The Shortest Path to Conversion
09/30/2007 Post By:
As a general rule, the longer it takes your visitors to reach the shopping cart, the higher the likelihood of their dropping off somewhere in the process. There are several reasons your “distance to sale” could be too complex, it’s just a matter of examining your site through the eyes of a visitor.
One of the best places to start is your web analytics package or specifically your Google Analytics Sales Funnel. There are several key ratios here that will allow you to develop an understanding of where your greatest opportunities lie.
- Product Listing to Detail (or Decision) Page
The decision page is where your visitors are presented with an offer. On a typical winery decision page you will show a wine description or tasting notes, the “offer” (i.e. the price and/or any special promos or discounts), awards, a label or bottle shot, etc. How many of your visitors actually make it to a product offer page? A low ratio here might be an indication of wasted traffic. Are your AdWords campaigns too generic, for example? It could also be an indication that your navigational structure is too complex, your site search (if you offer a lot of products) is inadequate, or your entry pages are presenting visitors with “information overload”. - Detail Page to Shopping Cart
Dividing the number of visitors hitting an “add to cart” page by the number of visits to a product detail page yields the detail to cart ratio. By definition, people visiting a detail page are already “qualified”. So it’s reasonable to assume a fair number will make it to the shopping cart. The appropriate ratio depends partly on your site, but it’s probably safe to expect that close to 1/3 of these people will make it to your cart. If you’re seeing a low ratio here, it could be an indication that you’re not communicating your “value proposition”, or are not providing the information necessary for visitors to make an informed decision. - Cart to Checkout
Seeing a lot of fallout from your shopping cart to your checkout page should signal a serious red flag. Items to consider here: your site security, shipping rates and shipping options (are rates too high or are you failing to offer express shipping?), and confusion over your promotional offers. - Finally, look at your Checkout Page to Completed Orders Ratio
Seeing people drop out at this stage can be exceptionally frustrating. Is your order process easy to understand? Are you forcing customers to register (often a negative)? Do you offer enough payment options?
Diagnosing problems is the first step, but improving performance requires that you adequately address all issues. Sometimes asking for feedback from friends, colleagues, and perhaps even customers, can help tremendously.
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