Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is the process of implementing different strategies to increase your online store’s conversion rates. It involves analysing user behaviour, implementing strategic changes to optimise conversion funnels, and identifying areas for improvement. On the contrary, CRO testing helps you determine which changes and strategies drive the best results by using data-driven online experiments, primarily A/B testing. It ensures that every little adjustment you make enhances user experiences, reduces friction, and maximises conversions.
This blog will explore the top 10 proven ways to optimise your online store and increase conversion rates.
The Importance of CRO Testing for Online Businesses
There are several reasons why testing CRO ideas is important for your eCommerce business. Let’s look at some of the most common ones.
- One of the biggest benefits of testing CRO ideas is its ability to directly improve conversion rates. It helps you identify which website elements are most effective in driving the desired actions, such as purchases, sign-ups, form submissions, etc.
- With CRO testing, you gain access to valuable data on how users interact with your website. A/B testing and other methods can help you understand how different users navigate your website and if there are any potential friction points, enabling data-driven decision-making.
- Gathering relevant data through CRO testing can help you make informed decisions about design changes, call-to-action (CTA) placements, content adjustments, and other actions that will most likely improve conversion rates.
- CRO testing helps you analyse user behaviour. Eventually, you can identify areas on your website that need improvement and create a more user-friendly and smoother user experience.
- It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to optimise conversion funnels and landing pages and maximise return on investments from your existing marketing strategies and efforts.
- It can also help you significantly increase ROI by maximising the value of existing website traffic instead of solely focusing on acquiring new visitors. It helps you lower customer acquisition costs.
- Understanding user behaviour through CRO testing also enables you to tailor your marketing campaigns to specific audience segments and their needs.
- CRO testing can also potentially benefit SEO. If your website is well-optimised and offers good user experiences, it can positively impact your search engine rankings and increase organic traffic.
10 Essential CRO Tests For Your Online Store
Though A/B testing is one of the most common CRO tests, you can choose from other types of CRO tests, such as:
- An A/A test compares the page to itself. It’s usually done to ensure that your testing setup is working as planned and that your CRO efforts won’t fail due to misconfiguration.
- Split testing is similar to A/B testing. However, in split testing, different visitors see different URLs. It’s a controlled online experiment that aims to improve metrics, especially conversions.
- A/B/n testing is a way of online experimentation in which you test and compare different variations of web pages or other digital elements against each other to see which ones perform the best. Here, ‘n’ represents the number of variations being tested beyond just two variations (A and B) in regular A/B testing.
- Multivariate testing also involves testing multiple variables simultaneously to determine which combination performs the best. It can help you find the best version of different elements on a website or a webpage. You start with quantitative data, behavioural analytics, and feedback, and formulate a hypothesis. You can create multiple variations that test the hypothesis in different ways, funnel traffic to the other versions and measure the results.
Now, let’s explore the top 10 most effective ways to test CRO for your online store.
CTA Button Variations
One of the easiest ways to test CRO for your eCommerce website. CTA variations mean you have to experiment with different versions of CTA buttons. You can try changing the button text, size, colour, or even its placement to see which variation most effectively encourages users to take the desired action, whether signing up for a newsletter or purchasing. Finding the most compelling CTA for your audience is a key element of A/B testing to optimise conversion rates.
Generally, you would have to create two different versions of a webpage to test CTA variations with different versions of CTA buttons and split your website traffic. It’ll help you identify which version generates more conversions.
Do you know what works even better than CTAs? It’s personalised CTAs. They can convert 42% more visitors into customers.
Landing Page & Mobile Optimisation
It refers to the process of systematically testing different variations of a landing page design, including focusing on how it performs on mobile devices. Mobile devices accounted for almost half of web traffic worldwide in 2023. Moreover, 72% of all eCommerce sales come from mobile devices, with mobile eCommerce share expected to reach 88% by 2027.
Optimising landing pages can help you identify the version that maximises conversion rates by optimising user experience and encouraging visitors to take desired actions, like purchasing, subscribing, etc.
