Conversion rate optimisation is one of the most impactful things you can do to grow revenue without increasing ad spend.
As a certified Shopify partner, we help ecommerce brands turn clicks into customers every day. And in this guide, we’re breaking down exactly how we do it.
CRO: What it means and best practices
CRO, or conversion rate optimisation, is the practice of improving your store so that more of your traffic completes a desired action, usually a purchase. But CRO isn’t just about numbers; it’s about creating a seamless, convenient and memorable shopping experience.
CRO best practices
Here’s a brief overview of CRO best practices so you know what you should be aiming for. We’ll cover some of these in more depth later.
- Clear, high-contrast CTA buttons
- Mobile speed score above 90 (According to Google)
- No dead links or 404s
- Navigation is intuitive and consistent
- Homepage has clear value proposition
- Product pages have full info, trust signals, and reviews
- Checkout is fast and frictionless
- Analytics is properly configured and tracking goals
Getting started with Shopify CRO
Step 1: Analysis and optimisation
You can’t increase conversion rates if you don’t know why users aren’t converting in the first place. Analysis is a crucial first step.
First, define your most impactful metrics that will allow you to conduct the most effective CRO analyses. These may vary depending on specific business needs and offerings, but generally you’ll be looking at total sales, cart abandonment, bounce rate and, of course, conversion rate. You can use a combination of Shopify Analytics and Google Analytics to pull and monitor website visitor data.
From here, you can begin to identify and prioritise areas for improvement, based on data-driven insights.
Step 2: Implementation and testing
Once you’ve identified areas for improvement and have formulated a plan, it’s time to carry out tests tailored to your specific store goals, translating them into actionable site changes.
A/B testing is great for identifying which content works best for your audience, from product prices to theme changes and website copy. Areas of you site you should consider A/B testing are the homepage, product pages, the cart and the checkout. Take the findings from A/B testing and turn them into actionable plans.
Step 3: Targeting and personalisation
You should now have enough data to personalise the customer experience and put together a strategic personalisation plan. Personalisation is key to boosting conversion rates, as it tailors the shopping experience to specific customer needs and interests. Design and publish customised landing pages that align with the behaviours of your target audience. These could be educational, collection/product bundle pages or subscription-focused pages, for example.
Work with an experienced copywriter to ensure that messaging is highly targeted. This way, you’ll create a dynamic and tailored store experience that anticipates customer preferences to grow sales.
Conversion rate optimisation strategies for Shopify
Improve product pages
Your product pages are essentially the salespeople of your website. They need to be informative and persuasive.
Make sure product copy is clear and focuses on the benefits to the customer, not just a generic description or promotion for your brand. Social proof can also be a powerful tool for conversion, so consider integrating reviews, star ratings, customer photos or testimonials into your product pages.
Streamline the checkout process
Cart abandonment is the ultimate CRO killer. The checkout process needs to be as quick and as smooth as possible to prevent potential customers from becoming frustrated and giving up. If your checkout process is convoluted or plagued with errors, you’re handing sales to your competitors. Here are a few things you can do to boost conversions on Shopify:
- Enable Shop Pay and Express Checkout
- Offer Guest Checkout
- Auto-fill address fields where possible
- Remove unnecessary steps or form fields
- Reinforce trust with security badges & guarantees
Use strategic offers
Everyone loves a discount, but smart CRO is about using them strategically without killing margins. Bundles and volume discounts, first-time purchase offers and free shipping thresholds are all effective ways to boost conversions via discounts while remaining profitable. There are various Shopify apps available to assist with discount and upselling implementation.
Don’t forget that email marketing is one of the most effective CRO tools. Use Shopify’s built-in abandoned cart emails or Klaviyo flows to recover lost sales and offer personalised discounts to bring people back.
Design for mobile
Mobile accounts for 71% of Shopify traffic. And yet we still see stores optimising for desktop first. Check that loading speeds are fast on mobile (you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to do this). Your Shopify theme should be fully responsive on all devices, with simple navigation, touch-friendly buttons and mobile payment gateways.
Optimise post-purchase touchpoints
It may sound silly, but CRO doesn’t stop at conversion. Optimising post-purchase touchpoints improves retention and customer lifetime value. Asking for reviews after delivery can help to build up UGC that will aid future customers in making a purchase – you can use email follow-ups to facilitate this. Shopify also offers apps such as Smile.io that allow merchants to implement loyalty programs that encourage repeat sales.
Struggling to grow your Shopify sales? We can help you identify where you’re going wrong and get an effective CRO strategy in place. Get in touch and we’ll take a look at your store.
