Conversion Optimization

Why Is Your Conversion Rate Low: Possible Causes + Solutions

July 8, 2024
written by humans
Why Is Your Conversion Rate Low: Possible Causes + Solutions

If you've been researching "why is my conversion rate so low" - you are already ahead of 90% of store owners.

After reviewing and working with eCommerce stores across industries, we have compiled a list of reasons for why is your conversion rate dropping.

Reasons for Low Conversion Rate in eCommerce

1. Your brand is not memorable

2. Homepage has high bounce rate

3. Confusing product pages

4. “0 search results”

5. No personalized customer service

6. Unattractive pricing

7. Unconvincing copywriting

8. Too many pop-ups

9. Weak mobile CTAs

10. Hidden costs

11. Long shipping times

12. Not easy to checkout 

13. Too many product options

14. Irrelevant / uninspiring product bundles

15. Generic email campaigns

16. Poor targeting

17. Poor SEO & site visibility

18. Slow load times

19. Checking reviews feels like a task

20. Abrupt website redesigns

21. Broken links and pages

22. Not enough testing

23. Tracking shows wrong results

Read on to see the reasons for decreased conversion rates and how to fix them in detail:

1. Your brand is not memorable

If you’re blindly copying what Amazon does, then shoppers will quickly close the tab.

If shoppers don’t understand your value proposition both quickly and early, they’re likely to walk away to competitor brands.

How to fix low conversion rates through better positioning:

Create brand-defining communication—whether it’s on your website, emails or even social media, identify words and phrases that will set you apart from competitors, and ensure you strengthen your brand perception through assets like about us pages, press mentions / releases and even reviews. 

Define your products clearly—make your product names stand out, enure you label your product recommendations with relatable benefits and bring more depth into how you ask for product reviews (for example, ask customers to create reviews on more parameters.)

Research & leverage the interests of your target audience—do they crave niche content? Or would they appreciate it if you rotated recommendations based on the time & season of the year? Skincare brand Then I Met You brings such topicality into their recommendations that they score conversions through the year:

arranging recommendations based on theme improves low conversion rate

2. Homepage has high bounce rate

Clumsy navigation, lack of content hierarchy and not enough brand information can come together to increase your homepage bounce rate

And this means: shoppers aren’t finding the impetus to visit other pages on your eCommerce store. 

How to fix low conversion rates on the homepage:

While there are several ways to fix a sluggish homepage layout, we’ve identified three solid steps for a store not converting:

Make your search function distinct—make sure it’s not hidden away behind a symbol and offer auto-suggestions when someone starts typing—consider showing related categories & subcategories along with search results and add a list of trending searches to enable first-time visitors.

Clearly lay out the USP—because a poor layout isn’t just a design problem - it also shows the way you’re using copy (and how you’re using isn’t working). Use the first fold and then some more to clarify to visitors what your brand’s core competence is.

Feature social proof in a relevant way—instead of showing random reviews in a horizontal slab, try product recommendations showcasing one review snippet. This makes more potential customers stop and take note of both the products and their reviews. 

Beardbrand clearly distinguishes how customers would benefit if they were to shop, resolving the low conversion rate challenge:

highlight brand incentives to avoid a conversion rate dropping problem

You must read: eCommerce Bounce Rate By Industry (+Tips To Improve)

3. Confusing product pages 

A confusing product page could mean your visitors aren’t able to make sense of product descriptions, feeling the lack of social proof, feeling unclear about sizing or variants or not knowing what a package contains. 

How to fix decreased conversion rates on product page:

To improve your low conversion rate, you’ll have to look at the following more closely than other aspects:

✔ Make a checklist of common customer objections—ask what they’d like to know about your brand, sizing, pricing, subscription options, applicable BNPL payments, reviews, how to use your product etc. If you start with a checklist, the better are your chances of creating more well-rounded product descriptions. 

✔ Create product information hierarchy—the more logical the flow of information from the top, the likelier it is for potential shoppers to stick around and consider buying: 

- Product name 

- Price (& discount if applicable)

- Key takeaways (like free shipping, organic ingredients etc.)

