Top 12 Ways to Increase Conversion Rates on Your BigCommerce Store

Having a store on BigCommerce is the beginning of your journey to competing in the fast-paced world of ecommerce. But there’s more to business success than that—you need to know how to optimize your conversion rates to boost your sales and grow your business. 

Considering there are plenty of things that influence buyer behavior, we know that this can seem like a daunting task. From website design to checkout efficiency, we help you understand where to start and what to prioritize to optimize conversions and succeed in the digital marketplace. 

What is the Average Conversion Rate for BigCommerce?

As of 2024, the average conversion rate for ecommerce Is around 1.89%. We can assume that the average conversion rate for BigCommerce stores is in line with this.

Keep in mind that there are many factors that influence conversion rate - the nature of the business, the type of products sold, the target audience, the quality of the user experience, and the effectiveness of marketing strategies, among others. 

Conversion rates also rely on the traffic source. Email marketing, for example, has a conversion rate of 10.3% owing to its personalized nature, while organic and paid search conversions range from 2-4% and 2-3%, respectively. 

Another factor that heavily affects conversion rates is the device used for online shopping. The conversion rate for desktop platforms is 3.9%, while the conversion rate for mobile devices is 1.7%. 

This gap could be due to many websites not being fully optimized for mobile, leading to a less effective user experience and the prevalent distractions and usability challenges on mobile sites.

Nonetheless, these numbers underscore the need to optimize ecommerce stores to cater to mobile users to help improve conversion rates. 

What Affects Ecommerce Conversion Rate?

Various factors can affect an ecommerce website’s conversion rate, including the following: 

• Website design and user experience (UX): If the website is easy to navigate, attractive, and facilitates a good user experience, visitors are more likely to stay longer and explore more, increasing the chance of them making a purchase. 
• Mobile responsiveness: Mobile commerce spending makes up 38% of overall digital spending in the US, emphasizing the importance of mobile-responsive websites for optimal conversion rates.
• Page load speed: Websites that load slowly have higher bounce rates and, consequently, lower conversion rates. Visitors are more demanding of quick online experiences. 
• Quality of product information: Detailed product descriptions, high-quality images, transparent pricing information, etc., all play a role in making customers more confident in what they are buying and, therefore, increasing the likelihood of a sale. 
• Customer reviews: A review can make or break your ecommerce business. Before making a purchase, shoppers often look for validation from other customers, making social proof an essential aspect of conversion optimization. 
• Checkout process: You want to make it easy for your customers to make a purchase. A complicated checkout process can cause them to become frustrated and abandon their carts. It’s also vital to simplify the checkout process and provide multiple payment options. 
• Traffic source: Where your traffic comes from influences your conversion rates, as different channels bring in different kinds of visitors. Traffic from email marketing has higher conversion rates than organic and paid search traffic. 
• Pricing and promotions: Conversions can be encouraged by competitive pricing and attractive promotions and discounts. 
• Customer service: Customers who receive excellent customer service and support can trust the store more, improving conversion rates. 
• Market trends: External factors can also affect conversion rates. These include economic conditions, market trends, and changing consumer behavior. 
• Personalization: Providing personalized experiences can influence higher conversion rates. ecommerce stores should leverage targeted marketing tactics, such as product recommendations based on browsing history. 
• Security: A secure and trustworthy website quashes data privacy and security concerns. This, in turn, helps attract potential buyers. 
• Seasonality: Certain times of the year cause fluctuations in conversion rates due to changes in shopping behavior. The most prominent is during the holiday season. 

Top 12 Ways to Increase Conversion Rates on Your BigCommerce Store

Now let’s dive into a list of tips to help you convert more shoppers into buyers on your BigCommerce website.

1. Optimize for Mobile Devices 

Source: MobiLoud

Mobile shopping has arrived: Smartphones recently contributed 51.8% of Cyber Week's online sales, overtaking desktop.

This shift calls for ecommerce sites to amp up their game with snappy, mobile-friendly designs and seamless navigation for the smaller screen.

2. Improve Site Speed 

To keep potential customers engaged, your website should be fast-loading. To improve site speed, optimize your images, leverage browser caching, and reduce server response time. 

3. Create a User-Friendly Website Design 

The design of your website is the first thing that users see when they visit. Make sure your website is clean and intuitive to promote easy shopping. This means having easy-to-follow navigation bars, search functionality, and a straightforward path to purchase. 

4. Use High-Quality Product Images and Videos 

Low-quality media on your website can easily deter users from making a purchase. Aim to use high-resolution images to increase professionalism and trust. 

Where possible, add dynamic media, such as videos, to give shoppers more visual clarity, which can influence their decision-making process. 

5. Leverage Customer Reviews and Testimonials 

Social proof is one of the most important aspects of conversion optimization. In the information age, people rely on others to determine how good a product or service is. 

Leverage this in your store by displaying customer reviews and positive feedback. These can help influence the purchasing decisions of new customers and steer them in your favor. 

6. Streamline the Checkout Process

It’s crucial that you get the checkout process right, as it affects your sales directly.

If you make it hard for your customers to make a purchase, then chances are, they won’t. Always give your users a straightforward path to purchase—make it easy for them to give you what you want!

The simplest way to do that is to minimize the steps customers need to complete a purchase. You can offer guest checkout, the option to save customer information for future purchases, and various supported payment methods. 

7. Have a Clear Call-to-Action 

Your call to action tells your visitors what you want them to do next. In this case, that’s to add an item to their cart or checkout. Make a clear, compelling, and easy-to-access call-to-action that helps guide your customers through the buying process. 

8. Write Effective Product Descriptions

How you describe your products will play a role in customer conversion. Make sure you have concise, informative, and compelling product descriptions that lay everything down for your customers and answer any potential questions they might have.

