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Some might think that having an e-commerce business is effortless. You just have to create a nice product, start selling it, and have an excellent social media presence, and that’s it.
Well, we wish it was that simple, but it’s not.
As an e-commerce business, your customers go through different stages until they purchase your products. These stages that your customers encounter on your website influence the chances of your customers’ conversion. This process is known as an e-commerce conversion funnel.
Just having an e-commerce store means that you have a conversion funnel. However, the thing is, you have to be aware of the different strategies and tactics to optimize your conversion funnel.
Feeling lost?
That’s why we are here, as we will provide you with a complete guide on the conversion funnel for e-commerce, its stages, and different tactics for optimization.
Table of content:
- What is an e-commerce conversion funnel?
- 5 Benefits of Setting up a conversion funnel for your e-commerce Business
- The Five Stages of the E-commerce Conversion Funnel
- How to create your conversion funnel
- E-commerce Conversion Funnel Metrics
- Top 10 Strategies For e-Commerce Conversion Funnel Optimization
Let’s get started.
What is an Ecommerce Conversion Funnel?
A conversion funnel is a sales process between visitors to your website and the sale. It shows how many people enter the funnel, how many drop off at each step, and what percentage of customers make it to the end.
The eCommerce conversion funnel is slightly different from other funnels because it consists of several steps instead of just two (as seen in sales funnels). But it still has the same basic concept. You have visitors to your website, some of those visitors become leads (people who are interested in buying), and the best leads turn into sales.
The goal of a conversion funnel is to convert as many visitors into customers as possible. This is accomplished with analytics software, such as Google Analytics, to track how people interact with your site's pages.
5 Benefits of Setting up a conversion funnel for your e-commerce Business
Setting up a conversion funnel for your online store has many benefits. However, Here are five top ones:
1. Optimize Customers' Journey
You can track every stage of the customer journey, from when they land on your site to when they make a purchase. This means you can see where customers drop off in their journey—and work out how to eliminate these bottlenecks.
2. Stay Over The Competition
The eCommerce conversion funnel allows you to measure your ROI and benchmark against industry averages. This will help you identify what channels drive the most sales and where there's room for improvement.
3. Improve Your Customer Experience
The funnel will show you where customers are dropping off in their journey, so you can improve the site and increase conversions. For example, suppose a large percentage of visitors leave before checking out. In that case, there's probably something wrong with your product pages or checkout process.
Discover 10 Tips To Boost Your E-commerce Customer Experience
4. Find Out What Motivates Your Customers
The eCommerce conversion funnel allows you to see which actions on your site lead to sales. You can then use this insight to tailor the content and design of your website so it's easier for customers to find what they want.
5. Reduce Cart Abandonment
It helps to reduce cart abandonment rate by tracking how far a customer is through their buying journey, you can identify where they drop off when shopping online—and make changes accordingly.
Stages Of e-Commerce Conversion Funnel
Your customers go through a group of stages before converting, which is known as an e-commerce conversion funnel. When you identify the path of your customers, you will be able to identify the points at which they make a purchase and hence, work on enhancing them.
The more your customers proceed in the stages of the funnel, the less the number of customers you will find. Therefore, you must comprehend your e-commerce funnel's different levels to optimize it correctly. This is precisely what will be discussed in the upcoming paragraphs.
1- Awareness Stage
Just from its name, it is evident that the first stage in your conversion funnel is linked to raising awareness for your e-commerce store and attracting customers. It is also known as the top funnel stage.
At this point, you have a massive number of users who are encountering a problem, and they realize that your product or service solves such a problem.
Thus, the awareness stage is the most critical in your e-commerce funnel. In other words, it might make or break your e-commerce.
That’s because, at this stage, you are attracting the largest number of users, and based on the content and information you provide, these users might become your customers.
Therefore, you have to provide these potential customers with reasons to encourage them to take any further action.
2- Interest Stage
After successfully attracting potential customers, it’s time to establish a relationship with them by sparking their interest. This level in the e-commerce conversion funnel is sometimes known as the consideration level or the mid-funnel.
Customers reaching this stage in their journey means they are considering your product. Accordingly, you must provide more in-depth information to persuade them of your products and why they should buy them.
