Tips on how to improve D2C conversions

Conversions is one of those mythical topics that are always present in conversations with clients. We are always asked if we an improve it like we are sorcerers that posses some special kind of power. So while that is all partially true, there are many factors that come into play in regards to conversions and this post aims to help you see them so you can improve them.

The right mentality

Before we talk about how to improve it, it is important to approach this with the right mentality. This means we establish a goal first. Our goal with D2C is to have customers purchase a product, therefore we need to look at the whole funnel leading them to buy. We need to measure traffic and purchases over time to be able to improve upon our metric and account for every variable that impacts conversion. Here is what could impact your conversions.

Your price, Shipping time and cost

Those can affect conversion a lot. There is a reason why a lot of businesses have $0 shipping cost and choose to add that as part of the price instead. People are sensitive to those things and you should take that into consideration when looking at conversions.

Your traffic source

Not all traffic is equal. If you compare the traffic you get from an influencer recommending your product to a ad on facebook or TikTok there will be a difference. So where you get your traffic can impact conversions and should be a factor when thinking about improving it. If you are getting traffic and most of the people coming to your site never seen it before or your targeted audience is a bit off it will be very hard to convert.

New brands struggle with this because most of the time they are getting cold traffic to their site. Offering an incentive for a first time buyer, like an email promotion or loyalty points is a way to make the most of your traffic, so instead of having a purchase as the goal you could have a goal be email sign ups for the 10% discount you give as an example.

Brand Identity

Once you understand your audience, having an effective brand identity can help increase conversions. This is a bit hard to measure, but having your brand visually represent your audience and what they care about while speaking to them effectively will highly impact your business.

Photography

A lot of merchants that come from amazon or other marketplaces have trouble with this one. They think having the product placed on a neat white background is “good enough” when in reality, having your own Ecommerce is a different game. Photography goes hand in hand with branding and it is one of the most important factors of high converting sites. You should mix lifestyle and product photography and use images, gifs and videos to help sell the product.

Assurances

The key factor people will leave your site is trust. If they don’t trust your brand they will never buy, so highlighting payment methods, security, return policies and warranties is crucial if you want to have high conversions.

Social Proof

This is THE most important aspect of what makes a site convert. Reviews. Real user reviews, with pictures and videos of the product claiming it is amazing (because it should be!). Really, nothing beats reviews, people purchase because of it and only trust if you have them. Having reviews early and investing in post purchase surveys is key to grow a healthy Shopify store.

No trickery!

A lot of merchants add plugins with fake countdowns of stock, or fake notifications like “John just purchased this!”. If you do this you have to stop. This hurts your business short and long term. Sure it might bump conversions a bit, but if you incentivize impulse buys you will get product returns and complaints. People are not stupid either and they will see this a trickery, and if you have to use it it means something is wrong, having the opposite effect that you desire.

Email and SMS marketing

A lot of brands are making up to 30% of their revenue from Email marketing and SMS. You need to implement them early and invest a lot to do it right as it can increase conversions (abandoned carts) increase AOV (post purchase offers) and the LTV of customers with campaigns!

Your Website

As the final item on the list, you have to think of your site as the foundation that supports all of the points above. The site alone won’t do anything for your customers without them as UI UX doesn’t work on it’s on. There are books written on the subject and I could probably write one myself but having quick buys, easy navigation and search should be the focus alongside with highlighting product features and addressing pain points in the product page. That is the 20% that would give you 80% of the results.

Final thoughts

Increasing conversion rates is not an exact science, it requires testing and it has a lot of variables that can impact the results. As a business, I would be careful when hiring agencies that guarantee results unless they control every variable in that equation, otherwise it is simply impossible.

At Colored Byte, we work with merchants to increase the aspects of your business that we can control! This means your site, photography, email marketing, brand identity and strategies for better customer experiences. Anything beyond that we can recommend at best, but don’t have control over it, so keep that in mind when partnering with Agencies and don’t try to find in them the ultimate solution for your business as it is rarely the case.