If you don't have enough visitors on your site, you won't be able to make any sales. That’s why you put so much work and dollars into driving traffic to your online store. But, make sure you’re also putting just as much effort into converting that traffic when they’re on your site.

Here are some proven tips to optimize traffic to your ecommerce store that will result in more sales. 

Fix the leaky bucket problem with retargeting 

The average ecommerce conversion rate is 3.65% — in other words, for every 100 people you drive to your site, less than 4 will complete a purchase. Your mileage may vary depending on what you sell but the fact is that most of the people who visit your site won’t buy on the first visit. 

But don’t give up on those visitors. They can still be valuable customers with retargeting. Retargeting software allows you to send ads to people who have previously visited your site, which can provide a nudge to get them back to your store. Retargeting is a great tool for ecommerce because it’s only showing ads to an audience of people who have already shown interest in your products (they’ve already visited your site). 

Google and Meta ads are good ways to try and get those shoppers to complete a purchase. But as you’re looking into retargeting, don’t forget about email retargeting. You should already have your abandoned cart emails going out to your known customers but you can also email site visitors who aren’t in your customer database in a fully compliant way thanks to innovative new retargeting tools.   

One particularly powerful email retargeting tool is SafeOpt. Over 175 million shoppers are in SafeOpt’s network waiting to receive promotions emails from SafeOpt because they want discounts from the best brands. When that shopper is visiting an online store and abandons a cart, the merchant can then send the customer an email with a promotion to complete the purchase. 

It’s a win-win: shoppers potentially get a discount on something they were interested in and the merchants get more sales. Merchants of all sizes can get up and running with SafeOpt in just a few days and it’s fully compliant with email and privacy regulations. It also works on a cost-per-acquisition basis, so brands only have to pay if it’s driving sales. 

Make your checkout experience as easy as possible

Plenty of times, shoppers are excited to make a purchase and then they hit the checkout screen. Sometimes, this involves filling out their: 

• Name

• Billing address

• Payment information

• Shipping address

• Shipping options

• Information to sign up for a store account (some merchants force this before a purchase). 

None of these steps are extremely hard but each adds a little friction … and every bit of friction leads to lost sales. It’s no wonder that more than 70% of shoppers abandon their online shopping carts.

That’s why it’s critical to make your checkout experience as seamless as possible to get the most out of your existing traffic. Some tips to improve your checkout include:

• Offer alternative payment options like Apple Pay, Shop Pay and PayPal to make it simplify the payment portion

• Don’t force account creation before the purchase — include it after they’ve completed the purchase

• Be upfront about shipping and fees: one of the top reasons shoppers abandon their carts is because of the “sticker shock” of additional shipping and tax costs.

Maximize conversions and sales

It is extremely hard work to get traffic to your online store. Thankfully, these tips about using innovative retargeting tools like SafeOpt and improving your checkout process will make sure all that hard work doesn’t go to waste.