Elements you should test on landing pages for mobile optimisation include headlines and subheadings, CTAs, form fields, image size and quality, page load speed, etc. You can identify key metrics, including conversion rates, bounce rates, time spent on a page, and more to understand where improvements are needed.
Create different landing page versions and test which version performs better with a targeted audience. Prioritise the mobile experience by making sure the landing page is responsive and easily navigable on smaller screens. Evaluate the size of interactive elements to ensure users can easily tap on them on smaller screens. Check how the webpage adapts to different screen sizes and resolutions and test whether swipe gestures are intuitive and useful for mobile interactions.
Social Proof
Use elements like customer reviews, testimonials, or trust badges on your website to build trust and credibility with potential customers. Showing potential customers that other customers have had positive shopping experiences with your brand can influence their decision-making process and encourage them to take the desired action. Displaying the number of customers or subscribers also acts as social proof and can help you increase conversions by 12.5%.
In addition to customer reviews and testimonials, there are other ways to showcase social proof, including star ratings, user-generated content, popularity indicators, etc. Social proof is one of the most effective ways to alleviate doubts and encourage users to feel more confident about your products or services, increasing conversion rates. To determine the most effective social proof element, you’ll have to test and compare different variations and use A/B testing to determine which one drives the most conversions.
Checkout Process
Checkout plays an important role in CRO testing because it is the final step in a customer’s shopping journey on an eCommerce website. Any complexity or friction in the checkout process can negatively impact the customer’s decision to make the purchase. If your checkout process is lengthy and complex, 18% of customers are likely to abandon their cars during it.
A/B testing can help you optimise the checkout process and identify reasons that prevent users from completing the purchase. Minimising friction during the checkout process means lower cart abandonment rates. Average eCommerce stores lose 75% of sales due to cart abandonment.
It can be a tedious and time-consuming process as you’ll have to test multiple elements, perform A/B tests, focus on user experience, and more. You should test different layouts, CTAs, form field placements, shipping information displays, payment options, trust signals, progress indicators, etc., to see which versions lead to higher conversion rates.
As part of A/B testing, present two versions of the checkout page to different groups of users to compare which one performs better. Your goal is to increase conversions and also to improve the overall checkout process by reducing the number of steps. You can reduce the required fields and make the checkout page easy to navigate, eventually encouraging users to complete the purchase.
Exit-Intent Pop-ups
Exit-intent pop-ups are one of the most effective strategies employed by eCommerce websites to increase conversions. Your website will display a pop-up when a visitor is about to leave the page to capture their attention. It encourages them to subscribe to a newsletter, sign up for an eBook, add an item to their cart, or even claim a discount offer before they exit your website. Pop-ups are usually triggered based on mouse movements, indicating a user’s intent to leave the webpage.
In addition to exit intent pop-ups, you can experiment with welcome, time-based, and scroll-triggered pop-ups. Optimising their design, functionality, and placement can help you maximise conversion rates. Some elements you can test in pop-ups include headlines, messaging, visual designs, CTAs, offers and incentives, and trigger timing.
Display the pop-up at the right moment and with a highly relevant message to the visitor’s current page and behaviour. Avoid intrusive pop-ups that can disrupt user experiences. Instead, make them visually appealing and easy to close. Average conversion rates for pop-ups can vary by device, with 11.07% for mobile devices and 9.69% for desktops.
Personalised Product Recommendations
When you’re trying to optimise conversion rates by offering personalised product recommendations, you can A/B test different recommendation algorithms. You can test the number of product recommendations displayed, vary the presentation style (e.g., grids, carousels, lists, etc.), and analyse user behaviour to refine recommendations based on browsing history and past purchases.
It enables you to tailor the user experience based on individual preferences and behaviours and recommend products that are more likely to be of interest to each customer. When users see product recommendations that are tailored to their needs, they have a positive shopping experience. This encourages them to explore your products further, improves engagement, and increases the likelihood of them completing a purchase.
You can also try different product recommendation strategies, such as ‘similar items’ or ‘frequently bought together’ to see which are most effective in driving conversions.
