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Author: Franz Malten Buemann

  • 5 Great Call Center Agent Retention Strategies

    We’ve all heard about the human touch and how important it is in the CX and call center spaces. Your customers want thoughtful and empathetic service, and that’s not something you can get from technology alone.
    So why do call centers struggle with retaining their agents? There are a lot of factors that contribute to agent turnover and attrition, and those challenges have increased even more thanks to the Great Resignation.
    So how do you retain the best skilled agents for your business? That’s what we’re here to explore. Read on to find out the best call center retention strategies to guide your efforts.
    A Quick Introduction to Call Center Retention
    Let’s begin with the basics. When we talk about call center retention, we’re referring to your business’ ability to keep the agents you’ve hired and trained. Every manager knows that new hires are extremely costly, and even more expensive to replace. With strong call center retention, you can save a lot of money on turnover down the line.
    It should come as no surprise that the call center industry experiences high turnover rates. According to QATC, the annual average turnover rate for call centers is between 30%-45%. Losing agents at this rate has a serious impact on quality of service, as skilled agents take a lot of time and resources to hire and train. Your customers are looking for knowledgeable and experienced support professionals to help them, and that is difficult to achieve with staff constantly entering and exiting your contact center.
    How to Foster Agent Engagement in Today’s Contact Center
    How to Calculate Turnover Rates
    To measure agent retention, you’ll need to calculate your team’s turnover rate. Let’s say you want to calculate your monthly turnover rate. Here’s the formula you need to figure that out:

    (# of employees who left this month) ÷ (Average number of call center agents on your team) × 100% = Turnover rate

    For instance, if your call center has an average of 100 agents, but 10 agents departed in the past month, your formula would read: (10 ÷ 100) x 100 = 10%
    Call center turnover rates should be calculated regularly. Once you have several months of data logged, you should start to see patterns emerge.
    5 Great Call Center Retention Strategies
    Ask yourself: what are the most common reasons agents leave? How can you improve your overall agent experience? Start paying attention to these factors, and you’ll be in a better position to lower your turnover rate.
    There are many factors that play into agent turnover, including negative work culture, poor hiring and onboarding experiences, not having the right tools and resources to do their job, and more. Follow these surefire strategies, and you will soon start to see improved retention for your call center.
    1. Follow best practices in hiring
    When your contact center is short-staffed, your leadership team may be tempted to rush hiring. But this can cause huge problems down the line.
    Why? Finding the right fit for your team means finding individuals who are well suited to call center work. Not everyone will rise to the challenge, so it’s important to ensure the people you hire have the right foundational skills and attributes. Otherwise, you risk losing them sooner than later.
    Here are some tips for hiring new agents:

    Create employee profiles. Before you hire anyone new, you should know what you are looking for. An employee profile will act as your roadmap during the process.
    Focus on aptitudes, not just experience. Ask interviewees about their work style, how they motivate themselves, and critical thinking.
    Ask situational questions. Agents need to be able to handle different support scenarios, so this is a fantastic way to measure their problem-solving skills.

    2. Invest in training and onboarding
    Starting a new job can be stressful all on its own. But if your new hires don’t receive the proper support to get them started on the right foot, they’ll soon begin to plan their exit.
    ASAPP research reports that 51% of respondents who received poor training felt pessimistic about their careers, leading to burnout and poor performance. Here are some tips for upgrading your training and onboarding efforts:

    Use different training styles. Not everyone learns the same way, so be sure to offer classroom learning as well as hands-on learning opportunities for your agents.
    Introduce your new hires to the team. This small but significant gesture can help your new hires feel at home with their new coworkers sooner.
    Provide ongoing training. Training should not just be for new hires. Offering regular sessions for your more experienced agents will keep them engaged and connected with their work.

    The Ultimate Guide to Call Center Training
    3. Develop a positive company culture
    From agents to managers to directors, all contact center professionals can attest to the impact company culture has on their daily work. Employees who are engaged in your culture are less likely to leave — that makes this an important part of your agent retention strategy,
    Here are just a few things you can do to improve your company culture:

    Identify existing challenges. If your current work culture isn’t where it needs to be, pinpoint the issues and develop a plan to remedy them. Trust us, these issues won’t disappear on their own!
    Check in with your managers. Your managers are the ones with the most influence over your agents’ work experience. Offer managers training on how to create a productive and positive work environment!
    Conduct culture interviews. Ensure your new hires fit in with the rest of the team by inviting them to a more casual-style interview with a few of your team members.
    Prioritize work-life balance. Offer your agents perks and benefits to support life inside and outside of work. This can include flexible work hours, recreational memberships, and more.

