Practical Tips to Improve Your Store's Visitor-to-Customer Conversion Rate

The priority for your store is not just to attract as many visitors as possible, but to successfully convert as many of those visitors into customers.

Your success is linked to how well you implement conversion rate optimization (CRO) techniques for your store. The visitor conversion rate will impact your ability to increase your paid advertising budget, expand your business, or achieve a higher profit margin.

Practically, you need to optimize and track the customer journey from the moment a potential customer enters your website, so you can handle each stage with the best practices. This includes activating pop-ups and welcome sequences to convert new visitors, as well as abandoned cart notifications to increase your customer conversion rate.

In this article, you’ll also find an explanation of the global standards for conversion rates by product category, along with other practical tips you can apply to improve the conversion rate of your online store.

Customer Conversion Rate in E-commerce

The customer or new visitor conversion rate is the percentage of store visitors who are converted into customers. This rate is highly influential in determining your ability to increase your advertising budget and your profitability from the sales generated by your store.

How is the Visitor Conversion Rate Calculated?

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Conversion Rate = (Number of Purchases within a Specific Time Period / Total Number of Website Visits in the Same Time Period) x 100

The time period for calculating the conversion rate for online stores depends on the goal and marketing strategy. Here are some of the most common periods for reviewing your store's conversion rates:

• Weekly: To detect any unusual dips or spikes that may indicate a change on the site that needs to be addressed.
• Monthly: To look for opportunities to improve the conversion rate. Check if certain product categories or landing pages have higher conversion rates, so you can take that into account for future marketing campaigns.
• Annually: To explore opportunities for making more significant strategic changes to the conversion rate. This may include redesigning the user experience or leveraging special offers and product launches, etc.
• After a Marketing Campaign: You can learn a lot about the campaign's impact and effectiveness by comparing it to previous campaigns.

After calculating your store's customer conversion rate, you can compare it with the overall average to see if you're on the right track or if there's room for improvement.

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Average Visitor Conversion Rate for Online Stores

While the average visitor conversion rate is not an exact science due to the many variables that affect it, an approximate average can be provided across different industries. According to Hubspot, here is the average conversion rate for 2022:

• Automobiles and Motorcycles: 1.35% – 0.65%
• Electronics and Commercial Equipment: 2.49% – 1.31%
• Fashion, Clothing, and Accessories: 1.01% – 2.20%
• Food and Beverage: 1.00% – 2.01%
• Home Accessories and Gifts: 1.55% – 2.34%
• Kitchens and Home Appliances: 1.72% – 3.00%
• Pet Care: 2.53% – 2.20%

Although increasing the number of website visitors can generate more sales, focusing on converting existing visitors into customers is equally important. At every step of the shopping journey, there are new opportunities to shorten and simplify purchase paths, making them more effective.

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Use Different Types of Pop-ups to Improve Your Store's Conversion Rate

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Welcome Pop-up Forms

Welcome campaigns are among the most commonly used on online stores, where they are used to greet the visitor when they first enter your store and offer them a special deal. This pop-up is an effective way to engage with new visitors and encourage them to take action instead of browsing and leaving.

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Exit Pop-ups for Customer Conversion

You can target a specific segment of visitors more precisely by using exit pop-ups, which appear when the visitor moves towards the close button on the website window. This type of pop-up allows you to target visitors who are about to leave a specific product page or the shopping cart page, allowing for more customization options. These campaigns need to be attractive enough to change the visitor’s mind or at least capture their contact details before they leave.

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Browsing Pop-ups for Shopper Conversion

These campaigns are triggered when a visitor browses and reaches a specific point on the page. This action assumes that they are sufficiently interested in a particular product or product category. So, once they reach the programmed point, you can trigger these pop-ups to encourage them to take action, such as offering an exclusive discount. It is also advisable to time these after certain periods, as new visitors need time to familiarize themselves with your site.

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Behavioral Pop-ups

These behavior-based pop-ups are triggered after a visitor has viewed a specific page or product. You can offer deals that match the types of products they are browsing.

