I want to start by giving two guiding principles that I think are really important. I get many people who want me to review their sites, especially people who are starting a Shopify store and it’s, Hey, I just started a Shopify store, but I think I have a great site, but I’m not getting a lot of sales. So, the first thing is a good design doesn’t equal good conversion. It’ll probably make some sales eventually down the road. However, if you are not getting sales, though you have a lot of traffic, there are things in your store that need to be changed.
We are going to go over the specifics of exactly how to get those conversions so stick around and find out how to improve your sites conversion rates.
The next general principle is tracking. Many people that I talk to don’t have Google analytics installed or any other means of user tracking. If you aren’t monitoring your site, you must start monitoring your site now.
You’re never going to know exactly how users are getting to your page and what they’re doing when they arrive without using a tracking software. I recommend always installing Google analytics and then some type of heat map software (ex. Hotjar). So, you can connect it to Google, optimize and run some AB tests. And that’s the second big point that I want to talk about is testing.
The recommendations from Jimmy John Shark I’m going to give below are what you could consider best practices and can steer you away from common conversion mistakes for Ecommerce. Now I’ve looked at enough sites to say that the below will happen on most new websites. Our recommendations will increase your sales. If you want, you can see here for yourself and get and idea. However, you should always do a test and make sure they are working for you and your customers. Sometimes breaking the rules may actually be better for your sales and conversion. You should always test and optimize for your users. So please don’t take any of this for granted.
Now I want to talk about the 10 common mistakes that people make when they’re starting a Shopify store
Conversion Mistake #1: Sliders
This is the first thing that people are going to see on your website. Most people aren’t going to spend a lot of time sliding through all of these different options. It’s also can cause a lot of site speed and load problems. So, it’s best to have a static image. Now, sliders can be good. I don’t want to say that they’re all horrible. However, for most sites it’s best just to stick to have a static image. where you can control your messaging and you can test different static images down the road. This will create a lot better experience for the user as they will not miss the information they were looking for.
Conversion Mistake #2: No Value Bar
Most people don’t have a value bar. This is a great way to add some of your value propositions. Here is a great value propositions we recently saw “Free shipping is back, but not for long”, even though it’s smaller, it creates a sense of urgency, which is good. You want to build some urgency, so people want to buy. Most people aren’t going to come back to your site. You need to get them in that moment. So that’s the first thing, add a value bar near the top of your site so most of your visitors can feel the urgency.
Conversion Mistake #3: No Value Statement in Hero Section
The Hero image is the first thing that most people see when they go to your home page. First impressions are really important. A poorly designed hero section of your website can send the wrong message or keep your users from looking further. Depending on the product you need to choose between a lifestyle image or focusing and highlighting your product or service.
Most new Shopify store owners pick a great image but they leave out a real value statement. Most online shoppers are looking to solve a problem, like leaving the worries behind and enjoying the shop. A lot of times you want to add something that can resonate to the image, for example, people on a camping site are looking for a good camping experience, focus on your camping trip and not low-quality gear, or don’t let low quality camping gear ruin your trip. You definitely want to make sure that that image either ties to your brand or it ties to the image, or it builds some type of value. Your hero should answer what people are looking for and you’ll want to look at your analytics and see, Hey, why are people coming to your homepage? What searches are they making to find my site? First of all, that’s going to be a big help and why we recommend installing google analytics as quickly as possible. If you don’t know how to do this yourself call us and we will help you install your analytics and search console.
Conversion Mistake #4: Generic or Cluttered Navigation Bar
Now the fourth thing I want to focus on is the menu or navigation bar. A lot of people have very generic or cluttered navigation bars. You have to remember; this is an important space that is on every page of your website. Every second a person is on your website is precious, they’re wasting energy, and it needs to be pushing them towards your end goal, sales on your new Shopify store.
Home is good to have in your menu, sometimes it may just be your logo. I’ve seen both cases, but having home here’s good. Next, I would break your products in 4 or 5 main categories to help your users navigate to the products they are needing much faster. The menu should be able to help the following type of people find a solution to their problem:
- I am looking for something specific.
- I may not know what to look for.
- I came to the site looking for a specific piece of equipment that is on sale.
It’s really hard because most online shoppers are impatient and want to find the product they need easily and quickly. Don’t lose out on sales because your navbar is to confusing or different than what people are used to. We recommend following how Amazon and Walmart have structured their navbars because users are used to them. You want it to be really basic and familiar. You can do many different tests to make sure you have the right items up there.
