Shopify Conversion Rate Optimization: 5 Proven Ways To Increase Conversions

What if I tell you that your Shopify site is ranking higher as the way you optimized your website was well up to the mark? Isn’t it great! 

With this, your Shopify site must be driving a load of potential customers…

But here’s a thing, though your Shopify site is driving a huge amount of traffic, but how many times does that traffic convert into real buying customers? 

Hmmm, See! This is what hits hard when your website can’t turn leads into conversions…

But there’s nothing to worry about, In this blog “Shopify Conversion Rate Optimization,” I am going to tell 5 proven ways to increase conversions of your Shopify website.

But before diving in, here’s a quick video about a few eCommerce SEO Hacks that would double your conversions and improve Shopify conversion rate optimization: 

And now, let’s get started:

What Is Conversion Rate Optimization?

Conversion is termed as a process when an incoming customer who is looking for the required product comes to your website and purchases that product.

Conversion could be anything, for example, a conversion could be making the customer click on the link of your website, or maybe a conversion for a product could be a click on the buy now or add to cart button. Conversions completely depend on the function of your website.

And coming on to Conversion rate optimization, it is a process to encourage visitors to purchase a product by discoveries and searches they perform when visiting a Shopify website. 

See the image below, 

The above image simply explains about CRO Shopify, which is, how the incoming traffic reaches your Shopify website, finds the required product, adds to your cart, and finally makes a purchase. 

This is what  Conversions are! And If this process is conducted smoothly it will lead to an increased Shopify conversion rate optimization.

Now, you also must be excited to know, how to increase the conversion rate of the Shopify website. So, let me tell you in detail the, “Proven ways to increase the conversion rate of Shopify”

But first, here are some facts that would assure you why Shopify conversion rate optimization mater… 

• If the conversion rate of your business is more than 3.7%, then your business is considered to be in the top 20% of stores. And a business is thought to be in the top 10% if its conversion rate is more than 5.2%.
• In 2022, the average conversion rate of Shopify is only 1.8%

Shopify Conversion Rate Optimization 

Homepage Optimization

First things first! The number one step that you have to work on in Shopify conversion rate optimization is optimizing your Shopify website’s homepage.  Think like, your homepage is the first pillar that appears right in front of incoming customers.

Well, of course, it is! 

This is where you can attract more customers or make them go away to your competitors. To make it appear in the best professional way, it has to cater to your buyers.

And to create a homepage in the best possible way, to put an everlasting impression, here are a few tips to optimize your homepage.

1. Ease The Experience For Users

One of the crucial aspects of framing the best homepage is simplifying the user experience. Here is a fact, it takes not more than two-tenths of a second for a customer to build an impression for any website so, you have to make every single moment count.

Developing a faster and easier way for your customers can really increase the conversion rate of Shopify. So, instead of overpowering the customers with more text and images, go for a simple and appealing website design.

Here’s a living example of one of my trusted clients,

Just have a look at this homepage, they included a single hero image of their products and placed the menu bar right at the top. This would surely ease up the overall navigation of the customers visiting the website which can later turn into sales.

2. Add Testimonials To Your Website 

The most valuable resource you have to increase consumer confidence in your products is customer testimonials. 

Before making a purchase, every new consumer enjoys reading the reviews and suggestions of previous clients. This increases sales by assisting clients in developing trust in your company and products.

3. Create Content

Next up, it is creating outstanding content and dedicating it to the homepage. The phrase “content is king” refers to the importance of online sellers producing high-quality material to increase the value of their stores to customers.

Influencing content can lead to: 

• Making a purchase immediately after seeing the homepage
• Making customers stay for a longer period of time on your Shopify website, explore more and then go for a purchase.

Here’s what all you can do to create an exciting piece of content…

• Identify one target keyword. Go for identifying long-tailed keywords or queries that your customers are searching to find your products and services.
• Use headlines to make your content easy to skim.
• Use images to make your content more relatable.
• Go for internal links to make your customers know more about your Shopify website.
• You can add links to social media handles.

