25-Point Conversion Rate Optimization Checklist For Your eCommerce Store

Another conversion rate optimization checklist? You rolled your eyes after having spent hours finding the light to boost sales in 2020. 

It's true, this is no ultimate checklist. However, we believe that in the sea of eCommerce knowledge where the tide changes its waves everyday, it is important to stay up-to-date, and every new input added is a step closer to building a highly convertible store, and a step away from being left behind in the CRO game. 

Conversion rate optimization is, in short, a cycle process of hypothesis, testing and optimization. The process often hits the wall when the direction is unclear: Where to start? What to test? What to measure? 

This checklist is made to help you with that. Let's dig in! 

1. Homepage Optimization Checklist

Homepage is the doorstep to your website, the first impression that your store will make on your customer, so optimizing it can be an essential in CRO.

So here's a rundown of things you should check:

• Does your homepage have a clean design that makes it easy to scan and absorb important information? Before you quickly give it a nod, conduct a small survey among your team or your friends.
• Are your website colors well-balanced? Are the colors of background, banner and fonts well-contrasted to bring out the Key message and Call-to-action buttons? 

• Does your Above-The-Fold section have crisp images that get across your brand personality and its key message? Seek out external opinions to avoid biases.
• Does your homepage have enough white space or negative space to keep important elements in focus and increase legibility?
• Are the headlines and boilerplates you use, the best? Are they persuading enough? Are there any typos and grammar errors (use Grammarly to check quickly). Are there any other ways to make this headline, that tagline more effective?  If you have one second of doubt, then call upon your content writers and start working on hypothesis. Content is the king, but finding the true king takes time.

• Are there any customer testimonials or social proof? If not, is there anything that makes your homepage radiate trust and professionalism? 

• Are your testimonials, if there, good enough?

Pro tip: Testimonial format is important: Testimonials with numbers are amazing since they directly explain the value your products offer, while those with headshots add a genuine human touch and ultimately, add weight to your offer. 

You can even do what the Law Offices of Jay Knispel does on their homepage where they syndicate Google reviews to display onthe homepage. This way visitors always see the most recent reviews andsince they are coming straight from Google reviews of your brand, they arelikely to trust them more as well.

• Are the best-selling products placed at your homepage to maximize conversion rate? Use analytics to find out the most viewed products or pages where people spend more time.

Now, Are there any boxes left unchecked? 

Honing each element to its perfection is no easy task, but with time, effort, and proper tools, getting a perfect store is no longer that far away.

2. Product Page Optimization

Next stop: Product Page - where product is evaluated, trust is strengthened, engagement is deepened and conversion happens. 

This is where each touch must be tailor-made and embroidered with absolute accuracy and thoughtful calculation for your ultimate goal: the Add To Cart button click.

The checklist for Product Page Optimization:

• Do your product pages have product search and easy navigation between pages? BuyaKilt experienced a 76.1% increase in revenue, a 26% increase in conversions, and 19.76% increase in shopping cart visits by doing so. 
• Do your product pages have great product photography? This can cultivate the much needed trust in shoppers, especially when they can’t see the product, product images speak for your brand. 
• Do you have a photo gallery for each product to aid customers in visualizing your product better? 
• Have you made good use of compelling product videos to explain your product offer clearly and build business credibility? 
• Do your product descriptions speak to your target customers, understand their needs & pain points, and communicate products value clearly? 
• Have you created urgency for your products and tapped into FOMO (fear-of-missing-out) to shorten your shoppers' decision making process? 

• What's about trust badges, customer reviews and social proof ? Are they there to make your products more credible and create trusting bonds with your visitors? 
• Do you have cross-sell and up-sell sections within your product pages to increase average order value? 
• Are Shipping, Return and Payment policies communicated clearly to your customers? Be honest and never keep your customers behind the curtains when it comes to essential policies. Hidden fees is the quickest way to lose a customer in 10 seconds! 
• Are your product pages mobile-optimized? There is more to being mobile-friendly than just ensuring they’re bug-free (with log management, for example – you can check ELK Stack pricing to see how to handle it) and successfully load. You need to tailor your product pages to the tiniest details to create a smooth-sailing experience for mobile shoppers to avoid letting a closer win slip through your fingers.

