Conversion rate optimization (CRO) has generated a lot of hype these years and with good reason too. It is considered to be a helpful tool that can solve all the problems faced by an e-commerce business. A 6% increase in CRO will improve conversions by 90% in just 12 months. This means that by doubling your conversions will decrease the customer acquisition costs too – two birds with a single stone. This is the advantage of CRO.
But on the other hand, CRO also has a disadvantage so that not all companies are qualified to start the optimization process. And not all companies who have adopted it are doing it correctly. CRO is a process that needs a plan from the start to the end line. You identify the problem, create a strategy, implement it, analyze the impact and decide the winner. This article is all about the real path of conversion rate optimization, from beginning to end.
1. Business research
Business research is very important, as this will help you figure out where the problem is and what you can do to make it all better. In this phase, ask the following questions.
- What does conversion mean for your type of business?
- What micro-conversions can move the needle?
- Have you done conversion rate optimization before? Can you determine what you learned from the previous experiments and what the outcomes were?
- What is the level of freedom that we have in order to do the conversion rate optimization? How many visitors can we do CRO on?
By finding the answers to these questions, you can come with a mathematical model to identify the real impact of conversion rate optimization on your business. Not all websites have enough visitors to start testing. Try out a CRO calculator, play with the numbers a bit to scale your business and you will see for yourself that improving conversion is better than acquiring new traffic. Use intelligent data to make informed business decisions.
2. Qualitative research
Find out information like user demographics and psychological factors that determine customer behavior. Usually, people buy products because they want to overcome certain fears and pains or because they want to fulfill a desire. By identifying purchase intentions, you will be able to understand your buyers’ persona, cart abandonment reasons and net promoter score (NPS). You can use the NPS to identify gold, silver, and bronze customers and provide them with the right incentive at the right time.
3. Quantitative research
For quantitative research, RFM segmentation is very useful to categorize customers based on how recent their last order was, how often they buy from you and how much money they spend on your website. You can use this info later on when you plan a strategy to improve the retention rate.
Another part of quantitative research is to analyze transcripts of the support chat and calls. This might give you some ideas about the issues your customers have had and you can come with proper solutions. Make sure that you understand your customers’ needs and emotions and are communicating the UVP that solves their problems. You can do this by asking your customers directly through surveys.
Final words
Using the results from the research mentioned above, you can plan out your strategy. Note down all the insights you have, assess the business impact and time to impact and then prioritize. Use a framework that makes it clear for you which experiments to focus on.
