The Top 5 CRO Practices Dominating E-Commerce in 2020

It’s vital to keep up with the latest and most effective trends in your digital marketing strategy. Customized call to actions, retargeting campaigns, and AI automation tools are just a few of the practices that will take your campaign to the next level.

In its core definition, conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a term that organizes a range of practices that allow webmasters to optimize their websites and increase the likelihood of visitors completing a defined action.

From a marketing perspective, CRO allows webmasters to draw prospective customers and lead them toward buying their products or services.

Today, CRO comprises a central component in every digital marketing strategy and accounts for one of the key determinants in the quality and frequency of the conversion process. Having a higher CRO determines a website’s ability to generate more conversions, fewer abandonments, and better user experience.

According to Marketing Sherpa, 74% of conversion rate optimization programs increase sales.

Over the course of 2019, CRO was ranked as one of the turnkey tactics in streamlining the conversion funnel, achieving a higher ROI, reducing marketing costs, and improving user experience in e-commerce.

But with constantly changing trends and recent leaps in technology, many factors have played a part in deciding the effectiveness of certain CRO practices in 2020.

From something as simple as changing the placement of a CTA to installing a complex AI chatbot feature on landing pages, CRO involves an array of practices that keep evolving with time. While the right practices can have a dramatic effect on the conversion rate, using the wrong ones can also cost you time and money.

Let’s take a look at the CRO practices that are dominating e-commerce in 2020.

5 CRO Practices Currently Dominating E-Commerce:

AI, Machine Learning, and Automation

Value Personalized Experiences

Customized Call to Actions

Retargeting Campaigns

Cross-Platform Experiences

AI, Machine Learning, and Automation

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are technologies without alternatives. From voice search assistants to sophisticated human-like chatbots, AI and machine learning have quickly permeated into almost every aspect of digital marketing and e-commerce.

With recent AI interventions, chatbots, ADI tools, predictive analytics, voice search, and business forecasting models use intelligent capabilities that can perform jobs without any human input.

Let’s take a look at the effects of a live chat tool.

Live Chat Stats

Source

79% of businesses say offering live chat has had a positive effect on sales, revenue, and customer loyalty. 38% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company if they offer live chat support.

In 2020, 85% of customer relationships will be managed through AI.

Today, AI chatbots can create unique conversations with chat responses that are more natural and accurate than ever before. Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) technologies such as WIX can optimize design, content, and other graphical elements in real-time based on user behavior.

Advanced salesforce tools can self-learn from company data and accurately forecast sales. Similarly, AI automation tools can execute email and ad campaigns based on the target customer’s regional preferences, interests, and active timings.

All these interventions have had a huge impact on conventional CRO techniques and have revolutionized many practices for 2020.

Value Personalized Experiences

From the different marketing forecasts and influencer reports to the customer trends and behaviors we have studied, personalization will undoubtedly become a central aspect of CRO in 2020. Personalization helps engender the feeling of being valued by the brand which directly compliments the conversion rate.

Since every type of customer appreciates special treatment, building a friendly, engaging, and supportive environment that encourages customers to interact with the website is vital.

For example, merchants that have customers from different regions and countries often use auto currency switcher tools to offer payment in their local currencies.

80% of customers are more likely to purchase a product or service from a brand that provides personalized experiences.

Mindful planning, landing page optimization, and integration of Adaptive Design Intelligence (ADI) tools, personalization can be successfully achieved so customers interact with elements that appear according to their preferences.

Aside from on-page practices, personalization can also be paired with paid marketing to increase traffic to conversion ratio.

Customized Call to Actions

CTAs are graphical elements designed for triggering an emotional response from the visitor to achieve conversion goals.

2020 is the year of the CTA for several reasons. Customers now prefer shortcuts over lengthy text and navigation, and appreciate clarity and minimalism when interacting with web elements.

Since CTAs are the doorways to the conversion process, they hold immense functional importance in the conversion cycle.

According to Hubspot, personalized CTAs perform 202% better than generic ones.

A poorly optimized CTA will not only fail to prompt action from the visitor but may also contribute to creating clutter and confusion in the design.

Using them with the right color psychology and compelling text as well as placing them above the fold section can bring significant improvement in the conversion rate and give a higher response value from traffic.

Often, webmasters, have the right CTAs positioned at the right places but miss out on other essential factors that control the effectiveness of the CTA.

To make sure you have an enticing high converting CTA, always look out for design trends from successful brands that have a high conversion volume.

Using Retargeting Campaigns

Retargeting is one of the most effective CRO practices that are dominating in 2020. Sadly, it is also the most underrated one.

Since a large number of prospective customers leave a website without converting, using retargeting practices allows brands to rekindle their interest by adding compelling reminders with enticing offers in ad marketing.

Retargeting becomes particularly useful when webmasters are pursuing segmentation in their customer base and building a pool for future conversions.

Website visitors who are retargeted with display ads are 70% more likely to convert on a retailer's website.

For example, digital window shoppers amount to a landslide percentage of prospective customers and can be easily tapped through retargeting campaigns.

While retargeting hugely depends on the mechanics of the e-commerce website and the methods used to initiate it, external services and tools can be extremely helpful in securing a returning percentage of potential shoppers.

Cross-Platform Experiences

Digital marketers who want their conversions to remain futureproof understand the importance of cross-platform experiences is imperative.

Since the advent of mobile internet, cross-platform optimization has become an indispensable part of CRO strategy.

Customers are now interacting through a growing diversity of platforms and therefore creating a unified experience that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Smartphone traffic going worldwide to retailers is at 56.2%, and 34.5% for desktop.

This is achieved by offering a seamless user experience on all types of desktop, mobile platforms, and environments without cutting corners on the website’s functionality or accessibility.

An ideal multi-screen active experience allows the brand to present its content without affecting its usability, speed, or functionality all while ensuring coherence and consistency when the user interacts with it.

This way, a customer operating a Windows desktop will receive equal opportunity to complete a conversion decision when using an Android or iPhone.

CRO, A Winning Strategy for 2020

CRO originated in 2000 and has since undergone drastic changes over the past 2 decades. With recent changes, marketers are more focused than ever in implementing the best practices and helping their consumers, clients, and executives in progressing along the technology curve.

The numbers don’t lie, take a look at the average ROI from a CRO tool spend.

Average ROI from CRO tool

Source

According to Venturebeat, conversion rate optimization solutions have an average ROI of 223%

These 5 trends are blazing a path for future CRO innovations and now control a huge stake in how marketers should present their content, entice their customers, and set them on the conversion path.

Staying up-to-date with the latest marketing practices is crucial for achieving a competitive edge and building a robust digital footprint in the market.

With the right balance of technology, trends, tools, and effort, these CRO practices can easily take you miles ahead of your business goals, without any significant investment.