It’s all very well driving lots of traffic to your store, but how do you keep those visitors ON your site and convert them into actual buyers?

For an eCommerce site to be successful, it’s vital to maximise visitor engagement and retention. There’s nothing more frustrating than launching a fancy new website, only to discover that visitors are landing on your site, giving it a quick glance and then promptly leaving.

Look at your analytics

First of all, it’s important to understand exactly which pages are working, and which ones are letting the side down.

Dive into Google Analytics and look at how visitors are currently using your website. Where do your visitors spend the most time? Which pages retain visitors the longest? Likewise, which pages are getting a lot of traffic but have a high bounce rate? 

By doing this, you should start to see which areas of your site are capturing people’s interest and which pages are making them click away. You can then work on improving those pages for better engagement.

User Experience (UX) Design

Just think for a second about the websites you use the most. The chances are, they load pretty quickly, present information clearly, and are generally just a joy to use. 

Now, think back to a website that frustrated you in some way. Whether it took an age to load or just made it hard to find the thing you were looking for, you probably didn’t stick around for very long.

When it comes to keeping people on your site for longer, the user experience is by far and away THE most important thing. UX design covers every aspect of the way people view and interact with your site to ensure they get the best possible experience, including:

• Navigation
• Buttons and calls-to-action
• Visual design and layout
• Content and images
• Speed

and much more.

At Aware, we understand the impact of user experience on the success of your business and go above and beyond to make it the best can possibly be. We work hard to ensure each site delivers maximum user retention and conversions.

Reduce page loading time

One of the most important aspects of providing a good user experience is page loading times. In short, most people won’t sit around waiting for a slow website to load. They’ll just go elsewhere, and you’re unlikely to ever see them again!

According to research, a 1 second delay can reduce conversions by as much as 7%, meaning you’re almost certainly leaving money on the table if you have a slow website.

There are many different ways to increase the speed of your site, including compressing images, minifying code and keeping plugins to a minimum.

Not sure how fast or slow your website is? Take a look at the Google PageSpeed Insights, which analyses your speed and then provides useful suggestions as to where things could be improved.

Optimise landing and product pages

There are lots of different things you can do on your product and landing pages to increase engagement and keep people on your site for longer:

• A clutter-free layout, with plenty of white space to allow the page to “breathe.”
• Clearly defined sections
• Defined headings and written content
• Images and videos

At Aware, we have developed a custom, drag-and-drop page builder that makes it super simple and intuitive to edit the pages on your website. Contact us to find out more about this.

Build an email list to stay in touch

You’ve worked hard to find the customer, keep them on your site and get them to buy something. Now, you’ll want them to become a repeat buyer – and the best way to do that is by building an email list.

Every eCommerce business should be building an email list. People who sign up to your email newsletter are clearly interested in your company and its products, meaning they’re already engaged and are highly likely to buy again and again.

You can build an email list using services like MailChimp and GetResponse. Consider offering something to entice people to sign up, like a special discount or access to subscriber-only deals.

Aware: Experts in eCommerce

We can help you improve your eCommerce store and boost engagement, conversions and sales. Get in touch to find out more about how we can help you.