Should you offer free shipping?

I would give a resounding yes. Free shipping has been slowly turning from a perk into a requirement. 75% of customers expect it and 61% of online shoppers say they’re somewhat likely to cancel a purchase if free shipping isn’t offered.  Over 90% of people say free shipping motivates them to shop online more than […]

E-commerce Trends in 2021

In either 1971 or 1972, students at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory sold a few grams of marijuana to their colleagues at MIT: marking the first recorded instance of commerce being conducted over the internet. E-commerce has grown by leaps and bounds ever since then and accounts for 13.6% of all retail spending in the […]

52 Top Ecommerce Communities (Facebook Groups) (Updated Apr 27, 2021)

For you ecom lovers, I listed out the main ecommerce communities (groups) on facebook, in descending order of number of members. If you’re looking for a very engaged group focused on increasing your store’s conversion rate, make sure to join my group Ecom Convert!    Join now   Here’s the list of the top ecommerce […]

Best CRO Alternatives to Trust Badges

Best CRO Alternatives to Trust Badges

In recent years, the world of conversion rate optimization has become somewhat obsessed with trust badges. Love them or hate them, the fact is that a lot of studies have been done regarding their potential impact on a website’s conversion uplift – or lack thereof. Precisely because of the limited consensus on their general effectiveness, […]

The importance of improving user experience (UX) 

Why UX?

Increase customer retention and sales by up to 400% for your online store 8 min read   Today more than ever, having the right product, right audience and marketing strategy is just not enough anymore. In reality, none of these factors, even when perfectly implemented, are relevant if your website’s UX leaves much to be […]

10 Quick Wins to Optimize Your Store’s Conversions

215 best practices is an overwhelming amount of information to digest.   So I figured I’d go through it and identify a list of 10 quick wins for you to start with.   Show a search box instead of just a search icon in the header List your main product categories in your menu’s level […]

The Stats Are In: User-Generated Content for the Win!

User Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is just what is sounds like, content that was made by users of the product themselves. This could look like people tagging the company where they got their shirt from on Instagram or posting their personal review of the product on Facebook. The users are not paid for what they post but […]

15 Ways to Increase Your Checkout Rate

Checkout

The average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.89%. How high is yours? People abandon their carts for a variety of reasons. From unexpected shipping costs to simply not being ready to buy a product, there always seems to be a reason that people do not follow through with their orders. The graphic below highlights these […]

In Badges We Trust. Well… Some of Them

Trust Badges

Trust Badges are used to give customers peace of mind while shelling out their credit card information over the internet. However, not all trust badges were created equally. It is important to invest time into trust badges because in some surveys, as many as 61% of participants said they had decided not to purchase a […]

Feature Product Categories and Not Products

Product Categories

Should you feature products on your homepage? Short answer: No! Long answer: Still no, but here’s why… According to eConsultancy, featuring products on your homepage has negative impacts:

Back to the Basics: The True Value of Market Research

Market Research

The first step to creating a successful campaign is to understand who your audience is. A company selling luxury items and a company selling cheap value items will have two different target audiences and should be treated as such. This could easily get lost in the process of reconfiguring your website, worrying about shipping, and […]

Mobile Cheat Sheet

Mobile Cheat Sheet

54% of visitors and 30% of purchases come from mobile devices, which is why it is important to understand the difference between your mobile users and your desktop users. Below are 7 suggestions that will turn mobile visitors into customers.

Pros and Cons of a Homepage Background Video

Homepage Background Video

It is clear that video is highly engaging and increases conversions. ► Adding a video to marketing emails can boost click-through rates by 200-300%. ► Embedding videos in landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%. ► 90% of customers report that product videos help them make purchasing decisions.

How Wish Lists Could Help You Increase Sales

Wish Lists

Wish lists aren’t just for Santa anymore. They are for you and your customers, helping to save their favorite items to come back to at a later date. There was a recent study done by Metrilo where they picked 50 stores and compared the sales in the 6 months before and after implementing wish lists. […]

Secrets of Successful CTA Buttons

CTAs

Calls to Action, also called CTAs, can make or break your website’s conversions. Different factors like placement, size, and color of CTA buttons all play a role in how successful they are. These factors are explored below, giving you a guideline to follow on how to make your CTAs as impactful as possible.

Faster the Page Loading Speed, Better the Results

Page Loading Speed

Slow sites dramatically reduce purchase intent. Simply put, faster is better than slower. Even with big brands like Amazon and Walmart, people are not willing to wait to get the products they love.  For Amazon, each 100ms of latency costs them 1% in sales. For Walmart, they gain an extra 2% in conversions with every […]

Why Free Shipping is Worth It

Free Shipping

After scouring the internet for an answer to my question “what shipping method leads to most sales?” the conclusion was widely unanimous: offer free shipping on your site. Not only is free shipping the #1 criteria for making a purchase, where 73% of people listed it as “critical,” but it is also a driver in […]

What’s the ROI of a Chatbot for Your Store?

Chatbots

70% of millennials prefer to shop online and spend 6 hours per week doing so. They also prefer using text messages over emails to communicate with businesses on their smartphones. 40% of shoppers don’t mind getting help from an AI tool. Furthermore, 80% of businesses either already use or plan to use chatbots by 2020.

Customers Who Chat Before Purchasing Convert 40% More

Live Chat

It can be very tempting to only provide an email or contact form for visitors to reach you if they have questions. However, in this day and age of instant communication, they want an answer right this second. Can your customers ask questions 24/7? Visitors who engage with a live chat, especially, expect a quick response.

Why You Should Offer a Guest Checkout

Guest Checkout

According to Baynard Institute, the average shopping cart abandonment rate for e-commerce stores hovers around 68.63% (as at January 2016). This means that 7 out of 10 people leave your site after committing to the purchase process. 28% of US online shoppers abandon their cart because they don’t want to register/create account just to make […]

Can Product Videos Increase Conversions?

Product Videos

You probably already know this, but yes they do. Their impact is actually quite extreme. So do you have a video on every product page? Here’s why you should.

Should Product Categories Be Listed Directly in Your Menu?

Mega Menus

Baymard Institute recommends to place the main product categories directly in the main menu. This means that the level 1 navigation in the header menu (on desktop) or the burger menu (on mobile) is your main categories. That way, visitors can get a quick glance at what your site offers without having to click, hover, […]

How Important Are Product Reviews on Your Online Store?

Product Reviews

As part of the extensive research I do to inform my detailed ecommerce UX Audits, I found these stats about product reviews. So instead of just telling you that you should make sure to have product reviews on your site, I’ll try to prove it.