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Increase Visitor Conversion Rate with Automated Notifications

As soon as visitors add products to their shopping cart, you have a 30% chance of completing a purchase, as most of these shoppers will not complete the transaction.

Abandoned cart notifications can help you convert these visitors if they are programmed for the right communication channel.

Different Types of Abandoned Cart Notifications

Statistics show that 70% of shoppers will abandon their carts for various reasons. If you send automated notifications on WhatsApp, at least 80% of them will open those messages, as WhatsApp has the highest open rate compared to email and SMS. You can recover up to 20% of the value of these carts. You can rely on one of the following strategies:

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• Abandoned Cart Notifications Based on Cart Value: You can offer a larger discount to customers with high-value abandoned carts compared to others. You should use every possible method, including calling the owners of these carts, as their high value represents a greater loss in revenue.
• Cart Notifications Based on the Number of Abandoned Carts: If the customer is new, offer them a discount to encourage them to return to the cart and complete the purchase. If the customer has bought from you before and has many abandoned carts, it's better to offer them something else, like free shipping, as they have likely already figured out your strategy and are waiting for a discount coupon. Don't make your customers dependent on discounts.

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You can test the effectiveness of these methods, see what works best for your store, and continue to improve the execution and segmentation based on the available data.

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Best Practices for Sending Abandoned Cart Notifications

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• Prepare three different messages: the first contains a simple cart reminder, the second offers a discount available for a limited time, and the third reminds the customer of the discount and the remaining time to take advantage of the offer. By using an automation program on WhatsApp, such as Business Chat, the messages will be sent automatically, and the customer will be removed from the campaign after completing a purchase. For example, if they return and purchase after the first reminder, you don't need to send a discount.
• Create a sense of urgency and fear of missing out by focusing on limited stock availability or time-limited offers. This will encourage customers to prioritize their cart, reducing the likelihood of hesitation or complete abandonment.
• Don't launch your campaigns and forget about them, even when using automation programs. There is always room to improve conversion rates by testing different offers and tweaking message content.

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Automated Welcome Message Sequence for Customer Conversion

After interacting with pop-ups on your store, visitors will expect to hear from you again. Use an automated welcome message sequence on WhatsApp to increase the likelihood of converting everyone who interacted with the pop-ups into a customer.

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Best Practices for Sending Automated Welcome Sequences

• t's not necessary to offer a discount in the first message. Customers may become too dependent on discounts and may not shop without them. Instead, offer free shipping, for example.
• Experiment with the call-to-action button. Some stores have doubled their conversion rate simply by changing this element. Instead of offering a discount code in the first welcome message and redirecting to the store's main page, you could redirect to a page specifically for products under $50, for example.

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4 Other Ways to Improve Your Visitor and Customer Conversion Rate

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Add Filters to Improve Product Browsing

Visitors may arrive at your store through different paths and with different goals, so it can be challenging to market to each person individually on the website. However, you can enhance the shopping experience by adding a filter at the top of your main store page to categorize products and make it easier for visitors to find what they need directly. For example, use the following categories:

- Best Sellers

- Products Under a Certain Price, e.g., Under $50

- Seasonal Products, e.g., Summer 2023 Collection

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Add Reviews, Ratings, and Testimonials

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About 95% of shoppers rely on reviews before making a purchase decision. So, make sure to add the option to rate the product and invite your previous customers to leave a review on your products. You can also encourage them to write a review with small gifts to ensure a high number of reviews.

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Be Clear About Price, Shipping Time, and Product Availability

To avoid any issues that may arise later when a visitor is about to add products to their cart, you need to be clear about prices, the required shipping time, and whether the product is out of stock. You can either temporarily hide out-of-stock items or make sure the information is displayed on the product page.

Ensure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly

Your website's responsiveness to mobile devices should be a priority, especially since at least 59% of visitors will access your site via mobile phones, according to Statista. Always strive to provide a great experience for visitors to your site via mobile.

Also, ensure that your website's loading speed is fast, as this will significantly affect a visitor's decision to stay and browse or leave immediately.

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