Every online store, every online business that invests money to gain visitors cares about user experience. eCommerce bounce rate is one of the SEO metrics that you as an online store owner should track to understand whether your visitors enjoy your website or not.
This metric affects not only your Google rankings but also warns you when something is wrong with your web design/copy.
Another factor that should make you pay attention to your online store bounce rate is that it’s interconnected with your conversions. Bouncing means not taking action and consequently, not converting.
Well, exceptions may apply because a visitor can view a product on your website and order it via a phone call or a social media message. But if purchases happen exceptionally on your website, one leaving visitor equals one lost conversion.
What is the average bounce rate for eCommerce stores? Bigcommerce writes that the average bounce rate for eCommerce is 45.68% and that every day one online store dies because of too many visitors bouncing. So, how to deal with the challenge and how to reduce bounce rate eCommerce sites are so scared of?
Let’s discuss 7 mistakes that you are probably making and you will see how interconnected they are with your high bounce rate.
Table of Contents
1. Too many windows that cause inconvenience
We accidentally came up with the website below a few days ago. Well, it’s not an online store but it’s an example of what your website shouldn’t look like.
Instead of seeing the website content, the visitor sees tons of intrusive windows that cover the whole page. Most visitors probably won’t be willing to close them and simply bounce.
Try to keep your website as clean as possible and don’t create additional “tasks” for your visitors. Users want to receive quick answers, so respect their time.
2. Not making your website mobile-friendly
If you want to reduce the average bounce rate eCommerce website has, you first need to have links on your website. And if you want visitors to click them, the links simply should be clickable. It sounds like a no-brainer right? It isn’t.
Many online stores forget that 53% of website traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices (tablets and smartphones of different sizes) and don’t make the mobile version of their website user-friendly.
If the links on your website work only on desktops, mobile users will bounce from your website without a second thought.
Many online store builders offer responsive templates and automatically make your website mobile-friendly so you don’t have to worry about it. But don’t rely on guesswork, double-check your site performance from different mobile devices and make sure your links work.
3. Not using tools that hold the visitor’s attention
Similar tools include pop-ups, chatbots and live chats. Pop-ups can contain an offer, attract the visitors and redirect them to another page, thus ensuring conversion.
Chatbots and live chats can initiate one-on-one conversations with visitors, ask questions and again redirect to a relevant page depending on the visitor’s answers.
While we haven’t frequently come across with online stores with chatbots, we have definitely seen many with live chats and pop-ups. Below is an example from Estee Lauder:
And another from Aerie:
4. Inconsistency between the link description and website content
Imagine a similar situation. You announce in your social media post or email letter that users can click the link below and see your new winter collection.
But when they click the link, they appear on a completely different page (for example, product checkout page, homepage or whatever).
The visitors didn’t receive what they were expecting. And second, they feel deceived and disappointed. Do you think they will find your website valuable? They will probably close the tab, thus increasing your eCommerce average bounce rate.
Always make sure that you meet the expectations of your visitors and there’s consistency between what you promise and what you deliver.
5. Page Speed – Delays in page loading
Having a slow website means making visitors wait and sacrifice their time. Most visitors simply won’t do that because switching to your competitor’s fast-loading website is easy.
Google PageSpeed Insights will show you how well your website is loading and what measures to take to improve the speed. Most loading issues are related to heavy images, videos, source codes, etc.
If you are still not sure whether it’s worth working on your page loading speed, just see the numbers from Think with Google below:
6.Not providing the search option
Almost all online purchases are preceded by hours (and days!) of browsing and finding what you exactly want. So the search field on your website might become a life-saver for visitors who hate spending a long time on online stores.
If your website structure is not that simple and you don’t provide a search option, users won’t find what they want and find their way to another online store.
A small search tab will put the most relevant results in front of your users and help them organize the product selection process easier.
7. Not taking website copywriting and design seriously
This is a bit general point, that’s why we saved it for the final part. By this point we mean that unprofessional-looking website, whether the mistakes are in design or copy, will make the visitors experience antipathy and simply leave.
One of the reasons visitors bounce is not trusting the online store. Low-quality product images, grammatically incorrect sentences, “too good to be true” offers are all signs that it’s not worth doing business with you.
Final thoughts
Improving your website performance is part of the search engine optimization process. Contact the Andava team, describe your challenges and we will help you get to the roots of your eCommerce bounce rate problems and get rid of them step by step.
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