- Primary CTA (followed by a one-click secondary CTA if needed)

- Specifications / features / benefits

- How to Use / Care

- Product recommendations

- Review Snapshot (followed by review section)

- Social wall 

- Footer

✔ Offer more info through the image gallery—it’s 2024 and shoppers are looking at your image gallery instead of your whole product page, so it needs to clarify: discount labels, product highlights (especially significant for categories like makeup / skincare, nutritional supplements, sustainably made clothing etc) and more number of reference pictures (for visually-led brands like makeup, consider showing before / after shots across skin types, race types etc.)

eCommerce brand Bare Minerals manages to do an amazing job with a gallery that summarizes the product page:

for a store not converting it is important to include an image gallery that summarizes the  product page

4. “0 search results”

80% of shoppers will gladly drop off from a brand site if they find the search function to be unsatisfactory. 

Similarly, those who use a site’s search are 2x to 3x more likely to convert. 

How to fix low website conversion rates through search results:

Everyone talks about autosuggestion and auto-correct, but the following foundational elements are often overlooked by a store not converting:

✔ Keep updating your synonym library—as your products grow and market reach increases, your synonym library needs to reflect real-time lingo your widening audiences use, so that you can show related results even if the search term doesn’t exactly match a product name or type.

✔ Show all results containing the KW—you may notice some words getting many more results than others, this being more common with adjectives like “sleeveless” or “brown” as against product types. 

✔ Display results as per browsing behavior—even if your search engine can’t identify a unique phrase, let that be an opportunity for you to show recommendations close to what the shopper has been browsing or search for through paid ads.

This is what eCommerce brand Free People does when there are no results:

Free People suggests behavior based results for unrecognizable search terms

5. No personalized customer service

93% of shoppers say they will buy again from a brand that has enabled a positive customer service experience for them.

How to fix decreased conversion rates through customer service personalization:

✔ Feature a sticky personalized “help you choose” button—this naturally makes shoppers want to click after which they need to see clear steps on what to do - whether it is to take a quiz or directly enter a chat with a support staff

✔ Ask for their email to address concerns faster—while this is seen as a nuisance by some shoppers, if you clarify why you’re asking for their email (“we’ll consolidate all the data related to your account and personalize this experience”), they’ll respond more positively

✔ Introduce a search function within the help center—instead of having your shoppers scroll to find FAQ, let them do the search and find results like they would if they were looking for products—Bed, Bath & Beyond applies this to make personalized support more seamless:

Bed Bath & Beyond search function within customer support helps improve low conversion rate

6. Unattractive pricing

Several factors can be behind this, including incorrect or insufficient present & past data, zero tracking of customer preference / behavior and market trends and not tracking competitor pricing strategies to increase profit margins. 

Pricing your products too high, too low or exactly like competitors w/o necessary differentiation, can make your prices seem unattractive to potential buyers.

How to fix low website conversion rates:

For conversion rate dropping, here are a few pricing fixes:

✔ Test different prices for returning shoppers to encourage repeat buys—the reason this can be effective is because repeat customers typically spend more, and with some pricing benefit, will likely spend a lot more than they initially planned - consider segmenting them for pricing benefits like making email-only offers, or declaring BOGO only for those who’re a part of your loyalty program.

✔ Increase average order values with subscription-based pricing—this is an especially strong pricing strategy to target high-intent customers who’d naturally want a product for a longer time - and a good discount would just resolve last doubts for them!

✔ Assure shoppers about product quality with a transparent price breakdown—most shoppers are curious about what goes on at the background to make a product expensive - like Everlane, if you can justify the spending, you’ll solve the low conversion rate problem to a large extent:

everlane - How to fix low conversion rates

7. Unconvincing copywriting 

Always assume everyone is skimming. 

And that means your copy, across the site, has to work harder by sounding dependable, interesting, trustworthy but most of all, convincing. 

