8 min read
Your storefront looks great. You've spent a lot of time tweaking it and making sure everything flows properly.
But why aren't any visitors adding products to their cart? You've taken time to advertise your store and it's getting traffic, but it isn't converting.
Perhaps your visitors are having a hard time navigating your store because there isn't a clear call to action. They simply don't know where to click.
In this post, we'll take a look at some inspirational examples of stores that have fantastic call to actions. You'll be able to take their techniques and apply them to your own store.
Let's get started.
Your call to action is what tells visitors what to do, where they should click, and what to buy. It’s what lights a path to your checkout and turns a visitor into a customer as quickly as possible.
The most obvious example of a call to action is a “Buy Now” button, or a “Shop Now” button on your storefront.
There’s no definitive answer on which button, phrase, styling or size works best, so it’s important to always test and optimize your storefront.
Let’s dig in to what some of the basics are for an effective call to action.
While this is something that can be tested, optimized and modified for years depending on your store, it’s good to have a basic understanding of what techniques should be used to make an effective call to action.
When shoppers feel an opportunity is limited, they may be more inclined to purchase.
You see it in retail store displays all the time. Often, you’ll see end of season sales that run for a week. The same can be applied to your ecommerce store.
For instance, if somewhere on your storefront you included a stock level, or something that says “Buy now - only on sale until midnight” then you’re building on the sense of urgency.
Once case study that was done shows that by adding a sense of urgency to their product, they were able to increase their conversion rate by 332%. That’s a huge lift for any business.
While there’s no definitive color that converts best, it’s important to ensure that you’re using a color that resonates with your visitors, and your brand.
Here are a few tips to consider when determining which color to use for your CTA.
It’s good to make sure your CTA appears as a button and not just text. Even if its surrounded with a small border, it’s better than having just a text link.
There is a lot of data and studies that show that buttons work well for directing visitors to the checkout process.
Make sure to keep the text within the button short and sweet as well. A simple “buy now”, “add to cart”, “buy” works well.
Tip: You can cater your button copy to the market you’re selling. If you’re selling something like uniforms or apparel, try changing the copy on your buy button to “Wear the Best Uniforms” and see if that helps with conversions!
Hero images can be used to highlight a product or collection - in other words, they can be used as a massive call to action.
One study that was done shows that the first image out of five images received 84% of all clicks on stores with rotating slideshows.
Be sure to have your hero image link to a product, or collection to get visitors to checkout faster.
Try to keep everything above the fold if you can. The “fold” of a storefront is the point on any website that comes after scrolling down. Any content above the fold is what visitors immediately see upon entering your store.
If you can grab a visitors attention above the fold, chances are they’ll continue to click through and navigate through your store.