3- Desire Stage
At this stage of the commerce funnel, your customers are close to purchasing. Yet, they just need a push from your side.
This means that the customers have already considered your products, but there are some points they are skeptical about. They might think this purchase is expensive or unsure of the product benefits.
Accordingly, your role at this stage is to provide them with the benefits of your products, not just the features. For example, describe your skin products as offering women the glowy skin they have always dreamt of instead of skin products enriched with vitamin E.
Formulating your statements in the form of benefits, not features, convince your customers of your product’s ability to solve their problems. Hence, they are more likely to convert.
Your content at this stage should be a comparison between the products you offer and that of competitors. In addition, include high-quality pictures and videos of your products. Also, discounts and free shipping will give your customers the push they need to complete their purchase.
4- Action Stage
Before discussing the action stage, we must celebrate!! Congrats, you have gained a new customer.
This is the stage of the funnel that any e-commerce business aims to reach—the moment the user decides to make a purchase.
You have successfully transformed a lead into a customer. However, your relationship with your customer does not end at this stage. In fact, this phase is the one with the highest abandonment rate. Thus, paying close attention to this phase ensures the finalizing of the transactions.
Simply, you have to facilitate the purchase process by providing a seamless checkout experience. For instance, provide several payment options and shipping options.
5- Re-engage Stage
We all know that your relationship with your customers does not stop at the moment of purchase. You have to benefit from these buyers by retaining them and encouraging them to repeat purchasing.
Encourage your buyers to share feedback on their shopping experience. In addition, gather their emails to share all the updates and do not miss to encourage customer referrals to maximize your benefits.
How To Create An Ecommerce Conversion Funnel?
Step 1: Establish a Buyer Persona
The first step to creating an optimized eCommerce conversion funnel is establishing a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer.
You can create one by writing down the demographics and psychographics of your ideal customer, including where they live, their age range, and gender. Then, write down some specific details about them, such as their job title, what they like to do in their spare time and what challenges they face in their lives.
Answer the following question to create your buyers persona:
- What is your target audience’s age?
- What is their gender?
- Where do they live?
- Which social platforms do they use most often?
- How much money do they make per year?
Step 2: Define The Conversion Funnel
Once you know your buyer persona, it's time to define the funnel. Your conversion funnel is a series of steps your customers take from when they first become aware of your brand to when they make a purchase decision. In other words, it's how people move through the sales process with you.
You can define your conversion funnel by creating a list of different steps in your sales process. For example, if you are selling a swimsuit, then this could be broken down into the following steps:
- Email subscribers click on an ad or landing page that leads them to a sales page.
- Customers enter their email addresses, name, and phone number to receive a free swimsuit pattern.
- Customers receive their free pattern in the mail and decide if they want to purchase any other designs.
- Customers purchase their first pattern and receive it in the mail.
- Customers purchase different swimsuit patterns.
- Customers recommend your brand to their friends and family.
Step 3: Optimize your website's landing pages.
Your website's landing pages need to be optimized for conversions. This means they should be clear and concise and direct the visitor towards a specific action (like signing up for your email newsletter).
For example, if you have a web page where customers can purchase items from your store, then make sure that page has no unnecessary distractions and is easy to navigate. This will help drive more sales and increase your conversion rate as well.
Here are other ways to optimize your eCommerce landing page:
- Ensure your landing page has an easily readable call-to-action button using words like “Download Now” or “Sign Up Here”.
- Include social proof like testimonials and reviews on your sales pages.
- A call-to-action (CTA) button (e.g., "Buy Now") that is easily visible and clickable on every page of your website.
- An honest description of what customers can expect if they purchase from you (e.g., a detailed product description).
Step 4: Create a lead magnet and optimize for conversions
A lead magnet is a piece of content you offer to your visitors in exchange for their email addresses. This will help you build your email list, which can then be used to send out new product launches, sales promotions, and other offers.
To create a lead magnet, simply write an article relevant to your business and optimize it for conversions using the tips mentioned above.
The goal is to get your visitors interested enough in your product or service so that they want to learn more about it and eventually purchase it from you.