And given that people don’t read a lot of things, you’ll have to be brief yet detailed, simple yet striking to resolve a conversion rate dropping scenario.

How to fix low conversion rates through eCommerce copywriting:

✔ Back up your words with facts—pack in research from your own studies, data mining or even clinical trials (taking a stand on your brand vision, the impact you’re creating environmentally, or the effects existing customers have seen is always a good idea). 

✔ Create descriptions that shoppers can put to use—many businesses leave their copywriting magic to only elaborate on product benefits but not on how the product can be used best (throw light on combinations with other products, which can also become an opportunity to recommend, offer step-by-step care instructions etc.)

✔ Write in language that everyone gets—when skimming, people have little ability to break down complex ideas, hard words, long sentences, so please do what Happy Socks does:

happy socks - How to fix low conversion rates

We recommend you read: eCommerce copywriting: 20 inspiring examples from the US

8. Too many pop-ups 

A few years ago, Google announced how “intrusive interstitials” aka “popups” on mobile sites would hinder ranking. 

Now while intelligently designed exit intent pop-ups can actually be conversion drivers, populating your whole site with multiple trigger pop-up events will just annoy customers. 

How to fix low conversion rates by optimizing pop-ups:

✔ Ensure the pop-ups take minimum screen space—this is especially crucial for mobile conversions where the screen has limited size, though the best brands have figured using a small sticky button at the bottom of the page is a better idea - shoppers can expand this only if they wish to view the offer, recommendation or gated resource. 

✔ Employ a lightbox popup that vanishes upon scrolling—this is helpful because it dims the background but does not make the shopper feel like they’ve lost touch with their original experience, and a single scroll past the pop-up makes it vanish!

✔ Limit the overall pop-up experience to maximum 2—in a single browsing experience, we’ve noticed more bounce-offs when visitors are met with more than 2 pop-ups - segment your audiences carefully and show them only the two most critical messages they need to see. 

We recommend you read: Exit-Intent Pop-Ups: overcoming common mistakes + 20 brilliant examples

9. Weak mobile CTAs

“We observed that a significant portion of our traffic came from mobile devices. Without a seamless mobile shopping experience, you risk losing a substantial number of potential sales. It's essential to ensure that your site is responsive, loads quickly, and is easy to navigate on mobile devices.” - Chris Cho, Founder, DroneSourced

Sometimes, the challenge is with CTA’s – they may not look clickable, they may be difficult to tap and go to the next level of action or they may be positioned in a way that other non-targeted areas also get clicked. 

How to fix low website conversion rate through optimized CTAs:

✔ Center-align your CTAs and keep them at the bottom of a scroll—ensure your call-to-action doesn’t get hidden after one full scroll as this defeats the purpose.

✔ Use no more than three words—whether you’re leading with a benefit, calling out to a particular section of your shop or asking for email sign-ups.

✔  Use the Google Mobile-Friendly Test Tool to gather important data:

        → if your site is mobile-friendly

         → how your site looks on mobile devices

         → if there are any mobile usability issues

✔ Use additional visual cues on the CTAs you deem as priority—arrows work well on mobile, so use just one kind to not end up confusing shoppers - this is exactly what Krave Jerky does: 

Krave Jerky mobile CTA visual cues prevent conversion rate dropping

10. Hidden costs

“We saw many cart page drop-offs. Research showed that our shoppers were hesitant to buy due to unclear shipping costs at checkout. After showing shipping estimators earlier in the journey, we saw a significant reduction in cart abandonment.” - Zach Dannett, Co-founder, Tumble Living

Research has proven that among the topmost reasons for shopper frustration, is the lack of knowledge about total cost—so no cost breakdown until checkout is a bad idea!

How to fix decreased website conversion rates through cost transparency:

We uncovered unclear shipping costs at checkout. We moved shipping estimators earlier in the journey and saw reduced cart abandonment. - Emma Zerner, Co-founder & Content Strategist, Icecartel

✔ Introduce an order summary—this should include the total price, any applicable taxes, and shipping rates (based on what kind of shipping options are available).

