What Is Bounce Rate? How to Improve it Quickly?

The only goal of any business is to bring new customers and increase sales with the old ones but some visitors do not make it to the endpoint and leave without buying. In eCommerce, it is called the bounce rate. You might be getting enough clicks but no conversions and many website elements can be responsible for bounce rate.

Imagine a person wants to climb a mountain and planned an 11km long trek but he can’t go because the trek dates aren’t matching his holiday dates and he canceled the plan. The same can happen when a customer visits your website and does not find the product they want to buy.

Simply quoting, if a customer visits your website with an intention but he does not complete the action is termed as bounce rate. Let me give you another example, your website sells cosmetics and the customer requires a product that is organic and chemical-free but you fail to provide such a product because of poor categorization. He will immediately leave the site and may not come back.

If you don’t want your customers to bounce back, you need to provide engaging content, strong and powerful search bar.

Why does the user bounce?

A rising bounce rate is an obvious indication that there are off-putting elements or underlying problems that you need to fix on your web. A bounce is caused by a variety of causes and circumstances.

Although there may be several explanations for the elevated e-commerce bounce rates, a list of the common ones is below:

Page didn’t meet expectations: Visitors didn’t find the data or the product in the appropriate manner that they were looking for.
Long loading time: It takes more time for the page to load.
Poor UI and content management: If the user interface of the website is bad and the content isn’t well managed.
Poor navigation and UX: The landing page’s UI is complicated and difficult to understand by the end-user.
The lack of ‘Call to Action’: For customers, poor navigation will increase the bounce rate.

How to reduce bounce rate?

Firstly, you need to optimize the reason behind the bounce rate on your website, and once you do that you can take necessary actions. Sometimes, the bounce rate can cause you so much revenue which is dangerous for your business. Here are some pro tips that can help you reduce the bounce rate on your website:

1. Do not use unwanted Pop-ups

Unless it is necessary, do not use pop-ups on the entry page. Try pushing it on the exit page or after the user completes the action. A cause of the bounce rate can be a pop-up window that annoys the visitor. If necessary, you can add a gamified element to the entry page for an email subscription or any discount offer. Spin and win

2. Translate your site for global users

A multilingual website demonstrates the potential for increased sales. Any language that you add to your website has the potential to increase your sales dramatically. In addition to targeting the local market, it would also draw Internet users from other countries by creating a multilingual website. A multilingual website can reduce the bounce rate for international traffic from 80% to 40%.

3. Improve Page Loading speed

Getting fast page load time can also improve the crawl rate of your website. The quicker it is possible to load pages, the more Google will index pages at one time. High page speed may also increase the crawl requirement of your website. Many users bounce because of high page loading time. Hence, it is pivotal to reduce page loading time.

4. Invest in UI and make it attractive and engaging

To improve the bounce rate the better UI and engaging content can be helpful. A successful design inculcates trust and makes it intuitive to navigate. People don’t spend a lot of time on places that they don’t like or find hard to navigate. Make it simple by getting a nice template to start with for your visitors. There’s a great list of pretty customizable themes available on the web for various platforms.

5. Optimize the landing page and product page

The process of optimizing elements on a website to improve conversions is Landing Page Optimization. Optimization of the landing page is a subset of optimization of conversion rate and involves using methods such as A/B testing to enhance the conversion targets of a given landing page. This will improve the bounce rate several times than any other method.

The next possible strategy to improve the bounce rate is by optimizing the product page. You can include social proofs like review and ratings, clear call to action buttons, product videos, and high-quality images to the product page.

6. Reduce checkout friction

Checkout friction is the major cause of cart abandonment and a higher bounce rate. It is important to remove frictions from your checkout page to decrease shopping cart abandonment, generate sales, newsletter subscribers, and to improve conversions. Adding multiple payment methods, shipping choices, make unnecessary fields optional, and offering social login and guest checkout can help.

You can use the One Page Checkout Module to overcome these issues. Read this to reduce the checkout page friction which can help you in reducing bounce rate.

7. Make your website mobile responsive

Mobile visitors have far less patience than desktop visitors. To provide mobile users with a better user experience, ensure that your website has a responsive design. Also, the user base of smartphone users is more than desktop users.

8. Add Personalisation Element

By presenting the data, personalization can help to enhance conversions. To support a specific product, following a centered strategy that is personalized to their behavior and liking would certainly help them in a successful transaction. The conversion and bounce rate are inversely proportional. If the conversion increases it will automatically diminish the bounce rate.