Step 5: Use different channels to drive traffic to your website
Once you’ve optimized your website and created a lead magnet, it’s time to get traffic flowing. You can use several different channels to promote your content and drive leads:
Social media: Use platforms like Facebook and Twitter to promote your new content. Offer a discount code or free shipping on orders over $50 for any customers who share your post. Also, consider running an ad campaign on Facebook using their audience targeting feature.
Email: Email Marketing is one of the best ways to get traffic to your website. You can use it as a lead generation tool by sending an email to your list of subscribers. Offering a discount code or free shipping on orders over $50 for any customers who share your post.
Influencer marketing: Influencers are people with a large following on social media and blogs. They have an audience that trusts them and actively seeks out their advice.
Paid advertising: Paid advertising is another great way to drive traffic to your site. Consider running ads on Google AdWords (formerly known as Google Adwords) or Facebook's advertising platform.
Blogging: Write a blog post about your product and include a link to your sales page. You can also write an article about the benefits of using your product, which will help increase traffic to your site.
Step 6: Retarget leads who abandon the shopping cart
Retargeting is another powerful way to increase your sales. It's a strategy that involves serving ads to people who have visited your site but haven't made a purchase yet. A technique that can be especially effective if you use it in tandem with other marketing tactics mentioned above.
Retargeting allows you to reach consumers who are already interested in what you offer but, for whatever reason, didn’t make a purchase on their first visit. Here are some e-commerce retargeting strategy s to consider:
- Use a retargeting pixel on your site and social media pages.
- Create an email marketing campaign that targets people who haven’t made a purchase yet.
- Create remarketing lists so you can easily target users who have visited specific pages on your site and send them relevant ads at later dates.
- Create a custom audience based on the people who visit your website but don’t make a purchase. This can help you target them with ads when they browse other websites that use Google Ads or similar services.
- Use dynamic creative to display different products or offers to additional consumers who see your retargeting ads. For example, if someone sees an ad for one of your products but doesn't buy it, you could serve an ad that shows another option from the same category (like a similar shoe style).
Step 7: Measure the results of your eCommerce conversion funnel
With a goal in mind, it’s time to measure the results of your eCommerce conversion funnel. Google Analytics and other analytics tools can help you determine which actions people took after seeing your retargeting ads (such as signing into their account or making a purchase).
You can also use tools like heatmaps and click maps to see how often visitors interact with specific parts of your website. This data can help you better understand what your visitors want and how they interact with your site. The more detailed your targeting, the more likely people will interact with your ads.
If you’re seeing a lot of clicks but no conversions, try adjusting your campaigns or retargeting audiences.
eCommerce Conversion Funnel Metrics
The best way to measure the performance of your eCommerce conversion funnel is by tracking the e-commerce conversion funnel metrics. There are three primary metrics:
1. Top of the Conversion Funnel Metrics
Customer Acquisition metrics are the metrics that measure how many visitors you're getting to your site and how many of them actually become customers. The most famous customer acquisition metric is revenue per visitor (RPV) because it's a good indicator of whether or not your marketing efforts are successful. If you want to improve your RPV, focus on the top of the conversion funnel metrics like:
- Number of visitors to your site
- Impressions
- Average time on page
- Bounce rate
- Average order value per visitor (AOV)
- Revenue per visitor (RPV)
- Conversion rate from visitors to customers
2. Middle of the Conversion Funnel Metrics
These metrics include:
- Number of free trial signups or conversions from free trial
- Number of paid accounts created via the free trial
- The average revenue per customer (ARPC)
- Subscribers to your email list (a lead magnet can help here)
- The number of leads from organic search paid ads/social media/etc.
- Lead quality (how many of them become customers?)
The middle of the funnel metrics is focused on how many people are becoming customers. The goal is to increase these metrics as much as possible because they indicate that your business has a strong customer acquisition strategy.
3. Bottom of the Conversion Funnel Metrics
The bottom-of-the-funnel metrics are focused on customer retention and advocacy. The goal is to increase these metrics as much as possible because they indicate that your business has a strong customer retention strategy.
