Psst! Hey, you there! Do you want to learn a simple way to boost your e-commerce site's conversion rates, instantly and without a lot of planning and preparation?
Psst! Hey, you there! Do you want to learn a simple way to boost your e-commerce site's conversion rates, instantly and without a lot of planning and preparation?
Of course you do.
If you own or administer an e-commerce site, you can quickly implement a simple, inexpensive conversion optimization tool that can improve your sales by 3, 5, or even 10 percent.
How it works is simple-when visitors try to back out of your page, close the current window, or click another link on their bookmarks bar, the exit-intent software recognizes that the mouse has moved off-screen, and instantly opens a popup on the visitor's screen with a message of your choosing.
It gives you a final chance to convert visitors before they leave your site, perhaps forever.
The sections below provide five solid reasons to implement exit-intent popup software on your e-commerce site.
1. You Can Recover an Abandoned Shopping Cart
One of the most important capabilities of exit-intent technology is that it lets you save a percentage of sales lost before checkout when visitors abandon their shopping cart. Research shows that e-commerce shoppers abandon their carts as much as 70 percent of the time, so any technology that lets you minimize this number is extremely valuable.
To save the sale and encourage buyers to complete the checkout process, you can program your exit-intent popup to appear with a message, just as visitors are about to leave the site. The message can offer coupons, price discounts, or other incentives, if the shopper will complete the sale.
Our data indicate that this type of popup converts about 10 percent of the time. By turning off the email capture function, you can bump that number as high as 15 percent.
Your visitors have already indicated that they want the items by selecting them and placing them into their shopping cart. Don't let this opportunity pass without at least plying them with one last sales pitch.
2. You Can Build Your List
Another valuable way exit-intent popups help you is by building your subscriber list. Even if you cannot close the sale before your visitors leave, you can often capture their contact information and get permission to contact them. This lets you market to them over the long run.
Email marketing is one of the best and most effective tools online marketers have. You can email prospective customers coupons, inform them of special offers, provide the information they need to buy from you, or simply build a relationship of trust that might pay off later.
3. You Can Double Your Chances at a Sale
Often, when visitors leave your site (especially after having placed items into a shopping cart), it is because they feel ambivalent about their purchase. They clearly want the items they have selected, but they might feel conflicted about the price, worry about exceeding their budget, or feel guilty about buying a luxury item. Whatever the reasons, sometimes, all it takes to clear up the ambivalence is a timely nudge in the right direction.
There is no better time to nudge your visitors than just as they are trying to leave your site. If they are still wrestling with the idea of a purchase, one last marketing message might be enough to turn the tide and convince them to complete the sale.
4. You Get an Instant Conversion Boost
Most "conversion optimization" strategies take time and planning to initiate. Many are also expensive. Exit-intent technology, on the other hand, lets you get up and running today, and provides immediate results at low cost.
The very moment you implement the software you should start seeing a boost in your conversion rates, as visitors who try to leave your site receive a last message tailored to keep them onsite. You can direct them to other items, offer price discounts, or simply offer a final sales pitch. Whatever your technique, some percentage of those visitors who otherwise would have left your site will accept your last minute offer and convert.
What other strategy can provide results like that?
5. You Don't Disturb Visitors While Browsing
Other types of popups have the disadvantage of annoying your customers while they are trying to read your product descriptions or view an image. This can actually hurt your sales, as visitors get frustrated and leave your site out of irritation.
By contrast, exit-intent popups do not appear until after your visitors have already decided to leave your page. Thus, rather than interrupting them while they are browsing your site, exit-intent popups actually interrupt their attempts to leave your site, by offering discounts or coupons, or by redirecting visitors to other items they might appreciate.
Read also: 25 ways to increase your online sales
The sections above provided five solid reasons exit-intent popups are a valuable addition to your e-commerce site. They let you recover an abandoned shopping cart and build your email subscriber list. They give you a second chance at a sale, just as prospects try to leave your site. They give you an instant (and inexpensive) conversion boost. Lastly, they do not interrupt your visitors until they try to leave.
Exit-intent popups are relatively new on the scene, so if you act quickly, you might be able to get a jump on your competition by implementing this technology on your site.
This article is written by Csaba Zajdo, founder of OptiMonk and several other projects specializing in ecommerce conversion. OptiMonk is one of the leading providers of Exit-Intent Popup technology, which aims to help small and medium businesses leverage the power of Exit-Intent Popups.
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