This article delves into the subtle yet significant factors that can negatively impact ecommerce sales, such as poor website functionality and hidden costs. It offers solutions to these issues and highlights how Area Ten’s expertise can effectively address them for improved sales performance.
Now, what exactly are these covert culprits? Let’s start.
Slow loading times are not just a minor inconvenience for your online store visitors but are a critical factor that can significantly affect your ecommerce sales. In fact, a study showed that a delay of just one second in page loading time can lead to a 7% reduction in conversion rates.
They also negatively affect your search engine performance. Google prioritizes user experience, and a sluggish site can lead to lower rankings, subsequently decreasing organic traffic to your website.
So, how do you address this?
First, you need to know the factors that slow down your website:
Here are other strategies you should consider:
With mobile sales accounting for 60% of all ecommerce sales globally, the importance of mobile-friendly pages cannot be overstated. A non-mobile-friendly product can potentially drive away customers who use devices like smartphones to shop online.
Moreover, search engines like Google prioritize mobile-friendly websites, making mobile optimization a critical factor for SEO and organic visibility. Here’s what you can do:
No matter how appealing your images and themes are, poor navigation can lead to a frustrating user experience, negatively impacting sales.
Just imagine a user contemplating between product A and product B. If they find themselves lost in a labyrinth of confusing menus or dead-end links, their initial interest can quickly turn into irritation, diminishing the likelihood of a sale. Worse, this can deter potential customers from returning to your site in the future.
A staggering 92% of consumers hesitate to make a purchase when there are no customer reviews available. This can significantly impact brand perception and trust, especially for high-priced items where the perceived risk is higher. Of course, this can severely impact your digital sales.
Forcing registration and account creation can deter potential customers, leading to lost sales and negatively impacting the overall user experience. This not only increases cart abandonment rates but also creates frustration among users, making the order process feel burdensome and intrusive. Here’s some actionable advice:
It’s simple: Offer an option for guests to purchase without mandatory account creation. You should focus on creating a purchasing experience that is quick, intuitive, and user-friendly.
Your Call to Action (CTA) is not just a button but a pivotal element that bridges product interest and purchase action. However, ineffective CTAs, whether due to poor placement, lackluster design, or vague language, can disrupt the user’s focus and journey, leading to lost sales opportunities.
Hidden fees in ecommerce, such as undisclosed transactions or processing fees, can be a major deterrent for customers at the point of purchase. These unexpected costs, revealed only during the checkout process, can lead to cart abandonment and decreased conversion rates.
More critically, hidden fees can damage brand perception, casting a shadow of distrust and perceived dishonesty over your business.
Content is the lifeblood of ecommerce, influencing not just SEO performance but sales. Research indicates that 88% of shoppers consider product content pivotal in their purchase decisions.
However, poor, misleading product descriptions and incomplete content can lead to shopping cart abandonment. In fact, more than 90% of consumers have abandoned carts due to this. Now, how do you strike a balance?
Your content should answer your customer’s pain points and guide your audience toward making informed and confident purchasing decisions. Also, ensure that your content is accurate and clear, avoiding any misleading information that could harm user trust and brand credibility.
You may argue, “Well, I already have a customer service team in place.” but the question is, how effective are they? What do you do with the feedback you receive?
Poor customer service is a major deterrent, with 51% of customers abandoning purchases due to unsatisfactory service experiences. This not only affects customer retention but also casts a shadow on your brand’s reputation. So, how do you make sure you’re offering your customers the best service?
Perhaps you’re wondering, “My data shows that my website gains traffic, but why does it not translate into sales?” That’s because attracting traffic to your ecommerce site is only half the battle; attracting the right traffic is what truly counts. Now, how do you attract the right traffic?
The first thing you need to do is check how you gain traffic. For instance, you may be too focused on head terms. These keywords, like “jewelry,” may bring in substantial traffic, but they often lack the specificity and buyer intent needed for conversions.
On the other hand, long tail search terms such as “buy jewelry fast delivery,” which are more specific and often multi-word queries, may have lower search volumes but typically reflect stronger buyer intent, leading to higher conversion rates.
While the strategies we’ve discussed are crucial, implementing them effectively requires a level of expertise and resources that an adept ecommerce SEO agency or digital marketing agency can provide.
These agencies have a deep understanding of the ecommerce landscape and have up-to-date industry information, allowing them to quickly pinpoint these silent killers before they significantly impact your store. Further, they can offer strategic insights and solutions that can amplify your visibility and sales at a scale.
Now, if you’re seeking an organic SEO agency that will not only pinpoint these killers but also help you navigate through them, read along.
At Area Ten, we don’t just understand ecommerce; we redefine it.
Since 2014, our journey through various verticals, from fashion to electronics, has equipped us with a profound understanding of the ecommerce landscape. Our current client base, generating over $1.1 billion in annual online revenue, is a testament to our ability to drive sustainable growth for ecommerce stores like yours.
Our strategy goes beyond the conventional. While most SEO agencies focus on competitive head terms, we delve into the untapped potential of long tail keywords. This allows you to capture the 90% of search opportunities your competitors miss, leading to more qualified traffic and ultimately, higher conversion rates.
