Welcome to another episode of Funnel Fridays. We started this series last week to help retailers optimize their websites by doing reviews of live eCommerce stores and pointing out potential areas for improvement. Head over here to see the first edition.
As we mentioned last week, we have Rich Page, Conversion Rate Optimization expert and best-selling author of the book ‘Website Optimization: An Hour A Day’, with us today. Rich has over 10 years experience improving conversion rates and sales for eCommerce stores, and he’s at the point where he can look at a site and quickly tell where you need to start optimizing.
With Valentine’s Day around the corner I thought we’d have a look at some eCommerce stores that might be seeing a little extra traffic because of it. Rich has very kindly recorded some short videos where he walks through the conversion funnel of each store and shows us a few places where they can be improved.
So without further ado, here we go!
Vivo Masks
Vivo Masks sells handmade Venetian masks that are popular at the Valentine’s Day masquerade parties. They have some really good looking products and a well-designed site to boot. They probably have good conversion rates, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind increasing them and making more money!
Home Page
Logo – When I first saw the homepage, I thought that the symbol at the top left of the screen was the logo. As Rich rightly points out, it’s actually a one-liner about the site. Having that in a larger font and under the name would make more sense and have more impact.
Value Proposition - Both Rich and I, and I’m sure anyone visiting this site would, love the black and white image in the centre. It does a great job of showing off the products and giving visitors an idea of what makes Vivo Masks unique. Rich reckons the text is a little small, especially where it talks about the 2-day shipping. This is an important feature of the business, and if people read it they might be more inclined to buy, so it makes sense to highlight that a bit more.
As you scroll down to the ‘Anatomy of our masks’ section, you’ll see that the text is pretty small over there. This section continues on with what makes Vivo masks different, so the text needs to be more prominent and readable. Looking at it on my mobile phone I can’t read it unless I zoom in a lot. In the video, Rich makes a number of suggestions for this section.
Search - I didn’t even see the search bar when I looked at the site, and I assumed there wasn’t one. Rich has a keener eye than me and he found it right at the top in the corner. That’s definitely a strange place to put it and, as Rich suggests, it would be better somewhere near the navigation area.
The search feature is especially important for eCommerce stores because you want your customers to get to the product and through your conversion funnel as fast as possible.
Navigation – The navigation is another really important aspect of eCommerce sites. This is related to the search feature in that it helps customers find the right products faster. Poor navigation can quickly frustrate visitors and cause them to leave. Rich has pointed out a number of ways in which Vivo can optimize their navigation.
Product Page
Product Images – Vivo Masks have some really nice close-up images of their products. However, as Rich notes, the thumbnails of the images are stacked up to the right of the main image and that doesn’t leave much space of the product description. It ends up looking a bit squished to the side. Those thumbnails would be better off below the main image.
I’d also like to add that for a products that people wear, you want to show customers how they look on real people. It would have been nice to see what these masks look like when worn so that I can tell if it will be the right fit for me.
Risk Reducers and CTA – Important elements like risk reducers (free shipping) and CTAs (add to cart button) need to be much higher up on the page. Right now, on the Vivo site, they appear below the fold, so I can’t see them till I scroll down. If your product has ratings, show them up on top too. Rich has more pointers regarding this and the product description in his video.
Shopping Cart
CTA – As you progress through your eCommerce conversion funnel, the Calls to Action become more important. In the shopping cart you want to make sure there are no disctractions and that customers can find the ‘Continue to checkout’ button easily. As Rich points out, Vivo Masks has two CTAs so they compete with each other and might confuse customers.
Upsells – Vivo masks suggests a few complementary products that customers might want to add to their cart based on the products they’re buying. They also have free shipping for purchases above $50. A smart idea that Rich came up with would be to incentivize the upsell by encouraging customers to add $x more to their cart to qualify for free shipping.
Checkout Page
Domain URL – The checkout page is clean and devoid of distracting elements. However, as Rich notes, it suddenly looks like we are on a different site. It turns out that we actually aren’t on VivoMasks.com any longer and we’ve been redirected to checkout.shopify.com instead. This can confuse customers a bit and in many cases they might just abandon because they have no idea what website checkout.shopify.com is.
It almost seems like you’ve gone to a different site.
Chat and Contact Info – In case customer have some last minute questions, or trouble checking out, you want them to be able to contact you as soon as possible. Rich says a live chat option at this stage is the best option, but contact information like a phone number works too. At LemonStand, we use Olark and it’s been great.
Security and trust symbols – Security and trust symbols have been shown to increase conversions as well. Badges like ‘Verisign’ can reassure customers that their payment details are safe an encrypted. Rich shows us where to place these badges on the checkout page.