    FACT:
    In a Gallup poll, 75% of respondents voluntarily left a position because of their boss, not the job itself.

    4. Provide the right tools and resources
    Call center work is not exactly stress-free. While you can’t eliminate the element of pressure from customer support, you can make the agent experience more manageable and rewarding.
    Contact center software has come a long way, with tools smart enough to automate the more mundane and repetitive parts of agent work. By investing in these tools, you create a more enjoyable and engaging work experience for your agents.
    There are countless tools on the market, so we’ve listed our top categories below:

    Call-back technology. This incredible tool helps lower your call volumes while offering callers an alternative to waiting on hold. Fewer frustrated customers means happier agents!
    AI assist. Artificial intelligence is the ultimate agent assistant, automating simple and repetitive tasks so your agents can focus on more complex tasks, like supporting customers.
    Self-service tools. Like AI, self-service tools are meant to address simpler customer queries while alleviating the burden of work from your agents.

    5. Provide growth opportunities
    Did you know that lack of career development opportunities has been tied to high turnover? Your employees are looking for a future with your organization, and that includes exploring new positions and promotions.
    There are lots of ways to foster growth opportunities with your call center. Here are some strategies to get your started:

    Offer one-on-one reviews. Have managers set time aside for each agent, and give them the opportunity to provide feedback on what they hope to accomplish in their current role and beyond.
    Create a career plan. Implementing and regularly updating a career plan will help illustrate your agents’ progression towards their career goals with the company.
    Create a mentorship program. Give your veteran agents an opportunity to take the lead and mentor your newer agents. This will help them develop leadership skills for their next big opportunity!
    The post 5 Great Call Center Agent Retention Strategies first appeared on Fonolo.

  • Salesforce Release 5x Free Integration User Licenses

    If you’re a Salesforce professional working with a variety of systems integrated with your Salesforce instance through an integration user, it’s likely that this is the announcement you’ve been waiting for – a dedicated user license is finally available!  In addition to the extremely popular… Read More

  • Meet the New Salesforce Integration User License

    If you’re a Salesforce professional working with a variety of systems integrated with your Salesforce instance through an integration user, it’s likely that this is the announcement you’ve been waiting for – a dedicated user license is finally available!  In addition to the extremely popular… Read More

  • 5 Reasons to Attend Salesforce Architect Summit 2023

    The Pune Salesforce community is 4th largest in the world with around 23k+ members across developer, admin, marketers and architect roles. After the success of the first Salesforce Architect Summit in the world in 2019, the Salesforce Community in Pune is organizing the second edition… Read More

  • How to Generate Leads on Social Media

    According to HubSpot research, 77% of social media marketers say their marketing specialty has been somewhat to very effective for their company this year. With 4.70 billion worldwide users, social media is a force to be reckoned with.
    Our phones might as well become extensions of our hands — from blasting off spur-of-the-moment tweets to perusing Instagram for makeup inspiration, social media is a dominant force in our lives that spans generations. That’s why businesses need to tune into social media for lead generation.
    How can you leverage social media in your business’ favor and turn it into a force for lead generation?
    In this post, we’ll cover the following topics:

    What is social media lead generation
    Why businesses generate social media leads
    How to generate social media leads

    The platforms mentioned above are just a few examples of the social media channels people frequent to share content, catch up with friends, read up on the latest news, gather inspiration, or simply browse.
    A quality social media lead is one that will provide useful information and engage with your business. While useful information varies, it generally includes name, occupation, and email address.

    Why Businesses Generate Social Media Leads
    Why turn to social media to generate leads? Social media is pervasive — it has become interwoven into our daily lives. According to Pew Research Center, 7 in 10 Americans use social media.
    With the vast majority of people on social media, it would be imprudent for brands to overlook it as a bountiful and rich source for generating leads.

