Digital Horizons

E-Commerce Mastery: Boosting Conversion Rates with Social Proof and AI Chatbots

• James Walker & Brian Hastings

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Unlock the secrets to skyrocketing your e-commerce conversion rates and transform your online store into a sales powerhouse. Ever wondered how big brands leverage social proof to earn your trust? We're here to spill the beans on some trailblazing strategies that go beyond the typical tips, focusing on user-generated content and behavior-based trigger messaging. Discover how showcasing real customer videos can work wonders on your landing pages, and learn about advanced tactics like exit-intent offers and AI-driven chatbots that gently nudge your customers to hit that 'buy' button. We'll share practical examples and discuss platforms like Gorgias that integrate seamlessly with Shopify, offering context-aware assistance to enhance the user experience and increase those conversion rates.

But that's not all — we delve into maximizing your e-commerce performance metrics, including driving quality traffic and boosting average order value. By optimizing these critical areas, we aim to provide you with a comprehensive strategy to significantly elevate your business's performance. And as if that wasn't enough, we're teasing a sneak peek into our upcoming episode, where we'll tackle enhancing customer lifetime value and fostering repeat engagement. So, get ready to arm yourself with actionable insights that will propel your e-commerce success story to new heights.

The Digital Horizons Podcast is hosted by:

James Walker - Managing Director WHD
Brian Hastings - Managing Director Nous

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to Digital Horizons. It's the channel for business owners, marketers and e-commerce entrepreneurs looking to stay on top of marketing strategies that are working right now.

Speaker 2:

I'm James Walker and this is Brian. Today we're continuing on with our four-part series, which is around the four levers to increase your overall revenue within your e-commerce store, and today we are talking about how to increase your conversion rate.

Speaker 1:

I'd also like to point out that we somehow managed to pick the exact same color shirt again, for that Happens every week? Yeah, this would have been fine if it was only an audio podcast.

Speaker 2:

I know, and also not just such a, I guess not a very common shirt Common color.

Speaker 1:

It's like we're planning this.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we've got that happening and we're aware of it, so thank you for anyone who wants to point that out.

Speaker 1:

This week we're talking about conversion rate. We didn't want to touch on the typical things that we'd expect any marketer or e-commerce entrepreneur would have already been trying, so we're not going to spend too much time on things like landing page optimization or making sure the right payment platforms are included. We've either already talked about that in some of the earlier stuff or we would expect you'd be trying these things. We're going to try and cover off some of the other levers we typically look at over and above maybe a little bit more advanced levers that you can use to increase the conversion rate. So let's get into the first one leverage social proof on the landing page with user-generated content.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I really like this one and when it's been done it works really well. So we all know that UGC content on your social campaigns is really powerful and works really well. But then continuing that through to the experience that people are having on the landing page so they're checking out your product images. You've got all your selling points. You've got everything on your product page that's going to help convert people. But then also showing content that is being created not from the business but from people actually using or experiencing your product goes a long way to increase confidence that it's going to be the right purchase and help with that conversion.

Speaker 1:

And that can be done as small as having the user reviews actual, real ones that include images. But I think what we'd like to see here, and what we're talking about, is actual video of the product in use and a space for that video to play at a larger size, rather than just 4.5 out of five stars and a few text reviews.

Speaker 2:

I think I just don't believe them as much either.

Speaker 1:

I feel like, if you're going to, watch someone actually using Experience the Product.

Speaker 2:

It's just so much more believable because everyone knows you can put some fake reviews on your page. It's so easy to generate them but it's much harder. I mean, you can still do it, but it's much more work has to go into faking a review if you're getting video content done.

Speaker 1:

And I feel like the video version, like it's easier for me as a customer to feel like it's real. I can tell yeah it looks like someone's real house, it doesn't look like a polished agency has done this and you can see the warts and all version of the product and get over that trust issue you might have because you never heard of the brand before.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and if you're already getting this content created for your social campaigns, why not? I mean, you've got the assets already there. Put them through. Just put them on your website.

