Getting 1% conversion rate E-commerce site

[Tomer David]

Newbie here. In your experience what do you think a typical or good conversion rate would be for e-commerce?

It's really depends on the niche and market that you work on, obviously low ticket price items have higher averages and high ticket items have lower conversion rates.

 

[Tomer David]

Depends a lot on where the traffic comes from and what your margins and PPC/SEO costs are.

For adwords you should be aiming for 2-3% minimum (cold traffic, excluding branded searches as these would convert even without the ad and distort the real conversion rate) or you won't be near profitability, at least thats what I've seen in hundreds of adwords accounts that I worked on. Surely there will be exceptions. Organic search you dont have PPC costs as a factor so calculation is harder with monthly SEO bill or the work/time you put in yourself, but should be in roughly the same range.

On the other hand for a business that relies on display advertising (FB ads for example) theres a wider range and you could make it work with 1% or even less if you get clicks really cheap. If you have a really good product thats not too expensive (impulse buy range) and your ads work well you can do 5%++ even on cold display traffic, but its not easy.

In the end, conversion rate is just a vanity metric. What matters is profitability.

Just reread the OP and only now noticed that he is in jewelry and if its higher prices a lower conversion rate makes sense. You should be able to optimize your traffic first though, depending on the source, especially if its PPC and you can disable non-performers. That usually has a bigger impact than onsite optimization.

Hey, thank you for the tips.

We are actually doing both, its a puzzle and you need both pieces to work right in order to increase the conversion rates.

 

[Tomer David]

Today report:

* Added cyber Monday deal page
* Added some homepage banners to the cyber Monday deals page
* created special coupons for cyber Monday and market them with our abandoned email list + exit intent popup + live chats welcoming message
* reading and reading and looking what I can do more to increase rates.

 

[Tomer David]

its total sales at the end of the week / number of unique visits thats how I determine the conversion rate for this goal

We have a lot of customers that buy without talking with us over the phone or chat.

Not very many people are going to convert if they are going to spend $1700.

There is going to have to be a mix of email or phone calls to close clients like that, are you counting those?

Where are you getting this sub 1% conversion rate from, PPC... organic... all lumped into everything?

Gotta get more specific. However the % of people that are going to spend $1700 online with no connection to a phone call or email is going to be almost nill unless your highly trusted like Amazon.

Tell us what's going into and how you judge this sub 1% conv rate.

 

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[Tomer David]

Also forgot to mention yesterday actions:

1. not really related to optimizing conversion but related to bring more traffic to the website. I have create a list of top most viewed items in our stored and sent an excel file to an eBay pro that is going to list them in our account for more exposure and maybe some traffic to our website.

It is starting to get so busy that I don't have time to take any actions hopefully today we are getting 2 more employees to free us up so we can focus on the whole picture and bottom line!

 

[Tomer David]

What about instead of focusing on CTR for the initial sale, focus on up-sell / cross-sell / re-targeting / email list engagement? More than one way to skin a cat.

Hey and thank you tip.

Its a matter of priority I don't know if I mentioned this but my goal is to achaive this in a month! so I try to focus on getting this ASAP since I know it will effect bottom line the most.

Most of the things you said i'm currently doing (even though needs improving).


Yesterday actions:

* Upload to live the Christmas elements and created promotions.
* increased the newsletters we send from 1 a week to 2 times a week.
* improving some speed issues and still in the process of switching to SSL by default.

 

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[Tomer David]

Yesterday was working hard on improving page speed.

Posted a job on Upwork for experts in the field hopefully will have this done quick

Also work hard on moving all pages to SSL by default and moving to http2

 

[welshmin]

Hey and thank you tip.

Its a matter of priority I don't know if I mentioned this but my goal is to achaive this in a month! so I try to focus on getting this ASAP since I know it will effect bottom line the most.

Most of the things you said i'm currently doing (even though needs improving).


Yesterday actions:

* Upload to live the Christmas elements and created promotions.
* increased the newsletters we send from 1 a week to 2 times a week.
* improving some speed issues and still in the process of switching to SSL by default.

Then an up-sell is the easiest way, offer an easy upgrade or cross-sell at checkout. Make it as simple as literally checking a box to purchase if possible.

E.g. Purchasing a T-Shirt
Add an option at checkout to purchase a similar one for 20% off!
Or add free shipping for a minimum order value, etc. Lots of options.

In business, 10% is 40%. If you have already spent the money acquiring a customer, then every 10% extra is worth 40% extra because that 10% was basically free compared to the rest. (oversimplification but the point stands!)


Also, why so keen to achieve it in a month? Great to have goals and push hard, but play the long-game.

 

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[Tomer David]

Yesterday and today we had big issues with the website caching and cart, sales went down dramatically and the feeling is not that good.

I'm not sure if ill reach my goal by the end of this season by ill give 100% of myself no matter what!

I'm facing a lot of obstacles in the journey but I know i'm learning so much valuable lesson through so it makes my excited toward next year!

Was also able to have the https with EV support enabled today by default for the whole website.

 

[Robert Williams]

Hii Tomar!

As you have asked about the strategies to increase the conversion rate on your online portal. I would suggest you to work on the product listing & desription writing on your website. these are the areas which create positive or negative image about your website & offerings in the mind of customer.
Secondly, try to go for some social media marketing it will help you to get engagement with your potential customers & with it a chance for promotion. you can even create a community of your customers to retain them for future sales.
At last, try to use SEO as a way to promote your website freely through google ranking.

THese all services you can get even by the virtual assistants who opposite to your regular employees work on hourly basis giving you a more competitive advantage then other sellers

Thanks

 

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[MarkMiller24x7]

Okay so our holiday season is almost done, I didn't reach the 1% conversion goal (I was close) but i'm extremely happy with the way and journey I went this month, and also the results were not bad at all

I learned the power of outsourcing and delighting jobs.

Power of good website infrastructure and the basic things.

I realized that I need to Focus more on marketing.

I have a lot of work next year and i'm really excited to start a new journey (its not going to be easy) but really fun.

Merry Christmas everyone and happy new year

Hyy Tomar,
Can you please suggest the readers what you have done different in a brief way and how you came to know the importance of outsourcing and delivering jobs in the past year.
This will help the newbies a lot.
And also what work you used to outsource and how you find the best outsourcing company for you?

 

[RazorCut]

Hi Tomer,

Seems I'm coming to the party late (only the cleaners left to pick up all the empty bottles and sweep the floors of festive streamers and confetti).

Congratulations on increasing you conversion rate. It's not an easy task at the best of times.

Reading your journey am I right in thinking you have been part of this business for years? I'm just wondering why the focus on Web Site improvements was left till November. Surely summer was the time to plan, implement and test changes in preparation for the most important months of the year?

Did you run re-targeting? If so how did you find that for increasing sales?

I had an eCommerce business for years selling findings (components for making jewellery for the uninitiated). Not products on your level you understand. I always found the most important aspect were images. High quality images and several of them per item coupled with accurate and detailed copy. Obviously product images play a major role in your business. Do you have static images or do you also include video?

Have you considered a channel that explains the craft of manufacture and the workmanship that goes into every piece?

Second hand watch shop Watchfinder.co.uk have built a solid reputation on youtube which gives their potential customers a strong feeling of confidence, especially considering that their second hand watches can run to over $250,000.

Here's an example of their work (might be food for thought):

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Y8MB0jGZg