Pro tip: consider bringing in the shipping rate calculator much earlier on the product page or mini cart

✔ Display editable quantity buttons—this needs to be a feature across the mini cart, order confirmation page and checkout - also ensure the displayed price automatically changes based on the change in quantities. 

More ideas: How do I increase my website’s checkout rate? (26 proven ideas)

11. Long shipping times

74% of shoppers believe that shipping is the main driver to a great shopping experience. 

Extended or unclear shipping and delivery times are major reasons for low conversion rate.

How to fix low conversion rates by optimizing eCommerce shipping:

✔ Introduce express shipping at extra charges—this is best combined with a free 2 or 3 standard shipping formula that you clearly outline - Amazon has been using this approach for a while, constantly improving conversion rates in the process

✔ Offer in-store pickup as a backup—make it “free” for all purchases alongside free shipping thresholds, and you’re likely to see an increase in conversion rate through more local buyers

✔ Highlight faster shipping on your membership plan—this can be a gamechanger especially if you talk about cheaper expedited options like Core does - a win-win for you to get more conversions while getting more sign-ups for your loyalty program as well:

low conversion rate | Harry's premium membership program

You might also like: Reducing Fashion eCommerce Cart Abandonment: 12 Proven Strategies

12. Not easy to checkout 

Cart abandonment is often the common cause for conversion rate dropping.

But abandonment doesn’t just occur after a shopper sees their costs add up in the mini cart—even for those who’re confident about completing a checkout, the flow on the last page / sections can turn them off. 

How to fix low conversion rates through a better checkout flow:

✔ Increase the number of checkout options—starting from the number of payment options (including easy ones like split payments) to what you offer in lieu of account creation - ensure you offer a social login, an OTP-led guest checkout option as well as a couple of express checkout methods. 

✔ Make it easy to save the cart—make the wishlisting sign or microcopy be present on the checkout page so that you can send really good abandoned cart emails later - also consider featuring a “save for later” pop-up when people try to leave from the checkout page. 

✔ Reduce cognitive load—on the checkout page, this happens when shoppers can’t trust payment methods, aren’t able to ask last-minute questions or fail to quickly access some important policies (shipping, returns, guarantees etc.) - so bring in trusted logos, feature a sticky live chat and offer linked microcopy of the most important policies.

Skincare brand Blume highlights one each of a conventionally-accepted payment method (Paypal,) an express method (ShopPay) and a modern debit method (Catch):

Blume easy checkout example eCommerce

Pro Tip: Use a progress indicator to show how much time is left for checkout completion—this works even if you don’t have many steps, because high-intent shoppers want control over how they’re completing each step

You might like: 35 Stunning Examples of Checkout Pages

13. Too many product options 

First-time visitors want a little bit of everything: options to choose from and personalization that can help them narrow down the choices. 

But if you load them just with endless product options, choice paralysis will get the better of them. 

How to fix decreased conversion rates by optimizing recommendations:

✔  Add urgency prompts—”limited time offer,” “best deal” (effective when flanked by a low on stock alert,) or even “last clearance” can be effective at drawing the attention of those scouring the internet to buy more at less. 

✔  Highlight bestsellers differently—this is true even if you have a separate section reserved for bestsellers on your homepage - consider offering a one-word callout, attaching a certification symbol or even featuring something relatable like “most loved.”

✔  Offer social proof on the recommendations you’d like them to consider more—this works really well because these recommendations come vouched for, increasing their chances of being added to cart - this is exactly what cowboy boots brand Tecovas does (and for better effect, doesn’t even reveal the product pictures):

Tecovas features recommendations with social proof to avoid store not converting

14. Irrelevant / uninspiring product bundles 

Your target audience seems to be exploring your product bundling options, but few or none are actually taking them home. 

They may not be finding relatability between the main product and the others you’re upselling or cross-selling. If your shoppers aren’t able to visualize the results clearly, they won’t want to pay more on a bundle (even if you offer them a discount!)