Product pages with long text are a common point of customer drop-offs. Shoppers are found to be the most engaged while scrolling through images. With product feature cards, you can:

• Convert long and boring text into a snappy picture using a combination of text, icons, and product images
• Set yourself apart from competitors by showcasing your unique selling proposition upfront

Customers are reporting a 25% increase in sales with badges & feature cards!

Suggested reading: 8 Ways to Improve Customer Experience on Mobile

3. Checkout Page Optimization

Among 100 customers adding products to their carts online, only 25 make purchases. 

That's three out of four customers that will hesitate to hit that Complete Button.

Imagine when the revenue quadrupled (best case scenario) when checkout page optimization  was done right! 

This is how to do it: 

• Is your checkout process too lengthy? Do customers have to navigate to more than two pages to get the checkout process done? Can everything needed for them to pay stay within one page? 
• Is it possible to remove any unnecessary navigation and keep distraction at minimum?
• If you have a checkout form, can the data submitted for the checkout form be recovered quickly? Don’t you hate it when you have to refill the checkout form over and over again just because you changed your mind on the shipping address? 
• Are you transparent about your data collection? To make your store GDPR compliant, tell them where their data goes, what data you collect and why you collect it. 
• Can Single Sign-in be enabled for quickly logging in and performing a purchase? Many customers abandon their cart because it requires them to sign up for an account, which takes up their time and eventually bombards the customer with newsletter and countless promotions. 

• Can a guest checkout system be implemented? Sometimes, customers just want to grab something real quick, pay for it, and leave. Signing in, even with single-sign on, can be a real drag! It’s your job to make this quick task as seamless as possible for them. Guest checkout pages allow customers to enter as least information as fast as possible and head straight to checkout, which secures their excitement for purchase.
• Are your forms smart? Smart forms can be forms that use address predictor tool, or auto error indications tool. The less typing work your customers have to take, the better the experience, the happier and the quicker the purchase. As simple as that. 

4. A/B Testing and Experiment

Now that you have the most essential checklist to go over and help you lay the foundation for A/B Tests, all that is left is to run A/B tests and rejoice at the sight of conversion rate going through the roof. 

Hold off your horse, not so fast. 

Let's take a step back to look at the big picture, and follow the checklist for A/B testing itself:

• Step 1: Analyzing customer behavior

Closely observe your customers behaviors with the patience of an archaeologist, then go through the above checklist one more time to find out what stops them from taking action. Every assumption is the right assumption. However, be mindful of the resources. The pages with the most traffic, the elements with the most impact on conversion rate are the ones that should be tested. Heat maps, which show your site’s most frequently visited areas, is another clue for you on what to include in the test.

• Step 2: Hypothesizing

How should things be changed? If changed, what are the results supposed to be delivered and why? Answering these questions gives you a hypothesis about the test.

• Step 3: Testing, analyzing, testing

Once you form a hypothesis, it’s time to put it into action. Google Optimize is a great tool for A/B Test. Show one variant to half of your site visitors and another variant to the other half. Watch the data coming in and keep on testing until you have a conclusion.

• How long should the test be run?

Normally, around 200-300 unique visitors for each test variant would be enough for you to draw a reasonable conclusion. If you use Google Optimize, you will get an announcement once a winner if found, or that probability to win for a variant is over 90% is a good indicator for winning too. 

Wrapping Up

Conversion rate optimization is a never-ending marathon, and as off-putting, as it may sound, your efforts are guaranteed to pay off in the most satisfying way. Check out our customer story and find out how we helped Flat Pack FX to optimize their conversion rate.

Keep sailing on, gobble every guide, check every list, and before you know it, you have a conversion rate people are jealous of.

Conversion Rate Optimization FAQ