9 Tips to Increase eCommerce Conversion Rate Quickly in 2025

It’s essentially a no-brainer:

Whether you’re just starting an eCommerce business or you’re already an established online seller, the higher your conversion rates, the better off your business will likely be.

In a perfect world, your process of generating business from new and long-time customers alike would run like clockwork:

1. They visit your site
2. Then, they find products they like and add them to their cart
3. Finally, they follow through with their purchase without hesitation

It sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?

In fact, the vast majority of your site’s visitors are going to leave without doing so; according to SmartInsights, the average conversion rates of eCommerce stores across industries was a mere 2.86%.

In this article, we’re going to discuss a number of high-level approaches to optimizing your eCommerce website. Therefore, it’s more likely your visitors will end up converting into paying customers. As we go through each tactic, we’ll also provide a variety of examples of brands “doing it right,” as well.

However, before we dive into a discussion of how to increase conversion rate e-commerce strategies and tips, we need to understand the reasons. Like why an individual might decide to leave your eCommerce site empty-handed in the first place.

See more:

• 12+ Ways To Improve eCommerce Site Performance
• eCommerce Trends 2025: How Can Businesses Adapt?
• 14 Must-Have Features for Successful Ecommerce Websites

What is eCommerce conversion rate?

Conversion in e-commerce is when a website visitor completes a desired action, typically a purchase, but also could be actions such as signing up for an email list, adding items to a cart, or other KPIs. A good conversion rate is the foundation of high sales volume13. It also indicates how well marketing and sales campaigns are performing, and it helps with understanding a website’s effectiveness, and technical details related to design and development.

How to calculate eCommerce conversion rate?

eCommerce Conversion Rate = (Conversions / Total Visitors) x 100%

In this formula, “conversions” refers to the desired actions that you want your website visitors to take. While a conversion is most often a purchase, it can also be other actions, such as signing up for an email list or adding items to a wishlist. The “total visitors” is the number of unique visitors to your site during a specific period of time.

For example, if you have 200 sales in a month and your website had 10,000 visitors during that same month, your conversion rate would be calculated as follows:

CR = (200 / 10,000) * 100 = 2%

This would mean that 2% of your website visitors made a purchase.

It’s important to note that the term “visitors” is often used interchangeably with “sessions,” with a session counting each visit to your website, even if a single user visits multiple times. In addition, Google Analytics refers to “conversions” as “transactions” and “visitors” as “sessions”. Using the term “sessions” rather than “users” is the industry standard.

Average eCommerce conversion rate by industry

Average e-commerce conversion rates vary across different industries. It is important to compare your conversion rates with those of your peers in the same industry vertical. Therefore finding the best tactics to improve eCommerce conversion rate.

Here are some industry-specific average conversion rates:

Generally, industry verticals with lower-cost items, such as food and apparel, have higher conversion rates, while higher-cost goods and services, like travel and home furnishings, have lower conversion rates. This is because customers are less hesitant to purchase lower-priced items.

Best strategies to increase eCommerce conversion rate

Today, we’re going to provide some actionable tips and advice regarding how to increase conversion rate eCommerce— even without increasing your visitor numbers.

Let’s dive in right away!

1. Apply persuasive design and content on your website/app

First of all, We want to begin by discussing the more overarching topic of eCommerce site design in general.

Persuasive design

There is a principle:

If your site isn’t designed in a manner that keeps your visitors on the page — and moving forward with their transaction — none of the other tactics we’re about to discuss are going to make much of a difference.

That said, firstly, your site needs to be:

• Visually appealing
• Visually persuasive

The “appealing” part is pretty straightforward. Needless to say, the modern consumer is more likely to engage further with fancy websites/apps, such as:

Than with this site:

While we could certainly take a deeper dive into why the first example is just that much more appealing, let’s just say it has a certain je ne sais quoi that the latter clearly does not.

Visual persuasiveness, on the other hand, is a little more nuanced. Essentially, the goal is to pull your visitors’ eyes to a certain part of the page — typically the part which will allow them to move a step closer toward converting.

Take a look at Away’s homepage:

Typically, the visitor’s attention will be drawn to the following elements almost immediately — in the following order:

• The main image
• The inlaid text
• The call-to-action button below the inlaid text

While this homepage does provide a number of clickable options, it’s crystal clear what new visitors are “supposed” to do right from the get-go. Now that’s persuasive design.

