Avoid These 7 Website Conversion Rate Killers for Online Clothing Boutiques!

As a social selling agency, we know the website isn’t the only way to shop. However, we do see the website play a huge role in new user acquisition as it’s often the first thing they see after your social page.

To give you an idea of this, overall we might see 20% of all purchases come in via the website, but when we drill down and look at just new users, we see that closer to 50% or higher!

You can see it plays a huge role for the new users as it’s often the first touchpoint for anyone clicking from ads.

When results are down but indicator metrics like cost per click or click-thru rate inside the ad account have stayed the same, we look at the site and “off ad” experience for potential causes. We’ve dubbed these conversion rate killers because that’s exactly what they do! We’ve recapped some of the most serious offenders below.

1. Out of season imagery/language on your home page. This just screams irrelevant to the user and makes them question if your site is not updated, what else is going to go wrong. It instantly makes them think about all the other potential headaches they might run into ordering with you or that you don’t care about the business. Think about your website like a store-front. You wouldn’t feature Christmas graphic tees in the window in Feb, right? So they def shouldn’t be on the home page.
2. Collections with only a few items in them or different sized images. This is just such a tease and when you have a website, you’re selling on Facebook and you have a mobile app, it can get confusing to make sure they are all updated but it’s so important. Imagine a new user just getting to you’re site for the first time, excited to shop after clicking an ad, and when they click into New Arrivals they find 4 or 5 items… Yeah, not good. They will leave. Additionally, if you click into a collection and you see all different sized images and it looks more like a Pinterest board than a website that’s not good either because think of how it must look on all the different devices! We suggest establishing a uniform size so the website looks cleaner and more functional on all devices.
3. Products without descriptions. You’ve gotten them this far all the way back to a product page, just add to cart and check out left, and then you just sell yourself short without a description giving them a reason not to buy! If you’re going to publish something on your site, it better have a description. Most clothing/accessories are hard to write descriptions for past the typical sizing, material, and model information but if you play on feelings in the description that can help pull in sales! Using the description space to sell the emotion that the product will bring or get them imagining them in the product, and all the ways they can wear it will increase conversions as the user begins to imagine themself in the product! No matter what though, if you’re publishing items without any descriptions you need to change your operation processes (or establish some!)*Facebook will also not accept these items for retargeting or product tagging*
4. Issues with product images (or stock images). First off, one product image just isn’t cutting it anymore. We suggest 3 minimum! Ideally with different models so people can see what the item looks like on a variety of body types. The more images though, the better. It helps ensure quality, different angles and lets the customer see all the details. It’s also important to get into a real flow with how you shoot, publish and promote items. If you’re publishing things with stock photos, you need to change your operation because I can promise you other boutiques are using the same images and users are seeing them and thinking they can get that product anywhere and you’re dropshipping or something. Not good! We LOVE fit videos when you can too but we know they can’t always be featured on the product page.
5. Inconsistent branding. The general flow and look of the home page has to make sense. No weirdly placed buttons on the page, pop-ups that fire too soon or cover up important parts of the page, a home page with no imagery or a strong call to action to shop now, etc. Make it simple and easy to buy. It should be clear what next step you want the user to take. If they scroll down, you should be able to hit home on your unique value, awesome collections, and what people love about you. Otherwise, the customer will become confused and just leave the page. I do it all the time on bad sites! If I can’t glance at the page and know exactly what you want me to do, there’s something wrong.
6. Auto email or responses that reference return policies! Yeah, I know, you’re busy and you don’t want to respond to each email so you have some generic auto-response about your return and refunds? Well, guess what? I just wanted to buy something and now I’m not because I’m wondering why you HAVE to mention that? Leave it off.
7. Shipping warnings that take a negative tone or no shipping details. The holiday shipping season is over, people are back to no patience for long shipping and avoiding buying because of it. Did you forget to remove the warning on your site? Tisk Tisk! Please get that fixed. Do you just not mention anything about shipping on the product page? Well news alert, no one will buy without knowing you’re shipping policy first so better to give it to them when they want it on the product page!