The Secret to Boosting Your New Shopper Conversion Rates

Purchasing from an unfamiliar apparel brand can be an intimidating process for shoppers, especially online. Worries over issues such as sizing, product quality, and a potentially arduous return process have deterred many new shoppers from converting despite their interest in your products. Rather than leaving that marketing spend on the table, here are several solutions we have compiled to help eCommerce apparel brands boost their new shopper conversion rates!  

Reasons Why New Shoppers Don’t Convert 

Before we can meaningfully discuss the solutions to boosting your new shopper conversion rates, we need to discuss the hurdles that prevent new shoppers from converting in the first place.

• Difficulty in navigating your site: The top ten most trafficked eCommerce sites in the World all follow similar UI formats. They do this because it’s what shoppers have become accustomed to, and they want to streamline the shopper’s journey through familiarity and ease of use. While some brands view differentiation in site design as a way to stand out in the crowd, using a unique UI can result in difficulty for new shoppers trying to do the very thing you brought them there to do, convert. 

• Size confusion: Interestingly enough, size confusion remains one of the most daunting roadblocks to conversion for new and returning eCommerce shoppers. Not only can size discrepancies between brands be substantial, but also the traditional sizing process is often difficult and time-consuming. Until universal sizing standards are established (which is highly unlikely), this problem will persist into the foreseeable future.

• Unsure about a product’s quality: It can be considerably difficult for eCommerce shoppers to determine the quality of your product through a simple product page. What’s more, if your product page is lacking in shopper reviews, the product description is their only source of information available. Here is where new shoppers are likely to drop off, as trust has not yet been established to the point where they will convert through the product page alone.

How to Get Shoppers to Convert

The aforementioned issues are some of the most prevalent roadblocks to conversion for new shoppers of any brand, so how do we get them to the bottom of your sales funnel and boost your new shopper conversion rates?

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‍Optimize your UI and purchase paths

We know that this is easier said than done, but there are a few foolproof steps any brand can take to work towards this goal. First and foremost, use breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs are essentially a list of links that represent the page a shopper is currently on, as well as its “ancestor” pages, usually leading the shopper all the way back to the homepage. Even on mobile, breadcrumbs are a very powerful tool in helping users navigate your website.

Brands must also optimize their website for mobile users. The number of mobile-based eCommerce shoppers has increased dramatically in recent years, and these shoppers expect a seamless transition from their desktop shopping experience to their mobile shopping experience.

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‍Offer modern sizing solutions

Rather than forcing shoppers to break out a measuring tape every time they need to size themselves, let technology take the wheel and streamline this process for you. WAIR offers a new take on eCommerce apparel sizing, relying not on analog measurements for size recommendations but using tangible, 3D body scan data taken from millions of real people across the globe to provide shoppers with precise and personalized size recommendations.

WAIR seamlessly aligns each unique shopper with the body scan that matches them best through a process that only requires a few clicks on their end. When compared to existing sizing methods, new shoppers who use WAIR are, on average, 10.5 times more likely to convert!

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‍Leverage existing shopper reviews

When it comes to converting virtual window shoppers into paying shoppers, reviews are a vital tool that all eCommerce brands should take advantage of. Reviews not only instill confidence in the new buyer but also provide critical information on your brand and products from an unbiased source. If you are having trouble gathering reviews, it never hurts to incentivize your shoppers to leave one. An offer as simple as 5-10% off their next purchase may be all you need to motivate them, and the value of their vote of confidence will far exceed that cost.

You’ve Brought Them Here, Help Them Stick Around!

Bringing new shoppers to your site was the “easy” part. Now that they have arrived guiding them through their journey is the next crucial step in getting them to convert. Focusing on establishing trust and streamlining the new shopper’s journey will vastly increase your chances of turning once apprehensive visitors into loyal advocates of your brand. 

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Interested in learning more about WAIR? Schedule a demo here and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram , LinkedIn, and Facebook for all your fashion content needs!