Ecommerce Website Optimization – Macro Conversions and Process-Based Micro Conversions
An e-commerce website is an online store that sells products or services. It can be operated by an in-house team or outsourced to a third party. Generally, eCommerce sites provide a faster and cheaper way to sell products than traditional brick-and-mortar storefronts. They also offer more precise data about sales trends than brick-and-mortar stores, allowing businesses to forecast future revenue.
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Macro Conversions
A macro conversion is a desired action that businesses want users to take on their site. This can be a customer purchase, subscription signup, or a contact form submission. These are the primary conversions a business wants to see happen, and they are the most measurable outcomes.
Macro conversions are typically the only goals that digital marketers focus on when optimizing a site, but this alone is not enough to drive business success. A more comprehensive approach involves tracking and analyzing micro conversions along with the primary goal.
Process-Based Micro Conversions
The first step to identifying micro conversions is to create a customer journey map (CJM). This visual overview of all the different touchpoints your customers have with your e-commerce site before making a purchase will help you identify process micro-conversions and understand how your micro-conversions eventually lead to your primary macro conversion.
Secondary Micro Conversions
As the name suggests, secondary micro conversions are the smaller steps that a user takes before taking a more desired macro conversion. These may include things like creating a new account, browsing categories or reviews, reading blog content, reviewing a product or service, or scheduling a call with an enterprise team.
These actions are not as desirable or important as the primary macro conversion, but they are still a valuable indicator of user readiness to make a macro conversion in the future. The goal is to nurture those leads and convert them into customers who buy from you in the future.
Micro Conversions are a great way to measure buyer intent and assess points of friction in a buyer’s journey, as well as potential for upselling or cross-selling. Tracking micro conversions can also help you understand whether or not your visitors are a good match for your target audience and determine the best marketing efforts to use.
Using Micro Conversions
The most obvious macro conversion a website might experience is the purchase of a product or service. The process of completing this type of conversion is a key metric that can be tracked with Google Analytics or other product analytics tools.
Achieving this type of macro conversion is a big deal for any business. It can be the difference between generating revenue and not.
Fortunately, it’s easy to track micro conversions and spot any improvements you can make to your customer journey with analytics tools. For example, if you notice that a large number of users are completing a form without filling in their personal information, consider adding an opt-in button to the form or a checkbox to make it easier for them to confirm their data.