Category: Checkout Tactics

  • Securing Email Addresses for Abandoned Carts

    Securing Email Addresses for Abandoned Carts

    Ecommerce shopping cart abandonment remains high, roughly 70% in 2024. Yet some in the industry — Dynamic Yield, for example — have estimated a good cart recovery email series will convert about a third of the time. That is an impressive rate, but it assumes a merchant has the shopper’s email address — frequently not…

  • How I Restrict Coupon Abuse

    How I Restrict Coupon Abuse

    Using coupons and discounts to entice purchases is a cornerstone of retail and ecommerce. Today’s email automation platforms — Klaviyo, Listrak, many more — make it easier than ever to deliver coupons to consumers at different points in their journey. A simple example is the classic “10% off your first order” when a visitor subscribes…

  • 10 Last-minute Holiday Revenue Boosters

    10 Last-minute Holiday Revenue Boosters

    You’re not alone if you’ve yet to implement holiday selling strategies. Ecommerce shopping trends in 2022 include gift cards and early shopping. Only half of leading U.S. retailers offer gift cards, according to MarketWatch, despite their popularity. And big companies such as  Target and Amazon kicked off holiday deals in October. Still, last-minute efforts can…

  • Convenience, Savings Drive 2022 Holiday Shoppers

    Convenience, Savings Drive 2022 Holiday Shoppers

    Holiday shoppers in 2022 are ecommerce savvy and inflation wary. They seek both convenience and savings. Here are seven things to consider when preparing for the upcoming online shopping rush. Holiday-selling Reminders Buy-now pay-later options will drive conversions Better than layaway, pay-later methods allow shoppers to order and receive products and pay for them in…

  • ‘Less Is More’ Boosts Conversions

    ‘Less Is More’ Boosts Conversions

    The basics — not bells and whistles — drive ecommerce conversions. Pamela Hazelton reminds us to display product benefits, demonstrate trust, emphasize transparency, and more. The post ‘Less Is More’ Boosts Conversions appeared first on Practical Ecommerce.

  • 15 Discount and Promo Plugins for WordPress

    15 Discount and Promo Plugins for WordPress

    Everybody loves a deal. Promotional discounts and coupons can motivate shoppers. WordPress merchants can easily add a variety of promotional plugins with little or no added cost. Here is a list of discount and promotional plugins for WordPress. There are plugins for coupons, sales timers, sign-up codes, deal wheels, gift cards, and more. Most plugins…

  • Harness Customer Behavior to Boost Conversions

    Harness Customer Behavior to Boost Conversions

    Demographics play a role in attracting prospects. But it’s behavioral targeting that converts those visitors and keeps them coming back. Shoppers’ actions — how they navigate the site, what they purchase, how they pay — help determine what they’ll do next. Merchants should consider: Behaviors to target, such as frequent browsing, visited pages, or purchases…

  • Remove These Distractions to Lower Cart Abandons

    Remove These Distractions to Lower Cart Abandons

    Cart abandonment rates remain high. I’ve seen estimates in 2021 ranging from 50% to 80%, depending on the product and industry. A common culprit is sticker shock from excessive shipping and handling fees. Another is distractions: unnecessary or confusing checkout fields. In this post, I’ll address steps to streamline checkouts to save the sale. Lowering…

  • Ecommerce Conversion Rates beyond the Averages

    Ecommerce Conversion Rates beyond the Averages

    Conversion rates on ecommerce sites are a key performance indicator. Monitoring the percentage of visitors that convert to paying customers helps businesses track the performance of marketing campaigns, landing pages, design and navigation, and the checkout process. All are crucial to a company’s bottom line. Email signups, survey responses, and social media shares are important…

  • 4 Pricing Strategies to Increase Average Order Values

    4 Pricing Strategies to Increase Average Order Values

    Price isn’t everything, especially for quality and niche products. When boosting average order values, look at several factors. Free shipping thresholds can help, but the goal is to sell more than the minimum amount. Coupons, volume discounts, and subscriptions — all encourage customers to click the checkout button. However, those tactics focus on competing with…

