The Commerce Club Podcast

S203: 3 Things You Need To Focus On To Make Sales In Your E-Commerce Business

• Sophie Biggerstaff • Season 2 • Episode 3

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If your e-commerce conversion rate is less than 2% YOU ARE MISSING OPPORTUNITY TO SELL!

In this episode, I let you in on the most common reasons why why customers may not be converting on your e-commerce website - these are the challenges pretty much ALL of my clients face.

The main 3 reasons money is left on the table in an e-commerce business is because:

  1. Website Merchandising Issues
  2. Lack of a Sales Strategy
  3. Confusing customer journey

I’ll be giving you solutions for all of these to help you improve your ecommerce conversion rates.

If you’re ready to get a bit more strategic about selling in your ecommerce business and converting more of your browsers in to buyers - get started with my convert more customers checklist, where I’ll give you 10 actions to take on your website in order to generate more sales. Download it here: https://itssophiebiggerstaff.myflodesk.com/conversionchecklist

If you've enjoyed this episode please make sure to hit that subscribe button :)

Incase you just stumbled across this episode and we haven’t met before let’s get formally introduced here: www.itssophiebiggerstaff.com

If you’re an e-commerce business owner looking for support I host my online courses designed for you here: www.thecommerceclub.co

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This might be the reason why your e -commerce business is not making sales. Hi, I'm Sophie and this is an episode of the Commerce Club podcast where I teach you all of my best e -commerce business tips and advice. And today we're talking about why customers are not converting when they are landing on your website. So I work with e -commerce founders day in, day out, and I speak to a lot on social media as well. And I know right now is a really difficult time in the market. It's very hard.

for customers to convert at the moment. There are so many things, so many varying factors that are going on right now in the market that are preventing customers from actually shopping with you. I'm not here to talk about those things today. I'll do another episode on that, but I am going to talk about the fact that if you are getting traffic onto your website, there is an element of interest in what you're doing. Your customer or your browsers are really interested in something that you are doing.

for them to actually have clicked through onto your website. So if you are getting traffic onto your website, but you are not converting that, you're not making sales, then you are missing opportunity. You're missing opportunity to sell because you've had people interested, people are clicking through. Now you're not converting them. Your website is not converting them into sales. So there are things that you can do to make that happen.

And I think quite a lot of people don't realise that. They think, like they're just not buying or whatever. Well, no, it's actually in your control to change that situation and turn it around. So first thing, before you even listen to this episode, I want you to go onto your website if you're running an e -commerce business, whether it's on Shopify, WooCommerce, whatever platform you use. And I want you to go and check your traffic numbers. Like are people actually coming onto your website?

And then I want you to check your conversion rate. So your conversion rate is essentially the percentage of how many people, how many of those browsers you are actually making sales from. So if you've got something like Shopify or Google Analytics or BuyCommerce, it should give you a conversion rate. Now on those platforms, it's done on sessions. I personally like to work out conversion rates with some visitors because that's like the amount of people that have actually come onto your website rather than the amount of clicks that have come onto your website. So go and check your traffic and conversion rate.

If you are getting traffic on your website but your conversion rate is less than 2%, there is a problem. You have a problem on your website. I don't even need to look at your website to tell you that. I know you've got a problem because people are coming actively onto your website and they're not buying from you, which means there is an issue on your website somewhere preventing them from actually making that purchase and going through the checkout process. So in this episode of today's Commerce Club podcast, I wanted to talk about...

three of the reasons potentially why that might be happening. And there are some really easy fixes, which I will also talk you through as well. hopefully you've just gone onto your website, realised whether you're getting traffic and what your conversion rate is. Now, the industry average conversion rate is 2%. So if you are below 2%, there's an issue. If you're above 2%, you potentially don't have the issue of generating, converting customers.

But there is still opportunity so this still might be relevant for you If you are not getting traffic on your website and your conversion rate is below 2 % that is a whole different conversation So in that circumstance your issue is your marketing. This episode is not going to be talking about marketing So if you're in that circumstance you might not want to listen to this Or you might want to carry on listening and seeing what the issue might be as and when you are getting traffic I'll do another episode on how to get traffic on your website

So today I'm going to be through the three things that could be preventing customers from actually shopping with you when they are on your website. Now I work with ecommerce business founders on a mentoring and consulting basis. I do a lot of business audits for ecommerce brands and help them optimise their conversion rate. So I see a lot of the same problems coming up over and over and over again. So...

