Hosting Mautic QuickStart -50% with support in Spanish
24 hours and free training
Send up to 1,000,000 emails/year. Mautic Support in Spanish 24 hours, 365 days
One of the main aspects to take into account in eCommerce is to analyze how users interact during their visits. This is essential to be able to optimize the user experience and increase conversions.
Knowing what the conversion funnel through which visitors to your online store go through is essential if you want to optimize the sales process and convert more.
With this, you will be able to see at what point in the funnel you lose potential customers and thus strengthen that step so that they finish the purchase.
Any will help you to know how users interact in your store, so that you can set much more realistic goals.
In addition, these objectives will be the point of view when making comparisons of the different actions that you carry out, to optimize the conversion funnel of your eCommerce.
So that you can fully understand how your sales process works and optimize each of the phases, in this article I suggest you address the following aspects:
- What are conversion funnels.
- What are the stages of a conversion funnel and why you should optimize them.
- The key conversion factors in an online store.
In short, with this article my challenge is to help you understand the process users go through, from when they visit your eCommerce to when they complete a purchase, so that you can make things much easier for them.
Conversion funnels: Definition, stages and content maps
The first thing you should know is what exactly this process called in marketing as a “conversion funnel” consists of, since otherwise detecting how you could encourage purchases in your store would be really complicated.
The conversion funnel refers to the different steps that a user must carry out through an online channel, to meet a certain objective: a registration, a purchase, a lead, etc.”
In this case, the conversion funnel to which we refer is, specifically, the one produced through the interaction of users with your online store or eCommerce.
Conversion funnel stages
Well, once it is clear what I mean when I talk about the conversion funnel, I want us to see its representation graphically, so that you can see the reason for its name.
As you can see, a user will go through different moments, from when they access your eCommerce as a visitor to when they make a purchase. The fact that only a percentage of visitors end up being customers is what gives it the peculiar shape of a funnel.
Its different stages are precisely the ones that you must have well defined in order to be able to analyze what route users and potential customers take to detect at what point there could be a leak.
The process through which a user goes through the conversion funnel has three general phases that not only occur in online stores:
Phase 1 – Discovery: it is the moment in which the purchase process begins inside the mind of the user. It is when he realizes a need or a problem that must be solved.
Phase 1 begins naturally, at the user’s own initiative or at the suggestion of a brand through its advertising messages.
Phase 2 – Investigation: once the user is aware of the need that must be covered, they will begin to investigate options. It is the moment in which he looks for products or services that help him solve the situation in the most efficient way possible.
Phase 3 – Decision: once the user is clear about all the options, they will make a decision based on price, quality, facilities, shipping, added services, etc.
These stages have certain nuances, when it comes to the funnel of an online store with sales objectives:
- The discovery phase, if it is natural, will always come from the user himself. But it can be suggested by a brand. For example, with banners that direct the user to eCommerce, newsletters, messages on social networks, etc. Then we will see the sources of traffic to an online store and how to boost them.
- The research phase in this case is closely related to the actions to encourage phase 1. When users search the Internet for how to solve their need or problem, they should be able to find your online store. For this, it is necessary to work well on the communication of the different channels, the SEO positioning and the visibility and online reputation in general.
- The decision phase is where we are placing the most emphasis in this article, and that is when the user interacts with the online store. He knows other options but at that moment he is in your store, how does he act? Does he finish the purchase? Does he leave the cart halfway?
In turn, when a user has already decided to make the purchase, they can go through different states before choosing your online store or going to the competition:
- Visit: In this case, the user who is determined to buy visits your e-commerce, but is not here to stay. This situation can be saved with a second chance thanks to remarketing, but in any case it will be a sign that you should do something with your web design to improve the user experience.
- List: Here, the user navigates through your eCommerce and visits the different categories of your products.
If this is so, it is probably because your website offers intuitive navigation that facilitates research, so if you leave here it is probably because you cannot find what you need.
You don’t have items in stock or you don’t have all your products clearly visible?
- Product: If a user comes across the product that they really want to buy, but does not end up buying it, you probably have not used sufficiently attractive images, the product data sheet is not complete or, simply, your competitors offer better prices.
- Start of conversion: If the user abandons at this stage, the problem is usually technical. You have entered the data, but you leave the web before confirming, or you do not make the payment correctly on the gateway. Although there are cases of conscious abandonment, abandonment due to connection problems, loading times or security is usually more common.
- Add to cart: In Spain it is quite common for the process to be abandoned just when the transaction is finished, for fear of making an unsafe online purchase.
Having different payment options and even a website hosted in HTTPS can help you convey trust.
- Completed conversion: If you have an average user profile that goes all the way, you are in luck, because it means that you have an online store that converts well. However, it can always be improved by launching new remarketing campaigns to sell to the most loyal customers again.
As a summary of this point, we can conclude that the conversion funnel in an online store has an added process, since users as a general rule tend to be skeptical when making purchases online, to which is added the wide range of possibilities offered to them on the Internet.
Both in cases of abandonment and a successful purchase, it is possible to optimize conversions and sell more thanks to remarketing campaigns.
Advantages of optimizing a conversion funnel
As you can see, conversion funnels allow you to fully analyze what is happening in your store. See what is expected of the users and if they do it or not.
In addition, web analytics and research on user behavior bring many other benefits in eCommerce:
- Increase in conversions: Having all the well-structured data on visits to your online store will allow you to work with a clear focus on your goals. Analyzing each phase of the conversion funnel will allow you to identify solutions to improve the sales of your online store.
- Possibility of remarketing: Remarketing campaigns will be more effective, since you can target different users. You should not treat someone who has reached the shopping cart the same as another who has abandoned the web on the first page.
- Measurable actions: If you carry out online marketing campaigns that direct users to different points of the eCommerce, you will be able to analyze how the funnel works from there. You will see who completes the purchase and who does not, helping you guide the following actions.
- Loop detection: Sometimes it happens that users do not quite understand the information or some eCommerce pages. Analyzing the phases of the funnels, you will see if the users go forwards and backwards at a specific point and you will be able to clarify their doubts.
Key factors of eCommerce conversion funnels
In order to optimize the conversion funnel in your store or eCommerce, you need to have certain elements within your website. Without them you will not be able to establish clear and measurable sales objectives. Let’s see them!
- Shopping cart: In addition to being able to see the catalog of products and services that you offer, the online store needs a shopping cart. If what you have is an online catalog for sales in stores or by phone, the conversion funnels will not work within the page. You will have to analyze them with the offline options that you offer.
- Data form: Once users include items in the shopping cart, you must present them with the data capture form. Thus, you will know to which email or physical address you should send the shipments, and who is making the purchase. Without this step you will not be able to finish the conversions. Think carefully about which fields should be required so that you have all the necessary information, but do not abuse this either, since users are not friends with giving unnecessary data.
- Means of payment: Your eCommerce needs to propose different options so that users can pay. PayPal, cards, transfers, etc. Depending on what you choose, you can analyze the last phase within the store itself or with external actions (for example, if it is by bank transfer, the conversion phase will end when you receive the bank statement with the transfer).
In addition to these essential elements, there are many other aspects that influence the conversion funnels of an eCommerce. For example, calls to action within the store itself, online help chat systems, pop-ups…
One of those aspects that influence the purchase is the online communication channels you use. Do they reinforce the brand image? Do they encourage users to take the leap and make a conversion? What is the relationship with users?
Main sources to attract traffic to your eCommerce
To achieve and therefore sales, the first thing to establish is a good network of traffic sources that lead users to the online store. In addition, depending on the different campaigns they carry out, you can redirect to…
Facebook Comments
Disqus