Each apparel and accessories brand caters to a unique audience. But no matter who that audience is, there are a number of ways you can always improve your eCommerce store, whether that’s updating images, changing the layout and design or simply changing copy. You can always find a way to make your site better.
If your apparel and accessories site has hit a bit of a lull and you are casting about for ideas to improve your webstore here are six strategies to boost your site visits and get more conversions.
Urgency
Creating a little urgency in the mind of your customers isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s vitally important. Indecisive shoppers can change their mind and leave their cart abandoned. While that gives you the opportunity to follow up with ‘cart abandonment’ emails you’d much rather they complete the purchase process that they started. That’s where creating urgency can really improve your conversion rate. You want to make customers feel like if they don’t complete a purchase RIGHT NOW then they’re going to miss out. A great way to do this is to add timers to deals and carts. Let your customers know that this deal and/or product won’t be around forever, in fact, it won’t even be available in a few hours. That countdown clock resonates with customers and definitely capitalizes on their FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).
Improving Your Product Page
In the eyes of your customers, there is a lot of guesswork when it comes to apparel shopping online. One way to put a stop to a lot of that guesswork is to make your product pages as detailed as they possibly can be. Include as many high-def product images as you can (from multiple perspectives), give extremely detailed descriptions, prominently display user reviews. These are all great ways to show customers your product is great, real and has real-world advocates without overhauling your entire webstore design or layout.
A/B Testing
Header images, copy, CTAs, color schemes. These are just a few of the elements that can be A/B tested with the goal of improving the customer experience and increasing conversions. There are so many variables that can be tested on an eCommerce website that this is a topic that could be an entire blog all on its own. In fact, we published that blog very recently and you can take a deeper dive into A/B testing by clicking here. It’s definitely worth a read if you are anxious to improve your site and test it with your audience but you don’t know where to start.
Clean Up Your storefront
Just like a brick-and-mortar store, your digital storefront can use some sprucing up every now and then. Perhaps it’s gotten too cluttered up with links, specials, banners, tabs and copy. If that’s the case then it’s time to do a little spring cleaning. A clean storefront is vital to any apparel ecommerce site. As a merchant, you want to provide a clean storefront, with as little distractions as possible so that you can allow customers to get a clear view of your products and the items you most want to push. Fawn Shoppe is a great example of this. We built them a webstore with a clean storefront with clear CTA’s and featured products. This is the type of storefront you want to emulate.
Transparency and Sustainability
Now, more than ever, customers want to know where their products come from, what they’re made of and who is selling them. Mindful consumerism is the mantra of the modern shopper and these factors could play a deciding role in the customer’s journey. By being honest about where you source materials (bonus points if it’s local), who you employ and your social responsibility you bring customers closer to your brand and increase your trustworthiness in their eyes. In a world where customers are getting bombarded with hundreds of messages and ads per day it is the authentic and the decent that most resonate. Make sure you’re touting these factors prominently on your home page, product pages and promotional material.
Keep Checkout Simple
No matter what your target market is, you’re going to need to remove as many barriers as possible between ‘add to cart’ and completing the purchase. A seamless and streamlined checkout experience must be a priority. Take a serious look at your checkout process, are there any additional, unneeded steps or screens to click through? Look into adding an unobtrusive pop-up, like the one offered by One Step Checkout that prompts customers with direct, but not distracting CTA’s like ‘edit cart’ and ‘checkout now’. Whether selling apparel to the tech-savy crowd or to retirees, leave as little opportunity as possible for them to get lost and abandon their cart.
Of course, there are more strategies you can begin to implement on your apparel eCommerce site. And we’ll be exploring more of those in Part II of this article in the coming days. Until then, check out the work we’ve done for other eCommerce apparel and accessories companies Massif, Tafford and Medals of America.
To learn more about how to improve your apparel or accessories site today, contact us and a member of our expert team will be in touch with you shortly.
