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10 Tips for Running a Successful WooCommerce Shop in 2021

 3 years ago
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10 Tips for Running a Successful WooCommerce Shop in 2021

10 Tips for Running a Successful WooCommerce Shop in 2021

Is your eCommerce shop getting traffic but not enough conversions?

It’s a common challenge with online retail, and unfortunately, as much as you can track conversion rates and determine drop-off pages, identifying exactly why someone doesn’t convert is near-on impossible without asking them.

There are, however, numerous things you can do on your WooCommerce site to improve conversion rates. In this article, I’ll share 10 tips for saving marketing costs and improving the conversion rate of your WooCommerce business.

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1. Start with “Why”

Simon Sinek may be best known for popularizing the concept of “Why” in his first TED Talk in 2009 where he speaks about the importance of this question. He proposes an idea that all successful companies and leaders in the world act and communicate based on certain patterns which he says is the complete opposite that everyone else does.

According to Sinek, they use the golden circle that consists of three important questions – why, how, and what. And it turns out that “Why” is the most important of them.

Interestingly enough, not all companies and individuals can answer this question. Establishing and defining your company’s or e-shops real “Why” could bring you massive benefits in terms of the strategy, content, and the way you operate.

Use this question to explore what could be the reasons why people are interested in your products but do not convert. You might be surprised with the results you find.

I have done my homework to save you some time and gathered a list of the main reasons other companies have been struggling with conversions over the last five years. The interesting fact is that the trend during this time has not really changed which is a positive signal for your endeavors to improve your e-shop. Most likely the situation will remain the same for the next couple of years to come.

As you can see from the data above, you might want to start by revising your shipping options, pricing, and user experience (including the checkout process and store’s performance on mobile devices). These findings may very well overlap with what your visitors will be saying about your store’s shopping experience.

2. Learn from your user journey

After exploring the reasons many WooCommerce shops struggle with, you might want to dive deeper. By adding tools like heatmaps and the possibility to record a visitor’s journey (user session replay), you might be able to spot some common trends. By identifying patterns that hinder your visitors from completing a purchase, you might significantly increase your store’s conversion rate and improve the overall user experience.

Sometimes the reasons can be quite obvious and evident, like a button that is not visible enough or hard to find shipping information.

You may find heatmaps easier to read and translate, however, session replays provide much more data and information. It’s because people who have been running eye-tracking studies say that there is no real correlation between eye movements and mouse movements apart from the obvious – looking at where you are about to click.

User session replays provide qualitative data, they can clearly indicate the weak spots where users experience difficulties to complete specific actions. Of course, analyzing them is a very time-consuming process, however, it gives you a real case study and efficient results.

You might take a look at these service providers to help you with this: HotJar, Crazyegg, Luckyorange, and many others.

3. Shipping, shipping, shipping

The price of shipping, as well as the delivery date, can change everything in the eyes of a potential customer. Different aspects of your shipping terms may very well play a crucial role in the decision-making process. This is why, if you manage to arrange an excellent deal with your shipping company or if your company can provide it in a particular area, you have to make sure that this information is evident to your visitors.

Do not wait until the checkout to announce your excellent shipping terms or pricing policy as it might be one of your strongest and unique selling points when compared to your competitors. If you offer free shipping for purchases up to a certain price, make sure it is visible in your store. It may not only help your conversion ratio but also increase the average shopping basket price.

4. Propose various delivery options

User surveys and data show that when it comes to shipping not only the price but also the delivery time is important. Many companies provide their customers with the ability to choose between different service providers as well as express, same day or next day delivery options.

If a customer is willing to pay for a same day delivery service, why not allow it, right? Sometimes urgency is more important than the price. Display your best shipping price early in the process and propose different delivery options at the checkout.