Now, to weave these terms into your content, we use programmatic SEO. However, standard programmatic SEO solutions, relying on tools like ChatGPT or article spinners, often produce generic content that fails to align with brand voice or comply with legal requirements.
At Area Ten, we challenge this norm with our proprietary technology, CMAX™. CMAX stands apart with its ability to generate tens of thousands of unique content pieces, each tailored to your brand’s voice and adhering to legal standards.
Moreover, our platform enhances your website’s structure and SEO performance through automated cross-linking, further helping your visitors to discover other items in your online store. More importantly, CMAX is dynamic. It’s self-optimizing, constantly adapting to search engine algorithm changes to ensure your content remains relevant and effective.
In the competitive world of virtual reality (VR) products, a US-based ecommerce seller was grappling with challenges: low traffic, poor engagement rates, and ultimately, disappointing sales figures.
We stepped in with a comprehensive audit that revealed that
After this, we began by transforming their ecommerce site, prioritizing mobile-friendliness and efficient navigation. Next, we shifted our focus to our Full Body SEO strategy to harness the power of long tail keywords.
CMAX churned out thousands of content pieces for each of their product pages, each designed to attract users who are ready to purchase their offerings. Further to this, our technology performed micro-level testing to gather insights, acting upon these insights and adjusting the content in real-time for continuous improvement.
Within just seven weeks, the client witnessed a significant uptick in their online presence, marked by a 22.3% increase in organic traffic. More importantly, this translated into a substantial 19.7% rise in organic revenue.
Here are some insights from their marketing manager:
“Our VR store was in a tough spot. We didn’t want to spend another dime on Google Ads anymore since the cost was skyrocketing. We needed a change, and fast. I was lucky to come across Jeremy through LinkedIn.
Area Ten’s approach was a game-changer for us. We saw a tangible uptick in traffic within weeks. That’s on top of a huge increase in sales from our mobile customers too! They genuinely exceeded our expectations.”
A decorative lighting ecommerce business in Singapore was facing a common dilemma: their pages were failing to rank, and engagement rates were dismally low. Our initial site audit revealed the root of the problem—thin, duplicate content across their product pages, which was negatively impacting their SEO performance.
Our solution was a complete overhaul of their content strategy.
Our team of expert writers crafted initial content pieces that adhered to their brand voice and industry standards. Once these foundational pieces were approved, they served as the training data for CMAX, which generated thousands of additional, SEO-optimized content pieces for each of their product pages.
In just two months, the client saw a 25.4% increase in organic traffic. But more impressively, their organic revenue saw a 26.8% boost.
Our services include building out category and product page content at scale, ensuring effective cross-linking, handling duplicate content issues, and managing transient products.
At Area Ten, we specialize in enhancing your ecommerce business through a technology-first approach, tailored to the unique technical aspects and marketplace nuances of platforms like Shopify, WordPress, or Bigcommerce.
We’ll start with an in-depth SEO audit. This analysis lets us uncover high-impact opportunities that align with your business goals. Following the audit, we develop a bespoke strategy tailored to your needs. Our in-house team of more than 130 professionals swiftly implements this strategy.
We focus on starting to deliver results in just six weeks, significantly faster than the industry standard of six to 12 months.
Measuring success in ecommerce involves focusing on key metrics such as sales, conversion rates, and ROI. Monitoring the cart abandonment rate and average order value (AOV) is also crucial. At Area Ten, we can help you set up, track, and analyze these measures, ensuring you have a clear understanding of your ecommerce performance and areas for improvement.
Here are the key takeaways to keep your website performance flawless:
To ensure your ecommerce site gets a standing ovation, here are actionable steps to take:
The silent killers of ecommerce sales, once identified and addressed, transform from subtle nuances into powerful potentials for growth and customer satisfaction. Remember, in the world of online retail, the smallest details often make the loudest impact.
As our last piece of advice, always keep a vigilant eye on the evolving trends and customer behaviors in the ecommerce landscape. The digital market is dynamic, and what works today might not be as effective tomorrow. Continuously analyze, adapt, and refine your strategies.
Business growth doesn’t have to be a slow process. With us at Area Ten, you’ll start seeing improvements in six weeks, not months.
Our suite of services, from SEO solutions to Paid Media Management, is designed to orchestrate your business’s growth in the fast lane. Our global expertise as an international SEO agency, spanning markets across every continent except Antarctica, positions us as the first-choice partner for ecommerce businesses aiming to drive organic growth.
Our commitment is to provide 100% solutions with 0% excuses. We ensure that our strategies are not just about driving traffic but driving the right traffic that leads to tangible business outcomes.
We understand the hurdles of ecommerce growth. Let’s overcome them together
If you run an ecommerce store, get your FREE SEO Fast Track with us.
Book a free video consultation below to see how your SEO & Paid Media campaigns are performing against global benchmarks in your industry.
We’ll uncover tangible opportunities to grow your business in just 6 weeks, including:
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