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    Both B2B and B2C marketers can implement a wide range of strategies to capture leads.
    Social media helps businesses enhance lead generation efforts by increasing brand awareness, fostering engagement, and driving website traffic.
    Factors That Boosts Social Media Lead Generation
    Brand Awareness
    Increasing your brand awareness is key to reaching your target audience. It is the foundation of acquiring a customer audience and helping them learn more about your products and services with authentic, informative, and engaging content.
    Social media is excellent for building brand awareness and showcasing your brand’s ethos. According to HubSpot research, content that reflects your brand’s values and showcases your products/services have the highest ROI on Instagram.
    Engagement
    Sharing relevant and high quality content leads to increased engagement with your audience. Engagement is key to retaining loyal customers who can vouch for your brand.
    Website Traffic
    Social media presents a great opportunity to drive website traffic. With content offers, you can bring visitors to your website.
    How to Generate Social Media Leads
    Generating leads on social media can take form in a number of ways.
    In this section, we highlight the best strategies overall, then dive into targeted strategies for specific social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube TikTok, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
    Best Strategies Overall
    1. Optimize your social media pages.
    Your profile is what people click on when they are intrigued and want to learn more, upon viewing your content. Your profile can also be the first thing people see. It is critical to get your profile in shape.
    This means the following:

    Providing clear contact information: Make it easy for people to get in touch with your business. This can include an email, phone number, or link to a contact page on your website.
    Include a clear CTA, or multiple CTAs: Be strategic about your CTAs, and update them as your business needs change. CTAs can include signing up for a demo or newsletter, booking a consultation, or a link to shop

    2. Create engaging content.
    Once again, creating relevant and high-quality content will pique customers’ interest. In the algorithm-driven world of social media, creating content that stands out is especially important.
    To create compelling content, mapping out user personas can help you better understand the audiences you’re trying to reach and the content that would attract them.
    Understanding different content formats will help your business’ content strategy.
    A HubSpot study found that short-form videos is the top social media format used by 54% of social media marketers, followed by live streaming, live audio chatrooms, and user-generated content.
    It also doesn’t hurt to take risks. Being creative can lead to great payoffs. Keeping track of your different social campaigns can seem daunting, but HubSpot’s Social Media Management Software helps you run all your social campaigns from one place.
    3. Create targeted ads.
    Paid social media advertising can help your business generate more leads. By leveraging paid ads, you can create offers targeted to your audience’s interests. Your business can be hyper-specific about who your ads are served to.

    As Mailchimp demonstrated, ads are a good opportunity to flex your creative muscle. Advertising can complement your organic lead generation efforts — they don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
    4. Design a compelling landing page.
    You’ve done all the hard, strenuous work to get someone to click on your CTA. Good job.
    Don’t waste your efforts with a lackluster landing page. A good landing page should be user-friendly and contain a clear path. HubSpot’s free Landing Page Builder can help you seamlessly create a landing page designed to convert.
    Targeted Strategies for Leads on Top Social Platforms
    Each social media platform is different and has its unique quirks. People use different platforms for different reasons, and there is even preference for one platform over another based on generation.
    For example, TikTok is overwhelmingly favored by Gen Z while Instagram is favored by Millennials. In this section, we highlight some strategies tailored to each social media platform.
    Instagram Leads
    Instagram started primarily as a photo sharing app in 2010. But times have changed. Instagram has since expanded to support more features: reels, stories, and shop, to name a few.
    The social media platform is also where people interact with businesses — according to Instagram, 90 percent of Instagram users follow a business.
    Here are some tips:

    Use reels. Reels are all the rage. 82% post video content on the platform and the content formats they use most are video-based, according to HubSpot’s research.
    Prioritize visuals. First impressions matter. When someone scans your page, the content you’ve posted will appear in a grid format. Unlike Twitter, which is primarily text-based, Instagram is a primarily visual platform.
    Leverage Instagram Shop for instant revenue. While leads are key to moving the sales process along for prospects, Instagram Shoppable posts allow you to send serious buyers directly to product landing pages or your own social media shop where they can convert immediately.
    Explore Ads. There are numerous advertising options for almost all Instagram content formats including in-feed posts, Stories, Reels or live video. If you have an advertising budget and a large following on Instagram, you might want to explore if any are right for you.