I'm just going to give you a summary of the top three reasons what happens with my clients and how I then go about fixing it and how we look at that and how we change that and turn that around for them. And some of my clients have gone from, you know, like having 0 .6 % conversion rates and then doubling that to just being just below 2%. So there really is, if you change the things that you're doing on your website and you improve your customer experience and your customer journey,

There's so much opportunity for you to turn that around and it doesn't need to cost you money. This isn't going to cost you more money in ads because ultimately we don't need to be driving more traffic to your website at this point because you're not even converting the traffic that's on there. So you putting money into ads is a waste of your money at this point in time because you need to be optimising and making sure that your customer is converting before you're driving more traffic and spending money on ads coming through to your website that isn't actually going to convert because then you're never going to get your return on investment. So...

If you are running ads right now and your conversion rate is less than 2%, turn them off because that traffic is not going to convert. So that is a waste of your time. So let's go through a couple of the reasons why those customers that are landing on your website might not be converting. Now, the number one issue that I often see with most of my clients is that the website is the problem.

You might love your website, you might think it's the best thing that you've ever produced, especially if you built it by yourself, there's probably an emotional attachment to your website and I often see that with founders as well, they're like, no it's not my website, because they built it themselves. But nine out of 10 times, the number one issue is your website. And there are multiple things that could be wrong with your website. Now one of the most common, and probably I'd say about 80 % of my clients, this impacts.

and that is the messaging on your website is confusing. So let's just say for example, I'm a customer coming onto your website and let's say you sell dresses. And this is actually an example of one of my clients that I've worked with in the past couple of years. You're selling dresses, but I land on your website and I'm like, there's a skirt, cool, there's a handbag, great, there's pair of shoes, where's the dresses? Your Instagram directed me to your website or Google directed me to your website.

and told me that you were a dress brand but when I land on your homepage the first thing I'm seeing, handbags, skirts, shoes, where's the dresses? I've decided to click through to your website because I need a new dress but I'm not seeing that as the first message that I come onto your website that you're presenting to me so I'm gonna click off, I'm not interested I came here for a dress and you don't look like from first 20 seconds of being on your site

doesn't look like you're selling dresses, so I can't be bothered to go and dig around onto your website and try to find this dress that you promised me. So I'm off, I'm out. So that means you've lost me as a client, you've lost me as a customer, you've lost that traffic to convert because I'm not interested, you didn't captivate my attention to what I was looking for straight away. Now, I see this so often, so, so often with clients where they will say, right, my unique selling point is this, my product, the main product that I want to promote is this.

go onto their website, it's so completely different on the first thing that I see and it's so confusing as a customer that you're telling me one thing on your social media, I'm really interested in what you're doing, I'm clicking through, but then I can't find what I'm looking for. So the first thing I would suggest you do when you are struggling with your conversion is check your message. Is your message consistent between all of your different marketing channels and then on your website? Your website is like your shop window. I am going into C.

that top banner should be telling me everything I need to know about your business just as soon as I come in. I shouldn't have to scroll down the page to find the products that you promised me. So the first thing would be to check your message. The second thing on websites that I see is the merchandising of those websites is pure crap. the merchandising on a website is basically...

the way that you position things on your site to direct the attention towards that specific thing that you want to attract attention to. let's again, let's say you're this dress brand and you've got 10 dresses. One of them is your, the one that you really want people to buy into. Obviously when you're creating an assortment, you're going to have extra products in that assortment for add on sales, for different options, color variations. But usually,

If you've really put thought into your assortment and you've put money behind a certain product, that's the product that you want to direct people to. You want people to buy into the thing that's probably the most expensive, probably got the most inventory behind it, the thing that you've really focused in on on all of your marketing campaigns. That's the product that you want to direct people to. But if that's buried at the bottom of your page and I can't see it,

how the bloody hell am I meant to buy it? So I think one thing that I definitely see people struggle with is doing strategic merchandising. And really like thinking about this is the product that I want to direct people to. So therefore it needs to be at the top of my products page. It needs to be in my menu bar. It needs to be on my homepage. So many people forget that and...

Again, that's something that I normally support clients with trying to figure out how that they direct people to those products that they really want to put the attention to. The third thing on the website is the confusing menu bar. Like, my God, I've lost track of the amount of websites that I've been on and had no idea where I'm navigating to because the menu bar is so complicated and confusing. Now your menu bar is literally the navigation. Like think about when you click onto your phone or like, and you use a sat nav.

and it guides you to replace your destination, that menu bar is like that GPS system. So your menu bar needs to be very clear and give very clear instructions to the people on your website to navigate them to where you want them to go, to where you want them to shop with you. So you really do need to be making sure that that is directing your customers in the right way and thinking about it from their perspective as well. So if I'm coming onto your website,

And maybe you call your product a certain name, but maybe they call it something else. So like if you're a dress brand, they don't call it, maybe they call it something different. They might call it like a bias cut dress or an asymmetric dress, but then you've just got dresses. Like maybe they want further navigation to the asymmetric dresses or bias cut dresses, whatever it might be. So you need to be really like.

thinking in the mindset of your customer, like if I'm searching on Google and doing your keyword research, thinking, they're searching for this keyword, in which case I should change my website navigation to that name, for example, because it's gonna get you found and easy to navigate on your site. yeah, basically website navigation, website merchandising.

