Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a critical part of improving eCommerce site performance.
A recent article by one of our Commerce partners and leading Ecommerce platform, Magento outlines the findings from a session with a group of CRO specialists.
Getting started with CRO
For brands that have not yet started optimizing the customer journey for conversions, participants suggested that they start gathering website, channel, and point-of-sale data immediately. Brands looking to optimize their funnel need to take a ‘holistic’ view of attribution, including online and offline touchpoints.
CRO Recommendations
Attendees offered numerous examples of CRO initiatives that had significantly improved conversion rates. Here are a few of the suggestions:
- Simplify checkout as much as possible. Think, “what user info do we need?”
- Analyze user sessions and mouse ‘heatmaps’ to see how individual consumers use the site. The technology to achieve this is now widely available.
- Use A/B testing extensively. But only run tests on specific segments if traffic allows.
- Automate abandoned cart lifecycle emails.
- Use retargeting on search, social, and display. Marketers agreed that retargeting is a very effective tactic.
Participants also had a few words to say specifically about mobile CRO:
- Make sure both mobile and desktop experiences are optimized. Mobile is often where last-minute purchases happen.
- Use responsive design on the website, but only for small browsers and tablets.
- Smartphones require a specific site that leverages mobile features such as geolocation for store finding, click-to-call, and augmented reality (AR).
It was mentioned within the group that CRO is not static but ever-evolving to remain useful. It is increasingly important to reconcile customer journey data across all channels, including offline, and deliver more accurate attribution reports. Perhaps the most significant CRO trend is that despite two decades of using eCommerce, consumers still prefer face-to-face transactions by a wide margin in most categories. Thus, measuring offline journeys is key to the future of CRO.
Read the full article hereÂ
