6 proven ways to increase the conversion rate on your Shopify store

You could get every prospective customer in the world to your Shopify website, but if you can't convert any of them, you won't sell a thing.

Conversions are how we turn window shoppers into customers. And the better we can do that, the higher your ROI will be and the more profit you'll generate from ads and other marketing activities.

So, how do we improve our conversion rate? You need to make it as easy as possible for your customers to buy from you. So, here are 6 proven ways to do that and increase conversions:

1. Recommend the right product at the right time
2. Optimize for a mobile experience
3. Use social proof from other customers
4. Streamline your checkout flow
5. Use high-quality product images & descriptions
6. Personalize the shopping experience

Next, let's briefly cover each and give you some actionable tips to implement them.

Let's dive in!

1. Recommend the right product to the right customer at the right time

Customers don't always know what product to pick, especially if you have a lot of products or it's hard to choose between them. For example, cosmetics and supplements can confuse customers who are unfamiliar with them. And an usure customer is a lot less likely to buy.

So, make it easy for them to know what to buy and have confidence they made the right decision with a product quiz.

Creating a product recommendation quiz used to be tedious because it took hours to create them, but not anymore. You can use a Shopify AI quiz app to automatically generate quizzes for your store and every product in minutes.

Thanks to the power of AI, there's no reason not to use AI quizzes to help your customers find the right products and start driving conversions.

2. Optimize for a mobile experience

Do you know what percentage of potential customers visit your store on a mobile device like a phone? Over half! That's right, over 50% of online shopping is done on mobile devices. So make sure your site works well on mobile!

A few things you can do to help optimize your Shopify store for mobile shopping are:

• Use a responsive Shopify theme: First, check if your existing Shopify theme is mobile-friendly by testing your own store on your phone. If not, consider upgrading to a new theme for your Shopify store. Thankfully, most modern Shopify themes are mobile-friendly, but try them on mobile before buying one.
• Simplify navigation and checkout process: This goes for all versions of your site, but make sure it's easy for customers to 1) find the products they're looking for and 2) purchase when they're ready, regardless of what device they're using. More on this one below in step 4.
• Optimize images and content for quick loading: Mobile devices frequently have slower connections, so make sure the assets on your site, like images, are optimized, and your site loads relatively quickly. Thankfully, Shopify has some built-in performance tools for this. You can also use Google's free Page Speed tool.

Improving these things will increase your conversion rate, help your SEO rankings, and help customers succeed. It's a win for everyone!

3. Use social proof from other customers

Increasing customer trust and confidence that they're making a good decision is another way to increase conversions. You can do this with 'social proof' like testimonials.

Why does this work? Customers trust other customers! So, displaying reviews, ratings, and user-generated content like social media posts can significantly boost trust and conversions.

Here are some quick ideas on how to add social proof to your Shopify store:

• Adding a review section on product pages.
• Showcasing customer testimonials.
• Using social media posts from satisfied customers.

Everyone is different, so experiment with your audience on whatever social networks you have an active following to see what works best.

4. Streamline your checkout flow

Here's the golden rule: Make it easy for customers to buy from you!

That's why a complicated checkout process is a conversion killer. Here are some potential quick wins to streamline the checkout flow on your Shopify store:

• Offer multiple payment options: One of the great things about Shopify is that it supports several payment options. Ensure you at least have the convenient ones enabled.
• Simplify form fields: Capturing additional customer details at checkout is useful, but requiring more than necessary could hurt conversions. So consider making extraneous fields optional.
• Provide guest checkout options: Not requiring customers to log in is another way to simplify checkout. Depending on how your store is configured, you can uncheck the 'require customers to login' option to allow customers to checkout as guests.

These improvements should help remove friction from your checkout flow and increase your conversion rate.

5. Use high-quality product images & descriptions

Unlike in-store, when online, all customers have to go off of are the pictures and descriptions you provide, so your product presentation can make or break a sale. It's worth investing in professional photography and writing clear, descriptive product copy. Here are a few tips:

• Use high-resolution images: A modern phone can take pretty decent features these days, so it's worth investing in something like an iPhone 12 or later if you have an older phone to take better product images.
• Offer multiple views of the product: Online, all customers have is the product images. So, give them multiple views of the product to help them feel confident before purchasing.
• Write descriptions highlighting benefits, not just features: Why is a product great for a customer? Tell them why by focusing on benefits. Writing product descriptions for all your products can be tedious, but Shopify has free tools to help with that.

Doing these things will help your customers understand why they should buy your products and give them confidence to help drive conversions.

6. Personalize the shopping experience

What else helps improve conversion rates? Personalization! Why? Because it makes customers feel valued and understood.

So, how do you implement personalization in your shopping experience? Here are a few ways:

• Segmenting Email Marketing: Tailor your email campaigns based on customer behavior, past purchases, and preferences. This can lead to more relevant and engaging content. Using a Shopify quiz can help you gather this data and sync it to your email marketing service or CRM.
• Personalized Product Recommendations: Use customer data to suggest products that align with their browsing history and interests. This can be done on your homepage, product pages, landing pages, or email marketing. This is another place where Shopify quiz apps help collect valuable information like this.
• Dynamic Content: Display content on your website that changes based on who views it. For example, showing different homepage banners to new visitors versus returning customers.

Personalization enhances the user experience and increases the likelihood of conversion by presenting customers with more relevant options for their specific needs and interests.

Wrapping up

Improving your conversion rate is one of the most high-leverage ways to improve sales on your Shopify store since it makes other actions (like advertising) more valuable to boost ROI.

Lastly, remember: Increasing conversions is about 1) making it as easy and seamless as possible to buy from you and 2) creating a trustworthy and engaging shopping experience for your customers so they want to buy from you.