The Best Conversion Optimization Techniques for eCommerce Sellers in 2025

The term conversion optimization rate, also known as CRO, has been making headlines for quite some time. If you are an avid reader of eCommerce blogs, chances are that you have a solid grip on the essentials of CRO. But like the sphere of online shopping itself, new information regarding this concept is arising every day. We have done the grunt work of compiling the best conversion optimization techniques at your disposal, so let’s dive in to get the inside scoop to skyrocket your store’s performance.

Conversion in eCommerce 101: What You Need to Know

Conversion is obviously the main character here, but what exactly is it?

In layman’s terms, conversion refers to the number of visitors who perform a desired action on your website, where making a purchase is hailed as the number one conversion type for eCommerce stores. Other common actions such as signing up for a newsletter, creating an account, adding an item to a wishlist, or joining a membership are also considered conversions, depending on one’s goal.

What is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)?

To build a well-rounded eCommerce store, conversion rate optimization is a strategy that can’t be overlooked.

Now that we have covered the gist of what conversion is, the definition of conversion rate optimization (CRO) becomes straightforward: the process of getting more visitors to perform a desired action. It all boils down to this simple formula:

(Number of conversions / Number of visitors) x 100 = Conversion Rate.

For example, your store garnered 2,000 visits in total, of which 100 sales were made. Thus, this is how to calculate the conversion rate:

(100/2,000) x 100 = 5%

As business owners, making 100 sales out of 2,000 is an excellent sign that your store is smashing it. For CRO standards, 5% is a highly sought-after rate as well, since the median conversion rate stands at 4.2%.

With CRO, keeping a close eye on boosting website traffic is not the priority, since the success lies in how to turn that percentage of traffic into paying customers. If thousands of customers land on your site daily, but most of them take off without making a purchase, then your conversion rate is not optimized. To activate CRO, a set of practices including A/B testing, webpage optimization, page speed improvement, and so on is involved. Ultimately, the goal of CRO is to increase revenue, reinforce customer loyalty, and boost ROI through data-driven changes, rather than spending money on other marketing tactics.

The Importance of CRO in eCommerce

As mentioned, focusing on CRO sets the stage for merchants to take advantage of the existing traffic and get them to spend more time on your store. As a result, the chance of them converting naturally increases.

When it comes to the importance of CRO in eCommerce, the sky’s the limit. It not only presents the most efficient practices to follow but also highlights the stumbling blocks as well. Feeling puzzled? Let’s say you are testing the waters with a CRO strategy where getting customers to add products to their carts is the desired action. While the data will tell you exactly what percentage of visitors hit the mark, along comes an interesting piece of statistics: how many immediately abandon their carts afterwards.

So, what does this tell us? CRO goes beyond obtaining a set of goals, or in other words, a one-and-done deal. It encompasses a comprehensive process of fine-tuning every aspect of your website to ensure a well-rounded performance. Your job is to be on the lookout for customer behavior and revenue streams to be wary of what to optimize, thus making full use of different conversion rate optimization techniques to stay on top of the game.

Factors that Affect CRO in eCommerce

Website Speed

A bad website speed can majorly sabotage your store’s performance and vice versa, which is why it’s a good practice to stay on top of this measure regularly.

Many turn to online shopping because it is convenient and quick, so a mere 2-second delay could be detrimental to a website’s conversion rate. Nobody likes to wait; that’s why the loading speed stays firmly on top as a factor that greatly influences CRO. The most direct solutions to slow website speed? Compress media, use a mobile-friendly theme, and review your page speed regularly with a reliable app such as Google PageSpeed Insights. Keep in mind: in order for your customers to place an order, they would want to see other color options of your best-selling jacket first. If the information refuses to load, that’s an unfortunate lost prospect.

More from GemPages: Fast Track to Success: Optimize Your Shopify Store Speed for Peak Performance.

Product Photographs and Descriptions

Your products are the central figure of your store, so make sure you take extra care of every aspect of your product page, especially the photographs and descriptions.

Unlike a brick-and-mortar store, online shoppers can’t physically try on your products, so they ought to rely on the visuals. Product images and descriptions are the bread and butter of your business, as they largely impact buyers’ decisions to convert. Professional photos that show the aesthetics of your products, while detailed yet succinct descriptions highlight their functions - that is the combo you want to strive for to drive up conversions.

Checkout Process

Getting shoppers to fill their carts is great, now all bets are on the checkout process that you have built. The keywords are smooth, automated, and secure, as no buyer wants to go through the hassle of manually filling in every piece of information, creating a mandatory account, and still being left wondering whether their card is protected upon payment. To achieve your desired conversion rate, concentrate on creating a seamless checkout process that keeps customers coming back for more.

UI & UX

Website UI and UX determine the whole shopping journey of your customers, hence their importance in CRO.