Here are the bottom-of-funnel metrics to track as e-commerce:
- Customer Retention Rate (CRR): The percentage of customers who stay with your product or service for at least one year or until their next renewal date.
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): The sum of all revenue from an individual customer throughout their relationship with your company.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): The sum of all expenses involved in getting a customer to purchase your product or service.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): A measure of customer loyalty, calculated by asking customers, "How likely are you to recommend this product/service to a friend or colleague?" on a scale from 0-10, with 10 being very likely and 0 being not at all possible.
Conversion Funnel Optimization Strategies
Once you understand the stages of your e-commerce funnel, you have to work on funnel optimization strategies to accelerate your e-commerce funnel conversion rate. So, we will take you through the best conversion funnel optimization strategies to watch the magic.
1- Segment Your Audience
The first thing you have to do for e-commerce funnel optimization is segment your audience. Segmenting your audience means dividing your market into groups based on demographics, interests, or location and targeting these groups with your products and marketing efforts.
You certainly don’t want to attract the wrong customers to your e-commerce funnel. Hence, audience segmentation is essential to deliver the right message and assess the segments more likely to proceed through the funnel.
Audience segmentation might be considered a hassle for several e-commerce businesses.
Therefore, automated segmentation by Convertedin came to the rescue. It effortlessly filters the audience to segment them and to provide your e-commerce with your target audience.
2- Use Social Media To Attract Potential Buyers
According to Statista (2023), there were around 4 billion social media users in 2021 and expected to reach 6 billion in 2027.
Another study showed that 58% of the world's population uses social media (Oberlo,2022).
So, if you want to raise awareness for your e-commerce business and optimize your e-commerce funnel, social media is the right place.
The huge number of users qualifies social media platforms to attract a large number of potential buyers, increase awareness and generate leads. Therefore, conversion funnel optimisation is strongly linked to your presence on social media, as this will work on the first stage of your e-commerce funnel.
Price-per-click (PPC) ads, inbound marketing, and influencer marketing are all tactics that can be used on social media to attract buyers.
3- Monitor Your Customer Journey
Conversion funnel optimisation is an ongoing process that requires monitoring your customer journey to identify the points at which your users are most likely to quit the funnel or continue with it.
Analyzing your e-commerce marketing funnel allows you to understand the points that need improvements. For example, if most of the users leave your landing page, this means that your landing page needs improvements.
In addition, your website speed and complicated checkout process might lead to an increased abandonment rate. Therefore, monitoring your customer journey will enable you to identify the points needing improvement.
Tackling such issues increases the chances of customers’ proceeding in your e-commerce funnel and increases your e-commerce funnel conversion rate.
4- Include Product Reviews And Testimonials To Create Social Proof
Creating social proof never fails to drive desirable results for e-commerce businesses. Social proof is a psychological phenomenon, meaning people are more likely to imitate others and seek others' confirmation before purchasing any product.
We have to say that you need such confirmation for conversion funnel optimization. At the interest stage of the marketing funnel, users want to know why they should consider your products. In addition, the desired stage requires your extra push to encourage users to take action.
Accordingly, including product reviews and testimonials to create social proof will hit two birds with one stone. It will manifest in the interest and desire stages of your e-commerce marketing funnel.
Including customer reviews on your landing page and product page builds trust and gives users reasons to convert. As a result, it is one of the key tactics for successful conversion funnel optimization.
5- Use Visually Appealing Photos And Videos
Always keep in mind that through online shopping, customers rely entirely on photos of your products to purchase.
Therefore, you should invest in these photos to be visually appealing and attract the most potential customers. Hence, visually appealing photos do a great job in the attraction stage.
In addition, attractive and high-quality photos showcase your product's features better than robotic descriptions. So, they impact the interest stage in the customers’ marketing funnel.
It is also essential to not just rely on photos but also rely on videos to showcase your products. Customers are more likely to prefer video-based content to photos. Videos manifest your products more clearly, creating more trust and leading to e-commerce funnel optimization.
An extra tip, your e-commerce can benefit from the video-based content by including videos of actual customers wearing your products. This will build more confidence in your products and increase the e-commerce funnel conversion rates.