However, there are several other strategies you can use to immediately spike a customer’s attention which I will discuss later. So keep reading…
Read More: SEO Copywriting: Rank No. #1 In SERP

4. Optimize The Page For Search Engines 

As per as search engine optimization is concerned, it is not just the Homepage… but every page of your website has to be well optimized. After all, the matter is to increase conversions and accomplish Shopify conversion rate optimization at any cost.

So, here are a few key points to look for:

• You have to make your Shopify website’s homepage unique in its own way. For this, 

You have to add one target keyword on your homepage:

• Page Title
• Meta Description
• Headlines (H1, H2 tags)
• Content- including bullets
• Images- should have a proper alt text
• Choose compelling anchor texts to put CTA buttons

Read More: Tweaks For Page Title & Meta Description That’ll Boost Your SEO Traffic & CTR

5. Create An Eye-Catching Header

The headings of your Shopify website can lead to making a deal or can make the customers step back.

Therefore, to keep new visitors on the page and familiarize them with the brand, most website headers combine an attention-grabbing headline, convincing subtitle, and compelling visuals above the fold.

It starts with focusing on the main heading that is, H1. the main heading of your Shopify is to be the title

See the image below, 

Just the way it has to be… Starting with an image, under that the heading, and most importantly the heading having an informative intent which is the best part of any headline.

Plus, do remember to put keywords in your headers (as mentioned earlier also). See, also you have to prepare your headers in such a way that if any customers read that, they automatically tend to visualize your product at the back of their minds.

This would generate a sense of purchase or may lead to sales and would obviously increase the conversion rate of Shopify website.

Now that you have an overview of creating an eye-catching header, let’s move forward and read about other steps to optimize the homepage to increase conversion rate of Shopify.

6. Build The Menu/Navigation

Build a menubar that is visible even from a far amount of distance. For this, you have to clear words that are short and simple to digest.

The menu bar should be at the top of your homepage. Here are a few examples, have a look at the images below…

See, how clear it is! This is what makes it easier for customers to get the products that they need. Not just the menubar has the page list, but it also further contains a variety of subcategories within the main heading.

7. Include Calls-To-Action (CTA)

Here, time is what matters… you just have a fraction of a second to make your customers take some action. This is why it is down to the CTA button that makes a lead into some sort of conversion.

These are of various types, buy now, add to cart, learn more, shop now, or maybe some sort of offers such as 10% of on the first order and many more…

See below,

8. Incorporate Social Media

Social media is a way to join and build relations with your customers apart from professional things. You can provide links to your social media handles on your Shopify website so that customers could follow you and get the latest update on your newly launched products through social media.

Suppose you launched a few new products and shared them on your social media profile. Now, whenever customers visit your Shopify website and see a pop-up like “visit our social media platforms to explore newly launched products or any social posts”

They would surely gonna take some action. For this, you have to show the icons of the platforms that you are active on. Like this,

9. Create A Footer

At last, you have to end up optimizing your Shopify website’s homepage with a footer. Here, you can include your website’s name, logo, about us page, contact details, social media links, FAQ page, blog page, and many other links.

Keep it consistent all over your Shopify website.

So! This was how to optimize the homepage of your Shopify website. With this, we’ve just covered the 1st way of Shopify Conversion Rate Optimization. 

As said earlier, I would say it again! You have to make sure that the first impression remains, as it might keep your customers coming back to your website and, ideally, convert them into leads and customers. It would surely increase conversion rate Shopify website.

Next up is…

Optimize Search & Discovery

When customers visit your Shopify website, it is obvious that they may be looking for the products they need or it may happen that they are just exploring. 

No matter how much wide range of variety your store offers, hundreds or thousands, it is equally important to make your website’s search and discovery optimized.

This would help the shoppers to find what they came for…

But before talking about the optimizing part, let me first tell to the difference between Search and Discovery.

Look, if a customer visits your website making up his mind to purchase a specific product (say, a Nike T-shirt in size XL). Now, that customer will straight away look for the search bar and type “Nike t-shirt size XL” So, this is what a Search is, where the customers know exactly what product is required.