  • Resolve in 2021 to Drive More Conversions

    Resolve in 2021 to Drive More Conversions

    Consumer shopping habits changed drastically in 2020. Ecommerce sites experienced dramatic growth. Resolve in 2021 to capitalize on that momentum and convert more visitors. Here are three tips to help. 3 Conversion Tips Welcome shoppers based on the referring website. Display welcome messages to new and existing shoppers based on the referring site. For example,…

  • My Top 6 Conversion Tactics for 2021

    My Top 6 Conversion Tactics for 2021

    Despite the unprecedented changes in 2020, the standard ecommerce usability requirements remain constant: simplify navigation, ensure mobile-friendliness, and streamline the checkout process. But there are plenty more conversion tactics merchants should deploy heading into 2021. Here are my top six below. 6 Conversion Tactics for 2021 Targeted email campaigns. Sending the same email to your…

  • 6 Tweaks to Streamline the Checkout Process

    6 Tweaks to Streamline the Checkout Process

    Ecommerce should see significant spikes this holiday season. However, merchants must consider the need for speedy, no-hassle checkout processes to lower abandons, especially from shoppers on mobile devices. What follows are six tweaks to streamline an ecommerce checkout. 6 Tweaks to Streamline the Checkout Process Address payment error messages. According to Paysafe, an electronic payments…

  • Manual Texts Recover 21 Percent of Abandoned Carts, Says LiveRecover Founder

    Manual Texts Recover 21 Percent of Abandoned Carts, Says LiveRecover Founder

    Dennis Hegstad believes the best way to recover abandoned carts is via text messages. But his messages are not automated or bot-driven. Hegstad’s company, LiveRecover, sends one-to-one texts from a real person to folks who have left an ecommerce checkout without completing a purchase. “It’s peer-to-peer texting,” he told me. “We’ll send messages from a…

  • Feedback from Shoppers Is Gold

    Feedback from Shoppers Is Gold

    A product question from a shopper is an opportunity. Consumer inquiries provide critical keyword search terms. They also help you understand your audience’s vernacular to include in product descriptions, calls to action, and checkout funnels. Visitors to Amazon, Macy’s, and other leading brands can quickly peruse Q&A sections for additional detail beyond product descriptions. A…

  • 10 Useful Elements for a Post-purchase Thank-you Page (and 3 to Avoid)

    10 Useful Elements for a Post-purchase Thank-you Page (and 3 to Avoid)

    One of the most underutilized tools of online stores is the post-purchase thank-you page. The thank-you page (also known as the invoice page) often contains only order details. That’s a mistake. Merchants should use this all-important page for brand recognition and sales. Here are 10 useful elements to include on a thank-you page, and three…

  • What’s a Good Conversion Rate for Ecommerce?

    What’s a Good Conversion Rate for Ecommerce?

    A common question from ecommerce businesses is, “What is a good conversion rate?” The answer varies based on the company and the definition of “conversion.” A site selling high-ticket items would presumably have a much lower conversion rate than one selling inexpensive consumer goods, for example. Importantly, which conversions are being measured? Newsletter signups or…

  • How to Get More Form Submissions, Even on Checkout Pages

    How to Get More Form Submissions, Even on Checkout Pages

    Obtaining shoppers’ contact information is valuable for ecommerce businesses. It helps to introduce new products and promote existing ones, among other benefits. But consumers are reluctant to provide their email address, or name, or phone number. There are ways, though, to streamline the process to entice visitors to complete those dreaded online forms. How to…

  • 5 Tips for Selling without Discounting

    5 Tips for Selling without Discounting

    Most business owners and managers desire to increase sales without discounting prices. But many observers insist that issuing coupons is a must for boosting ecommerce conversions. Regardless, do you want more sales or more profit? Increasing sales via discounts, coupons, and undercutting competitors (or a combination of all three) isn’t typically the best practice for…

  • 7 Conversion Snafus That Kill Ecommerce Sales

    7 Conversion Snafus That Kill Ecommerce Sales

    There are many reasons for high exit rates and abandoned carts. Most are logical: non-competitive prices, substandard security, poor checkout processes, expensive shipping, and restrictive return and exchange policies. Other issues, though, aren’t so apparent. Seemingly minor snafus in website design, wording, and navigation can drive shoppers away. Sometimes shoppers can’t tell you why they…