Speaker 1:

It's going to help increase your conversion rate, yeah conversion rate, yeah, and chances they've seen all of your ads is low, so make sure that they're sitting on that page. So that's a good one and something that, if you've already got that content, you could get done pretty quickly and easily A hundred percent. The next one behavior-based trigger messaging. So, yeah, exit intent and things like that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So this is looking at what are people doing on your website and then having triggers that are then going to allow you to help push people further along that conversion path.

Speaker 2:

So what we mean here is, say, someone's on your product page and they've spent I don't know X amount of time on the page, maybe researching, looking at your information on there, or maybe scrolled a certain way down. If you've got a longer sales page for your products and then having a message pop up that could be hey, you know, do you have any questions? Can we help out with this? Or, as much as you know, an exit intent one, and these have been around for a long time. But when people are scrolling off to then throw up a last chance offer, that might be you know, get 10% off if you want to complete your purchase in the next 24 hours. Stuff like this is going to really help with that conversion path and just understanding how this can help, because you don't want to be throwing out offers just for the sake of it, because people potentially were going to buy anyway, so you don't want to minimize your margin there.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and I think now we've got available to us more advanced behavioral triggered actions like useful chatbots that are AI-driven chatbots that can pop up to help, rather than previously we've used OptiMonster for exit intent. But how good would it be to offer a reliable chatbot that knew information about the product or service and, when they could see the user was doing a bit of research or missed a bit of key content, that you could throw that information into the mix at the right time? What's the platform that you were using?

Speaker 2:

for that One that we use on Shopify stores is called Gorgias G-O-R-G-I-A-S, and that one is quite a powerful one because it is integrated into your Shopify store. So when you're looking at the data within that, and even for your customer support team, they've got access to everything all in the one spot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I'm not sure if OptiMonster has the chatbot option. We've only ever used it for exit intent, so I think for a more advanced option, use the gorgeous version. The third lever Optimize for micro conversions.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so what this is? I guess we know that the ultimate goal is to sell more shit, right, but there's going to be different things that a user goes along that journey that gets them to that point and if you can get a good understanding of, all right, cool. We know that if someone's opted into our email newsletter or if they've watched this video on the product page or I don't know they've been back to the product page or clicked around to a number of pages within your website, they're more likely to complete that purchase. And then if you start looking through that journey and then go, all right, well, if I'm able to get them X amount more people to opt into my newsletter, x amount more people to be able to watch the video by putting it somewhere that's more visible or something like that, just looking at these micro touch points that are occurring, so then you can sort of lift the path and the amount of people that are making it through to your conversion and therefore increasing your conversion rate.

Speaker 1:

And the way to do this is retrospectively looking at your conversions and what actions have they taken on your site prior to that conversion and trying to identify trends of well, most of my conversions have either downloaded this piece of content or watched this particular video to this point.

Speaker 1:

A good example of where we've used this for one of our clients. They're a Southeast Queensland-based home builder, so a big conversion value if we can get a lead that converts. We're producing a lot of lead magnet type content for them guides on how to pick or plan your home build or what to watch out for when you're looking at display homes things like that. We looked at all of their contracts that they had in the past year and tried to identify actions that they'd taken on site through the marketing automation tool we use with them and found that 72% of all of their contracts that the email addresses had downloaded or requested one of these guides or books prior to converting with the property. So it did also confirm the value of these research tools, but it also showed that there is value in those conversions. They might not lead to a display home visit straight away, but they're definitely the path that we typically see their conversions take before choosing to build with this brand.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and the key to understanding all this is making sure you've got all this tagged up right, because if you don't have your tracking in place.