With this, while looking for Nike T-shirts the customers came across Nike hoodies that they liked. Now, what they did…? 

They clicked on that product and starts exploring more! This is what is called Discovery. This product wasn’t actually something they knew about until they came across it while looking for something else.

Sometimes it happens that recommendations can lead to discovery and later it turns into conversions.

But here, both search and discovery are essential aspects when it comes to Shopify Conversion Rate Optimization. 

After knowing the difference between search and discovery, let’s look at some realistic ways you can improve them in your Shopify store.

1. Organize Your Categories 

For customers coming to your website would always like to see a clear and well-organized category… you have to develop an easy-to-navigate category structure for your customers.

This would help them to browse through your products in an organized manner. This way, they would be able to discover new products as well.

It is not that you have to place every single product in the category section. Instead, opt out of a few broad categories and later distribute the products into sub-categories. Here’s a nice example:

See how they have arranged the products in their category sections and further divided them into subcategories.

Categorizing can be of great help when you are trying to increase the conversion rate Shopify store. Finding the product that your customers are looking for could be no less than any conversion.

All you need to do is, place the right products in the right places on your website. 

2. Provide Federated Search 

Federated Search is the feature that allows your customers to search for products by typing in the name of the product. 

You have to develop a way for the shoppers to efficiently look through all of your product catalogs at once if each one has hundreds or even thousands of products.

For example, if any customers visit your website and search for a product, the federated search would show them all the products that match their query from every source.

This means it helps users to perform searches from a single location and collect information from all relevant sources. Like this…

When I write “Heated Blankets” in the search box, the website displays other options from various sources such as collections, pages, articles, etc.

3. Design For Mobile 

Nowadays, people are more involved in their mobile devices. So, why not take advantage of this opportunity? 

In fact, there are around 79% of online sales conducted through mobile devices in the last 6 months. Also, the conversion rate for smartphones is 1.56%. 

With this, it is obvious that this trend is not going any soon…

So why not go with the trends? Perhaps, it is important for you to design a Shopify website that is MOBILE FRIENDLY. 

This means, your Shopify website has to be responsive and suitable for all devices as well as make sure that the search and discovery experience is well-optimized for mobile.

Think like this… 

When shoppers click on a product and move back to search results, they should have to be taken to the same spot from where they left. If they have to scroll again and again searching for another product, it might become frustrating locating that product, and would finally give up… This would lead to abandoning the conversion. 

So, this is why it is important for you to design a mobile-friendly website as…

Optimizing your Shopify website for mobile devices could really uplift the Shopify conversion rate optimization of your site.

4. Optimize The Navigation Option 

For an eCommerce Shopify store, it is essential to have a great navigational bar…without it, there’s no chance of you generating any conversions or sales.

This is why it is regarded as the most crucial aspect of web design by 76 percent of consumers.

Moreover, the user experience on a website is critically dependent on navigation. It makes it easier for visitors to navigate through your website, which could result in more people finding it and making purchases.

The basic objective of effective site navigation is to give customers the freedom to move around and browse conveniently. Users will lose patience and leave the website if the navigation is difficult to understand.

And to optimize the navigation you can:

1. Design A User-Friendly And Easy-To-Use Search Bar

Amplifying the visibility of your website’s search bar could boost Shopify conversion rate optimization of your website. 

So, you have to ensure that the search bar should be located right on the top or at the center of your website like this…

2. Improve Search Query Performance With Auto Complete 

By auto-complete, you can direct customers toward queries that bring the highest results and cut down on the number of clicks required to get them to the desired product.

This will not only help the users to reach the product they want but also suggests other related product to refine their discovery list. Let me show an example:

3. Leverage Auto-Correction

At times it happens that your customers make mistakes while writing the spelling of the products. This is purely natural… but sometimes websites show a ”no result page” when this happens and this causes nothing but make the users frustrated and leave your website.

In my opinion, instead, you can offer an auto-correct option whenever the customer misspells any word.

This can really help and encourage them to look for the exact product they want. See how:

4. Show Results With Visuals

Look, We are living in a visually oriented world!