     

     

     

     

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    A post shared by vans (@vans)

    Facebook Leads
    Facebook was founded in 2004, fresh off the heels of the MySpace era. Despite being around for a while, it hasn’t sunk to the grave like its predecessor. In fact, it is still quite robust, with 1.96 billion daily active users as of Q1 2022.
    Here are some tips:

    Post shareable content. The share button is a highly useful feature to get your content in front of a wider audience. Sharing links to enticing content like an interesting blog post will not only promote sharing, but also lead people directly to your site.
    Go live. Creating Facebook Live Videos is a great way to engage your audience and give them an opportunity to react in real time.

    Need ideas for Facebook posts? We have a handy guide.
    YouTube Leads
    Videos are not going anywhere. YouTube ​​generates over 1.7 billion unique monthly visitors. Videos about seemingly anything, from cooking tutorials to music videos, can be found on YouTube.
    Here are some tips:

    Create a branded YouTube channel. Creating a branded YouTube channel helps you consolidate your content and grow subscribers.
    Incorporate links to your videos. Embedding relevant links to your videos, like a link to your product, helps your audience find what they’re looking for.

    TikTok Leads
    TikTok has quickly established itself as the social media platform to watch. From 2020 to 2021, TikTok was the most downloaded app.
    It has also proven to be effective for commerce — two out of three users are likely to buy something on TikTok while using the app.
    Here are some tips:

    Partner with influencers. Influencers run rampant on TikTok — why not work with them? These partnerships can bring more eyeballs to your page.
    Be versatile with your content. TikTok trends are ever-evolving. Because of the extremely fast-paced nature of the platform, it is important to be versatile, observing trends and adjusting your content accordingly.

    LinkedIn Leads
    LinkedIn has more than 830 million active users in 200 countries and regions worldwide. The most professional of all social media platforms, LinkedIn is a great source for generating leads for B2B marketers.
    Interestingly enough, the best days to post on LinkedIn are Saturdays and Sundays, according to HubSpot research.
    Here are some tips:

    Create a standout page. Your business needs a page that regularly shares insightful and thought-provoking content that sparks conversations.
    Join groups. Groups are a great way for you to connect with customers. Though LinkedIn is a professional social media platform, it is still a place for community and connections.

    LinkedIn’s VP of Marketing offers more tips on how to generate leads on the site.
    Twitter Leads
    23 percent of adults in the U.S. use Twitter. Of all the major social media platforms, Twitter is the wordiest. It has garnered a reputation for being the place for opinions and public meltdowns.
    Here are some tips:

    Create clever content. Twitter is a wordy platform, which means it is a great opportunity to let your brand’s witty and pithy side shine.
    Leverage Twitter Spaces. Twitter Spaces is a fairly new feature that enables you to have live audio conversations on the app. It is a smart way to engage your audience.

    gunna be thriving this whole year 🌱 pic.twitter.com/dPMamwchTN — Benefit Cosmetics US (@BenefitBeauty)
    January 6, 2023

    For additional ideas of platforms you could leverage for lead generation and tips on how to boost your presence on each, check out our Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing, and stay tuned for our State of Social Media Report, coming in February.
    Social Media Lead Generation Tools
    HubSpot Marketing Hub

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    HubSpot Marketing Hub is a comprehensive platform with social media management software that helps you create and execute social media campaigns, keep track of social mentions, and report on social media marketing ROI.
    These tools help with lead generation efforts by automating processes so you can focus on strategy and content creation. The Marketing Hub also integrates with HubSpot’s CRM.
    Pricing: There are free and paid tiers. The paid tier ranges from $45 to $3,600 per month.
    ProProfs Quiz Maker

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    Quiz marketing can help capture leads from websites and social platforms. You can customize quizzes and optimize them for social sharing.
    The platform also contains lead forms and reports to analyze results. ProProfs Quiz Maker also integrates with HubSpot.
    Pricing: ProProfs Quiz Maker offers a free tier. The paid tier ranges from $20 to $200 per month.
    Stay Competitive by Harnessing Social Media for Leads
    Social media has taken the world by storm. It is ever-changing and multifaceted, which can make navigating how to generate leads a challenge.
    Now that you’ve learned more about lead generation across these platforms, HubSpot’s guide below can help demystify the additional complexities of social media and make the most of it.

