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This is an excellent expression to live by if we are talking about your toaster.

But if you are talking about your website - it's like telling the Ferrari F1 team to stop innovating and trying to beat their competition just because the engine still turns on.

If you are not continually optimising your Conversion Rate and other Key Metrics performance, you WILL fall behind your competitors and, possibly worse, go out of business.

We often encounter business owners who have set up and built their websites only to neglect them—operating under the assumption that their hard work in getting their store built was enough to let them focus on marketing and advertising to drive traffic to their store.

This is a big mistake, by not focussing on CRO you are neglecting your biggest asset and marketing tool.

So what is Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)?

CRO means conversion rate optimisation, which means optimising/increasing the percentage of users who purchase (convert) on your website

However, the name itself and the process mentioned above are a bit misleading. Conversion Rate (CR) is only one of the metrics you are looking to optimize when we talk about CRO.

When conducting CRO on a website, you are also focussing on the following metrics in addition to CR:

• Add to Cart
• Reached Checkout
• Average Order Values
• Bounce Rates
• Site Speed
• Repeat Purchase Rate

Ultimately, when we talk about CRO a better term for it would be, Website Performance Optimization.

Why is CRO important?

CRO lowers Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)

Keeping everything else constant by converting more visitors into buyers reduces your cost to acquire a new customer.

Historically, if you had a 3% conversion rate and it cost you $150 to drive 100 visitors to your website, your CAC would be $50.

If you increase your conversion rate by just 10%, your conversion rate would increase to 3.3% and keeping your cost of 100 visitors at $150; your new CAC would be $45.45.

CRO increases Profit margins

Similarly to the point above by decreasing your CAC, you essentially put that saving directly into your pocket as increased profit.

CRO improves Customer Satisfaction

By improving/optimizing your store, you are making it more user-friendly and taking out any frustrations or friction in the buying process.

This in turn, will lead to a higher level of customer satisfaction as you haven't wasted your customers time.

What is the CRO process?

Most people would have their own process for identifying and solving conversion issues; ours is the following:

1. Audit and Analyse data of current setup
2. Implement any quick wins
3. Implement best practices
4. Analyse user data on new designs
5. Iterate based on user data
6. A/B test assumptions and alternative options
7. Introduce new features and functionality
8. A/B test new features and functionality

How Blend can help

Your Blend team consists of UI & UX designers, Front & Backend developers, CRO Consultants, Growth Marketers and Strategy Consultants. Our company culture is focused on continuous learning and development. Due to this, you will benefit from a tight knit team that's on the pulse in a quickly changing Shopify environment. Click here to get the conversation started. 

Peter Gardner

COO

Peter's background is firmly rooted in Shopify and e-commerce. Having initially worked as a freelance designer and developer in the infancy of Shopify, Peter has extensive knowledge of the platform and its capabilities for growing an online brand.

As COO and Lead Consultant, Peter works on ensuring that the delivery of Blend client projects and growth partnerships meet the high standards set by the business. Peter also works closely with all Blend clients to understand and establish how best to grow their Shopify based business.

Published: July 12 2021