Conversion Rate is the lifeblood of any WooCommerce store. If your WooCommerce site can’t convert visitors into buyers, or does so at a non-optimum rate, your marketing efforts and budget are being wasted.
WooCommerce has come a long way from its early beginnings in 2011. As one of a handful of officially recognized WooExperts, Cultura Interactive has seen WooCommerce grow and change in the last 10 years to become the formidable e-commerce force it is today.
From our experience, here are the 4 most effective tips we know on how to immediately improve your WooCommerce website’s conversion rate:
1. Use A/B Testing
A/B testing is when you serve approximately 50% of one version of a page (or site) to a visitor, and a different version to the other 50%. By then using analytics software such as Google Analytics, and even heat map analysis software such as HotJar and LuckyOrange, you are then able to gather a wealth of data that will allow you to make informed decisions about which version of the page is performing better.
There is plenty of theory on how to improve conversion rate, but nothing beats actually looking and seeing what users are doing on your site.
Key metrics to monitor when doing A/B testing are:
- Add to Cart
- Cart to Order
- Speed and Capacity
- Bounce Rate
- Lifetime Customer Value
Here’s an example of a Distraction Factor: A poorly designed landing page would have a consistent heat map, with no section being clearly “hotter” than any other. A landing page designed to convert would have the “hottest” area in those areas that form a direct part of your sales funnel, such as an “Add to Cart” or “Sign Up Now!” button.
If your heat map has no areas that are much hotter than any other, you need to change the design to something more focused.
Another excellent tool for A/B testing is Google Optimize which integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics to bring in-depth, insightful data to your A/B tests.
2. Simplify the Page
Websites must be designed with conversion in mind. Generally speaking, simple is better than more complicated. This is especially true of landing pages but is also true of an entire website.
Landing pages must be hyper-focused to the conversion and contain minimal links and information that will distract the user and move them away from the conversion funnel. Often, landing pages don’t even have a top menu.
Websites should also be focused, with minimal distraction. In a website’s case, however, getting rid of the top menu would be silly. At the early stage of the sales funnel, users are still looking for general information on your product. Design your website in such a way that that information is easy for them to find, but don’t overdo it. Guide them to your conversion page.
3. Make your CTA (Call-to-Action) more compelling
A call-to-action (CTA) is the line of text that gets a visitor to take some action, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.
CTAs such as “Buy now!” or “Sign up here!” have become trite and lost their power to compel. More engaging copy is needed to get users to decide that taking action on your site is better than doing it on some competitor’s site.
Here are some CTAs that might work better for you, depending on the action you want the user to take:
- Get started
- Yes, I want my [item here]!
- Join Free
- Get X% Off (This could even be used for a purchase. When the user clicks it, an item is added to the cart, and they are sent to the checkout page.)
- Schedule a call. (This could also be programmed to hook into your WooCommerce workflow, sending the user to a checkout page for a paid consultation call.)
4. Optimize your WooCommerce checkout workflow
Part of becoming a WooExpert is that the agency applying must show deep and intricate knowledge of the inner workings of WooCommerce. One of the primary ways we attained that knowledge was by optimizing WooCommerce’s user experience to improve the checkout process. And even though WooCommerce is a lot smoother than it used to be, different industries have different needs. We are still regularly called upon to improve a website’s conversion rate by smoothing out its checkout process whether that be for cat lovers or fitness lovers.
Depending on what you’re selling and what your company’s goals are, the checkout process might need to be tweaked to your specific needs.
Every e-commerce site is different.
WooCommerce’s checkout process is a lot smoother than it used to be, but there are still elements that can be improved. For example, the lack of an address autocomplete in WooCommerce checkout pages can be a factor that leads to cart abandonment.
By digging into the internal plumbing of e-commerce, we were able to program this autocomplete feature directly into one of our clients’ WooCommerce checkout sequences so that users only needed to fill in a few letters of their address for the rest to be pulled automatically from an external service.
Other weaknesses in the WooCommerce checkout process include:
- Incorrect positioning of the coupon code box: Placing a coupon code box at the beginning of the checkout process can lead to cart abandonment as users go hunting the web for coupon codes instead of finishing the checkout.
- Frustrating and incomplete error messages: Vague error messages such as “There was an error” lead to confusion and can lead to cart abandonment.
- Blindly asking for both shipping and billing addresses instead of assuming they are the same. In the vast majority of cases, they are the same, and not defaulting to this option can frustrate users enough that they abandon their carts.
- During a guest checkout, asking for an email address far too late in the checkout process: If guests abandon their cart, the only way to get them back is to send them a follow-up email with something like “Hey, did you forget to finish your checkout?” in the subject line. This goes a long way to improving a website’s conversion rate.
These final points are all programmatic aspects that require working directly in the code of WooCommerce. Investing in WooCommerce optimization can pay itself back many times over if done properly, due to greatly increased conversions and sales on your website.
Cultura Interactive agency is an award-winning Fort Lauderdale Website Design Studio that strives to create unique and attractive websites, and develop strategic digital online marketing campaigns for our clients.
Our team of professionals specialize in custom WooCommerce development, E-commerce Subscription websites, WooCommerce Membership, E-commerce automation and more. Learn more about our services or contact us for a personal interview.