  • Meta Is Ending Its Reels Play Bonus Program: What That Means for Creators

    Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team.
    Last week, Meta announced plans to pause Reels Play Bonus payments — a monetization program that paid creators monthly based on the number of views their Reels received.
    While the program is on pause, Meta will focus on advertising within Reels with the hopes of developing a revenue share model which is currently being tested on Facebook.
    The program launched in late 2021 to incentivize Instagram and Facebook users to share short-form video content. Since its inception, creators report being offered between $100 to $35,000 to post Reels. Meta will continue honoring Reels bonus payments for those currently participating in the program for the next 30 days.
    Will the end of this program be a devastating blow to creators on Facebook and Instagram? Not necessarily.

     

     

     

     

     

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    A post shared by Instagram Growth Coach (@brock11johnson)

    While the bonus payments were a nice incentive, there likely weren’t many creators who relied on them for regular income. During the duration of the program, creators were confused about how payment rates were determined and saw a large variance in payments from month to month. Some creators even expressed concerns that their reach decreased after enrolling in the program.
    With this program on hiatus, Meta will likely push creators to consider other monetization strategies including its paid subscription features on Instagram and Facebook.
    The end of the Reels Play Bonus program coincides with other major announcements from Meta including the introduction of Meta Verified and Instagram broadcast channels, and the end of live Instagram shopping.
    Marketing Snippets
    The latest marketing news and strategy insights.
    Silicon Valley Bank collapse: how companies like Roku, Etsy, and Pinterest have been impacted.
    Group Black submitted a $400 million bid to acquire Vice Media.
    Netflix is pivoting its ad strategy after its Microsoft partnership gets off to a slow start.
    Reddit is rolling out a separate feed for native videos.
    Utah introduces possible social media restrictions for users under 18.
    Efficiency tips: make your marketing more efficient in challenging business environments.

  • Conversational AI: What It Is and How To Use It

    ChatGPT has skyrocketed in popularity — it grew to 1M users in just five days.
    ChatGPT is a conversational AI, and its celebrity comes at a time when many businesses are adopting similar time-saving tools into their marketing processes.
    This post will go over everything you need to know about conversational AI, including:

    What is conversational AI?
    Conversational AI vs. Chatbots
    How does conversational AI work?
    Examples of Conversational AI
    Benefits of Conversational AI
    Challenges of Conversational AI
    Conversational AI Statistics

    At its core, it applies artificial intelligence and machine learning. Common examples of conversational AI are virtual assistants and chatbots.

    Conversational AI vs. Chatbots
    Conversational AI and chatbots are often discussed together, so knowing how they relate is important.
    Chatbots are an application of conversational AI, but not all chatbots use conversational AI. Most chatbots are rule-based, where they’re preprogrammed with specific canned responses and scripts and can’t handle more complex conversations.
    AI chatbots can handle multiple types of conversations and topics and use data to give the most accurate response.

    How does conversational AI work?
    Conversational AI exists through machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and natural language generation (NLG).

    Machine learning is how a conversational AI tool gets its intelligence. It begins with human input, where someone feeds a machine a unique data set to learn from. It studies the data, understands connections, and eventually becomes ready to have real conversations with real humans.
    Natural language processing is the machine’s ability to recognize words and phrases from conversations with humans because of the original data it learned from. The tool then uses NLG to develop the best possible responses to human queries.
    Conversational AI only gets better and more accurate over time as it continuously learns from every conversation.
    The overall process is this:

    Input is received as text or audio (spoken words or general sounds).
    The machine analyzes the input with natural language processing to uncover what the input means and what a response could include.
    Once the input is understood, conversational AI brings a user the best and most accurate information (NLG).

    Machines use data from every conversation to build knowledge and generate more accurate responses.

    Examples of Conversational AI
    A common marketing application of conversational AI is content generation tools that research topics online and create content outputs like blog posts, emails, and even ad copy.
    HubSpot’s content assistant is a great example of a tool that uses generative AI to help marketers create written content.
    You can simply tell HubSpot what you’d like to write about, and the content assistant can do things like:

    Generate a list of blog topics your audience cares about
    Create an outline to kickstart your writing process
    Write crisp and compelling copy optimized for your readers and search engines.