Speaker 2:

If you're not using Google Tag Manager or something to actually be able to analyze this data, you'll never know what that conversion path looks like. So if you're not doing it, make sure that you do get tag manager set up or whatever tag up everything you can possibly do on your website, so that way you can start analyzing that conversion path and understand what metrics you're able to move the needle on.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it definitely makes it a lot easier. In the case of that builder example, we had to export all the email addresses from their contracts management tool and match them with the marketing automation data and for all we know it might have been a different email put on the contract. But it's still good to look at even if you haven't matched it up. But it will inspire you to get your data all matched up so you can pull this information easier next time. The next lever Well, it's not the lever the next tactic in this lever.

Speaker 2:

We've got all the other levers so far today, so why change it now?

Speaker 1:

right, they're all levers yeah, this one is create a sense of urgency with countdown timers or scarcity, probably a little bit obvious, but it works.

Speaker 2:

It does, and I mean this is something you can go and implement right now. The others are sort of all right, you're going to have to get the data and dig into the data, but If you haven't got something like that running at the moment, that you feel all right, look, I'd love to see a bump in my conversion rate. Just put on some kind of thing that's going to add some kind of urgency, because most people aren't going to purchase the first time they come to the website. They may be thinking about it for a while, especially if it's a bit more of a higher consideration product. So by adding something that could be it may not be on sale, we're going to be running out of stock soon because this is our busiest period of the year. So make sure you buy or you may miss out. So just having something on there that creates some level of urgency is going to make your conversion rate increase.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's right, and if your product isn't likely to run out, the offer can.

Speaker 2:

So that could be the thing that has the scarcity.

Speaker 1:

Also, in reference to the first point we made today, leverage social proof with user generated content. You can also add at this stage, someone from this suburb has just purchased.

Speaker 2:

I've seen a lot of those little things. Do you believe them? I don't believe them.

Speaker 1:

I'm looking, I'm going.

Speaker 2:

This thing's just putting up random names and addresses.

Speaker 1:

I'm too close to it, Because I've installed it on other client sites and I know it's mostly bullshit it is pulling actual sales data, but it's from weeks ago, yes, and making it seem like it was just purchased.

Speaker 2:

That's right, Because it kind of looks like the velocity of orders and sometimes you can tell on a website it's like this is pretty good. There's no way this website is getting orders at the rate that this thing's popping up while I'm on here. I agree, but I think. Most people are not going to be considering it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and I think, while we are probably attuned to it, it still works for the typical customer.

Speaker 2:

It does send a signal that, hey, other people are actually buying this shit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but those ones aren't necessarily scarcity.

Speaker 2:

That's more social proof, whereas this is what we're talking about is more that timing and countdown times yeah, whereas this is what we're talking about is more that timing and countdown times and there's a whole bunch of plugins and stuff you can find for WooCommerce and Shopify or whatever that do this kind of stuff. Yeah, there's a million of them.

Speaker 1:

There's the obvious stuff that you should be already on top of and if you're running a successful e-com store, you would have probably already done this. Site speed, smooth conversion checkout process Using Shopify it's pretty smooth anyway Having the right payment gateways or payment platforms, afterpay options, all that stuff we would sort of expect you've tried or are trying, and these are some other options you can add into the mix and I think you should give them a go, especially ones you can just turn on right now, like that scarcity timer.

Speaker 2:

Yes, we're now at the end of the third lever for growing your e-commerce revenue. So first, we're talking about driving more traffic to your website, or good quality traffic to your website. Next, we were covered off on average order value, so you're sending more people to your website and then they are spending more. And now this today, it's on conversion rate, so we're converting more of those customers. So when we're thinking about it, and as we put forward at the beginning, is that if we can lift all three of these metrics and then the fourth one next week that we're talking about, which is lifetime value, you're going to see a very large increase in your overall performance. And just continually looking at how you want to optimize each one of these different levers, on their own, they're going to have a big impact.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. I think I'm already feeling like we've done lifetime value because we've done average order value, but there's still a lot more to talk about in the lifetime value side of things like how to how to get people to come back. Yeah, absolutely. So that's it for this lever for this week, and we'll be back next week with the final in the season for this four-part series.

Speaker 2:

So thank you for watching today.