Online Clothing Store - Low conversion rate

[Fatima1]

Hello all, 

I launched my online clothing store: www.shoplaundromat.com 3 weeks ago. Currently we have been getting traffic mainly through Youtube and Social Media (Instagram). Our current conversion rate is 0.23% when the industry average for clothing/apparel is 2.00-3.00%.

Any advice on potential reasons for this would be very welcome! Could it be that we are starting and trust needs to be built with the customer first? (as clothing is an emotional purchase). Or is it more likely to be incorrect targeting through our marketing efforts? Or price? Or lastly, if there are any issues with the site. 

Thank you for any opinions and advice provided!

Fatima 

[Rafa_Astro]

Hello Fatima,

just a few ideas to look into it:

• I would try and improve a bit the speed load for mobile: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?hl=es&url=https%3A%2F%2Fshoplaundromat.com%2...
• I would do a research (if you haven't yet) of competitor's pricing to see if price would be an issue
• Reviews: this will improve your conversion rate a lot. If you don't use reviews apps, start thinking about one. there are plenty of them in the app store
• Finally, I don't know if you are investing on paid campaigns, but if so, usually takes time to understand your target and improve conversion, so just take it easy and test/optimize 

Also, in my opinion a 2-3% conversion rate is not a satndard, but a great conversion rate, so I would suggest to aim to 1% which is a very good coversion rate in fashion industry.

Hope this helps!

[vinods]

Hello @Fatima1 

you need to get more quality traffic on your website. You have the power of google ads, if you can setup the google campaign in correct way and run the google campaign in correct way with detailed optimization your store sales can reach higher with better ROI.

let me know if you need any further help i have helped shopify store merchants in increasing their sales from $150 to $900+ per month in a span of 3-4 months keeping in mind the product.

Thanks

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@Fatima1 wrote:

Hello all, 

I launched my online clothing store: www.shoplaundromat.com 3 weeks ago. Currently we have been getting traffic mainly through Youtube and Social Media (Instagram). Our current conversion rate is 0.23% when the industry average for clothing/apparel is 2.00-3.00%.

Any advice on potential reasons for this would be very welcome! Could it be that we are starting and trust needs to be built with the customer first? (as clothing is an emotional purchase). Or is it more likely to be incorrect targeting through our marketing efforts? Or price? Or lastly, if there are any issues with the site. 

Thank you for any opinions and advice provided!

Fatima 

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[ColinMorelli]

First of all, congratulations on launching your store! It'll always take some time to get things started, but I can provide some input from both my personal opinion looking at your store just now, as well as some background experience:

• Your home page is missing a "story" or a pitch: Clothing brands in your price range (which I would consider "affordable luxury" if I were to make up a name to apply - it's probably a bit higher than average, but not designer price range) typically sell an aspiration or a goal. When people buy luxury goods, they aren't necessarily buying them because they love the item, they're buying them because they want what the item can symbolize: wealth, comfort, stability, class, etc. I'd love to be given a reason to buy Laundromat's clothing on the home page. What do I get for my purchase? It's not just an article of clothing, it's a goal.
• There are very few filtering options: My only choice is mostly just pick a category and scroll. Finding a way to help me narrow down to what I might be looking for could be helpful. Possibly allowing visitors to filter by color, fit, etc could be useful. Surfacing your favorite picks can also be helpful to guide me in a certain direction
• Product pages are a bit image-heavy: The product shots look great! But, they take up a ton of space on the products page. In fact, at first glance if I were sent to that page, I might even think this was a site that just showing me photos of models rather than trying to sell my clothing. Guide people into making selections. Maybe downsize the images a bit, add one or two more items per row, and emphasize the name of the product and price.

These are just a few quick suggestions about your site specifically, but may not address your underlying conversion problem. Some other questions to think about:

• How are people getting to your site? You mentioned YouTube and Instagram. What are you "selling" on those platforms? Does the pitch that you're making on those platforms align with the first thing the visitor sees when they get to your website? Your bounce rate can help here - if a large number of people are leaving after the first page visit, there's a good chance they're seeing mixed messaging between what got them to your site and what they see when they get there.
• How are you attracting people on those platforms? Are you finding buyers, or just lookers? If you're finding lookers, who are on your page for the content (not the product) you should consider how you guide them towards a sell. You may need to warm them up with another email or two, or post or two, before you try to send them on to make a purchase.

Hopefully all this is helpful. Best of luck on your adventure. Happy to answer other questions where I can.

[Fatima1]

Hello @ColinMorelli , 

Thank you for your very detailed and considerate reply - thank you for taking the time to provide this information. 

1. We recently included three areas on the home page that provide more about us, product, quality, makers - these three areas give the customer more opportunity to understand our brand, alternatively this could more be an internal issue - of us not being able to find a more distinctive pull/point of difference for the customer

2. Yes, filtering options would be introduced when our product range increases in size, thanks for the feedback 

3. We're using a theme through Shopify - Prestige - which focuses more on the imagery for apparel/accessories/fashion, but I do understand your point

Your other points: 

1. Our bounce rate is usually below 40%. We get spikes in views and sales for the individual product that is worn by an influencer through Instagram stories/blog posts/Youtube. It's rare that a customer doesn't purchase the exact item that the influencer wore - which I guess highlights the herd mentality in fashion. Having said that, we've only appeared on 3 Influencers, so time and more of this is needed. 

2.  We're working on our overall strategy now, combining email newsletters with more targeted Instagram/Facebook advertising (in the future) and hoping to organically grow - slowly and steadily - through Influencers to build trust with customers, then reach out to publications for further legitimacy and to improve SEO. However, long term - basing a strategy on Instagram posts - spikes in sales - doesn't seem like the strongest way to go. Any ideas here would be valued. 

Thank you again very much!

Fatima

[vinods]

hello @Fatima1 

Thats good you are going step by step for sales & marketing .

When you are doing SEO get some traffic from paid ads from Google as well as email marketing, it will give you instant sales. Then you start with Social ( FB + Insta + Pinterest).

Thanks

[JDog]

Hi Rafa,

May I ask where you got your conversion rate info?

Jay

[Rafa_Astro]

Hello Jay,

I got it from my own experience, I've worked with several clients over the years, and the most common conversion rate is close to 1%.

Regards,

Rafa

[JDog]

Awesome, I wondered if it was from experience or an online resource.

Thanks for sharing. Experience is a valuable commodity!

[Sara_85]

Hi,

I strong recommend to import Aliexpress reviews, because our conversion rate have increased dramatically

I’m using Reviify app.

 Reviify ‑ AliExpress Reviews – Ecommerce Plugins for Online Stores – Shopify App Store

App has free version so you can test great features.