industry, but, again, what’s the worst that can happen here?

Someone who has already decided to leave your Shopify site sticks with that decision.

That's it.

On the other hand, what’s the best that could happen?

Someone who was going to leave your Shopify site without giving you a dime decides to become a paying customer.

That’s an easy decision for me.

Plus, when Sumo studiedthe effectiveness of popup ads, they found that the average conversion rate was 3.09%.

Is that a mind-blowing amount?

No, but I definitely wouldn’t turn down an extra 3% in sales, especially if it means I can keep selling to some of those customers for years to come.

In any case, that was just the average. When Sumo looked at the top 10% of popups, they discovered that their average conversion rate was a whopping 9.28%

Considering that some estimates putthe average website abandonment rate at about 97.5%, converting just 3% of those people who try to leave could nearly double your entire site’s conversion rate.

If you then refined those popup ads so that they were in the top 10% converting 9.28% of site abandoners, you’d see your overall site’s conversion rate improve by 4x.

Think about that for a moment. Without spending more money on SEO or PPC ads or even email campaigns, you could quadruple your Shopify site’s conversion rate just by adding popup ads that only deploy when someone has already decided not to make a purchase.

Wow.

These kinds of popups don’t have to be overly complicated, either. The example below fromLeesa is a very common version. If successful, your company will get a new subscriber to your newsletter and a customer.

And again, if the visitor doesn’t go for it, who cares? You weren’t going to convert them anyway.

Okay, one more important way to increase the conversion rate for your Shopify store.

This is how you boot your conversion rate today, tomorrow, next year, and forever.

Ready?

I can’t recommend enough that you A/B test any changes you’re considering to your Shopify site before making them permanent. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) can be fickle. What seems like an obvious improvement that will increase conversions can sometimes have the exact opposite effect.

So, even though my experience tells me the six tips above will definitely improve your conversion rate, I still recommend that you employ A/B testing to make sure.

Fortunately, Shopify actually has a greatguide on A/B testing that explains the entire concept and will make it easy to get started.

Now that you know how to increase the conversion rate for your Shopify store, the only thing left to do is to actually get started.

Even though I tried to keep my list of steps short and sweet, I know taking that first step can be easier said than done. So, just begin by looking over Google Analytics and finding any pages that may be turning away large amounts of shoppers. Fixing those pages will improve your conversions considerably and should give you confidence in continuing with the rest of these tips.

That said, if there’s any way our team ofShopify developers can help – even if you just have a question about one of these steps – feel free to comment below orcontact us for answers. We also offer Shopify app development services that can boost your conversion rates by giving you a competitive edge unique to your store.