An intuitive UI and UX system leads the way for visitors to fulfill your store’s conversion goal, and vice versa. Want customers to sign up for your newsletter, but buried the section at the bottom of the page? That’s a bad design that calls for a redo ASAP. By refining your fonts, colors, layout, and navigation, you are on the right path to making UI and UX work in your favor.

Call-to-action Elements

Conversion occurs the moment your visitor starts interacting with your pages, namely via actions like clicking a button or link. Thus, call-to-action (CTA) elements are the GOAT to fill the gap between you and your conversion goal. Action-focused language (i.e., Shop Now) , reasonably sized buttons, and strategic placements are all accounted for when it comes to getting buyers to convert.

Helpful Tools to Track Conversions for Your Store

Accurately track your store’s performance with Shopify Analytics - a built-in tool that streamlines the data reporting process.

Alongside all the efforts poured into keeping your digital storefront in the best shape, a reliable tool to track your CRO performance is a must-have. If you are in the Shopify ecosystem, a multitude of both built-in and third-party apps are within your reach.

• Shopify Analytics: Shopify’s built-in tool that tracks conversion-related key metrics, all completed with a funnel analysis and real-time data to give you a full-fledged assessment of your store’s performance.

• Meta Pixel: FKA Facebook Pixel, this tool tracks users from Meta-owned social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), measures ad-to-sale attribution, and gives you an overview of how Meta ads influence your CRO.

• Google Analytics (GA4): helps evaluate top pages, user paths, and traffic sources; offers event-based tracking, funnel exploration, and allows custom reports for segmented behavior analysis.

• Google Ads: gives you a complete report package of conversions from Google Search, YouTube ads, and the like; enables A/B testing of landing pages and copy to track conversion rate.

10 Best Conversion Optimization Techniques for Your eCommerce Store

1. Focus on the Product Page

Alo Yoga’s product page is perfectly designed to make customers’ shopping experience more convenient and enjoyable.

If your home page is ground zero, the product page is the main stage. If done right, it is where all the magic happens: customers deciding to convert by adding a product to their cart. Therefore, it goes without saying that you should pay extra attention to the look and feel of your product page.

Take Alo Yoga, for example; being a widely famous activewear brand, it sure knows how to do a top-tier job in building a well-balanced product page that anyone could ever ask for. Visually pleasing product images, in-depth descriptions, a fabric comparison chart, ‘You May Also Like’ and ‘Style Inspirations’ sections, customer testimonials, and a sticky ‘Add to Bag’ banner - Alo Yoga has managed to tick all the boxes of what a high-converting product page should look like. No matter if you are in the same niche or not, this is a remarkable example to follow suit.

2. Add Urgency and Scarcity Elements

Visitors will not be able to miss the countdown timer on Feastables’ website, which does wonders for creating a sense of urgency.

Everyone knows who Mr.Beast is, so it is only natural that his chocolate brand became a major success right at the moment it was launched. Being a highly marketable brand himself, Feasibles has undoubtedly adopted marketing strategies to master CRO for its online store. If its countdown timer that is smacked dead on the very top of the homepage evokes a sense of FOMO in you, the store has mastered a crucial CRO technique: add an urgency element. A simple countdown timer to a campaign or a stock level alert is a powerful detail that makes customers feel more inclined to make a purchase, which is exactly what you want to ace CRO.

3. Use Strategic CTA Buttons

Poppi knows how to present the CTA buttons that capture users’ attention and drive more sales.

CTA buttons are effective, but it doesn’t mean that they can be plastered anywhere. Knowing where to place these little guys unlocks the door for more conversions to flow into your store, and a prime example of this practice is Poppi - a colorful drink brand that goes above just hydration. The brand’s playful attitude has translated to its digital storefront, where every scroll brings a new surprise. But don’t let the poppy look fool you, it knows how to do CRO as well. 

Various elements show that Poppi gives extra care to boost conversion, evidently in its use of CTA buttons as pictured above. The action-oriented language, like ‘Shop Now’ and ‘Buy Now,’ is conveyed via vibrant buttons, each one matching its background photo to a T. Instead of using a basic layout, the brand decided to split the page into three, making room to put more CTAs, inching even closer to a higher conversion rate.

4. Offer Multiple Payment Options

You don’t want to risk getting customers to the checkout page just for them to bounce at the last minute, all because a payment method is missing. In such a saturated industry like eCommerce, that is a rookie mistake that will set your business back from the competitors. To avoid this, make sure to have a comprehensive payment system set up, where the most common methods are available. For Shopify sellers, here are some eligible payment gateways to incorporate into your store:

• Shopify Payments (supports Visa, MasterCard, Amex)

• PayPal

• Digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay)

• Klarna/Afterpay (‘buy now, pay later’ gateways)

• Shop Pay (for selected Shopify users)

To go the extra mile, be sure to show your customers that the payment system is secure and protected by displaying trust signals, using SSL encryption, and similar proofs.

5. Showcase Your Best Sellers on the Homepage

Show your best-selling products right on the home page to grab visitors’ attention and boost conversion rate like Loop Earplugs.

