We won’t bury the lead: conversion rate is an imperfect metric. The problem is that it is wholly divorced from revenue. A site with one visitor who happens to convert has a conversion rate of 100% and one sale. The same site with 100 sessions and 10 orders has a conversion rate an order of magnitude worse but ten times the revenue. Which bank account would you rather have?
So, granted that nobody should be talking about conversion rates if they care about revenue, why would we offer ecommerce CRO, and why would you trust us, naysayers that we are?
Let’s tackle the second question first just to get it out of the way: everyone loves a straw man, and obviously, our example is a trifle extreme. But the thread it pulls—that CRO is as much a function of traffic as anything else—is an important one. We believe that offering CRO services in concert with our integrated approach actually solves this by de-siloing the optimization.
Optimizing a site for conversion is wholly necessary, smart, and revenue-driven. Totally a great idea. The rate of it all might not be relevant, but the conversion optimization? Now, there’s a project worth working on.
Our approach to conversion optimization is very much like our approach to everything else. We know, it's a shock. But it’s also, we believe, the right way.
We think about conversion optimization as an extension of brand building and customer acquisition—that is, we want to bring the right traffic and show them why yours is the brand for them.
Our theory is that no amount of button color testing can make the kind of difference you’re looking for. For that, we need to look at the triggers that drive someone to make a purchase and understand that, sometimes, conversion will take multiple touchpoints—ads to bring the traffic, a landing page that highlights features and benefits, an email flow that handles objections, and sometimes another ad to seal the deal.
Optimizing for conversion means thinking deeply about how to structure navigation so people can find what they’re looking for. It means understanding concerns so we can preemptively call them out. It means highlighting real reviews to add the sauce of social proof.
And of course, it means measuring the results, iterating, and working in cycles of continuous improvement.