6- Add A Live Chat Feature
One of the most important funnel optimization strategies is including a live chat feature. Customers might have inquiries that need to be addressed. Thus, a live chat feature will resolve this issue.
In fact, the live chat option has proved its success in increasing engagement and problem-solving. It might provide customers with sufficient reasons to make a purchase. In addition, it removes customers’ doubts and accordingly increases the conversion rate.
7- Use A/B Testing For Your Pages
As an e-commerce store, there is a continuous process that you should be considering, which is A/B testing.
A/B testing is an experimental process that assesses the impact of two versions of one variable shown to different customers. As a result, you can identify the most successful version and utilize it in your upcoming efforts.
By using A/B testing, you are not just anticipating the best-performing version. Yet, you have the results that make your choice much easier and well-studied.
For example, you might witness customers quit the marketing funnel on the product page. Hence, create two versions of the Call to action (CTA) and test them to measure their conversion rates. Accordingly, the best-performing CTA is the one to be adopted.
A/B testing makes your e-commerce aware of the points that need to be adjusted, and by tackling them, you are increasing the e-commerce funnel conversion rate.
8- Optimize A Mobile Friendly Website
Numbers show that by 2025 the number of mobile users will reach 7.49 billion (Statista,2023).
This is a huge market that can not be neglected. So, if you want an optimized e-commerce conversion funnel, you must consider optimizing your mobile-friendly website.
Ensure you have a mobile responsive website that fits all screen sizes. Buyers use their mobile phones to learn more about different e-commerce stores. Therefore, a non-responsive mobile website will make you lose a large number of users at the top of the funnel stage.
In addition, make sure to offer an easy navigation option to assist your customers in following a clear path to the checkout page.
It is essential to utilize omnichannel marketing to deliver a unified customer experience and increase conversion rates.
Also, facilitate one-click purchasing and activate mobile chatbots to offer customers a seamless mobile experience.
Utilizing these strategies in your mobile commerce leads to conversion funnel optimization.
9- Activate Exit Messages
To increase your e-commerce funnel conversion rate, consider activating exit messages.
Exit messages are pop-ups that occur to customers who are almost leaving your website and abandoning their shopping carts. Therefore, these exit messages act as a reminder to stop your customers from leaving and reduce the bounce rate.
Your exit message might include exclusive discounts, offers, or free shipping. Hence, optimizing your conversion funnel. Consider these exit messages as the last push you provide to customers to complete their purchases.
Your exit messages don’t necessarily have to include discounts and offers. Some perceive these continuous pop-ups as scamming customers.
So, you can benefit from these exit messages by asking customers to send these products to their emails to shop later. Accordingly, you didn’t spam your customers and generated a lead. It’s undoubtedly a win-win situation.
10- Create Loyalty Programs
Your relationship with your customers is a long-term one. Therefore, the point of purchase is not the end of such relation; it’s actually just part of a long-lasting journey with your customers.
To work on the re-engage stage of your marketing funnel, you have to ensure that your customers are loyal to you by creating loyalty programs.
Loyalty programs are rewarding systems that aim to retain existing customers, prevent them from seeking competitors and encourage them to return for repeat purchases. Hence, they are re-entering the e-commerce funnel.
By creating loyal programs, you are incentivizing customers to return for repeat purchases. In addition, you are providing customers with reasons to refer your products to other potential buyers. Thus, they assist in the success of the top funnel stage.
Final Thoughts
There is no better time to work on your conversion funnel optimization than now. You are fully aware of the stages and, most importantly, of the different funnel optimization strategies.
Increasing your e-commerce conversion rates is one of the key aspects of your business's success. Therefore, even the simplest funnel optimization strategies can make a huge difference.
We have to say the more you invest in these strategies, the more you will be astonished by the results.
If you don’t know where to start, we suggest checking out Convertedin. It is a marketing automation tool that handles your auto-segmentation, dynamic ads automation, and email marketing.
Simply, Convertedin handles all the tasks required to ensure that more customers will convert.
Book your demo now!
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Learn everything about the e-commerce conversion funnel and the best funnel optimization strategies to skyrocket your e-commerce funnel conversion rate.