Conversion Mistake #5: Not Having Value Propositions
The next thing is value propositions. You should add value propositions in your messaging. This is really good, just more of an emotional pill that can ease their worries. But I really want to be a clear, make sure they standout and your users can see them. They should help your customers understand why they should buy from you instead of going to another online e-commerce store. So, throughout your website instead of just focusing on why that product is better than any of the other products you should include why they should shop with you. So, I would make it clear and add some value propositions that answer why they should shop with you.
Conversion Mistake #6: Call to Actions Don’t Pop Out (CTAS)
Now let’s go into the Call to Actions (CTAS). The biggest thing we see is a CTA that doesn’t stand out. We hear the following from a lot of Shopify store owners about a grey or dull CTA’s: “This grey or black color fits my design and looks really good but no one is clicking on it” Do you have a CTA that no one uses? Does it pop out to you? Most of the time the text or color doesn’t pop out. Now, you don’t want some obnoxious color, like a bright pink that just throws everything off and I would avoid reds. Reds usually are a sense of warning unless it meets your branding. As we discussed earlier, ecommerce shoppers like familiarity, have something like a soft yellow or something closer to Amazon or Walmart is better. In my mind why not utilize the research they have done to improve their CTA’s.
Conversion Mistake #7: Lengthy About Us and Lack of Customer Centric Focus
Now let’s get straight to the point on an ecommerce site most people don’t really care about your store. They want to find the product they are looking for and understand why you are the best choice. Don’t talk about yourself to much on your home page. Save that valuable space for other value propositions and nearer to the end guide your users to an about us page. People are coming to your site with a problem that they want to solve. Help them solve that problem. It is important to talk a little bit about yourself, but you should be focusing on the customer. You have to remember your goal is to get your customer to find their product and purchase it.
Conversion Mistake #8: Confusing Product Organization
The next, big thing is the product organization. Users get frustrated when products are unorganized or put into weird categories. Your shoppers are going to get lost because there’s not a lot of organization. Seeing a lot of different products can give your potential customers a little bit anxiety because they don’t know what they are looking. Having some type of familiar organization would help your users find what they are looking for quickly and efficiently. There definitely needs to be a focus with a few main categories that will guide them to the products people are looking for. If they don’t know where to start, they need to know where to go or if they already know what they’re looking for, you need to make it clear where they should look so they can find what they’re looking for right now.
Conversion Mistake #9: No Negative Language
Now we talked about adding some value propositions. Adding some negative language is really important. Like, hey, if you don’t buy this gear, you’re going to be stuck with a crappy trip. So, depending on your product, adding something like, if you don’t act today, this is going to happen. We recommend using negative language like the following:
“Save $200 rather than get $200.” Shoppers are more likely to purchase your product when using “save $200” because it has that connotation that they’re going to lose something. Negative language can also create urgency for your customers.
Conversion Mistake #10: No Lead Magnet or Subscribe option
Don’t miss out on getting someone’s contact information, this is a valuable source of traffic and potential sales. Click here to read a popular franchise marketing advisor notes that will be very useful to formulate an excellent marketing strategy for any kind of firm. If people don’t buy the first time, you want to try and get them to come back to your website. Now you can set up tracking codes (or can get track competitor rankings for free from here) and remarketing and remarket to them, but that’s going to cost you money. If they weren’t ready to buy, I would put a lead magnet. I recently read a stat that said collecting someone’s email is like getting $10 because it means they’re not ready to buy now, but you’re going to be able to sell them in the future.
What I recommend that you do is add some value to why I should give you my email? A lot of people are really hesitant about giving their email just to anybody. They are tired of special offers, free giveaways and once in a lifetime deals that spam their emails for years. Plus, they are pretty generic and don’t show any value. Now you could add a special offer or get a coupon code for 50% off your first order for a lead magnet.
Now you have their email and you can start sending them product updates or special offers for your products. So, if they weren’t at that point of ready to buy, at least you’re still selling. Give yourself a second chance by getting their email. The whole goal is to try and sell and overcome any objections and hesitancies.
In conclusion there are many more mistakes we see when reviewing websites for example we haven’t even talked about site speed, abandoned carts. We haven’t talked about mobile responsive and content strategy even customer marketing and customer service. So please follow these, look at these things when you’re evaluating your website. If you have any questions up to this point, please feel free and contact us.