    The AI content assistant natively integrates with your favorite HubSpot features.
    Another application is text-to-speech tools that convert text to natural-sounding speech, improving accessibility for people using assistive technologies. Social listening and monitoring tools also use NLP to understand the tone and intent of online conversations to understand how people feel about your brand.
    HR and recruiting tools also scan through resumes and cover letters for keywords and phrases to identify ideal candidates for job postings.
    Other applications are smart home devices, like Google Home, and virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri.
    To stay on the cutting edge of a growing market, check out HubSpot’s playlist, The Business of AI, which features shows that discuss future business applications of AI.

    Benefits of Conversational AI
    With these examples in mind, what benefits can conversational AI bring to a business?
    1. Conversational AI can save time.
    Conversational AI can take charge of conversations with consumers and bring relevant results, helping teams focus on more pressing issues that require a human touch.
    Conversational AI can also process large amounts of data points and bring insights and answers to business teams quickly, helping make data-driven decisions and freeing up the burden of data processing.
    2. Conversational AI gives data-driven insights
    The data that conversational AI tools collect can be helpful resources for businesses to learn about consumers and what they want, whether it’s commonly asked questions that can be used to update a FAQ page or to learn more about how people talk about you online.
    3. Conversational AI can drive purchases.
    Conversational AI tools can use NLP to understand customer queries, learn needs and pain points, and generate product or service recommendations that inspire purchases.
    4. Conversational AI can find best-fit customers.
    Conversational AI can sort through many data points to help you find ideal customers.
    5. Conversational AI can conduct brand monitoring.
    As mentioned above, conversational AI can analyze what people say about your business online and scan for common phrases and keywords to understand brand sentiment. This is a significant time saver, as marketers can spend less time sorting through hundreds of conversations and interactions.
    This is where there are drawbacks to conversational AI, as nothing can mimic the importance of human understanding.

    Challenges of Conversational AI
    Conversational AI is an exciting front for marketers, but it’s always important to understand the entire picture, as there are two sides to every coin.
    The most significant way brands can go wrong with adopting conversational AI is if it takes over functions that can still benefit from human monitoring and interaction.
    For example, a tool can monitor online conversations, but a human can pick up on subtleties that a machine can’t. An HR tool can sift through job applications for specific keywords and phrases to find best-fit candidates, but a human reviewer can tell when a candidate has the commensurate experience that makes them a great fit, even if their resume doesn’t contain target keywords.
    Some additional challenges of conversational AI include:

    Language Input: Dialects, slang, and even background noise can impact a machine’s ability to process language input.
    Privacy: Conversational tools store and collect data to improve its processes, but security or data breaches can cause safety concerns if consumers’ personal information is exposed.
    Human and Cultural Development: Machine learning must continuously progress to learn alongside human cultural development, whether general cultural knowledge or something more specific like showtimes for a newly released movie.

    Conversational AI Statistics
    AI is an ever developing field. If you’re on the fence about adopting it or simply looking to learn more about the field, here are some vital statistics to know.

    The global conversational AI market size is projected to reach $32 billion by 2023. (Allied Market Research)
    Digital voice ecommerce is expected to triple to an $80 billion industry by 2023. (Juniper Research)
    The number of digital voice assistants will reach 8.4 billion units by 2023. (Statista)
    eMarketer predicts that 126 million US adults will use voice assistants at least once per month. (eMarketer)
    1 in 5 consumers uses live chat or in-app chat daily. (Vonage)
    62% of marketers report using artificial intelligence in their marketing strategies. (Statista)
    Marketers that use automation in their roles are more likely to report an effective marketing strategy than those that don’t. (HubSpot Blog Research)
    In 2021, natural language processing was the most popular type of AI adoption for businesses. (Stanford University AII)
    The top performing AI systems estimate sentiment correctly 9 out of 10 times. (Stanford University AII)
    Abductive language inference is drawing the most plausible conclusions with limited information. The human baseline for accuracy is 92.90% and AI systems is 91.87%. (Stanford University AII)
    While AI use has increased, there have been no significant increases in mitigation of AI risks since 2019. (McKinsey)
    15% of Americans are more excited than concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence and 46% express an equal amount of concern and excitement. (Pew Research Center)

  • Ecommerce Conversion Rates Across Industries (And How to Raise Yours)

    Ecommerce conversion rates are the ultimate top-line metric for online store owners. With this data, you can see if the changes you make to your site positively or negatively impact how many visitors become customers.
    Download Now: Ecommerce Conversion Rate Calculator
    Although crucial, there’s often confusion around what’s considered a reasonable conversion rate. Before you evaluate if your ecommerce conversion rate is good or bad, you must evaluate how your performance measures against your industry’s standard.
    In this article, you’ll learn the ins and outs of ecommerce conversion rates, conversion rate benchmarks across industries, and how you can improve your results. Let’s dig in.

