10 simple ways to improve your ecommerce site’s performance

Page speed

Page speed is one of the most important factors in user experience. There’s no getting around it: you need to work on making your ecommerce site as fast as possible. Quick load time is key for ranking in Google’s search results. And internet users expect websites to load instantly, especially on a mobile device.

Research has shown that 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load. Imagine the visitors and potential sales you could lose if your website is slow. Use tools like Google Page Speed Insights to test the speed of your site. Remove any widgets or large images that could be slowing your site down. Make page speed a priority to improve your website’s performance.

Effective use of Google Tools

Google offers a lot of great tools, many of which are free to use. You should take advantage of Google’s tools to optimise and improve your ecommerce site’s performance. Need keyword ideas for your marketing campaign? Try Google AdWords where you can enter a range of ideas in the Keyword Tool. Be sure to add your business to Google Places to improve your organic search visibility. When used right, Google Tools can help you gain a considerable amount of traffic.

Offering a responsive website

There’s little worse than a site that doesn’t respond well. Fully responsive sites can increase conversions, along with the number of visitors. UK based ecommerce company Offspring saw an increase of 15% in mobile conversions when they switched to a responsive design. Your ecommerce site’s design must have good usability no matter the device.

Effective use of navigation options

Navigation is a key element of any website. It must be clear and straight forward. Confusing navigation will turn visitors off and they may leave your site altogether. Research has shown that 37% of shoppers will abandon a website if they have poor experience with navigation. Stick to convention and have a horizontal navigation at the top of the landing page. If you have a lot of content, which is more than likely on an ecommerce site, you can use drop-down menus.

Minimising the number of steps to purchase

It’s important you shorten your ecommerce buying process. The more steps your purchase process has, the more likely your prospective customers will drop out of that purchase. In a time of short attention spans, internet users want results instantly. Your visitors will want the ability to makes purchases quickly. You can boost your sales and site performance with less steps in the purchase process.

Effective use of on-site search

Research has shown that users who search on-site are 216% more likely to convert than regular users.  Site search is pivotal to helping your customers find what they want to buy. If there’s no search option to find their desired product, a potentially easy conversion could be down the drain. Make sure you use search functionality on your site across all devices.

Wide variety of payment options

To increase the appeal of your site, you must include various payment methods. Offer non-bank card payments such as vouchers and mobile payments. Of course, you should include the popular payment offers, like debit cards and PayPal. You can boost conversions by offering at least the top three most popular payment methods.

Effective email sign up

A sign-up form with conversational copy and that is visually appealing, is an effective way to entice visitors to sign up to. Use social proof to convince people to sign up by letting visitors know how many people are subscribed to your email list. There are many different ways you can effectively use an email sign up to increase conversions and click-throughs.

Use of cross selling and upselling on product pages

An effective way to drive more sales and keep visitors on your site is by cross-selling and upselling. Use upselling to encourage customers to purchase a higher-end product than the one in question. Cross-selling invites customers to buy a related item. You can use them interchangeably by making use of techniques such as ‘frequently bought together’, ‘we recommend’, etc.

Effective use of secondary calls to action

A secondary call to action provides an alternative conversion opportunity if the visitor isn’t ready to buy. Amazon and many other ecommerce sites use purchase wish lists, or a ‘save for later’ option. If you haven’t offered that secondary conversion opportunity, those people who weren’t ready to buy may move on and forget about your site. Secondary CTAs can increase your site’s performance as it can save lost conversion opportunities.