Therefore, visuals can really make an impact and increase conversion rate of Shopify… adding visuals, as you know can generate a sense of taking action. And this can be used to optimize the navigation of your website.

How? See customers could get a direct overview of the product by seeing the visuals, and this further allows them to know more about it. Hence, this can result in an increase in Shopify conversion rates. Refer to the image below for better understanding.

Optimize The Product Pages

Let us look at the below example to start this…

Suppose your Shopify website is getting high traffic. But is it convincing those customers to take any action such as adding a product to the cart or hitting that shop now button? 

If not, then you should get a bit concerned about your product pages. You may know that the product pages of any eCommerce Shopify website should be very CONVINCING that compel the customers to add products to their carts.

And this would only happen when your website’s product pages are optimized. 

By optimizing the product pages, you would have a greater chance to boost conversion rate of your website. 

Let us look at the steps included in Shopify conversion rate optimization to optimize your product pages.

1. Have A Clear CTA 

One main goal that you should aim for, is to make your customers hit that DAMN “Buy Now” button, or whatever the CTA your website is having.

Thinking about what it looks like? Here’s an example…

Well! I got another kind of CTA button over here that is, ‘View More’ and this can literally make the customer click on it and discover more about the product.  

Later, you would see,

You can see how beautifully the CTA button takes the center of attraction. Plus, the good part is that there is nothing other than that to draw the attention away of the users. Which creates a sensation of one and the only thing… ADDING THE PRODUCT!

2. Have Great Product Photography

It is obvious that you have to create an essence of your products to convince your customers to buy that. And the way you can do that is by providing great visuals and photographs of the products.

Here’s a fact, your customers can’t really touch, feel or taste the products before they buy. It is all that depend on the photographs of the products that actually make the customers purchase them.

So, this is why product photography plays a vital role in Shopify conversion rate optimization to optimize your Shopify website’s product pages…

One of the coolest examples of this is…

Isn’t this particular product looking absolutely amazing? It is because of the way it is picturized… with this, let me tell you a few tips to have great photography of your products.

Use Natural Light Instead Of Light Boxes

Using natural light (such as sunlight) is way more easier than handling that equipment and carrying them around. Plus, these light equipments also costs a lot.

One fine example is given below,

You might get the difference between the two photographs of the same product but when looking closely you’ll get to see a bit more difference like this…

The only problem that one faces with this setup is that their photos don’t look up to the mark or perfect. For example, sometimes it happens that product reflection causes a blunder as the background behind the camera is reflected on the product.

Take Photographs From Various Angles

The point is to get the best possible angles or shots of the products. The motive is to give the customers a chance to view things from various angles. With this, they might get to know the actual product better. Moreover, it could lead to sales and increase conversions. 

See below the types of angles…

Go For Other Types Of Photography 

Once you get comfortable with your photographic skills, you can go for other types of photography as well. There are many options such as…

Lifestyle– In here, you can tell the story behind the product and how the product can be used by the customers. This helps the customers to get a feel of how the product will look in real. Plus, you can also share such products on your social media handles to drive new customers and boost Shopify conversion rates.

Detailed–  This type of photography is mostly used for the details of a product. By this, you can give shoppers a deep view of the products. 

Groups– These shots include grouped items. Can be used while selling kits.

Last but not the least, write Great Product Descriptions. The most important part for any Shopify store is to provide information about the products. Products with compelling and interesting descriptions tend to sell more and have a better ability to increase Shopify conversion rate optimization. 

3. Provide Social Proof

It is well said that, Social Proof is a definitive way to mark your brand’s trust and credibility. Some innovative ways are getting reviews, adding testimonials, and Instagram photos to build customers’ trust and enhance their purchasing behavior.

This is how you make them believe that your products are worth buying, this also builds one step further to their buying experience. 

Moreover, 89 % of shoppers look for online reviews before buying something.

Also, with more trust and credibility, your Shopify store could definitely increase Shopify conversion rates.

4. Have An Appropriate Price For Your Products 

You have to add the price value of your products. If you have lower price products then you can list the basic details of the same. But when it comes to luxury products then you have to keep in mind to provide each and every detail of that product.