  • 8 Ways to Increase Conversions from Mobile Users

    8 Ways to Increase Conversions from Mobile Users

    If you’ve invested the time in making your website’s mobile version more shopper-friendly, you should start seeing better returns. Mobile users have long outnumbered visitors on desktops and tablets in respect to catalog browsing. But, finally, the number of mobile purchasers is increasing. There are plenty of ways to encourage mobile sales conversions. In this…

  • Faceted Search and Navigation Are Critical for Conversions

    Faceted Search and Navigation Are Critical for Conversions

    Inadequate search tools frustrate online shoppers. While some visitors enjoy “window shopping,” most want to get in and get out — even if they aren’t exactly sure what they want. Unless the catalog has just a few dozen products, search and browse tools should accommodate today’s savvy shoppers. For some stores, filters are sufficient. For…

  • 4 Checkout Elements That Reduce Cart Abandonment

    4 Checkout Elements That Reduce Cart Abandonment

    When it comes to online checkout, trust is everything. After a shopper adds items to the cart, security is crucial to close the sale. The typical shopper isn’t so focused on the technical process of capturing and storing information. For him, security is relative to trust — both in how his information is handled and…

  • Persistent Shopping Carts Drive Conversions, Recover Abandons

    Persistent Shopping Carts Drive Conversions, Recover Abandons

    More than 70 percent of online retail shopping carts are abandoned. That’s a staggering potential loss of sales. While the most common reasons for leaving carts are hidden surprises — such as shipping costs, strict return policies, and pricing — some people use carts as wish lists and calculators. That’s good to know because the idea…

  • 5 Things to Consider When Using Popovers

    5 Things to Consider When Using Popovers

    Years ago online popups were the way to gain someone’s attention. Today many internet users employ popup-blocking tools in their browsers. Many users close popups and overlays before reading them. A popup is a new, smaller window that typically requires interaction to make it go away — such as clicking an X. Popups generally appear…

  • 8 Trust-building Tactics to Boost Ecommerce Conversions

    8 Trust-building Tactics to Boost Ecommerce Conversions

    The trend of buying products online rather than in brick-and-mortar stores continues. In September 2017, Visa reported a 6.5 percent increase in online spending versus a 2.6 percent decrease for physical purchases. Much of the online growth, however, is from Amazon, Walmart, and other big e-tailers. Smaller ecommerce sites have to work harder to stay…

  • 5 Ways to Increase Sales at Checkout for a WooCommerce Store

    5 Ways to Increase Sales at Checkout for a WooCommerce Store

    Increasing sales from shoppers that are in the process of buying is easier than recruiting new customers. In-process shoppers have jumped the trust barrier. In this post, I’ll address five ways to increase sales from consumers who have added items to a WooCommerce shopping cart. 5 Ways to Increase Sales at Checkout Checkout add-ons. WooCommerce…

  • Leverage Micro Conversions to Close Sales

    Leverage Micro Conversions to Close Sales

    Most visitors to an online store aren’t ready to buy. That’s where micro conversions come into play. They help build the excitement and trust that shoppers need to make a purchase. Micro conversions are smaller actions that indicate a visitor’s interest in what you sell or have to say. They’re important building blocks for branding,…

  • Abandoned Cart Recovery Is Cheaper Than Marketing to New Clients

    Abandoned Cart Recovery Is Cheaper Than Marketing to New Clients

    In “Optimizing Checkout Flow in WooCommerce,” my previous article, I offered tips on reducing abandoned carts by streamlining the checkout process. To be clear, however, you could spend years optimizing your checkout process and not eliminate abandoned carts. There are options to bring shoppers back to your store once they’ve moved on to other things. One…

  • Optimizing Checkout Flow in WooCommerce

    Optimizing Checkout Flow in WooCommerce

    Abandoned shopping carts are a hurdle for online merchants. Abandonment rates range from 60 to 80 percent, depending on the study. Some of this is “window shopping” on the part of visitors. Some of it is due to the complexity of your checkout process. Thus optimizing your checkout will likely increase sales. In this post, I’ll…