When potential customers come to your e-commerce store, you want them to fill up their carts and spend a lot of money. That makes sense. But what if they don’t? Consumers have busy lives. They’re constantly looking for information online, and they may take some time before reacting — at least in the manner you desire them to.
Visitors may bounce in a variety of ways. They might be called away from the computer screen or they arrive at their destinations and shut off their cell phones. Whatever the case, you won’t always be able to get a customer on the first visit. You can, however, bring them into your e-commerce conversion funnel by beginning the transition from leads to customers. Begin the process of converting leads into consumers by inviting them onto your website.
Let’s Understand What a Conversion Funnel in E-commerce is?
In e-commerce, a conversion funnel depicts the path from when your consumers first become aware of your business to making a purchase. It also covers customer retention, upselling, cross-selling, and subscription-based models.
A conversion funnel is a strategy used by marketers to analyze how well their online store converts visitors into customers. Every company’s e-commerce conversion funnel is unique, depending on the specifics of how consumers use their services. The stages are similar, as I’ll describe below, but they vary depending on your product and target audience. Some businesses have shorter conversion funnels, for example. Because the price is no longer an impediment when selling a low-cost item because it becomes less difficult.
The Importance of Developing an E-Commerce Sales Funnel
You can’t optimize each stage for maximum sales unless you know what your e-commerce conversion funnel looks like. You can focus on those areas and improve your funnel by determining which stages have the greatest influence on conversions.
For example, if your study reveals that social media, particularly Facebook, has a significant impact on conversions, you may take action. Your substantial group of followers pays attention to your postings about price cuts and special offers. You can act on that information by increasing your Facebook activity and encouraging website visitors to follow you on Facebook. By making a prominent CTA for Facebook, you take advantage of the current website’s prominence and entice visitors into your social network.
The 4 Stages of E-commerce Conversion Funnel
The conversion funnel for e-commerce generally consists of four stages. The consumer makes decisions based on his or her view of your brand, product, and the competition at each stage. You’ll earn more money if you optimize for each stage of the conversion funnel.
Stage 1: Awareness
In this stage, people learn about your brand and the services you provide. They realize they need to address a problem or achieve a goal, so they seek answers. It’s only one of many opportunities that may catch their attention. As a result, this phase is very important.
During the awareness stage, your brand must provide educational content. Demonstrate your generosity by offering free information such as blog entries, webinars, reports, and manuals. This happens all the time in television commercials.
Stage 2: Interest
You won’t be able to let your audience go once you’ve baited them. Continue to offer your audience entertainment and educational value so they continue interested in your offerings.
Share brand-centered memes on social media, produce more essential material for your blog, engage your audience via email marketing, and post films on YouTube to expand on that technique.
Stage 3: Desire
Create desire when you know your audience’s interest. To elicit prospective consumers’ desires, talk about the advantages of your product — not its features — rather than its functions.
Apple does a wonderful job at this. The company doesn’t focus on technical specs (features); instead, it emphasizes the sleek, modern look of its products and the ease with which they may be used. Put your marketing efforts toward how the customer will benefit in the end.
Make use of CTAs in a strategic manner. Instead of focusing on what you have to offer, focus on how the reader will profit from it.
Stage 4: Action
It’s time to complete the transaction. You want your potential customers to add your product to their shopping carts, fill in their payment information, and hit “Buy Now” on your website. From start to finish, examine your checkout procedure. What could lead someone to abandon his or her shopping basket?
It might be a case of unnecessary form fields, unexpected shipping rates, or a lack of alternative payment options. Experiment with different checkout pages to see which elements should stay and which should be added.
Best Practices for Conversion Funnel Optimization
Make your website simple to browse through
There should be a simple path for your consumers to follow from start to finish. Make sure that there’s a straightforward route to the product page, whether they come into your site via Google or another search engine. Get rid of any reasons for leaving you can influence or your conversion rates will suffer at each stage of the funnel.
Simple is Better
The goal of each step in your conversion funnel should be to elicit an action, whether it’s obtaining an email address or bringing the customer to the purchase page. Make sure that each step’s action isn’t obscured by anything on the rest of the page; everything on the screen should point toward what you want.
Always Keep Testing
Examine all changes you make. Make mental notes on what else you could try. You may create hypotheses for various things to test with Exponea’s Experiments tool, which includes a visual editor for making tiny modifications to your site (colors, typefaces, hiding elements).
Remember to set up a global control group for your A/B tests so you can compare the differences to a baseline. And, just because one variation performed best in January doesn’t imply it will perform best in March. Test it again.
Key Takeaways
- A conversion funnel is a web page or series of pages that you’ve created to guide visitors through your site.
- Conversion funnels make your site more user-friendly. They also make it easier to identify problem areas where you can improve.
- Use a top-down approach when beginning your funnel analysis: start with the major sections of the funnel and work down.
- Make a prediction about the findings of your study, then try to debunk it.
- Your website should be simple to navigate, your pages intended to elicit specific behavior, and testing is necessary to ensure that your funnels are providing as much value as possible.
Conclusion
It can be difficult to understand the e-commerce conversion funnel, but if you have the correct information, you may improve the user experience and drive more sales. That’s why I propose collecting data and conducting tests on a regular basis.
Finally, let’s recap the four conversion funnel stages:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Desire
- Action
Regardless of what you’re selling, your potential customers will go through these four phases in their purchase journey. Some will breeze through stages while others may take months to persuade.
The key is to figure out how your prospects move through your e-commerce sales funnel and use that information to optimize each stage for higher conversions.
Want to implement these methods right away and see a rise in your e-commerce conversion rates immediately?
Start your Free Trial with Wigzo today!