How to fix low conversion rates through product bundling:

✔ Make it easy to “build your own bundle”—and gamify the experience just enough to shift the control into a shopper’s hands (let them choose from multiple quantity options, mark the concern they’re looking to solve and make it easy to add variants / flavors / colors).

✔ Position “pure bundles” more strategically—and that’s because this bundling strategy is ideal for your slow-moving products - which means you’ll have to word the benefits more smartly, highlight the best review as a snippet or even mention any press features more prominently. 

✔ Make bundles across your site editable—this is the only way you won’t lose out on conversions from those who may want to add products independently from your bundles (think: individual products in a bundle are actually recommendations) - take a look at how Aesop achieves this:

low conversion rate | Aesop makes it easy to shop for bundled products separately

You must also read: 16 Behavioral Targeting Ideas for 2024 (eCommerce)

15. Generic email campaigns 

While generic email campaigns may convey discounts, benefits etc. they typically don’t address nuances from a customer journey, which can ultimately contribute to people buying more. 

How to fix low conversion rates through optimized email campaigns:

✔ Share educational content with your subscribers—after all, most shoppers get turned off when they perceive a brand seeing them only as transactions and not as individual people with unique needs - so, look into where they’re at in the conversion funnel, and share value-add email content accordingly

✔ Don't send more than 2 emails each week, treat email as a long term game—many eCommerce businesses send more than 4 emails per week and that just means one thing: more unopened emails than ever!

✔ Create brand recall through consistent storytelling—this is important in developing a strong, long-term emotional connection with subscribers, who in a way, have to remember your brand among the hundreds they subscribe to. 

One eCommerce brand that creates compelling drip email campaigns is Thrive Market—across emails they lead with member benefits and brand vision creating a cohesive narrative:

Thrive Market emails prevent low conversion rate by creating consistent brand messaging

16. Poor targeting

Here’s something that isn't apparent: most websites are selling to an organic audience, but those people aren’t the ones buying from them.

This is classic problem that a store not converting faces.

How to fix low conversion rates by improving targeting:

✔ Deepen customer research & create nuanced personas—study past buying behavior, understand customer analytics, and follow customers to see where they come from, what they do, and what sort of buying choices they make

✔ Track customer testimonials—notice what they applaud and what they seem to complain about - even if it’s not about the nature of your product, they could be commenting on the quality of self-help content, customer service or even how easy / difficult your returns process is. 

✔ Strategize your paid ads better—beyond spending thousands of dollars on paid ads, you’ll have to get the bang out of the buck - and this is only possible when your ads speak to high-intent users (create trust in your meta descriptions, clarify what your brand stands for and don’t keep harping only on sales).

We recommend you read: Convert More Paid Traffic—9 Strategies That Always Work (eCommerce)

17. Poor SEO & site visibility 

If your keywords & content haven’t been updated for a while, this can lead to unsatisfactory conversion rates. 

Amongst clients, we’ve also noticed not including high-intent keywords in site content having a bearing on conversion rate. 

How to fix low website conversion rates through an SEO strategy:

✔ Structure your content better—like it or not, search engines are extra focused on how the content across your site flow, especially on product pages - when product content is easy to understand and act on, then your conversions will improve. 

✔ Make your navigation structure exemplary—clear categories & sub-categories, including actions that shoppers like to make like gifting or creating a bundle, make it easy to sort & apply filters on the category pages and make all of this super responsive for mobile. 

✔ Don’t forget to use schema markups—since these markups organize your website data coherently for search engines to pick up your prices / discounts, quality of reviews, special product drops etc. you wouldn’t want to skip on them. 

Check out how you can migrate your store effectively: eCommerce migration: 9 challenges for online stores (2024)

18. Slow load times

Research shows that:  

  • A load time of 0–4 seconds was ideal for conversion rates
  • The first 5 seconds were the most crucial and had the highest impact on web conversion rates
  • For every additional load time—between 0–5 seconds—the conversion rate drops at an average of 4.42%

How to fix decreased conversion rates by optimizing website speed:

✔ Optimize product listing pages—from the way you name your name your images to the way you compress your image files and listing your bestsellers first and foremost, optimized category pages typically end up reducing loading speed. 

