Ecommerce Website Optimization Guide: Top Five Tips

Running an ecommerce website can be an overwhelming experience. You have to manage inventory, deliver products, and provide excellent customer service all at once. You also need to make sure your website functions smoothly, stably providing a flawless shopping experience. But what happens when your website has problems like slow loading times? About 53% of mobile users leave if images take too long or fail to load. Clearly, this undermines sales and damages reputation.

The number of online stores across the world is estimated at 24 million, which creates fierce competition in the ecommerce space. Fortunately, ecommerce website optimization can help companies make minor tweaks here and there to enhance their business performance and boost conversions. But what modifications to make exactly? 

In this guide, you will find everything you need to optimize your ecommerce store correctly and set it up for ultimate success. Let’s get started!

Why Optimize Your Website?

In the highly competitive ecommerce industry, you need a well-optimized website to approach your target audience and stand out from the crowd. A range of website optimizations enhances your website’s customized digital experience, customer engagement, and conversion rates. You basically ensure that every detail on your web pages contributes to a smooth digital journey.

Here is why having an optimized website is highly important:

• Conversion rates demonstrate the efficiency of your website in turning visitors into customers. Ecommerce conversion rate optimization boosts the online experience by helping visitors find what they need and make a purchase. Improved load times, intuitive navigation, and compelling content help increase the number of conversions. This directly impacts your revenue and ROI, making it a significant aspect of website optimization.
• Personalized customer experience requires you to tailor content, product recommendations, and messaging based on public needs and preferences. Personalization enhances engagement, fosters brand loyalty, and encourages higher conversion rates. When buyers feel that a website meets their demands, they are more likely to become repeat customers.
• Customer retention shows a company’s ability to turn random visitors into repeat clients and prevent them from turning to competitor brands. Offering valuable content, addressing customer inquiries, and simplifying the purchasing process all contribute to customer satisfaction. It is good to double down on search engine optimization for an ecommerce website by using relevant keywords and efficient interlinking.

If you do not optimize your website and content, it does not matter how many users search for keywords associated with your company. Your site will not appear in the browser results and will not get noticed by users. To change the situation, choosing the right website optimization strategy is crucial.

Top Five Tips for Ecommerce Website Optimization

We at Elogic know how to turn your ecommerce site into a convenient tool for customers to find exactly what they are looking for without wasting time and nerves. Here are ecommerce tips across five areas that, together, help improve the overall customer experience and substantially increase your conversions:

Security

Fraudulent activities online are becoming more and more common these days. This is why buyers want assurance that their information is kept safe when shopping online. If you can show them that your website is secure, you will be more likely to convert them into repeat customers. Here’s what you can do.

• Integrate an SSL certificate. Every website dealing with user data must incorporate an SSL certificate for data encryption. With it in the stack, you gain the reinforced security of HTTPS (a more secure counterpart to HTTP). Without it, the browser will most likely mark your website as “not secure” and might not display it in search results.
• Use a secure payment gateway. A proper payment gateway helps protect sensitive customer data, maintain compliance with industry regulations, and ensure a smooth payment experience for your customers. This is why it is important to use well-tried payment integrations, like Stripe, PayPal, Google Pay, etc.
• Back up website data. The growing number of malicious digital attacks sets the need for backups. Website backup allows you to eliminate the threat and restore to a different server if something goes wrong. Using a cloud storage service like Google Drive or Amazon S3 is the easiest solution to consider.
• Avoid storing personal client information. You should keep sensitive customer information, like credit card numbers, in offline storage that cannot be accessed by hackers. Your business must be protected on all sides, covering different security aspects like encryption of cardholder data, firewall updating and management, and comply with PCI requirements (a security standard safeguarding the use of credit card info).

Navigation

A strong indicator of effective ecommerce website optimization lies in its navigation. Can potential buyers access your webpage quickly and hassle-free? How intuitive is the product search? Here are some hot tips on how you can optimize the navigation.