Make sure to describe the material, the origin, and the passion of the products to satisfy your customers that they are paying a price to get a product that is worth buying.

Therefore, it is worth providing detailed information on a premium product to satisfy your customer’s questions.

Enhance The Checkout Experience

This part is the final step of your Shopify Store. Everything is done, and the customers have added the products to the basket. Now is the time to CHECKOUT!

To fulfill the whole process of Shopify conversion rate optimization, you have to enhance the checkout experience of your page.

Let’s have a look at the stage where you put some effort to optimize your checkout page which would drastically lower down the abdomen rate and boosts the sales which will result in higher Shopify conversion rates.

1. Prefill Your Customers’ Information 

One of the easiest ways to enhance the checkout experience and increase the Shopify conversion rate is by prefilling the customer’s information every time they checkout. Doing this will allow the users to directly jump to the payment process instead of entering their information again and again on every order.

And here is an interesting fact, it is found that “conversion goes up by 200% when Shopify websites allow customers to autofill their information.”

I know you must ask, This would go with old customers but, what about the new ones? How can someone prefill the information of new customers?

To know the answer, read further…

In your Shopify admin, look for Settings and then Checkout.

Here, you can allow your customer’s to checkout as Guests, and this will also allow them to save their information for later whenever they need to fill in their personal details.

2. Send Abandoned Cart Emails

At times, it happens that the customers fill up their carts but unfortunately leave your Shopify store’s website. This is purely natural. But what matters is how you treat them in this case…

Now here, you can take the help of Abandoned Cart emails, by these emails you can remind your customers that their basket is ready for checkout at any time at their convenience.

By sending these emails you can create an interest for them to come back and place the order.

Here’s an outline of what an abandoned email looks like…

• Start with an attractive subject line
• Write an engaging introduction
• Mention the items left in the cart
• Add a checkout CTA button
• End with a closing text

You can modify the outline of the email according to this sequence:

The first is a Cart Reminder, which can be sent a few hours after the cart is abandoned.

The second one is a Follow Up email, which can be sent a few days later of any purchase.

And, the third one is a Promotional email, which can be sent for more discounts and offers after email two.

And here’s an overview of how you can set up abandoned cart emails…

To set up abandoned cart emails, Go to Settings section > Checkout > Move down to Order Processing and from there you can the time when you want to send the email after a customer abandons a cart.

3. Optimize Your Thank You Emails

As mentioned earlier, you can even send customized emails with offers and discounts to make your customers get more engaged with your Shopify website. This is what your customers see after completing an order. 

A THANK YOU message!

IMPORTANT:

Shipping fees can make an impact to increase Shopify conversion rate optimization during checkout. Shoppers often abandon their carts when finding high shipping charges, to be specific, around 55% of customers tend to bounce back finding high extra charges. 

To avoid this, offer them Free Shipping to uplift your customers to buy that product keeping aside how much far the order has to travel. 

Website Speed And Performance

As far as your Shopify website’s performance is concerned, page speed is the most important factor to be checked regularly.

However, to minimize the bounce rate and improve conversions, it is necessary that your website loads very quickly. Moreover, if your site is well-optimized for speed will not only help in increasing Shopify conversion rate optimization but will also make your rank higher on Google searches.

See! Here’s a fact to know, the bounce rate of a website increases by 32 percent when the site load time increase from 1s to 3s.

And after 3s the case could be the worse… A bounce rate of around 90 percent. Doubt me? Look below,

So, if you want to run a highly responsive website, then you have to optimize your website’s speed and performance. 

Read More: Shopify Speed Optimization: (8 Tried & Trusted Ways To Increase Page Speed)

Next, I will tell you the ways to improve the page speed and optimize it to enhance the Shopify conversion rate optimization of your site.

But before listing the ways… let me first tell you how you can measure your Shopify site’s performance.

The steps are simple – Search for Google Page Speed Insights, enter your website’s URL, and hit the Analyze button.

This tool will analyze the website and present a report. Like this…
Sample report of my client tanisusa.com, Mobile analysis

Desktop analysis.

