How Ecommerce Personalization and Translation Can Reduce Your Bounce Rate

Did you know that many eCommerce stores die because of their high bounce rates? Why? The answer is simple: if your targeted consumers are quickly leaving your site, they aren't buying. The goal of your eCommerce store is to sell your goods or services online, and if that's not happening you don't have much of an eCommerce business. And it gets worse. The higher your bounce rate, the lower your rankings are, which makes it even harder to get customers. So how can you reduce your bounce rate? The solution is to pay attention to eCommerce personalization and localization.

The bounce rate from an eCommerce store can be as high as 45%.

So, you have invested in a brand name, a good looking website, an app, and advertising, but people are still leaving your site without making a purchase. Let's take a look at what may be causing your high bounce rate and discuss how it can be fixed with eCommerce personalization.

What Is a Bounce Rate?

Google tells us that a bounce is a single-page session. To expand on this statement, a bounce happens when someone enters your page and does not interact further with elements on that page or any other pages. Various events can trigger a bounce:

•     Returning to search results.
•     Closing the browser.
•     Entering a different URL in the address bar.
•     Clicking on an outbound link
•     Remaining inactive and causing the session to time out.
•     Reading the whole page but then leaving.

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How Do I Know What My Bounce Rate Is?

Here's the formula to determine your bounce rate:

The number of single-page visits to your website divided by the number of total visits.

So, what is a reasonable bounce rate for my website? As a rule of thumb, a bounce rate in the range of 26 to 40 percent is excellent. However, it's not quite so simple. An acceptable bounce rate is heavily dependent on which type of page people are bouncing from.

       
• Example: An interested person lands on your product page via a Google search. They browse the specs, quality, price, and reviews of your product. At the same time, they most likely have three or four other tabs open with different eCommerce stores offering similar products. In other words, they're comparison shopping. However, they are interacting with your brand and giving some consideration to your product. They may even have spent four minutes or more on your product page before deciding not to buy and clicking out of your site. Unfortunately, this still counts as a bounce.

A true bounce is different. It's when someone arrives on your website and leaves quickly - usually within seconds. This means they have felt they were in the wrong place.

So, your site-wide bounce rate won't necessarily be that meaningful, particularly if you have quite a few different types of pages. It's much more useful to look at your page-level bounce rate and consider the type and quality of content on each page. For instance, blog posts usually see higher bounce rates than product pages. The bottom line here is that however you choose to measure your bounce rate, you'll just keep losing out on sales if you don't improve it. So, here are six ways to give yourself the best chance to improve your conversions.

1. Optimize Your Product Pages

A product page represents a barrier that can prevent a prospect from turning into a customer. Unfortunately, prospects browse through specs and reviews and make decisions that marketers often haven't played too much part in. Often, it's your product page that will make or break a sale.

Here's what's good about it:

• The review section is front and center.
• The "add to cart" button stands out - it's the only thing on the page that's colored red.
• Icons and short descriptions are used to emphasize the quality and consistency of the product.

Don't make the mistake of making reviews hard to find. Good reviews will increase your conversion rate. A survey found that 77.3% of consumers were impacted by reviews when making a purchasing decision.

Does the color of the "add to cart" button make a difference? The color by itself makes little difference. What counts is making it stand out from the rest of the design.

To lower your bounce rate, keep your product page uncluttered, write compelling content, include reviews, and include an obvious CTA.

2. Segment Your Email List

Another way to improve your eCommerce personalization and localization is by email list segmentation. This means grouping your prospects based on their interaction with your products, website, and emails. The more you segment, the more you will personalize your target audience by sending them offers based on their interests. Each prospect will feel like they are receiving a personal communication. Therefore, when they click on your website link, they are far less likely to bounce.

3. Make the Purchase Experience Smooth

If someone is trying to buy something via your website, make sure they cannot get confused. If they can't find the right price or a prominent CTA, you are motivating them to leave. In fact, 11% of prospective buyers abandon their shopping carts because the checkout process was frustrating and too complicated. These are sales that you should not be losing.

4. Don't Link Your Ads to Your Home Page

It's a common mistake for eCommerce stores to links their ads to their home page and not to the relevant product page. Remember that someone clicks on your ad because they're interested in your product and not because they want to browse your website. If you are sending them to your homepage, chances are they'll just leave.

5. Don't Hide Costs

It's a big mistake to nickel and dime your potential customers by hiding costs until the last second. These include charges for shipping, discount offers that don't really turn out to be discounts, and other secret ways of jacking up the price tag. All you will achieve is a high rate of cart abandonment and large numbers of bounce rates.

6. Use Exit-Intent Overlays

An exit-intent popup is an overlay that appears at the forefront of the screen when someone is about to leave your website. In other words, the prospect is about to bounce, but you throw one more thing in their way in hopes of saving the sale (e.g., a discount or a freebie). Exit-intent popups on eCommerce sites increase conversion rates by 5-10%.

eCommerce Personalization Means Localization

eCommerce personalization builds relationships with your audience in whichever country you are doing business in. Localizing your content to make it more appealing to your targeted consumers will decrease your bounce rate. Ultimately, people will buy from you if they trust you, so the more honest you are with your prospects, the more they're likely to convert. It's not necessarily because your products are high-quality or cheaper than your competition, but because they like you. And the more they like you, the lower your bounce rate will be.Keep in mind, the concept of ecommerce personalization applies to every aspect of your business – your website content, your email lists, your live chat, and your customer service. Your ecommerce localization strategy will vary with every country you do business in. What works with one local audience may not work with another. Localize understands that eCommerce localization forms the basis for successful international marketing. We have tools that can help you – click here for more information.