Persuasive copy/content

The goal of persuasive copy is quite similar: “Keep your visitors engaged and moving forward with a transaction.”

Now, when we say “persuasive,” here, we don’t mean that your copy needs to be too salesy or anything like that. Rather, it all comes down to ensuring your brand’s “voice” shines through every single word on your website.

Take a look at the following example from PETSMART

There’s no doubt about it: The copy on this product page was written by a fan of pets, for a pet lover. It basically screams, “Hey! We’re just like you, and we love this product — so we know you will too!”

Boom! Sold.

2. Make a simple and easy navigation

If you walked into a brick-and-mortar retail store that had its products strewn about haphazardly, you almost certainly would turn right around and walk out.

Well…the same goes for your eCommerce store:

If your visitors aren’t able to find what they’re looking for quite literally at the click of a button, they’re going to navigate away to a competitor’s site almost immediately.

Of course, the more products you offer, the more important this is. Take a look at this example from IKEA:

Using the navigation bar at the top of the screen, visitors are easily able to venture to the intermediary product category page they’re looking for. From there, they’ll be able to dig deeper into the specific products offered within each individual category.

Now, this is all well and good for those who are merely browsing your site for products they may like. For those who know exactly what they’re looking for, you need to provide a robust search solution.

While there are a number of factors to consider when optimizing your site’s search functionality, your main concern is, of course, in ensuring your visitors are presented with the most relevant products relating to their search term. As we’ll discuss in a bit, this is why your product pages need to be well-put together, complete with vital information presented in a way that matches your customers’ search queries.

3. Personalize

That said, there are two overarching ways to personalize your visitor’s experience:

• Providing dynamic content
• Providing pathways for your visitors to take

Essentially, tools for creating and delivering dynamic content allow you to present tailored content, offers, and product recommendations to your visitors. It based on factors such as their demographic and geographic data, their on-site behavior, and their history with your brand.

We recently talked about the best tool (AI and machine learning) to create a personalized experience for customers, so check out that post for a much deeper discussion on the topic of using AI and machine learning in eCommerce.

In terms of providing pathways for your visitor to choose from, you’ll want to consider the “types” of consumers you typically attract. Essentially, you’ll be pointing them to “collections” of products that relate to each other — but aren’t necessarily in the same product category.

4. Allow shopping via social media platforms

Your brand almost certainly has at least some type of presence on the various social media platforms out there, right?

Simply advertising and/or creating an organic presence on channels such as Facebook and Instagram aren’t exactly anything new. But more and more eCommerce companies are turning to these channels to actually sell their products directly to their followers.

This is an especially lucrative venture if the products you offer fall in line with the type of content that’s typically shared on Instagram. Therefore, if you’re in the clothing, fashion, or culinary industries — or really any industry that relies heavily on visual presentation — you should be looking to make your Instagram profile shoppable.

5. Provide multiple discount options

Perhaps the only better than a discount, in the eyes of the consumer, is the ability to customize the discount they’re about to receive.

On the other hand, it’s quite disappointing for a consumer when they receive a coupon or offer in their email, load up their virtual shopping cart…and then realize the offer doesn’t apply to their purchases.

That said, it can be beneficial to provide your customers with at least a bit of control over when and how they use a specific discount offer. Not only does this add a bit of personalization to their experience (as we discussed earlier), but it also incentivizes them to “experiment” — potentially leading them to make additional purchases they hadn’t originally anticipated.

Target provides a prime example of this on the company’s main site:

Here, Target provides five different ways for its customers to save. The most intriguing, for our purposes, are the sections on REDcard exclusives and Cartwheel deals; in these sections, the loyal Target customer is presented with deals that only those with a membership are privy to.

Another prime example comes from office supply retailer Quill. Basically, Quill allows its customers to collect electronic coupons in a virtual “clipboard,” and experiment with different ways to apply them in order to save cash.

Not only does this put the customer in the driver’s seat in terms of discovering the optimal combination of coupon usage, but it also adds transparency to the process: through its Coupon Clipboard, Quill makes it very easy to tell which coupons can be applied at a given time, so that customers are never caught off-guard and left disappointed.

6. Showcase social proof

In terms of increasing conversion rates, social proof is huge.

According to a study conducted by Nielsen, 84% of consumers trust recommendations from friends, family members, and peers over any other type of marketing or advertising content.