A/B Testing
A/B testing is a key, data-driven method used in conversion rate optimisation (CRO). It provides valuable insights into user behaviours and preferences. In this method, you test two different versions of a website element, such as a button, image, headline, etc. To determine which version performs better, you show these two versions to different segments of users simultaneously based on a specific conversion goal. By optimising your website and identifying the most effective content or design, you can maximise conversion rates.
A/B testing involves several steps. First, you’ll need to identify a hypothesis, create variations, set up the test, run it, and analyse the results.
Free Shipping Thresholds
If you’re planning to optimise conversion rates by offering free shipping, you can experiment with different minimum order values. Customers will be required to purchase a predetermined amount to unlock free shipping, which can encourage higher spending while maintaining profitability. 48% of online customers abandon their carts because they are required to pay additional costs, such as shipping fees, taxes, etc.
You can test variations like raising or lowering the shipping threshold, offering tiered shipping prices based on order sizes, and more. Make sure you communicate shipping prices to your customers to avoid discrepancies during the checkout process. Additionally, you can A/B test different messages and their placement on your website. You must carefully analyse each variation’s impact on average order value and conversion rates.
Free shipping is a great motivator for consumers to make purchases, especially when it’s prominently displayed on a website. It’s a valuable element to test and optimise within your CRO strategy. Free shipping improves CRO by reducing perceived costs, improving user experiences, increasing average order value, etc.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
You can leverage AI to automate and optimise different processes, quickly analyse vast amounts of data, and make more accurate predictions about user behaviour. AI can also help you identify patterns and make adjustments in real time to your landing page or website. With highly dynamic and personalised experiences, AI ensures more effective testing strategies and higher conversion rates compared to manual A/B testing.
AI-powered CRO testing approaches include predictive analysis, customer journey mapping, personalised recommendations, automated A/B testing with machine learning algorithms, and dynamic content optimisation. It also helps you increase testing efficiency, gain advanced insights, and make data-driven decisions.
Live Chat
Live chat provides real-time customer support, ensuring you address customer queries immediately. This reduces friction in the buying process, leading to higher conversions. Live chat also helps you identify and resolve potential issues that might prevent users from completing a purchase. Overall, live chat can increase your conversion rate by 40% and your revenue by 48% per chat hour.
You can test various aspects of live chat, like chat initiation triggers, proactive chat prompts, greeting messages, agent prompts, CTAs, chatbot integrations, and the overall chat experiences. The goal is to identify elements that most effectively guide visitors towards conversions while monitoring key metrics. These include chat initiation rates, conversion rates from chats initiated, and conversation lengths.
When implemented correctly, live chat can help you increase conversions, directly address customer issues, offer proactive assistance, gather valuable insights, and personalise experiences.
Improve Your Store’s Conversion Rate With Shiprocket Checkout
Shiprocket Checkout is designed to help eCommerce businesses simplify their checkout processes and increase conversions. We offer one-click checkout for a delightful shopping experience for your customers with advanced features like:
- Effortless integrations
- Simple and secure logins
- Custom UI for better brand visibility
- Multiple payment gateway options
With analytics, you can explore your customers’ purchasing behaviour in depth, unlock key insights and trends, optimise ads and campaigns, and more. We also give you access to more than 10,000 discount configurations that work for your business and customers. You can generate bulk discounts at once and monitor discount performance.
Shiprocket Checkout is a smarter, personalised checkout solution that enables 70% faster checkout, 30% reduction in RTOs, 25% less cart abandonment rates, and 60% more conversions.
Conclusion
Optimising your conversion rates isn’t a one-time fix. It’s an ongoing process which involves continuous testing, learning, and refining. The smallest changes you make, from changing CTA texts to changing image placements and tweaking product descriptions, can greatly impact your sales and profitability. Regularly optimising your eCommerce website or its different elements based on real data on user behaviour, preferences, and needs can help you create a smoother shopping experience. A simple and frictionless experience is key to changing one-time visitors into loyal customers.