    For example, suppose 30 out of 1,000 visitors to your online shop made purchases.
    To calculate your ecommerce CVR, take the total number of people who completed checkout (30) and divide that by the total number of site visitors in the same time frame (1,000). In this case, your ecommerce CVR would be 30/1000 = 0.03 = 3%.

    Today, many ecommerce retailers sell across multiple platforms. You’ll need to aggregate your site visits and conversions in one place.
    You can leverage a tracking spreadsheet or find a technology solution to keep a pulse on your performance across platforms.
    We’ve put together a free ecommerce conversion rate tracker that you can download here, along with an ecommerce marketing and sales plan template in our Ecommerce Planning Kit.
    Featured Resource: Ecommerce Conversion Rate Tracker

    Why is your ecommerce conversion rate important?
    Your ecommerce conversion rate is crucial to the success of your online shop.
    For example, you could bring in 50,000 views per month to your website through ads. If the user experience on your website is poor or your product descriptions aren’t effectively communicating value, you might only end up with a small percentage of that traffic converting into customers.
    Ecommerce CVR is also a valuable metric to track over time to see how the improvements you’re making to your website, product categorizations, product descriptions, checkout process, or any other aspects of your online store are actually impacting your business’s bottom line.
    What’s a good ecommerce conversion rate?
    Don’t compare your ecommerce CVR to an overall benchmark that aggregates CVRs across industries. CVRs vary wildly across ecommerce sectors. Try to find conversion rates for your category or industry to use as a benchmark.
    Looking at numbers isn’t all you need to do. Conduct a cost-benefit analysis and ensure that you make more money than you spend by selling your products online. From there, focus your time on optimizing your site beyond where it currently stands.
    If you have one category of items with an excellent conversion rate, you can also aim to bring all categories up to that standard. With that approach, you can count on the CVR benchmark reflecting your specific target persona, not anyone else’s.
    If you’re starting from scratch, see below for industry-specific benchmarks backed by recent research.
    Ecommerce Conversion Rate Benchmarks by Industry
    The numbers below come from IRP Commerce, which constantly collects data across many industries and ShippyPro. The numbers were most recently updated in December 2022.

    Agriculture: 0.62% – 1.41%
    Arts and Crafts: 3.84% – 4.07%
    Baby and Child: 0.87% – 1.43%
    Cars and Motorcycling: 1.35% – 0.65%
    Electrical and Commercial Equipment: 2.49% – 1.31%
    Fashion, Clothing, and Accessories: 1.01% – 2.20%
    Food and Drink: 1.00% – 2.01%
    Health and Wellbeing: 1.87% – 4.20%
    Home Accessories and Giftware: 1.55% – 2.34%
    Kitchen and Home Appliances: 1.72% – 3.00%
    Pet Care: 2.53% – 2.20%
    Sports and Recreation: 1.18 – 1.62%