✔  Update your themes & plugins—weed out plug-ins you aren’t using anymore and ensure you run an audit on any third-party themes you may be employing - because they typically come with extra features, they tend to slow your website down. 

✔ Get rid of obsolete data—just like products you may have discontinued, you may have very old data that needs to be cleaned up - we recommend saving old catalog data for a year at max. 

For more advice, read: Smart Ways To Speed Up Your eCommerce Store (Top 5 Platforms Covered)

19. Checking reviews feels like a task

When shoppers scour through reviews to decide on a purchase, they’re looking for great reasons to buy or concerning reasons not to. 

But if they have no way to quickly glance through your reviews, that may prevent them from buying. 

How to fix low conversion rates by optimizing reviews:

✔ Offer a filtering option with the most relevant markers—think: rating, size, activity, most votes, least votes, with pictures / videos etc. - markers help shoppers sort reviews more quickly and with less friction. 

✔ Feature a “review snapshot” across product pages—a snapshot is like a summary that shows your differently rated reviews as spectrums and when one rating is clicked on, a shopper is able to view all reviews that carry that rating!

20. Abrupt website redesigns 

Change can be tough. So how you go about website redesigns can have an effect on conversion rates. 

Since shoppers recognize your store through certain elements such as your website color scheme or brand models, you’d want to take it slow and strategic. 

How to fix low conversion rates through website redesign:

✔ Do it in phases—and by that we don’t mean, you do it weeks apart but by how important a set of pages is from another - start by updating your transactional pages first and then only optimize your non-transactional pages.

✔ Announce any changes or rebranding through an email series / on social media—this sort of transparency may seem overwhelming at the outset but in the long run, you’ll ensure shoppers aren’t confused or move on to other brands because their experience has changed. 

✔ Highlight features so shoppers to navigate new features - here’s what BioClarity did when they started prioritizing size choices as a redesign motif:

bioclarity - How to fix low conversion rates

Pro Tip: Make sure to get feedback from shoppers on the new experiences—and in turn, offer the ones that take the time a small discount on the next purchase!

21. Broken links and pages 

It’s always disappointing when a shopper lands on a 404 page or can’t click on an element such as a size button or CTA.  

Whether it’s broken links, pages or elements, fixing is a must when it comes to URL changes, page deletion or even server problems.

How to fix low website conversion rates by optimizing links & elements :

✔ Display micro copies for unavailable elements—this is especially helpful for product pages where you don’t want shoppers to hit add to cart only to discover their cart is not updating or the product is out of stock. 

✔ Redirect shoppers to the homepage—this will ensure they find most of the brand info in one place and have a way to restart their product discovery. 

✔ Use the opportunity to highlight what’s trending—when you do this with relatable copy plus recommendations that closely match the visitor’s preference, you increase the chances of exploration & conversion, just like eBay does:

22. Not enough testing 

Through continuous A/B testing, we found that many shoppers found our checkout process complicated. A few tweaks like reducing the number of checkout steps resulted in a 15% increase in our conversion rate! - Matt Little, Founder, Festoon House 

How to fix low website conversion rates through A/B testing:

✔ Focus on the most crucial elements—despite experts claiming a bunch of things, A/B tests need to prioritize rather than analyze a bunch of things - typically, the most critical elements include CTAs, hero headers, filters / sorters, recommendations and email subject lines. 

✔ Specify your goals clearly—this just helps in tracking your test results better - so aim for clarity rather than generalization (for example, if you’re comparing two filtering options, specifying that the goal is to increase micro-conversions may be a good idea.)

✔ Don’t test multiple elements at the same time—similarly, don’t test and track multiple metrics as the combination of results can bring in skews. 

23. Tracking shows wrong results

Last but not the least, you might just be maintaining a steady conversion rate. 

But the way your tracking results are showing up, is featuring discrepancies that you don’t have a clue about. 

