Measuring conversion rate as a way to recognise the health of an online store has not gone away over the years, even as we discovered how different the results are across various industries. Did you know that an average ecommerce store with arts & crafts products can have three times the conversion rate of one with baby & child accessories?
Put simply, conversion rate of an ecommerce store is the number of sessions with product purchased divided by the total number of sessions.
Measuring sessions rather than unique visitors is more efficient, as “sessions” serve better to illustrate single purchase intents. One visitor can make one transaction but they can log in several times in 30 minute intervals to buy more products.
Conversion rate benchmarks
Conversion rate data is an incredibly reliable measure of the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. To know whether you are doing well, it is useful to have a guide of good ecommerce conversion rates.
Experts from Shopify to Big Commerce say average ecommerce conversion rates are around 2.5-3%. Even if you are doing everything right, you can still expect to win the sale around 2-3% of the time. Many factors influence this by category, but one of the key critical engagement points relates to human emotions. How “what we see” makes us feel about the product and gives us the confidence to press BUY.
Source: growcode.com
Conversion is like a funnel
When thinking about the conversion process, you can use the metaphor of a funnel. It is wider at the top, where all your websites' sessions gather, and narrower at the bottom, where you count sessions with a purchase.
Emotions play a significant role in shaping your funnel, i.e. the customer journey. Customers progress on a way from developing interest in a product category, through gathering information, to defining favourites. In the last phase, they usually search for opinions and analyse the features and benefits of the product.
The more information, detail, quality and quantity of the visuals for the product, the more you help to engage the customer. We call this the process of “eye candy to buy candy.”
Each stage involves less and less customers, and a retailers task is to compel customer into the next stage until the customer ultimately purchases.
The single biggest influencer of conversion
Visual content.
Customers are highly emotional with a healthy dose of rational and functional decision making. The more detail you have in photos and videos helps to support the decision-making process of the customer and their confidence in making a purchase, ultimately leading to higher customer satisfaction and reduces return rates.
Make a change by implementing quality visual content
Working for higher conversion rate can start with SEM, SEO, UX, and sales conditions but nothing will influence the emotions of your customer as strongly as quality visual content.
The number one focus you should take aim at in 2023 is improving your online store with good pack shots, informative 360-degree spins, and dynamic product videos.
Consistency across the offer range
The general impression your ecommerce website makes depends highly on the coherence of its elements. Expect conversion rates to rise when all your product images are the same size and the colour palette doesn’t look like a technicolour explosion to the senses. You are creating an engaging shopping environment, not a noisy headache.
Try to create visual information that is coherent across product ranges – repeat similar angles, zoom levels and colour palettes.
Have you ever seen an Instagram profile that instantly draws attention and makes you scroll through all their photos distributing likes generously?
It’s usually right because of repeatability and coherence. A little forethought in this area will pay off in brand recognition and shorter sales funnels.
2. Colours and light are powerful
Anthropology has long proven that colours have deep influence on human perception and, in consequence, on actions. Reds help with alarming and drawing attention, yellows create a light atmosphere of joy, while greens work to calm.
Colour warmth and light colour temperature will have a say in how much we desire to buy a product and how strongly we bond with the brand.
3. Rich content is the golden egg
Rich content means 360-degree spins and product experience videos. There is a significant setback to trying to sell a specialised touring backpack with only two or three pack shots. Allow your customer to peek inside the pockets, swirl the item in all possible directions, and compare it with human models for size impression.
Including rich content will keep your customer in the conversion funnel and through information propel them to next stages.
When executed well, it will offer near natural experience and reduce the chance of a product return.
Keep in mind that all your conversions will not count, if they end up increasing your logistics costs by being yet another return!
WHERE DO YOU START?
Automated photography processes are the game-changer
Producing quality content takes a significant amount of time. In your quest for budget balancing and reasonable schedules, the time devoted to visuals can seem a burden. You may choose to outsource or employ more.
Whichever way you choose, it will be costly. This is where photography automation steps in with a single investment that will lead straight to quicker and better visual content.
Automated studios, like Orbitvu’s Alphashot series, have been designed for product photography. They offer full control of lighting, one click background removal, and instant online publishing plugins.
For many this will be the right investment but for others out of reach. An alternative way to access this capability is using the technology through POP. They have easy to use plans and can discuss personalised pricing based on your on-going needs. And if you usually get imagery from suppliers, you can set-up your visual content standards and get them to use POP and pay the bill for you!
The brilliance is you establish your consistent angles, lighting and requirements in a “template” on the machine, and the automation does the rest. In minutes. What can take hours to set-up is then read at the touch of a button. Consistent, engaging, accurate. Every single time.
Gain an upper hand in your ecommerce conversion in 2023 and increase the chances of your customer’s buying online rather than “just watching what’s on offer”.
Want to find out more?
Contact Simon Hayden
Email: simon@orbitvupacific.com
Phone: +64 27 433 3432
Contact Melissa Hayden
Email: info@pop.co.nz
Phone: +64 27 448 9145