1. Make Sure Your Site is Responsive

The first way in optimizing your website’s performance is to build a responsive site. By responsive, I mean a good user experience.

Think, if you have to wait outside a shopping mall till the time the owner comes there to let you in… Of course you can wait for a couple of seconds. But would you wait there for maybe fifteen or even thirty seconds? Give it a vocal countdown and you may get to know how your customers would feel waiting. 

This is why you have to make sure that your Shopify website is quick and responsive enough to greet the users quickly.

Benefits of having a responsive Shopify site:

• Easy to use
• Easy to navigate
• Time-saving as well as cost-effective
• Increases search engine rankings
• Decreases bounce rate
• Increases Sales
• And most proficient, increase conversions

2. Optimize Your Website’s Loading Times

Though it is a tough and time taking task to optimize the loading time of your Shopify website, keeping in a few strategies, you can definitely make it count and carry out Shopify conversion rate optimization.

The simple ways to improve Shopify Loading Times:

1. Select a hosting provider that has been optimized for performance.

The performance of your website is significantly influenced by the hosting company you choose. This includes the speed of your website’s pages.

Going for a cheap hosting company can affect your page speed and can also make it poor. So, you must look for a performance-oriented hosting company that doesn’t offer sharing hosting. 

2.  Use images that are compressed and optimized

Your website’s loading speed may be severely affected by the size of your images. Images tend to make your web pages more better and enhance the quality of the information provided. Perhaps, large images can also increase the loading time.

Hence, compressing the images and making them well-optimized can really boost the loading speed of your Shopify website. 

3. Minify the redirects

Your website’s loading times may suffer badly if there are too many redirects. Additionally, you may use a website audit tool like Screaming Frog to find all the redirects on your website and where they go.

4. Diminish CSS, Javascript, and HTML

The speed at which page loads can be increased by optimizing the way your files load. To reduce the size of the files, you may delete unnecessary spaces, characters, comments, and other components.

By reducing the file’s size it becomes easier to combine which later results in an increase in page loading time.

5. Remove unwanted plugins

It is not that every plugging is created equal. A website having too many plugins can result in bloat and drops down the page load speed.

Moreover, plugins that are outdated or poorly maintained can be a bit risky and can affect performance due to various difficulties.

Therefore, one of the simplest ways to achieve this is by deactivating or removing the unwanted plugins that are of no use.

So, each second is crucial for your Shopify website. Now you have to decide whether you have to optimize your website to make more sales and increase the rate of conversions or sit over there and let your competitors get your customers.

Conclusion

Now that you have an in-depth idea of how you can convert the incoming traffic into loyal customers, it is now time to get going and practice the above-listed proven ways to increase conversion of your Shopify website.

And if you need any assistance, feel free and just contact us! We are ready to serve you with the best services you may need. With our team of experienced people in Shopify SEO, we have the best strategies for SEO services for Shopify to skyrocket sales and drive more conversions.

Still, have any questions about Shopify Conversion Rate Optimization? Put your questions in the comment section down below. I will surely reply to you back!

FAQs

1. How can I calculate the Shopify conversion rate?

Calculating the Shopy conversion rate is an easy task to do. The first thing you need is, you have to divide the total number of orders placed during a time period, by the total number of visitors to your site and multiply it by 100%. 

It is of utmost importance to measure the conversions that your Shopify site is making as it is the first step towards improving your Shopify success rate.

2. How can I make my Shopify website more visible in search engines?

The role of search engines is very vital for any Shopify business. It is very important to optimize your Shopify website if you want to rank higher in the Google SERPs and finally drive more potential customers. After all, the higher you rank, the more traffic your Shopify store is going to get. As a result, you will be able to increase the conversion rate of Shopify.

Here are a few tips to increase the visibility of your Shopify store that will surely help you boost Shopify conversion rates.

• Improve Your Shopify Website’s Site Structure
• Enhance User Experience
• Use The Right Keywords
• Optimize Product Pages
• Develop An Engaging Content Strategy
• Test Site’s Speed Performance
• Regularly Update Your Shopify Website