Your visitors could land on your site from a variety of sources, be it social media ads or a search result. Thus, you want to advertise the cream of the crop right on your home page. Got a product that has been flying off the shelf lately? Go ahead and feature it in the best-selling section like Loop Earplugs did. By showing loud and clear that these are the most coveted earplugs, the brand succeeded in drawing attention to what it has in store, and then some. The unmissable ‘Add to Cart’ buttons and an option to discover all earplugs are also brilliant tactics that lead customers toward conversion. Product recommendations, especially with bestsellers, are reported to account for up to 31% of store revenues. With that indisputable benefit, there is no doubt that adopting this practice into your own store is one step closer to attaining your desired conversion rate.

6. Provide Live Chat and 24/7 Chatbots

It is easier than ever to get answers to your questions right on the homepage with a chatbot, as utilized by K9 Ballistics.

Customers are hesitant to convert for numerous reasons, one of which could be that they have a burning question without a proper answer. The next course of action is to exit the site instead of finishing the purchase. What a bummer! To not fall victim to this common mistake, make friends with a top-notch live chat system. As Shopify sellers, a wide array of tools is yours to use to give your customers A1 support only, namely the top-rated apps such as Tidio and Gorgias in the Shopify app store. Better yet, these apps allow you to set up a 24/7 chatbot or an AI assistant so that buyers can receive support around the clock. K9 Ballistics - a leading Shopify-based pet care business has made full use of this feature by integrating an automated chatbot into their store. Once shoppers feel like they are being well taken care of, it is easier for them to move toward the next step in the conversion funnel.

7. Enable Exclusive Incentives for Members

Stanley 1913 offers exclusive perks that can only be unlocked by members, making customers feel more enticed to sign up.

As consumers, have you ever wondered why there are brands that have become our ride-or-die? When you need a specific item, you always find yourself coming back to this one store, albeit many new faces in the same niche have been introduced. The answer is simple: it makes you feel appreciated as a customer.

Way before the surge of eCommerce, member-only incentives were already a common marketing tactic to keep the customer retention rate high. These days, these perks can be unlocked once you have signed up for a business’s loyalty program. The more you purchase, the more offers you receive - that is the core mantra that links this practice to conversion rate. No matter what the size of your business is, you can yield significant results from this technique. A prominent instance is Stanley 1913 - a drinkware brand that unexpectedly rose to popularity in recent years. Knowing how devoted its customer base is to these nifty cups, the brand has put up the ‘Stanley Club’ program to reward its customers with exclusive offers and content.

8. Design for Mobile Devices

Adapting to mobile means tweaking every detail to ensure a frictionless shopping experience, which Bobbie has managed to do.

People shop on different platforms, and mobile devices have been crowned the most popular, hence the need for eCommerce brands to start implementing mobile optimization. However, creating an identical version of your desktop website on mobile is not enough. There are bound to be details that require changes to smoothly blend into the user experience on the vertical screen. Elements such as CTA buttons, fonts, text sizes, menus, navigation, etc., should all be taken into consideration to eliminate a clunky layout for mobile users.

Take a look at Bobbie - a Shopify-powered baby formula brand that has built an outstanding mobile website that houses fullscreen popups, nicely-placed CTA buttons, as well as an excellent loading speed without sacrificing media quality.

9. Personalize the Shopping Experience

The Honey Pot gives buyers a deeply personalized shopping experience through a product-finding quiz.

Have you ever been in an online store for the first time and felt incredibly impressed by their ability to deliver a personalized shopping experience? Now it’s time to be on the other end and master this technique to see that conversion rate multiply. To give buyers a shopping experience they can’t forget, take advantage of a product quiz, recommendations, virtual try-on, smart filter, custom email, and so on. The less time they need to spend scouting for the product they need, the higher the chance that they will convert.

For a feminine care brand, The Honey Pot has done an exceptional job at showing its customers that they care with a concise, visually-rich product quiz to guide them to the most suitable product. That’s a basic yet effective practice to nail this tactic.

10. Constantly Review and Improve Your Changes

Last but not least, the efforts will pay off if you take the time to assess the performance of your store after implementing the above techniques. By staying aware of which department to improve and which one is killing it, you will be able to steer your business in the right direction to boost the conversion rate and stay consistent in the long run.

For landing page conversion, the need to constantly review is tenfold. It is the very place where visitors form the first impression of your brand, so ‘edit’ is the keyword. Utilizing data and statistics is definitely one of the most commonly used among the latest CRO techniques for landing pages, as they give you the most candid answer to how your store performs.

Stay On Top of Your Conversion Game and Transform Your Store Today

Now that you have made it to the end of the article, nothing is stopping you from applying our recommended techniques and watching that conversion rate grow. Being a merchant in the eCommerce sector is already a hefty task on its own, so why not let GemPages give you a helping hand in building the website of your dreams, all the highest-converting elements included? Happy hustlin’!

FAQ about Conversion Optimization Techniques