Final Words:

eCommerce Conversion: One of the easiest ways of improving your bounce rate is to boost your conversions. Someone who converts is automatic will not bounce. This guide will teach you how to use A / B testing to get more conversions on your website and other methods.

Minimize the bounce rate of a website: A very in-depth look at the bounce rate, including ways of using Google Analytics to correct a high bounce rate.

Reduce Cart abandonment: This is again a healthier way to reduce the bounce rate and these pro tips will help you reduce abandoned carts on your web store.

For, eCommerce related projects, contact our team at support@knowband.com or drop a reply here in the comment section.

6 Simple Ways to Reduce Shipping Cost

The trends in the business industry change every day hence no businesses have attained perfection. It is okay if sales are dropping on a day and the bounce rate has increased but it becomes a snag if you cannot do something about it. Sometimes the increase in bounce rate for eCommerce is due to shipping charges. Is there any way we can reduce shipping cost? Yes, We can!

If increasing rates isn’t in the cards, and you want to cut down the cost then these pro tips can help you potentially reduce shipping cost. Optimize your products on the eCommerce store and practice these methods to make your product affordable for you and your customer.

1. Change your packaging material

The packaging material is a major factor that affects the shipping cost but by changing the material a merchant could save a lot. Shipping charges depend upon the size and weight of the material you are using for packaging. You can always go for a small-sized box made with a lighter material to reduce shipping cost. Alternatively, you can switch to a poly mailer or a padded bubble wrapped poly bag and avoid the extra cost.

2. Take help of regional carriers

By decreasing the shipping distance with the help of regional distributors an eCommerce store owner can save some pennies. A bulk order can be shipped to one place for a particular zone or region.

An app like ‘Product Availability Check by Zipcode’ can be used by the store owners while uploading the product. The admin can map zones with zip codes for different geographic locations.

To reduce the shipping cost bulk orders can be sent to the regional distributor who will ship the product to its right destination

3. Waive off the shipping cost with in-store pickup

In recent days, to avoid the shipping time delay and to get the product by the earliest customer started opting for the in-store pickup option. This feature benefits both the merchant and the customer. It increases impulse buy opportunities, fewer returns, and cut down the shipping cost for the merchant. Consumers get the benefit of click and collect too by saving the extra cost which is meant to be spent on shipping and they can collect the order as per their convenience. This is a win-win option for both parties.

4. Merchant can do liaising with the supplier

Liaising with the supplier will reduce shipping cost for the merchant. The owner can ask for lower delivery fees with this. The extra transportation cost will be reducing it to nearly half the price and this is most applicable to high-value products. Always try to negotiate with your suppliers to get good deals.

5. Cut down the cost by taking prepaid shipping services

Various third-party carriers offer prepaid shipping services where they provide good deals and discounts. Prepaid shipping will get you up to 20% off shipping costs simply by buying a range of shipping labels in advance. You don’t need to add them to a package before an actual order needs to go out. This not only saves time but also costs.

It only works if you regularly ship orders of the same weight and measurements or if you know the same details and scale.

6. Hybrid orders can save money

Hybrid shipping providers pick up your orders and then partner with other carriers, to move the parcels to a sort facility or post office site, where they are delivered to a local area for the last mile delivery. In certain cases, this can reduce delivery costs by as much as 50%. The biggest drawback to hybrid systems is that they have a restrictive weight, volume, and size strategy. Delivery times can also be longer than using normal shipping options with the same carriers.

Final Words: Some of the main factors that decide the performance of your online company are the degree to which you reduce costs. These amazing ways will lower pricing. If not closely controlled, shipping costs can escalate rapidly. And by the end of the fiscal year, you’ll find that they’ve put a huge dent in your profit margin.

Knowband provides some tools to help you with shipping issues like the COD plugin and free shipping addon. These can help you with a better shipping experience and increase customer conversions.

You may like to read:

Free Shipping Strategies: Why to Offer? How to Offer? When to Offer?

Free Shipping is a sales strategy used by eCommerce businesses to encourage online shoppers to purchase without having to worry about the shipping cost.

Does it actually help in improving sales?

Well, “Yes. It does”

One may argue that free shipping is not the ideal solution to ensure growth in sales as it can affect the profit margin. However, if the right tactics are applied, it can surely bring fruitful results.

In this article, I have discussed how to offer free shipping and why it is an important part of your sales strategy. It will also brief you on when you should offer free shipping.

So, let’s start.

Why should you offer Free Shipping?

It is obvious that free shipping delights customers but it also provides ample benefits to eCommerce businesses. Free shipping-

1. Increases Sales

The primary benefit of offering free shipping is that it increases sales.