Home page messaging are the top three things on a website that I see go wrong. There are a couple of others, particularly thinking about like from a product perspective, not showing the end use of the product, not showing credibility, but those are the top three things. And when a website is difficult to navigate or the website doesn't present the things that it promised,

your customers clicking off in the first 10 seconds, probably less than that. Your bounce rate is going to be very high. So basically your website, merchandising, navigation, the way that you message on your website is so important for that conversion piece. Because if it's not there, your customers out, then they're not going to be buying from you. And that is probably one of the biggest reasons why you're not converting the traffic that's coming onto your website. The second thing,

is that you don't have the strategy, the sales strategy to promote and support that merchandising plan that we've just spoken about and like your marketing plan because honestly it blows my mind how many founders don't understand what a sales strategy is and aren't using a sales strategy because ultimately your sales strategy should be the

the key, the root of your sales plan and your marketing plan because ultimately your sales messaging should be feeding your marketing messaging. They are not the same thing. Marketing and sales are completely different things and so many people get it confused and think that they are intertwined, which they are intertwined. Sorry, I think that they're the same thing. Your sales strategy should essentially be the message that you push out to your customers.

to actually get them to convert. So the reason why that they should buy from you. So that could include things like your unique selling point, that could include like incentives, that could include like the functionality, the reasons why you should buy, that could include like different events that your product is purpose built for. So many people don't utilize sales strategy in their e -commerce business and it is a hugely missed opportunity, honestly.

And the most of the time the reason that the founders don't use the sales strategy is because they're scared of it They're scared of the results of it. They have like limiting beliefs around sales strategies They don't know how to create one and they're scared of looking at the numbers because sale being strategic in your business kind of involves understanding the KPIs right understanding the numbers because there's no point in building a sales strategy and then forgetting about it not

actually implementing it. So the sales strategy piece is really important if you actually want to drive conversions because otherwise all that you're doing is putting messaging out onto your website, putting marketing material out there that doesn't really speak to your customer, it doesn't really give them the information that they need, it doesn't really have any call to action in there to actually get them to convert. So...

That is also another reason why if your marketing messaging or the message on your website is not speaking directly to customers in a salesy way and you're not thinking about the sales results and using the data that you've got from your customers to actually build a sales strategy, then there's a reason why your customers are not converting because you don't really understand why they're not converting. So when you first came onto this podcast, I told you to go and check your traffic.

numbers in your sales conversion. That already is you getting a bit more strategic about selling. So hopefully you're already halfway there to building your sales strategy. But the key to a good sales strategy is to use the data of what you already know. So possibly when you came onto this podcast and I told you that, you know, if you're getting traffic onto your website, you're not converting, there's opportunity in your selling. But if you're not getting the traffic, then there's opportunity in your marketing. That already is giving you insider information.

into your business and what you need to be focusing on. So if you don't have this sales strategy in place where you are analyzing the data and then taking actions strategically to actually generate more sales from your customers, that's the reason why your customers are not converting. So I actually have an online course because this is such a big problem for my clients when they come to me and I've tended to find myself repeating myself over and over again, saying the same message.

and so many people aren't building sales strategy into their business, I actually create a whole online course for it. So if you are really struggling to convert, and like I said at the beginning, if you're getting the traffic onto your website but they're not converting, there is more opportunity for you to sell to those people. And getting strategic about that selling is gonna be really key for you as a starting point.

I have an online course and it takes you through how to actually analyze and use the data in your business to make informed decisions to sell to your audience. And then I teach you my ASDA framework, is essentially analyzing your data. So as I said, like really understanding the reasons why and the actions that you need to take based on what the data is already telling you. Then it talks about building a sales strategy and getting really strategic about

different things that you can incorporate into your business on a one -off basis and also on an ongoing evergreen basis to really drive sales and that would be the messaging behind your marketing material. It also talks you through target setting and goal setting based on the numbers that you've got and being really realistic about what your business can achieve and then the growth plans and the strategies around that. And then action taking. So you can build as much strategy as you want, but if you don't implement it, you don't take the action.

