<h2>Conquering eCommerce Conversion Rates</h2>
Are you besieged continuously with three-letter acronyms and wish for once that someone would explain the link between SEO, CTR, CRO and KPI's? Luckily Actuate is here to help your navigate the internet marketing highway and learn how to conquer eCommerce conversion rates.
<h3>Internet Marketing Glossary</h3>
Before we move on, it's probably handy for most of you to explain what some of these important acronyms relating to internet marketing mean so we've put together a brief guide below.

<b>CRO </b>or <b>Conversion Rate Optimisation </b>is the act of improving the number of visitors to your website who perform a pre-planned specific action.

<b>SEO </b>or <b>Search Engine Optimisation </b>is the act of tweaking your websites code or content to perform better on a search engine.

<b>CTR </b>or <b>Click-Through Rate </b>is the number of clicks that a paid ad or free link to your website receives divided by its number of impressions.

<b>PPC </b>or <b>Pay-Per-Click </b>is an advertising model whereby you pay only when someone physically clicks on your website's link.

<b>CPC </b>or <b>Cost Per Click </b>is the actual price you pay for each click on your ad in a Pay-Per-Click campaign.

<b>KPI </b>or <b>Key Performance Indicator </b>is a measure of how well a company is doing regarding meeting its business objectives.
<h3>How To Measure Your eCommerce Conversion Rates</h3>
Now that the explanations are behind us, we can concentrate on working out your conversion rate, indicating how well your website works for you. You can work out your eCommerce conversion rate by taking the number of unique visitors to your website for a given period and dividing by the number of transactions in that same period.
<blockquote><i>"Ecommerce Conversion Rate is the ratio of transactions to sessions, expressed as a percentage; for example, a ratio of 1 transaction to every 10 sessions would be expressed as an Ecommerce Conversion Rate of 10%."</i>

<b>Google Analytics Support </b>(<a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6014873?hl=en">https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6014873?hl=en</a>)</blockquote>
Once you have your conversion rates at hand, you can compare the data with industry averages to see how well your website performs.
<h3><b>Conversion Rate Industry Averages</b></h3>
Rather than trawl the internet to look for industry averages specific to your sector, Actuate has done the work for you. You can reference your eCommerce conversion rates with the information in the table below to see how well you perform. The averages presented below cater to UK retailers, so those reading this article from anywhere other than Great Britain may wish to treat this information with a grain of salt.
<h3><b>Industry Average Conversion Rate Average Order Value</b></h3>
Arts &amp; Crafts 3.79% £102.62 Baby &amp; Child 0.99% £132.30 Cars &amp; Motorcycles 1.55% £123.79 Electricals &amp; Commercial Equipment 2.23% £78.56

Fashion, Clothing &amp; Accessories 2.44% £81.00 Food &amp; Drink 2.37% £85.89 Health &amp; Wellbeing 3.62% £44.87 Home &amp; Giftware 2.16% £61.40 Kitchen &amp; Appliances 2.48% £46.31 Pet Care 3.28% £86.02 Sports &amp; Recreation 1.75% £76.87
<h3><b>Raising eCommerce Conversion Rates</b></h3>
Now you have all the data and can see how well you rank against your industry average we can start to look at how you can increase your eCommerce conversion rates through CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation). Some of these tips are simple to achieve and highly effective yet are usually missed by agencies who focus their efforts on producing a website that may look appealing but lacks real substance and user-centred design focussed on conversion and sales.
<h3><b>Chase High-Value Visitors Showing Intent</b></h3>
STOP... Just what do we mean when we say high-value visitors showing intent? That's just a posh way of saying visitors who are actively searching for your products or services. Statistics show that people who arrive at your website because they have typed in the name of a product or service are much more likely to buy than those who have found you whilst doing other things, such as using social media. What does this all mean? Quite simply if you only have a finite amount of time to attract new visitors, look to attract those who show intent for your products which usually means those coming from search engines.
<h3><b>Get Rid Of Unnecessary Form Fields</b></h3>
How much do you enjoy filling out forms on the internet? If your answer is anything but "not much" then you're in the minority. The leaner you make your forms, and this includes your checkout, the more people will fill them in. You may enjoy asking people how they found you or if they would like to subscribe to your fun newsletter but will these form fields help you win a sale? If the answer is no, get rid of them! If you dislike the idea of losing them altogether, move them to your thank you page and make them optional.
<h3><b>Increase Trust In You And Your Brand</b></h3>
Let's face it; we don't all have the luxury of our business being a household name, in fact, many times when a visitor arrives at your website they have never heard of you before, so it's important to impress them and help increase their trust in your brand. There are many ways to do this, including:
<ul>
 	<li>Having a visually appealing website</li>
 	<li>Listing accreditations and featuring site seals</li>
 	<li>Having a green address bar</li>
 	<li>Showcasing independently gathered reviews</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Tweak Your Sites Copy</b></h3>
Which is more appealing "Sign Up" or "Sign Up For 10% Discount"? You probably chose option two, and why wouldn't you, everyone likes a discount. By tweaking the copy of your website, you can increase the likelihood of people performing specific actions. You can take this process further by utilising A/B testing and gathering real-world data on how small changes to your website influences sales.
<h3><b>Create A Sense Of Urgency</b></h3>
We've all seen the clips on YouTube showing herds of people trampling each other to get to the crazy, limited offers during Black Friday in the USA. Why do they do it? Because they don't want to miss out! Take these same principles and create a sense of urgency on your website. Consider a deal of the week limited to only ten items and show the number of remaining items to your visitors to help capture a sale or promote a "deal of the day" with a countdown timer showing how long is left to grab that deal. Simple changes such as these can easily translate into higher conversion rates.
<h4>Contact Actuate Digital</h4>
We've left the most straightforward option on this list until last, which is to contact Actuate Digital today on <b>01244 911360 </b>or by emailing <b>hello@actuate.agency</b>. Working with a dedicated agency such as Actuate, who understand the intricacies of internet marketing, the ins and outs of conversion rate optimisation and how to make your website work for you will pay dividends. No, we're not the cheapest, but we will make the most of your website and help you reap the rewards of working with an award-winning agency.