10 actions you can take if you see a drop in your conversion rate

For every ecommerce leader, the conversion rate is the North Star that guides your digital ship. It’s the metric that encapsulates the essence of your online business’s success, indicating how effectively you turn visitors into loyal customers. However, what happens when that North Star starts flickering, and the conversion rate takes a dip? In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore 10 actionable strategies to revive your conversion rate, ensuring your ship sails smoothly through the stormy seas of digital commerce. From short-term triage to medium-term optimisation and long-term strategic actions, we’ve got you covered. So, let’s embark on this journey to reclaim and maximise your conversion rates.

Short term actions to help fix conversion rate drops

In the fast-paced world of ecommerce and mcommerce, time is of the essence. Addressing CRO issues immediately is crucial because every moment of inaction translates to potential lost revenue. By swiftly identifying and resolving issues affecting your conversion rates, you can stem the bleeding and stabilise your ecommerce ship. Timely action not only minimises the impact of a declining conversion rate but also demonstrates your commitment to providing a seamless shopping experience for your customers, earning their trust and loyalty.

1. Analyse data and metrics

Start by analysing your website or sales funnel data to pinpoint the exact point where the conversion rate declined. Identify which pages or steps in the process are experiencing lower conversion rates than before.

You may not have enough data to help pinpoint the exact point of conversion rate decline, so a general exploratory test can be used to identify potential issues. Sometimes you may not be able to identify a specific conversion issue that’s causing the problem. It may be that functional or cosmetic issues that in isolation may same minor but when clustered together mean the customer experience is poor. Looking at the bigger picture allows you to see these clusters and trends and group the deployment of fixes together to provide the biggest impact.

2. Identify potential causes

Look for potential reasons behind the dip. Some common causes include:

• Changes in user behaviour
  • Seasonal shifts
  • Economic factors
  • Technological advancements

• Conversion blocking defect
  • Payment method failures
  • Products not adding to basket/ cart
  • Price mismatches
  • Delivery lookup failures

• Changes to the website or product
  • Popular products aren’t as accessible
  • Website performance has decreased
  • Website navigation isn’t as user friendly
  • Distracting or intrusive pop-ups

• Shifts in the market
  • Is the product need reduced?
  • Has a new product gone to market that is taking market share?

At Digivante we work we many clients across industries gaining key business insights to understand user behaviour and market shifts better and can help identify these potential causes.

Our usability testing and functional exploratory testing can surface issues related directly to your software and changes you may have implemented that are having a negative impact on conversion rates.

3. Address software defects and technical issues

Check for any technical glitches or errors that might be hindering the conversion process. This includes:

• Broken links/redirections
  • Page errors on load
  • Page crashes
  • Redirecting to test pages
  • Redirecting to incorrect products
• Checkout issues
  • 3^rd party integration failure
  • Discounts not applied correctly
  • Incorrect product stock levels
  • Pricing discrepancies
  • Incorrect postage charges
• Form errors
  • Fields not accepting certain characters
  • Lack of field level validation
  • Unclear error handling

Identified issues should be prioritised based on business impact assessment.

Once changes or fixes have been deployed, carry out retesting and usability testing to ensure the changes are working as expected.

Assess these changes to ensure the conversion dip has been resolved. The length of the assessment relates to the change e.g. fixing a payment method should have an immediate impact whereas a change to a user journey may takes longer to understand it’s impact.

CRO actions you can take in the medium term

4. Analyse data and metrics

Gather feedback from your customers through surveys, feedback forms, or interviews. When planning gathering feedback it is important to follow these steps:

• Set clear objectives
• Choose the right feedback method
• Craft effective questions
• Timing and placement
• Incentivise participation
• Analyse and interpret data
• Act on the feedback
• Continuous feedback loop
• Track progress

At Digivante our usability studies can target your unique demographics and provide detailed reports with actionable outcomes.

5. A/B testing

Implement A/B tests to experiment with different variations of your website or sales funnel. Test changes to headlines, calls-to-action, layouts, forms, or any other elements that could influence conversion.

Gathering data from different user groups using different variations of your website can give invaluable insight into creating the ideal user journeys to give the best possible conversion rates.

6. Optimise landing pages

Pay special attention to your landing pages, as they are critical for conversions. Make sure they are relevant, clear, and persuasive, with a strong call-to-action.

7. Optimise user experience (UX)

Ensure that your website or app offers a smooth and intuitive user experience. Focus on improving navigation, page load times, mobile responsiveness, and overall design.

Usability studies provide a great way to assess your software. The key to any UX optimisation is identifying your real customer demographics and behaviours and ensuring your product meets their requirements and expectations.

8. Competitor analysis

Conduct a competitive analysis to see if there have been any significant changes in your competitors’ strategies or offerings that might be impacting your conversion rate.

Carrying out a usability study against your software and then comparing against your competitors is a common way to see where you might be going wrong. Understanding what competitors are getting right and applying similar methods can be very beneficial, even you aren’t first to market with a change.

9. Reassess pricing and offers

Analyse your pricing strategy and special offers. It’s possible that changes in pricing or promotions are affecting the conversion rate.

We can ask users what they think of pricing and give feedback. We often find delivery options and related pricing varies dramatically in different countries and with our global community we can deliver you these finer nuances.

Longer term CRO strategy

10. Personalisation

Consider implementing personalised content or product recommendations based on user behaviour and preferences to enhance engagement and increase the likelihood of conversion. Machine Learning and AI can be used to provide data driven activities which put products in front of your customers based on their buying habits. This is an area which is growing at unprecedented speed and it’s important to implement the correct approach that helps your customers rather than feel overbearing.

As we wrap up this journey, remember that your role as an ecommerce leader is never-ending. Continuously monitor the impact of the changes you’ve implemented. Track your conversion rate, bounce rate, and other relevant metrics. Patience and iteration are your allies in the quest for sustained success.

In the realm of ecommerce, where conversion rates reign supreme, the role of the head of ecommerce is both challenging and rewarding. The 10 strategies outlined in this guide serve as a blueprint for navigating the turbulent waters of declining conversion rates. Your responsibility is to not only react swiftly to immediate issues but also to strategically plan for long-term success. Remember, as the captain of your ecommerce ship, patience, data-driven insights, and a commitment to excellence will be your guiding stars on this journey to conversion rate recovery. With these tools in hand, you’re well-equipped to steer your ecommerce vessel towards calmer and more profitable seas.