Case in point, Consumerist found that 70% of online shoppers check out product reviews before making a purchase. Looking at this from a different perspective, of all the people who go on to make a purchase, 70% of them are impacted by product reviews in some way or another.

It’s also worth mentioning that positive social proof typically leads to an increase not just in conversion rate, but also average order value and retention as well.

Such social proof can take a variety of forms, including product reviews:

Expert testimonials:

And celebrity endorsements:

You also don’t want to ignore the propensity of individuals to “go with the herd,” either. That said, simply showcasing your best-selling or hot-ticket items can also act as social proof. It’s like to show the fact that other people are buying it.

7. Allow for guest checkout to increase eCommerce conversion rate

Scroll back up for a moment and review that chart once more.

Back? Did you notice the number two reason consumers abandon their carts?

You guessed it: The site in question required that they register an account with the company.

While, ideally, every single individual who makes a purchase from your site will want to continue doing business with your company in the future, it’s simply not going to happen. Some might simply want to make a single purchase and be on their way; others may be purchasing a gift for their friend, and have no interest in your products themselves; still others just won’t want to receive yet another newsletter in their inbox on a weekly basis.

Whatever the case may be, it’s in your best interest to allow those who wish to check out as a guest to simply do so.

However, you certainly can — and should — provide multiple chances for them to register with your company, both before and after they’ve made a purchase. When providing these chances, make sure you’re clear about what’s in it for them.

Here, Sears promises a faster checkout process and a number of benefits for members of the company’s loyalty program:

8. Offer Multiple Payment and Delivery Options

As we mentioned in the previous section, the only time you want to add steps to the checkout process is when providing options your customers will appreciate.

As you surely know, there are a ton of ways the modern consumer can make an online payment. From PayPal to Apple Pay – and many others – credit cards are no longer the guaranteed mode of payment by today’s standards. That said, you’ll want to look into which payment methods your target audience typically prefers and be absolutely certain that you’re able to cater to these needs.

You’ll also want to provide a number of delivery options to your customers, as well. Typically, your options should offer a trade-off of sorts between price and convenience; that is, you’ll want your customers to be able to pay more for rush delivery or to receive cheap (or free) shipping in exchange for a longer delivery period.

Again:

By this point in the process, you’ve all but sealed the deal with your new customer. You don’t want to lose them because they logistically can’t pay for or receive their order.

9. Re-engage Cart Abandoners

Unfortunately, you’re still going to face instances in which a potential customer fills up their virtual shopping cart…then suddenly navigates away from your site without finalizing their purchase.

When this happens, you basically have two options:

• Say “oh well” and move on
• Do everything you can to re-engage your potential customer

(Obviously, you know which side of the fence we’re on.)

As we mentioned earlier in this article, there is any number of reasons for a consumer to bounce from your page without making a purchase. Needless to say, a discussion on how to get these individuals back on track toward converting could be an article in and of itself.

From a high-level perspective, though, re-engaging cart abandoners involves:

• Understanding why they left in the first place – and working to mitigate the issue
• Providing incentives via exit-intent popups, remarketing campaigns, and email content
• Reinforcing the value of your products to your customers, via the above methods

A lost customer is only lost if you let them slip away. But, with the right offer, a one-time cart abandoner could end up becoming a loyal brand fanatic.

>> You may also concern: Best Tactics to Handle eCommerce Returns in 2025 (with real statistic)

Common CRO mistakes to avoid

1. No Clear KPIs: Without clear KPIs, you can’t measure if your changes are making a real impact.

2. Testing Without a Plan: Running tests without a roadmap can lead to unreliable results. You won’t know if changes are working or just skewed by timing or other factors.

3. Too Many Design Changes: Changing too many things at once can confuse visitors and mess with your A/B test results.

4. Forgetting Trust Signals: If customers don’t feel secure, they’ll hesitate to complete a purchase. Losing trust—especially during checkout—can lead to high abandonment rates.

5. Poor User Experience: A website that’s hard to navigate, slow to load, or confusing to use can drive visitors away. When it’s not easy for customers to find what they need, conversions drop.

6. Not Optimizing for Mobile: Assuming your desktop site will work on mobile is a huge mistake. With more people browsing on mobile, neglecting this could mean missing out on a lot of potential sales.

7. Ignoring Customer Objections: If you don’t address customer hesitations directly, they might back out of the sale. Unanswered concerns—big or small—can be a dealbreaker.

