7 Proven Tactics to Maximize Your Ecommerce Landing Page Conversions

Without further ado, let’s dive right in.

1. Choose the words for your landing page wisely

The copy on your ecommerce landing page can speak volumes.

You also don’t have a lot of room to say what you need to say. So, you need to be smart about how you say it. There are several different aspects of your landing page copy that you need to be mindful of. Let’s review them in more detail.

A clear and concise headline

A headline is the first piece of text on your website that most people will read. And if first impressions last, then having a bad headline is a surefire way to send your potential customers packing.

When it comes to headlines, short and to the point beats long and unclear.

With just a few words, you want your headline to:

• Capture the customer’s attention and entice them to stay on the page
• Address the customer’s problem and provide the solution
• Be relevant to what you have on your landing page

Sounds like a lot to accomplish with very little text, doesn’t it?

Have a look at the landing page of an online course by ConvertKit:

Now, barring the odd color scheme, this is an excellent example of what headline copy should do. It’s concise, specific, and action-based. But the best part – it speaks directly to the audience.

See, ConvertKit know that whoever lands on that page has an idea of an online business. And they promise to help bring that idea to reality. Launching a business is exactly what a potential customer wants, and ConvertKit made sure the headline reflects that.

A headline is the most important piece of your copy. Here is a well-known quote from the marketing wizard David Ogilvy about it:

Five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.

And this is why crafting a compelling headline pays far more than one might think.

A converting call to action (CTA)

The call to action on your ecommerce landing page should encourage your customers to purchase what you’re selling. Given that a CTA is typically placed on a button, you have even less space and need to choose words carefully.

Crafting a list of power words can help here – we spoke about them earlier on our blog.

Consider phrases that inspire immediate action or the sense of urgency like:

• Shop now
• Get started
• Sign up for free
• Explore
• Add to bag/cart

Or you can think outside of the box and have a little more fun with your CTA text:

• Yes, let’s go!
• Grab my seat
• I want that

Based on different scenarios, you can make your call to action even more specific. In fact, it may not even sound like a call to purchase a product – rather a suggestion to participate.

Notice how Stitch Fix invite you to take a style quiz. Once you finish the quiz, you’ll need to sign up to receive your personal style recommendations. From there, the brand will be able to reach you via email marketing.

Incorporating your USP (Unique Selling Point)

Identifying your USP can be an entire topic by itself. Here, I’m talking about making sure your ecommerce landing page shows what makes your product different from the rest of your competition.

When a customer clicks through and lands on your page, they should immediately be able to identify what sets your business apart.

Are you a natural foods company that only sells gluten-free products? Are you a men’s footwear outlet that offers a satisfaction guarantee based on your confidence in the durability of your products? Do you ship overnight?

Whatever the case is, this should be conveyed on your landing page because this is what may encourage customers to go with you instead of the rest.

Notice how HelloFresh, a subscription meal kit service, highlight having the most recipe variety as their unique selling point.

Don’t sell yourself short. If you show that you believe in what makes you different from the competition, your customers will believe you too.

2. Design imagery that reflects value

Pictures speak a thousand words. Use that to your advantage.

Based on your niche, here are two ideas of what you may want to use on your ecommerce landing page.

If you’re selling a physical product, high-quality photos from multiple angles are a must. People like to have a good picture of what they’re purchasing before they go through with it – especially if they can’t hold the item in their hands.

If you’re selling a service, images can be tricky. A good practice, however, is to show the value your customers get when they subscribe. For example, take the delicious meals from the HelloFresh landing page or the confidence in the eyes of Stitch Fix models.

As a rule, you want to have a landing page that follows the same theme as your website. If you’ve already established a brand and visuals to go with it, it makes sense that your landing pages match them, doesn’t it?

Here is another great example of a simple, yet effective landing page from Blue Apron:

A very clean design, cohesive with the rest of the website, the image of the result on the sides, and bonus points for the excellent CTA with a discount!

3. Use social proof to your advantage

This one is a doozy.

What is social proof exactly?

Put simply, social proof is a way to add an extra element of trustworthiness to your products by having them recommended by the general public.

But how do you incorporate this into your ecommerce landing pages? This is a tough one to hash out. However, there are several different ways to accomplish this.

Reviews and testimonials

“But aren’t reviews and testimonials the same thing?” Not quite. There is one key difference. Reviews are typically gathered by a third party. Testimonials, on the other hand, are collected by the business themselves.

Both can be effective to maximize your conversions.