As Rich says, it’s also worth mentioning features like free shipping or why you are unique just to remind customers why they should buy from you in case they are getting cold feet. You want to pre-empt their objections before they decide to abandon your cart.
Form Fields – Form fields are a pain but you can’t have a checkout without them. The aim is to make it as easy as possible for your customers to fill them out. Rich has a few pointers in his video that will work for any store with a checkout similar to Vivo’s.
Plenty
Plenty is an apparel store for men and women. I expect that people might be buying clothing for their partners from Get Plenty this Valentine’s Day and a few suggestions for improving their site might give them a boost in sales.
Home Page
Newsletter Popups – The moment I landed on the site I saw a popup which I automatically closed without a thought. Rich had the presence of mind to stop and explain why showing a generic sign up form upon arrival is not the best idea. He’s got some great suggestions for popups in his video –
- Wait for a bit before showing the popup so that visitors can get acquainted with you
- Explain why customers should sign up for the newsletter
- Provide value or an incentive like a discount for signing up
- Don’t ask for unnecessary information. A simple email address is more than enough.
Value Proposition – A value proposition, like the one we saw in Vivo Masks, explains what your store sells and why customers should buy from you. Unfortunately, that’s missing from the Plenty site. The shop women’s link in the navigation tells us that there are women’s products, and the big image in the centre tells us there’s a sale on. There’s nothing else on the homepage to tell new customers what products are sold and why they are unique.
Furthermore, the home page doesn’t display any products at all. I assume the Lookbook section was reserved for that but it’s empty. Below that there’s the blog section and then the footer.
Search and Navigation – We’ve already touched upon the benefits of optimizing your search and navigation functionality on your store. Plenty has a different design for their navigation and search but there are still some things they can improve. Rich goes into much greater detail in his video.
Category Page
Sub-categories – Your category page might have sub-categories like it does on Plenty. Be sure to explain what those sub-categories are. In Plenty’s case, they are self explanatory. Yet, even at this stage, we are unsure of whose products they are selling and why we should buy from this site. Another thing Rich notes is that each sub-category takes up a lot of space, which means there’s a lot of scrolling to do.
Product images – Earlier, I mentioned showing how your products look on real people if they can be worn. Plenty has done that well for their product images. On the category page, if you hover over a product, it shows you the image of a model wearing it.
Quick View – Rich points out some of the pros and cons of having a quick view on your category pages. If the quick view is not actually quick, then it isn’t very helpful. Secondly, it confuses the customers who want to actually have a look at the product page.
Product Page
Product images – We might have been too quick to praise Plenty’s product images in the category page. Turns out that on clicking through to the product page, we don’t see the model wearing it anymore. In general you want to try and add as many images you can to your product page showing off your products from different angles and in different environments.
Other Considerations – There’s definitely a lot of work that can be done on Plenty’s product pages. The navigation on the left leaves little space on the right for product descriptions. The product price is buried underneath and there are no reviews or ratings for them. The ‘You may also like’ section is empty and makes it looks like the site is unfinished.
Shopping Cart
Product Details – Plenty has a nice summary of the contents of the cart, along with the image and description of the products added. The point of the cart is to provide customers with a summary of what they bought so just listing product names will not be enough. A good trick here, and something Plenty hasn’t done, is to link back to the product page for each product in the cart, just in case customers want to go back and look at it again.
CTAs – I actually clicked the Continue Shopping button instead of the Checkout button by mistake. If you look at the shopping cart, you’ll see why –
So which one is the main CTA again? I count a total of 6 buttons that all look exactly the same! Remember, you want customer to reach the checkout at this point. All other buttons are a distraction. Secondly, make your checkout button stand out so that it attracts attention and people can’t help but click on it.
Checkout Page
After repeatedly clicking the ‘Continue Shopping’ button and wondering why I kept going back to the shop page, I finally made my way to the checkout page. And this is what I saw –
I have only two options here. I need to login if I have an account, or I need to create an account. Plenty doesn’t give me an option to continue as a guest checkout and that turns me off, as it does most shoppers. I understand why you want people to create an account, but forcing them to do so before they’ve paid you makes no sense.
Imagine you’re in a physical store and you’re shopping for clothes. You’ve bought a nice suit or dress and you head up to the counter to pay. Before you reach the counter, someone walks up to you and says, “You can’t buy these clothes unless you register with us by filling out this form.”
It sounds ridiculous, and it is ridiculous. Seriously, people are willing to pay you. Why would you try to stop them from doing it? Let them finish the checkout and then ask them to create an account.
Needless to say, I’m not creating an account, so I can’t go any further with this review. Have a look at what Rich has to say in the video below.
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