8. Not Communicating Product Value: Features alone aren’t enough to convince someone to buy. Without showing the real value of your product, customers might not see why it’s worth their money.

9. Overlooking the Competition: Customers compare products before buying. If you don’t highlight what makes yours better, they may end up going with the competition without a second thought.

10. Lack of Proof: Making claims without backing them up can turn customers off. Testimonials, case studies, or third-party reviews are essential to prove your product’s value.

11. Overuse of Pop-ups: Too many pop-ups or flashy ads can annoy visitors and hurt your site’s reputation. Overloading your site with promotions can leave customers feeling overwhelmed and ready to leave.

Find your conversion killer, and fix it

To wrap up, it’s important to recognize that every eCommerce business is different — as are its customers.

That said, there are any number of reasons that your conversion rate might not be as high as you’d like — or as it could potentially be.

While the tips we discussed throughout this article should be enough to get you moving in the right direction, you should always be looking for ways to improve your site, as well as your backend processes. To do so, you’ll want to stay in constant contact with your team, as well as with your customers — both those who are happy with the services you provide and those who aren’t quite as satisfied.

Once you’ve pinpointed an issue that may be causing a drop in conversions, take the time to fix it up — while leaving everything else as is. Once you’ve resolved the issue, you can move onto the next area of improvement — and keep on going until you’ve created a well-oiled, conversion-generating machine.

FAQs

How to increase online sales conversion rate?

To increase online sales conversion rates, consider implementing the following strategies:

• Simplify Checkout Process: Streamline the checkout experience to reduce cart abandonment by minimizing steps and offering guest checkout options
• Offer Free Shipping: Providing free shipping can significantly lower cart abandonment rates, as many customers expect it when shopping online
• Use High-Quality Visuals: Invest in high-quality images and videos for product pages to help customers visualize the products better
• Display Trust Signals: Prominently showcase security badges, SSL certificates, and customer reviews to build trust with potential buyers
• Create Urgency: Utilize scarcity tactics like limited-time offers and countdown timers to encourage quicker purchasing decisions
• Personalize Shopping Experience: Implement personalized recommendations based on user behavior to enhance engagement and conversion rates
• Utilize Live Chat Support: Offer real-time assistance through live chat or chatbots to address customer inquiries instantly, reducing hesitation.

What is the easiest content conversions for eCommerce?

The best rated content conversions for e-commerce usually involve strategies that directly address customer needs and objections. Here are some effective methods:

• High-Quality Product Images and Videos: Detailed visuals significantly help customers understand the product, and their presence alone can boost conversion rates
• User-Generated Content (UGC): Including customer reviews and photos builds trust and can increase conversion rates by up to 200%
• Compelling Copy: Writing clear and persuasive product descriptions that resonate with the target audience boosts engagement and encourages more purchases
• Overcoming Customer Objections: Proactively addressing common concerns on product pages helps ease customer hesitation and leads to higher sales
• Scarcity Tactics: Using limited-time offers or low stock notifications creates urgency, prompting faster buying decisions.

Beyond sales, what other micro-conversions can e-commerce businesses track and optimize?

Sure, making sales is the big goal—but don’t forget about those small wins along the way that help get you there! These micro-conversions are key to fine-tuning the customer experience:

• Newsletter Sign-ups: When someone gives you their email, they’re saying, “Hey, I want to hear more!”—a perfect chance to nurture that interest and build engagement.
• Add-to-Cart Rates: Keep an eye on how often people add items to their carts. If they’re backing out too often, it’s time to dig into what’s causing second thoughts.
• Wish List Actions: Curious about which products your customers love? Their wish lists give you a front-row seat to their favorite picks.
• Product Page Engagement: Time spent on product pages tells you how well your descriptions and photos are doing. Are they grabbing attention or leaving customers cold?
• Video Views: If visitors are hitting play on your product videos, that’s a clear sign they’re hooked. Keep track of it!
• Social Media Shares: Social shares are gold! They spread the word and grow your audience, so encourage sharing and watch your brand’s reach soar.
• Use of Search Filters: Which filters do people click on most? Make sure your search tools work smoothly to guide them where they want to go.
• Contact Form Submissions: Every question or comment from a customer is like a peek inside their mind—listen carefully for insights and opportunities.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The more people who click your links, the stronger your messaging. It’s like applause for your headlines!