Ecommerce Research Chart: How can companies increase conversion rates? [Video]

• special MarketingSherpa Chart of the Week

• excerpt from a recent webinar broadcasted live from the Internet Retailer Conference and talking about how companies can increase their conversion rates

In a recent MarketingSherpa webinar, we analyzed some of the data from the just published MarketingSherpa Ecommerce Benchmark Study with Ben Pressley, Head of Worldwide Sales, Magento, and Pete Prestipino, Editor-in-Chief, Website Magazine. Pressley and Prestipino joined Daniel Burstein Director of Editorial Content, MECLABS, in the MarketingSherpa Media Center at IRCE. 
This webinar presents a chart from the Benchmark Study highlighting ecommerce conversion rates from data collected from more than 4,000 ecommerce experts. 

According to the study, most ecommerce conversion-to-sale rates fall below 5%. However, it's important to keep in mind that this is by no means a "ceiling or floor."

"It doesn't mean you should look at this and say, 'Oh I can only get this specific number,' and settle for it," Burstein explained.
For more insights into how ecommerce companies can increase their conversion rates, Pressley and Prestipino dove into four ways marketers can improve their efforts.

Strategy #1. Invest in an engaging design

"One of the biggest things that we see is that merchants haven't invested enough in building a really engaging design for their website with a really engaging user experience," Pressley explained.

Pressley referenced a Forrester Report article that explained how the only sustainable advantage that companies will have is having a deep understanding of their customers, and the ability to engage them.
"If you're not creating a really engaging experience on your site, then that's going to impact conversion," Pressley said.

Strategy #2. Design for mobile

Pressley continued on to explain how having an optimized tablet and mobile experience is something that he sees successful companies doing very often.

"If you think about it, you're sitting there at night watching whatever television show is, you've got your tablet and you have to pinch and scroll and zoom in order to look at a particular website. That's obviously going to impact conversion," Pressley said.

Strategy #3. Align marketing and advertising elements

Prestipino agreed that design is one of the most important elements in conversion, but it should go beyond that.

"The misalignment of marketing and advertising elements that go to an individual product page is an absolute killer when it comes to conversion," he explained.
When using ads or messaging to promote a specific product, Prestipino stressed the importance of having that content direct to the exact individual product page. When a visitor clicks and arrives on a page that doesn't feature the product they saw, they will leave.


Strategy #4. Investigate per-product conversion rates


Rather than evaluating site-wide conversion rates, Prestipino advised marketers look at per-product conversion rates as well.

"There are going to be some winners and losers in products, and what you want to do is understand what products are selling best, and group them in a way that you know they are optimized.
"Then, take the pages that are not fully maximizing the user experience, and optimize those. Then, you'll take those pages to a higher conversion rate as well," he explained.
Watch the full webinar replay to learn more from Pressley and Prestipino on what success in ecommerce looks like.
Also, see all of our interviews at IRCE for more valuable insights into ecommerce from a wide range of executives, managers and marketers in the trenches. --> website