• Create categories and subcategories. Parent categories cover the whole range of products, while subcategories allow you to break them down into more specific options. For instance, on eBay, a parent category (e.g., “Electronics”) branches out into dozens of subcategories, displaying only the most popular ones (like “Computers and tablets”) in the drop-down list on the front page. 
• Include breadcrumbs. Used as navigation path markers, breadcrumbs help visitors explore the site hierarchy and continue their product browsing instead of moving back and forth each time. History-based breadcrumbs can send the user back to their previous page, which is usually not the primary list of categories. This feature allows visitors to understand and trace their steps, which reduces confusion during the shopping journey.
• Include a search bar. This essential tool should help people find exactly what they need through direct input. You need to make it noticeable by placing it at the top of the page. Adding some tips inside the box, such as “Enter a keyword” or simply “Search,” will make its purpose clear.
• Use a sticky navigation bar. A menu bar can be placed at the top of the screen so that users can see it when scrolling down the page. This design is especially useful for websites that contain extensive content, as the most significant information becomes easier to access. Having a sticky header makes the page more organized and professional, which improves the website’s visual concept.
• Employ CDN (Content Delivery Network). Mind the location of clients and servers that deliver content for them. The closer they are to each other, the better. To cover ranging buyer segments, several matching server locations are used. A dedicated CDN helps tie all these servers together inside a common network.

Mobile

Optimize the usability and functionality of your website on smartphones and tablets. Considering the nature of your ecommerce business and your target audience, ecommerce website mobile optimization could dramatically improve your business’ conversion rates and revenue.

Ensure speed load. According to Portent, a website that loads in under 1 second has a 3x better conversion rate than a website that loads in under 5 seconds. This means that slow content can have a negative impact on your ranking, traffic, and conversion. To speed up your web performance, reduce the file size of your web pages and remove unused code.

Checkout process on mobile. Creating an account can be a major turnoff for 37% of buyers, so it is highly recommended to implement a guest checkout process. You can allow people to make a purchase without a registered user profile, giving them a chance to register later. They usually become much more receptive after getting what they want.

Consider making an app. Building a mobile app for an ecommerce store is a well-tried way to expand user experience, engagement, and customer loyalty. No matter how fast or responsive your website might be, an app’s functionality will always provide a faster, immediately satisfying experience.

Product pages

Efficient conversion optimization for ecommerce websites requires you to tailor each landing page to a specific buyer segment. The more relevant content they find on your website, the more likely they end up making a purchase. You can boost your pages in the following ways.

• Use high-quality images and videos (when possible). Product pictures help potential buyers understand what they are getting. You should include visuals that demonstrate different aspects of your product. Similarly, use video to show the product in different ways and contexts.
• Indicate any additional charges that might occur. Any extra charges that may be incurred during the customer journey should be revealed to customers. Make them appear earlier in the process rather than at the point of purchase. You should not keep your customers feel misled and annoyed.
• Use social proof, ratings, and reviews. Social proof is very persuasive for new visitors because it lets them see how previous customers reacted to your offerings. Displaying customer reviews, ratings, and testimonials can demonstrate the real quality and value of every item. User-generated content on social media is a good way to create a good sense of authenticity behind the products.

Email marketing

Email remains a great marketing tool that allows you to send promotional messages to both existing and potential customers, adding an additional source of conversions to your mix. It is perfect for raising brand awareness and customer engagement. Here are some pro tips on optimizing it.

• Use loyalty programs. Offer programs that motivate customers to become regulars. For instance, IKEA has the IKEA Family, where you sign up for a bunch of member-only incentives, from free coffee to access to the exclusive used items tier. And brands like Sephora use VIP levels to boost customer engagement and retention through loyalty.
• Special offers. You can notify your buyers about special offers, discounts, or early access to sales events via email newsletter. Email marketing gives an undoubtedly felt push to your ecommerce conversion rates among other available channels. Especially when you take after the best practices, like the Wix Blog sharing a wealth of useful materials in every newsletter roundup sent weekly. 
• Implement up-sale and cross-sale. You can suggest complementary products during checkout, show related items on product pages, and provide strategically comparable higher-end products than the one in question. This will help you receive a high ROI and drive more traffic to your page.
• Customer reactivation. Customers showing decreased engagement or inactivity over a long period of time should be reminded about your website’s existence. For instance, Hubspot identifies inactive profiles and sends regular reminders about shutting them down completely after 120 days of idleness. Similarly, a targeted message can help you renew the recipient’s interest and encourage them to reconnect with the brand.

These tips are useful guidelines for software, business, and ecommerce content optimization. However, comprehensive delivery and maintenance of a flawless customer experience must be entrusted to professionals in this sphere. You have a great opportunity to unlock your ecommerce potential with Elogic. Let our specialists help your business find the next stage of growth.