Here are some shipping strategies you could use in your store:

  • Standard shipping + Free shipping for purchases above XX $ + Expedited shipping
  • Free shipping + Standard shipping + Expedited shipping
  • Standard shipping + In-store pick up + Same day delivery

You can experiment with these to find out which ones work best for your market, customer base and shipping services available.

5. Live chat

How many times have you found yourself in a situation where you have a quick question, but do not feel like sending an email and waiting for it to be answered? Make it easy and accessible for your visitors to quickly get in touch with you via online chat.

73% of customers are satisfied after using live chat and chose it as their most preferred communication channel. It sounds pretty logical since no one wants to wait for 24h to receive an email reply or hang on the phone for an unknown period of time. Customers want immediate answers or they can get lost.

You may be interested in exploring the features and services like Zendesk, Tawk.to, or Tidio to quickly integrate an online chat into your WooCommerce store.

6. Create a sense of urgency

When planning a promotion, you might want to create a sense of urgency to mobilize your e-shop visitors to purchase straight away. HurryTimer or WordPress Countdown Widget as well as many others provide this functionality.

It is worth mentioning that your promo should be credible and real otherwise the customers will end up disappointed. In addition, fake promotions might put your business into a grey zone. If you are building a long-term business this is something you want to avoid.

7. Display security badges and provide helpful information on your checkout page

No one wants to be scammed. If your brand is not well known yet, it might be an issue. Let’s face it – people trust well-known brands, therefore showing a 3rd party security badge can help you build trust with your customers.

People might want to know that there’s support when needed. To assure your clients you might be interested in providing a 14-day money-back guarantee as most likely all your competitors provide it.

8. Allow people to create wishlists

The ability to create wishlists is a nice little feature as it allows people to save items they like without worrying about adding them to the shopping cart.

You might be considering whether you wish to ask your visitors to register before creating one or not. There are pros and cons to both solutions.

If a user decides to create an account, you have their email and you can later use it to remind them about items in their wishlist or send newsletters if they have agreed to receive them.

If you do not require them to register before creating a wishlist, you have a better chance that they will not leave your store so quickly, since registration forms usually feel long and annoying. For example, the official WooCommerce Wishlists plugin allows guest visitors to create and store wish lists for a maximum of 30 days or until they clear their cookies.

9. Abandoned cart recovery

The reality is that even if you have implemented all of the features mentioned above plus additional ones, there is still going to be a big group of visitors who will abandon your store and shopping cart for some reason. The good news is that even at this point there are various things you can do about it.

First of all, you might add a feature like an Exit Intent popup that appears just before the user tries to leave your store. In this popup, you could try to persuade your visitor to stay and go through with the purchase by offering them a discount or other incentive. If this does not work, you can use a plugin like CartBounty or HubSpot that will notify you about an abandoned cart and send your visitor an email reminding them. At this point you can try to convert the customer by using different email marketing techniques, for example, a free shipping coupon if the user completes their order in the next 72 hours.

10. Loyalty and rewards program

Once you are asking users to register, you might be considering a loyalty and rewards program where each dollar spent provides some points that can be used to gain discounts or  free delivery on the next purchase.

It is always cheaper to keep your loyal customers than searching for new ones, thus this approach might also contribute to your long-term marketing strategy. WordPress plugin WooRewards provides various options for loyalty and rewards programs that you should definitely check out.

Wrapping up

The next couple of months or even years will be quite challenging for many businesses due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This means that there is going to be an explosion of new online stores and even more people will be shopping online.

As competition increases, you want to make sure your store is prepared, do you don’t lose visitors due to simple mistakes that could be avoided and gain as many sales as possible.

Feel free to share your thoughts about what else could be done to improve the conversion rate of an online store as well as your own experience implementing these tips.

Guest author: Nauris is a freelance designer/developer who loves to dig into the UX as much as in the ground for fishing worms. And fishing is just one amongst the long list of his active lifestyle hobbies. Always positive and happy to meet new friends and share his experience. You can reach him on LinkedIn or via his freelance website.


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