💬 Improving and monitoring "add to carts" as a metric can help shape areas of optimisations for CRO (i.e. conversion rates), especially when it comes to UX, design, messaging and copy for first-time visitors/customers knowing about the products that they're browsing.
Whilst a visitor/customer can add something to their cart, it doesn't mean that they will certainly check out - that's where cart and checkout path optimisations come into play (which you can learn more about in these two separate checklists I've done).
Nonetheless, getting first-time visitors/customers to show some 'intent' to buy/start the checkout process (which is a good 'signal' when looking at this metric), is a good area to focus on optimising as part of conversion rate optimisation (CRO) in eCommerce.
💬 Here are some CRO ideas below of tactics/experiments to trial - the good news is that many of them can be fairly easy to implement, thanks to software providers (i.e. Shopify apps if you're on this CMS)
Firstly as a baseline, you have to have a slick as product page UX and experience.
That means including key elements such as your USPs, clear descriptions, FAQs, shipping/return policies, UGC, reviews - you name it.
And ultimately, it needs to be fast as and optimised for great mobile UX.
I'm a big fan of the slide experience I've seen quite a few eCommerce stores use - it just looks slick and there's room for many other upsell and AOV tactics, which I mention a few times in this checklist.
I also particularly like it for mobile - as it takes over the main page and keeps users focused on moving onto cart - the trick here though is then adding some key elements.
One of the key elements I mention above is adding a 'rewards' motivator - which could come in the form of free shipping, discounts, a gift, or some other awesome incentive.
Typically, I recommend free shipping as usually that's a really key motivator that can help boost AOV.
Whether on the slider experience or product pages (and something I mention above in the first checklist point), make it clear what your USPs are.
Somewhat obvious tactical item to do, but have seen numerous brands either not include them, or simply not making them evident enough - really important for first-time customers.
As part of the cart experience, there's a big opportunity to do pre-purchase upsells by highlighting recommend/complementary products.
The key thing here is remember is that the UX needs to be 1-click - seamless and frictionless.
Social proof is paramount when it comes to CRO and improving add to cart rates - as it's all about building trust/credibility, showing off product quality/performance, and reduces the cognitive load when it comes to the purchasing decision process. And not to mention, it helps stand out against competitors.
So, you've got to highlight elements of proof from customers that talk and love your products.
In terms of product pages, I'm a big fan of including UGC content that's related to the product - whether that means videos from influencers/creators or customers, or images from happy customers sharing their opinions/thoughts as an embed from the Instagram feed, I'm all for it.
This all falls under the importance of social proof which plays a big role for improving CRO.
Cross-selling through product recommendations can help with better choice options for customers, as well as help increase chances of greater AOV.
For more advanced capabilities and based on product recommendations, implement a 3rd-party solution to help serve dynamic product recommendations based on website behaviours.
And you can go further with overlayed conditions, and integration with your core CMS/CRM to identify visitors who are logged in or not (where you can get purchase data to help serve ideal inventory).
A key foundational piece of work for both cart abandonments, and anyone who visits certain product pages and you have an email, means you can run dynamic ads and email automation flows based on the behaviour.
Once it's setup, it's essentially all automated, until they reach the desired goal (in most cases, adding to cart and checking out).
You can of course go pretty deep with this (such as attributes like purchase history, location, etc), but if it's something you're yet to setup properly, keep the setup simple for now, and as you scale or fatigue with performance, then look into more customised setups.
In many ways, this is a simple reminder to include where you can - good chances you have already done so.
Especially for BNPL (which relates to the next checklist point about express payment checkouts), this matters due to trust, and especially as an option for customers to use if it's an expensive/higher-cart value transaction.
Express payouts are an awesome addition for faster checkouts for customers.
An absolute must look into if you don't have them currently - great for mobile UX, and also helps with trust and saving for customers.
I do love pop-ups and exit intents, but when they're done well (and not just firing right off the bat when you visits sites).
Based on certain triggers, such as time spent on site and/or overlayed with visiting certain product pages, have dynamic/customised pop-ups trigger with special offers.
The good news is that there are many software vendors that can help you set this up fairly quickly - and they're cost-effective too, which means you should see ROI fairly quickly with this tactic.
FOMO/scarcity tactics really do work when it comes to encouraging customers/visitors to add more to cart.
Especially tactics like countdown timers for special deal periods and low stock alerts (numerous others, but like these two).
Of course, it also comes down to nailing the copy (and highlight urgency and scarcity) too in order to encourage add to carts.
Market/industry and competitor comparisons can be really effective - and it's a playbook which many SaaS brands do within their verticals.
And within eCommerce, it's certainly effective for highlighting USPs in a digestible and visual format.
Important note - the challenge (and even for legality reasons), you need to ensure details are correct and honest.
This is a basic foundation you should already have, but serves a good reminder to ensure whether or not it's clear enough for visitors.
Make sure to see how competitors and other top brands position and lay out each of these key areas.
Live chat can be really effective, but can also sometimes be a frustrating experience for visitors/customers.
My top recommendation here (and what I say to clients/companies I advise) is keeping the chatbot simple - don't overcomplicate paths for the sake of trying to automate everything. However, based on page views/certain products, serve live chat automation prompts which make contextual sense to what the visitor is looking at.
Ultimately, just make sure real humans are available, and that visitors/customers don't have to jump through a "puzzle" just to quickly chat to someone - after all, great customer service is effective marketing.