Quick tip: When writing your product descriptions, focus on the benefits rather than the features to a more compelling and relatable narrative, making it easier for customers to see the value in your product.

9. Personalize the Shopping Experience

Nowadays, people don’t want to be fed cookie-cutter approaches. They want to connect deeper with brands and have more personalized shopping experiences. 

Make each customer journey unique by using data to customize your customer’s experience on your site. Showing unique product recommendations based on browsing history or previous purchases, for example, is a nod to relevance and personalized interest. 

10. Use Email Marketing 

Email marketing has a high conversion rate because it’s more personal to the user. Consider implementing a strong email marketing strategy with customized emails that discuss abandoned cart reminders, exclusive offers, and other value-adding communications. 

11. Utilize A/B Testing 

As consumer behavior changes, so should your website. Utilize A/B testing to regularly measure the different elements of your BigCommerce store. These include your images, product pages, layouts, CTAs, and more. 

The testing process will give you insights into what works best and how you can optimize your strategies to achieve better conversions. 

12. Display Security and Trust Signals 

Customers who deem a website secure and trustworthy are more likely to be confident enough to make a purchase. This is especially true for new customers. Ensure your website displays your security badges, SSL certificate, and other security and trust signals.

Increase Conversion Rates for BigCommerce With Your Own Mobile App

One more way to boost conversion rate is to create a mobile app for your BigCommerce store.

Let’s call it a bonus tip, because there's a crossover with a number of the tips on the list above.

• Apps are fully optimized for mobile devices; they let you provide a mobile-specific user experience.
• Apps load faster, especially when you consider that you can get in with one tap, instead of typing a URL.
• With apps you can leverage automatic logins, one-click checkout and more for a smooth and simple checkout process.
• Apps make it easier to customize for your shoppers.
• Apps give you access to native mobile push notifications, which are even more effective than email for communication and marketing.
• A mobile app is one of the best trust signals there is; when a shopper sees the app store badges on your site, they know you’re not a cheap site that just popped up overnight.

A large number of people today prefer to shop on mobile, and a lot of those people prefer to shop on apps. You’ll want to give them that option by having an app available.

Can I really launch my own app?

Launching an app may be easier and more affordable than you think, with MobiLoud.

As long as your site is already mobile-friendly, we can help you launch an app in less than a month, with minimal effort and expense.

We do everything for you, converting your existing website, all features included, into mobile apps that look and feel like a custom native app.

Your apps are fully synced with your website, and we handle technical updates and maintenance for your apps, so they come with very little overhead.

The cost is more than 90% cheaper than what you’d pay to hire developers to code your app, especially considering the ongoing maintenance costs that come with launching an app.

If you want to see examples of some of the 2,000+ apps built with MobiLoud, check out these case studies - including the Foy’s Pet Supplies app, which web development agency TinyOptics built for their client from a BigCommerce site.

Check out our pricing here, and if you’re ready to dive in and learn more, click here to schedule a free consultation.

Measuring and Analyzing Your Results

Optimizing conversions isn’t done the moment you make changes to your website design and mobile responsiveness, enhance product descriptions, and leverage social proof.

It’s time to track and analyze conversion rate improvements to further advance your strategies. 

Measuring your strategies and analyzing your results allows you to identify which among your efforts are most effective in driving sales. Ultimately, this will enable you to focus your efforts on the most impactful areas. 

It will also give you insights into your customers and their behaviors on your site. You’ll find out where they drop off in the buyer process, leading to more targeted improvements to enhance their experience and yield higher conversion rates. 

Continuous improvement is the name of the game in conversion optimization. Regularly tracking and analyzing your results allows you to test new strategies, measure their impact, refine your approach, and allocate your budget more effectively. 

Here are some tools that can help you measure your conversion optimization strategies: 

• BigCommerce Analytics: BigCommerce has a built-in analytics tool tailored to their platform to offer specific insights on conversion rates and customer behavior.
• Google Analytics: You can also leverage Google’s comprehensive tool to track website traffic, user behavior, and more. 
• Optimizely or VWO: These A/B testing tools allow you to test different versions of your web pages to see which elements perform better in conversion. 
• SurveyMonkey or Qualaroo: These tools allow you to gather direct customer feedback on their experience on your site. 
• MailChimp or Constant Contact: For email marketing campaigns, these email marketing analytics tools will help you track the performance of your emails, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. 
• Facebook Insights or Hootsuite: Social media analytics tools that give you insights into the effectiveness of your social media efforts in boosting conversion rates. 
• Salesforce or HubSpot: These CRM systems track customer interactions and provide you with a holistic view of the customer journey. 

When measuring your conversion optimization strategies, start with clear goals in mind. Define what successful conversion means and looks like for your business and identify specific and measurable goals. 

Regularly monitor your data and make quick adjustments. Analyze the behavior of your visitors over time, and don’t forget to look back at historical data to understand long-term trends. 

Remember that the key to success in measuring your conversion optimization is not just collecting data. More importantly, it’s about effectively interpreting it to make informed decisions for your ecommerce business. 

Final Thoughts

Conversion rate optimization is one of the top things for any ecommerce store to focus on. Getting more conversions and more revenue from your existing traffic means higher profit margins and more sustained long-term success for your business.

There are a ton of things you can do right now to boost your conversion rate, but one with the highest impact is launching your own app.

Doing this may be a game changer for your business, turning your brand into an authority in your space.

MobiLoud is the best BigCommerce app builder platform on the market today. It’s more than just an app builder - we’re a managed service that actively works with you to create an app that will grow your business.

If you want to create your own app, and boost conversion rate, AOV, retention and more, book a free demo now.