Pulling relevant reviews and displaying them on your landing pages will save your customers’ time when they want to research your product before purchasing. Testimonials can accomplish the same thing. You can paste them in strategic spots on your page for potential customers to see.

Social media presence

Social media presence is crucial because having an account means your brand is ready for a public dialog with the customers.

Using social media to your advantage is important when it comes to your landing pages, too. For instance, if people read positive tweets about the product you’re selling, it may encourage them to purchase.

If your customers are raving about you online, show this on your landing page.

Link to the tweet telling everyone about how your dog food helped little Rover get over his allergy problems. Show the Facebook post review telling the world that your t-shirts are made out of the comfiest material ever.

Don’t hold back when it comes to social media. With the millions of users out there, it can help build trust in your product in a way nothing else can.

Number of users

Are there already tons of people using the product you’re selling?

Let everyone know!

When you show that your business has paying customers, it can go a long way to converting more sales. It’s further proof that your product or service is the real deal.

Have a look at the Call Loop landing page:

They run a cycling popup that lets the visitors know about real people who have recently purchased from Call Loop.

A good app to use for this type of social proof would be Nudgify. You can even set it up to showcase actual products bought by the public!

McDonald’s has been raving about billions of people served at their restaurants for years, so why can’t you?

4. Use out of stock products to boost interest

“Out of stock products? Why? What could that possibly accomplish?”

Settle down. It’ll all make sense in a minute.

While it may seem outlandish to leave your out of stock inventory on your ecommerce landing pages, it can actually work very well in your favor.

You can show just how in-demand your products are by displaying the ones that are completely sold out.

This is the well-known scarcity principle in action, and it can also be used to effectively grow your email list.

A case study done by MarketingSherpa showed that back in stock email alerts achieved conversion rates up to 22.45%. So, if a customer is really intrigued by your out of stock item, have them leave an email so you can send a notification when it comes back in stock. Two birds, one stone.

5. Offer generous discounts

This might be an obvious tactic but sometimes the obvious is worth mentioning, too. Especially when it’s one of the best ways to nab a sale. Who doesn’t love a good discount, after all?

It isn’t just about saving money, though.

Offering a discount on your ecommerce landing page makes the customer feel like they’re getting something exclusive.

There’s also a sense of urgency to a discount. The customer may think if they don’t act quickly, they’re going to miss out on the chance to save a quick buck.

Here is an example from Made, a design furniture store using limited-time offers to generate more sales on their Haru sofa bed landing page:

Notice, there is a discount, a “Limited time offer” tag, and even a Getsitecontrol popup offering an additional 10% Off coupon for your first order. Great job, Made!

6. Use popups on your ecommerce landing page

Speaking of popups… A properly used popup can improve your ecommerce landing pages dramatically.

But how do you use them?

You can start simply by offering a discount, as discussed above. Again, this is a great way to generate email leads. For instance, you can offer a discount in exchange for an email like Made or Dip & Doze:

This popup ticks all the boxes: professional-looking design, a discount for joining the email list, and a unique selling point highlighted on the left side.

You can use Getsitecontrol to create a similar popup and display it after a customer spends X amount of time on a page without making a purchase or subscribing:

(Just click the widget above and follow simple instructions to add it to your website if you like what you see).

Another great tactic is to use exit-intent popups.

Exit-intent popups display when a visitor attempts to navigate away from your page. Here is an example from Blue Apron again:

When you attempt to leave the landing page, they offer you $50 off.

The urgency here is also more apparent than ever. A countdown lets you know that you only have a short time to claim the prize. Effective!

A good popup can be a great sidekick to the rest of your ecommerce landing page. Combined with all the other elements, popups can serve as a slight nudge or as a last resort to land that abandoning visitor.

7. Always be willing to improve and change what isn’t working

This is a tip that should be applied to nearly any endeavor but is especially important with your ecommerce landing pages.

You should be constantly tracking results to capitalize on the aspects of your landing pages that are working and change up the parts that aren’t.

To analyze your landing page performance, you can use heat maps. They show you what parts of your website people are interacting with the most by scrolling and clicking.

This can be a great way to help you figure out where to place your CTA buttons and how to organize the page. For instance, if you see that visitors don’t scroll down, it makes sense to keep your CTA where your audience is more likely to see it without scrolling.

Optimize your ecommerce landing page for conversions

While a lot of these tactics may seem obvious, they are vital to your success.

A landing page is usually the last step before your customers make a purchase or subscribe to your service. So make it count because this is where your efforts will be definitely paying off.