    1. Put explainer videos on your product pages.
    It can be challenging to get a sense of sizing, fit, and material quality from photos. Video tends to demonstrate more detail. Add videos that show your product from various angles and allow people to see them in action.
    You’ll also want to account for the increasing number of people who prefer to consume video over text.
    2. Give your visitors a clearer set of product images.
    There’s nothing more frustrating than wanting to look at the small details of the item you’re considering buying online only to find out that you can’t zoom in.
    Your ecommerce site should include images of your product from different angles and allow prospective buyers to zoom in on the product images. Doing so allows these potential customers to have a more accurate sense of your product before purchase.
    3. Tighten your copy.
    Ensure your product descriptions are grammatically correct, easy to understand, and properly structured. It’s vital to keep your ideal buyer in mind as you write your product description.
    In some cases, retailers may have a couple of identical products that are differentiated only by size. While the product specifications should reflect the different product dimensions, it’s okay to leave the copy describing the product’s use as is.
    On the other hand, if you’re selling something like body care products, you might write an entirely new copy to describe who each product is suitable for, the different sensory elements of the product, and the look and feel of each.
    At a baseline, always include product measurements, material specifications, warranty information, and any other information that would be crucial for buying your product. With this information, you won’t lose a prospective customer who is wondering about a key detail.
    4. Add a chat feature to your website.
    You simply can’t answer every question that anyone will ever have in your product description. However, since you want to do everything you can to convince someone to buy your product while they’re already on your site, consider chat as another avenue.
    Chat can be a powerful tool for bridging the gap between your product descriptions and the information an individual needs to buy.
    Customers can ask questions about your brand, shipping policies, and anything else non-product-specific without leaving the web page of the product they’re close to buying.
    5. Test different call-to-action (CTA) placements, options, and wording.
    Altering your CTAs is a classic method of optimizing a website’s conversion rate. Switching up the copy within your CTAs, the options people have for the next place they can go, or the prominence of those CTAs can be low-effort, high-impact ways to encourage people to buy.
    Studies have found that while the majority of CTA tests don’t produce statistically significant results, the ones that do create enormous impact, with on-page conversion lifts averaging 49%.
    You won’t know what conversion rates you’ll see until you start experimenting with each little aspect of your site.
    6. Add social proof with stellar customer reviews.
    It’s becoming increasingly easy for companies with cheap, low-quality products to deliver comparable on-site experiences and images. This convinces buyers that their products are the same as the others in the market, just less expensive.
    However, the one element that’s hard to fake is customer reviews. Allow your customers to leave reviews of your products to prove their quality. If you’ve got great reviews, consider moving them higher on the product pages. Social proof can positively impact prospective customers’ buying decisions.
    If you don’t have a solution that allows customers to leave reviews automatically, collect quotes from people who’ve bought from you before. Add several to each of your product descriptions.
    Remember that you can always run A/B tests by tweaking your testimonial’s design and placement. You’ll soon find out what works best.
    7. Offer free shipping.
    We’ll admit that offering free shipping isn’t the cheapest option. However, the ROI can be enormous. Many people choose to go to a local store when it’s significantly cheaper to drive 15 minutes than pay $5-10 for shipping.
    Free shipping reduces the perceived barriers to ordering something online. That means that you likely end up with more people making purchases. The revenue from those additional customers may compensate for the losses incurred by paying for their shipping.
    You can also set a minimum purchase amount before free shipping applies to an order. You’ll incentivize your customers to spend a little more on products to avoid paying the shipping costs.
    8. Tweak your checkout process.
    You can make dozens of small changes to the user experience of your checkout process. Two of our favorites are eliminating unnecessary fields and adding a progress bar.
    While collecting additional information about your buyers during the checkout process is tempting, additional questions lengthen the amount of time it takes to buy. Many people might not be that patient.
    Progress bars can have two advantages.

    First, they can reduce buyers’ concern that they don’t have the time to complete the checkout process at the moment.
    Second, they give people a sense of accomplishment after each step they’ve completed, building positive momentum toward completing their purchase.

    9. Allow guest checkout.
    Allowing people to create an account makes sense for repeat buyers. But if you require people to make an account to make their first purchase, you may lose potential customers. Additionally, some people are averse to saving personal information online.
    Trustpilot reports that requiring account creation at checkout is the second-biggest reason why people abandon carts, coming in just below having to pay for shipping.
    Those who become repeat buyers will create an account eventually if they feel comfortable saving their information. In the meantime, don’t add extra steps to the checkout process for people ready to buy.
    10. Add additional payment options.
    A study from the Merchant Payments Ecosystem revealed that 50% of consumers would end a transaction if they couldn’t find their preferred payment method.
    Consider running a survey to understand your customers’ preferred payment methods and add the one that’s most convenient for them.
    By meeting your customers where they are, you’re potentially removing a nuisance (i.e., walking to another room to get a different credit card) or a complete blocker (i.e., not having access to any of the available payment methods). You’ll also create an easier user experience.
    Improve your conversion rates.
    By tracking relevant website metrics, you can discover what your current conversion rate is.
    Find the right tools to help optimize your conversion rate. Then, experiment to see what yields results.

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