Webinar wrap up: Mastering ecommerce conversion rate optimisation
Last week, Rachael Brandon-Lai, head of Strategy and Experience at Inviqa and Rachel Tonner, VP of Product Marketing at Klevu, joined forces to discuss ecommerce conversion rate optimisation through better on-site experience and search functionalities, and what the brands behind high-performing ecommerce websites are doing that sets themselves apart.
Based on the DTC digital CX research we’ve been doing since 2023, Rachael and Rachel gave a whirlwind tour of some of the top-performing websites from the report and what made their digital experiences stand out, including Charlotte Tilbury, Nike, Lego, Pandora, teapigs and Berghaus. They also took time to do live audits of viewer-submitted sites, Chinti & Parker and Mous, to highlight where they’re already nailing the experience, and where there are opportunities for improvement.
But rather than giving you the blow-by-blow of what was discussed, let’s focus on some of the key takeaways from the webinar.
1. Get the basics right first
Before you start looking at how you can integrate AI-powered search or personalisation into the digital experience, make sure you’re getting the basics right first. This includes optimising your website for page speed, getting the navigation right, and optimising the site for mobile. Sites that take more than three seconds to load can lead to an immediate 40% bounce rate and mobile traffic currently accounts for over 70% of ecommerce traffic, so don’t overestimate the importance of getting this right.
Finally, accessibility is critical, and no longer just a nice-to-have. So, take the time to review your site with accessibility in mind, paying close attention to descriptive titles for links, which will help make your site easier to navigate for those using screen readers.
2. Then, optimise the search experience
Rachel revealed that 13% of website visitors drive 31% of revenue, and those 13% use search. And when it comes to an optimised search experience, this is one of those instances where AI and natural language processing can help the experience shine (and Klevu is the go-to tool for this).
It supports features like type-ahead search, accounting for typos and synonyms, and using search previews to highlight items that most closely relate to the search term, which can all help speed up the discovery process.
It’s also worth checking what the results experience is once they hit ‘enter’. Can the search results be filtered, or is the customer left with 100s of items they still need to scroll through to find the item they’re after?
3. Consider how you’re creating personalised experiences
But not like, creepy personalisation… We’re talking more using browsing behaviour, purchase history (for signed-in customers!) or contextual clues to personalise the shopping experience.
Wondering what we mean? teapigs does a great job of using guided selling tools to deliver a more personalised experience while requiring minimal data from its customers, namely its ‘mood-o-meter’. This tool allows customers to filter the available teas based on how they’re feeling, adding not only a personalised touch to the experience, but also ensuring it’s more likely the customer will find a product they like. Allowing customers to filter based on whether they like to drink their tea with milk is also an inspired touch – we are in the UK after all, where tea and milk are besties.
What this would look like on your site would depend on the products you sell and how these products could then be curated to serve a particular customer need.
4. Digital Sustainability should be a consideration
Another topic raised by Rachael and Rachel was digital sustainability and how this plays into the digital experience.
We looked into this topic in detail in our 2024 Digital Sustainability report and it’s something that, as the retail industry moves towards more sustainable practices, cannot be overlooked as consumers increasingly head online to shop.
Only 21% of the brands included in our original DTC research from 2023 met the basic sustainability benchmark of emitting less than 0.5g of C02e per page view, and our more comprehensive sustainability study showed only 44% of retailers met that goal.
A more sustainable website isn’t just good for the environment, it also helps with overall site performance as they tend to be lighter, supporting better site speeds and performance.
5. Optimise checkout to optimise conversion
Finally, don’t let the final step of the online shopping experience let you down. In fact, the checkout experience should be the most friction-free parts of the entire process.
Today’s consumers expect express checkout options – Google Pay, Apple Pay, etc., so your online payment provider should support this. Then, look at how many fields you’re expecting your customers to fill out. The optimal amount is 12-14, but if your customer has already logged into their account, it’s good practice to have these fields pre-populated.
Expectations for shipping and delivery should also be made clear. Ideally, this is information that’s highlighted earlier on in the journey. This way, they don’t drop off at this critical juncture because shipping will take too long or is more expensive than anticipated. As Rachael points out, 64% of shoppers actively look for this information while shopping, so adding it to the product description pages is a good way to go - Pandora and Charlotte Tilbury provide a couple of great examples of how this is done.
As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to optimising your ecommerce site for conversion, and this is just a snapshot of what was discussed in the webinar. To get the full story, you can watch it here.
And if you’re interested in talking to one of the team about how Inviqa can help you improve the digital experience of your ecommerce or retail site to increase conversions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