How to fix low website conversion rates through better website tracking:

✔ Maintain a single GA4 code—and run a quick check on your parameters to see if the values match those that are on your eCommerce platform settings. 

✔ Consider data errors—if your shoppers are bookmarking certain pages and reloading the pages, the same data gets sent to GA4 as many times that happens - to avoid this, create a separate field to flag down duplicate data / transaction records. 

eCommerce Low Conversion Rate FAQs

What does low conversion rate say about your website?

A low conversion rate says that your website is not functioning optimally to draw in visitors and convince them to buy.

The typical areas that contribute to a low conversion rate on an eCommerce website include:

Unclear navigation—if categories & subcategories don't fall under a simple hierarchy or if a hamburger menu hides the contents of the menu, it's likely to lead to lower conversions

Uninspiring calls-to-action—whether it's the shape, the color, the placement or even the text, unoptimized CTAs can be uninspiring to use for visitors

Inadequate trust symbols—from what you say about your brand & its values or practices to how safe it is to pay and checkout, it all has a bearing on your eCommerce conversions

Too much or too less product content—either of these can be misleading for a visitor and can prevent them from making a solid purchase decision

Poor quality images—images that can't set context of use or don't clearly show how the product will look in reality can lead to a low ecommerce conversion rate

What will be a good conversion rate in 2024? 

In the big picture, most eCommerce businesses end up with a conversion rate anywhere between 2% and 3%.

The average conversion rate in the eCommerce market increased by 6.87% from 2.12% to 2.27% in November 2023 compared to November 2022.

So while it's a healthy practice to aim for a rate of 3% +, businesses that do really well record conversion rates of over 10%, with some reaching a rate as high as 11.45%.

So to answer the question, there’s no ‘good’ or ‘right’ conversion rate.

Eventually, you’ll need to start looking at internal data rather than external data.

Check out these *underrated* conversion rate optimization ideas for eCommerce 

A low conversion rate can be caused by all or a mix of the above points, so we suggest you go through your data to identify exact drop-off junctures. 

How to analyze low conversion rates?

As an eCommerce business, you can use multiple tools to assess your low conversion rates, and they can be applied to figure:

✔ Data across channels: This can help you see which channels are bringing you traffic and how these sources are also helping in conversions from time to time—studying channels can help you decide where to increase your spends for better rechability and impact

✔ Website behavior: Which actions visitors are taking more, which parts of the site they're spending more time on, how often they're returning to browse etc. can all signal towards conversion behavior

✔ Email clicks & opens: Without factoring in how your email audiences are converting, you can't decide if your overall conversion rate is low or not

✔ Quality of personalization: While analyizing low conversion rates, you have to keep an eye on the quality and extent of personalization for each shopper—if they're converting less, it could simply mean they're not seeing content or recommendations they truly prefer

How can you improve your website's conversion rates?

Even if the average conversion rates are lower in your industry, the top advertisers are outperforming you by 3-5x or more.

And while there’s no one answer to improving your conversion rate, we’ve seen how crucial it is to focus on understanding your customers' psychology. 

Here are some ways to low conversion rates can be caused:

✔ Focus on micro conversions to begin with 

Yeah, we’re talking about that popup to encourage email signup or automated email confirmation for product delivery. 

✔ Offer hyper-personalized recommendations

Because an overdose of choices leads to decision fatigue.

✔ Introduce the guest checkout option

A study shows that 23% of buyers will abandon the cart if they have to create a new account.

✔ Make reviews a must

Online buyers trust product reviews 12-times more than the product description and sales copy.

70% of teens trust influencers over traditional celebrities and 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations.

✔ Ensure speed at every touchpoint

Offer shoppers instant gratification through mobile app-enabled shopping, instant downloads, a fast-loading website, and responsive and fast customer support.

Now you know the possible answers to 'why is my conversion rate so low' and strategies on how to improve this metric. Next?

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98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.

Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors. 

And this is the problem we solve.

We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions with smart personalization tools. 

Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.

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