Again, you're still not getting the sales. So my online course, Step Up Your Sales, it's available on thecommerceclub .co. That talks you through that whole process, talks you through analyzing your sales, building the strategy around what you know, target setting, and then actually taking the actions and what actions to take based on what the data's saying. And I teach you how to read your data, feel more confident, because again, that's something that I see so many founders struggle with, is the confidence when it comes to the numbers. I think...

When you're setting up an e -commerce business, so often you're a creative head, you're not a financial head, right? And I totally resonate with that. I am also not particularly a financial head. I've had to learn because of the career that I went into. But it's important. If you're running a business, you need to understand the numbers, you need to understand your cash flow, you need to understand your sales, you need to understand your key performance indicators, because that is going to tell you everything that you need to know about the actions that you can take. Otherwise...

you're just taking action, you're just putting marketing material out there, not really knowing if that's what the message is actually working or not. So you need to be able to understand if certain things that you're doing in your business are working so that you can do more of them and then you need to be understanding what isn't working so you stop doing it and then you pivot it and you create new opportunities, right? So creating a sales strategy is really, really important. And then...

The last point, number three, is the customer journey. So when somebody is landing on your website, what journey do they go on to actually get to the checkout point? So there's so many websites that I go through and I have to go click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click to get to that final destination, which is the checkout, and make my purchase. And as a consumer, I don't want to be going through all of these stages. I want it to be as simple and easy as possible to buy from you.

And I think a lot of e -commerce businesses just don't consider that. They don't consider that journey when I'm on your website. Like how are you navigating me to the checkout? How are you getting me to buy? And that doesn't just start on your homepage, either or like wherever I've clicked from. It starts from the point where I've become aware of your business, aware of your product. So like either through an email, through your social media, through an ad.

your sales funnel, the journey that you've got from like where I've become aware of you to where you're building that relationship with me to where you're showing me the credibility and the source that I can buy from you. You're warming me up to want to buy from you. Now, what I think a lot of people don't understand is that it's very difficult to convert a cold audience, particularly if you've got a product that is a bit more of a considered purchase. So maybe it's like a slightly higher price point.

Someone that just finds you from an ad is very unlikely to just buy from you immediately. So you need to make sure that your website is very clearly structured to build a relationship with me straight away and clearly tell me what you're selling. Show me your credentials, build some credibility with me, show me that I can trust you to make a purchase from you, and then very easily warm me up and show me why I need your product to actually put it in my basket and make a purchase from you.

It's way easier to do that with someone that's already done that. If I'm just clicking onto your website for the first time, the chance of me converting is quite low, to be honest. You then need to capture my email address, warm me up, show me more of what you do on social media, for example, and then maybe I'll convert at the end of it. But it's way easier to do that if you have a very clear customer journey set out. So again, as part of the Step Up Your Sales course online that I have.

there is a whole module on customer journey and showing you exactly how to take that step by step. But ultimately, these three things will feed into each other. You need the sales strategy to feed your messaging on your website, and then you need to make sure that your customer journey is taking a nice flow on your website to get your customers to convert. yeah, they're the three main things that I see are wrong most of the time when I'm doing business audits for e -commerce businesses. There's a whole other load of things as well.

and I actually put together recently a convert more customers guide, which is completely free. Goes through the top 10 things I would recommend that you change about your website if you haven't already got these sorted out on your website already. To convert more of the traffic that's coming onto your website into customers. So that is completely free. I will link it below in the show notes for you to enroll into. You don't have to do anything other than give your email address and then it will get sent to you email and you can download the free PDF.

there is no obligation to buy anything else. It is literally just a guide for you outlining some of the things that you're probably missing if you are not converting customers into buyers. Like I say, these are the top things that I see with my clients that I work on a one -on -one basis all the time. So I know that there are probably at least three things on there that you are not doing. So if you do need support and want to try and dig into that in a little bit more detail, make sure you download that guide.

And if you would like to learn how to build that sales strategy and really implement those things around looking at your data and making sure that your message is really clear in your marketing material from your sales strategy, the course that I'm talking about, Step Up Your Sales, is available at www .thecommercestclub .co. And if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. But hopefully that gave you a bit of an overview on maybe some of the things that are

preventing you from actually converting your browsers into buyers. I would love to hear from you to know is your conversion rate above 2%, below 2%, are you actually getting traffic numbers, did this give you any insight into what might be happening in your business? I'd really love to hear from you. But in the meantime, thanks for listening and stay tuned for another episode of the Commerce Club podcast.