Driving revenue in the highly competitive Ecommerce market is a challenge.
Incomplete or outdated product descriptions, a confusing order process, and other poorly designed UX elements will drive customers away and drain the investment you’ve made in your online store.
However, there may be a simple reason you’re not seeing higher conversions: few click-throughs for your Ecommerce home page. Heavy landing page traffic (without a robust click-through rate) is similar to a department store with numerous visitors in its lobby—instead of numerous shoppers browsing its aisles.
To increase your Ecommerce home page click-through rate, you’ll want to use strategies that drive visitors to visit specific product pages. Keep reading for six tips to help you transform visitors into revenue-generating customers.
Offer Popular Products and Categories on Your Home Page
When it comes to optimizing your Ecommerce store, Moz recommends that you use Google Analytics to determine successful products and categories so you can display your top-selling and recommended items on your home page.
To do this, Google explains that you’ll need to have the ec.js integrated and enable Enhanced Ecommerce for your Google Analytics account. Once this is complete, Google states you can access metrics on products and product categories when you generate a Product Performance report.
Offering best-selling products and categories on your home page, especially if you state their popularity, can be an important tool for the following reasons…
- Products are popular for a reason. Heavy sales on a product can indicate you have a hard-to-beat item that appeals to a wide range of potential customers. Connecting visitors with your highest-quality products is simply a smart choice.
- People like to buy what’s popular. For some individuals, there’s a feeling of safety and security that comes from buying products approved by other customers. Offering buyer-tested items can help you convert more visitors who find safety in numbers.
Before we move on, we can’t neglect mentioning that where you place these products is critical for your success.
When optimizing to increase your ecommerce home page click-through rate, the last thing you want to do is highlight popular items in an unpopular location on your home page (for instance, near the bottom of the page).
Be sure to showcase your best sellers near the top of the fold.
Leverage the Power of Cookies
Another way you can increase your ecommerce home page click-through rate is by leveraging the power of cookies.
As BigCommerce explains, HTTP cookies come in two different flavors: session and persistent, with persistent cookies enabling features such as persistent shopping carts.
Because they track your visitors’ preferences, cookies can help increase your ecommerce home page click-through rate for a simple reason: your potential customers may visit your home page multiple times.
Visitors don’t always become customers on the first visit.
Cookies help you overcome this problem. Even if a customer decides to exit your online store, if he or she visits again, you can offer items on your home page that align with his or her previous browsing habits.
Offer Different Products Based on User Intent
In addition to using cookies to offer products that appeal to segments of your audience, you can also attract customers by targeting user intent.
Omniconvert defines user intent as “what a user is looking for when conducting a search query via a search engine,” and explains that user intent attempts “to understand the context and the intention behind those words.”
The key to employing this technique is to collect broad data on your audience so you understand why your customers might visit your store. Here’s a practical example of how you can leverage this technique.
Let’s say you operate an online store selling replacement parts for smartphones. Consumers regularly visit your store if their cell phone battery is dead, if they need a replacement screen, or if they need a new phone charger.
Understanding these user intents allows you to create collections of products around each customer need. To channel visitors to the appropriate product pages, your home page can then display calls to action such as…
- Replace your battery.
- Replace your screen.
- Find a charger.
The resulting convenience this provides can increase the likelihood of additional purchases for your online store. To see an example of a website that appeals to different user intents, check out this ecommerce home page for Community Coffee.
Creative tabs allow visitors to view a drop-down interface of recommended products based on their interests—such as finding single-serve coffee options.
Appeal Directly to Different Audience Members
Crafting your home page to speak to the different segments of your audience is another method to leverage for home page click-throughs.
Below is a screenshot of chewy’s home page, which showcases this technique. Notice how it offers products based on whether the audience member has a kitten or puppy.
This strategy helps shoppers understand that you provide products especially for them. It assures visitors that clicking through will take them to items they’re interested in—in other words, you’re promising a convenient shortcut for shopping.
If you’re suffering from a high bounce rate or poor engagement, be sure to identify your audience members and include audience-specific calls to action.
Offer Clearly Defined Sales for Your Products
Another way you can drive increased conversions is to offer clearly defined sales for your products.
According to BigCommerce, 71% of US shoppers are influenced by discount offers. While you don’t want to rely solely on price to attract customers, offering opportunities to save is still important for conversions because a large chunk of your audience is driven by deals. Displaying sales on your home page taps into this powerful motivation.
However, it’s important that audience members understand the deal they’re getting. Even the best ecommerce deal can suffer from low click-throughs if the home page message needs clarification.
Take a look at this ecommerce home page slider, and notice it doesn’t really explain how much money customers will save from the online sale.
In contrast, check out this website where customers can clearly understand how much they’ll save…before they click through.
Capitalize on Consumer Demand Trends
Another way you can increase your ecommerce home page click-through rate and boost sales is through leveraging expected trends in consumer demand, such as seasonal changes or holidays. However, you’ll want to think outside of the box so you avoid looking like every other competitor.
Zingerman’s offers a great example of how you can differentiate your online store. Instead of offering a simple 30%-off discount for its back-to-school sale, the food company puts a clever twist on this event.
From University of Michigan peanuts to a gift box for dorm students, Zingerman’s has turned a widely used theme into something that appeals to unique audience member segments.
In addition to seasonal demand and holidays, such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day, there are a wealth of other opportunities you can leverage. Appeal to special occasions for niche audience members.
For instance, if you sell apparel and many of your customers are in Europe, you might consider offering discounts or special products around the FIFA World Cup.
Here are a few tips to help you come up with innovative ways to capitalize on special trends in consumer demand…
- Identify circumstances where your customers are most likely to make purchases, and, for each circumstance, pinpoint a driving need. For instance, dads might want help finding the right gifts for the holiday season.
- Research your competitors, and see how they are approaching these events—if they acknowledge them at all. Maybe your competitors are offering a holiday discount, but aren’t addressing busy dads who need an easy way to shop.
- Create special offerings to meet each need. You might offer dads a Christmas shopping checklist showcasing your eCommerce products, with recommended gifts listed for various family members and friends.
Using this technique and the other strategies we’ve listed in this article can help you stack the odds in your favor as you look to increase your eCommerce home page click-through rate. But sometimes improving your lift isn’t so simple as making tweaks to your home page.
If your eCommerce site is plagued by low conversion rates, you may need a complete analysis of why competitors are taking their share of your potential customers.
Get an audit that reveals what’s wrong with your online store so you improve sales. Put GroupFractal on your side today.