The tag of “Free Shipping” induces customers to purchase as they would not have to pay additional costs while purchasing a product. A study by Invesp confirms the same, which says that 9 out of 10 consumers find free shipping to be the primary reason to shop online.

2. Increases Average Order Value

Adding to the benefits of free shipping is it boosts your average order value.

Retailers often set a minimum threshold for customers to get free shipping on their purchases. Only if the customer makes a purchase over the threshold, he or she would be eligible for free shipping.

Shoppers add additional items to the cart to cross the threshold value, which eventually results in an increase in the average order value.

The stats collected by Invesp confirm that 93% of the online shoppers show the tendency to purchase more products if the free shipping option is available.

3. Reduces Cart Abandonment

High shipping cost is the foremost reason behind shopping cart abandonment. And it makes sense. When shoppers look for a product, they do not take the shipping charge into account.

And when the price on the payment page goes much higher than what it was on the product page or what they expected, they reluctantly abandon their cart.

Imagine how satisfying it would be for a customer if the product price remains the same throughout.

4. Improves Brand Loyalty

Free shipping helps you earn customer loyalty and improves brand loyalty simultaneously. Customers become loyal to your brand and they keep coming back to your store at regular intervals, avoiding your competitors who are charging a high shipping cost.

How to offer Free Shipping?

Free shipping simply cannot be provided on every product. There are certain ways to offer it. For example-

1. Over a Certain Product Value

You can specify the minimum product amount for which the customer needs to shop to get free shipping. This does not include other charges.

To put it simply, the “product amount” should be equivalent to the threshold, not the “total order value.”

Somewhere, it also encourages cross-selling and upselling.

2. Over a Certain Cart Value

You can define a cart value that a customer must match if he or she does not want to pay the shipping charge.

For example, free shipping if the total order value exceeds $100.

3. Limited-Time Free Shipping

Create urgency to purchase by offering limited-time free shipping. The purpose is to convert prospective buyers into potential customers.

Start sending out emails or post it on social media to make your customers aware of this limited-time offer. Do whatever it takes to reach your audience.

4. On Taking a Membership

You can charge an annual subscription fee for a membership program, under which customers can enjoy the free of cost shipping.

One of the popular examples is Amazon Prime that offers free and quick shipping under their membership program.

5. On Shopping for a Certain Quantity or a Package

This can include offers like Buy 2 or buy a combo and get free shipping.

However, you need to make sure that the package that you are offering or the products falling under “Buy 2 or buy a combo” offer can adjust your shipping cost, else it will be a loss if it is applied on low-priced products too.

When should you offer Free Shipping?

1. On Special Occasions

Free shipping can provide a huge boost to your sales during the holiday season, simply because the shopping fever is high at that time. Occasions like Black Friday, Halloween, Christmas, New Year provide a perfect opportunity to grab more sales by offering free shipping.

2. If Your Competitors are Offering It

It’s good to track your competitors’ activities. It provides you with the areas of improvement.

Check whether your competitors are offering free shipping or not. If they are doing it, you should offer it too, to be in the race among brands. If they aren’t, you can use this to your advantage and get a competitive edge over your competitors.

3. Free Shipping on Returns

If your customers are not satisfied with the product and on top of that if you are asking them to pay the shipping charge for placing a return, it can annoy customers and might affect customer loyalty.

To improve customer satisfaction and maintain customer loyalty, you can devoid your customers from the shipping charge when they place a return request.

Related:

5 Ways to Manage eCommerce Returns

8 Simple Tips to Reduce Product Returns in eCommerce

PrestaShop Free Shipping Manager by KnowBand

Set shipping rules, adjust the shipping price and do much more with PrestaShop Free Shipping Manager addon.

Key Features:

1. Set the minimum cart value for a customer to receive free shipping.

2. Set the minimum and maximum weight of the products to get the free shipping facility.

3. Allow free shipping to users of a particular zone. (Africa, Asia, Europe, etc)

4. Make free shipping available for visitors, guest and customers.

5. Help customers understand the shipping criteria right when they are on the checkout page.

The Bottom line

Free shipping can be a great marketing tactic to boost your eCommerce sales and reduce cart abandonment. But not everyone can afford to provide it. E-commerce giant Amazon started offering free shipping way back but is quite difficult for small scale businesses.

So, make sure to check whether it would be the right idea for your business or not.

If you are already offering it, do let me know how useful it has been to your business so far. If you are planning to offer it, check out the above mentioned free shipping strategies and set yours accordingly.

Have some more points to add? Let me know by dropping a comment below.

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Tag: Benefits of Free Shipping