Top 4 Ways of Finding Test Ideas For Your eCommerce Store
As an eCommerce store owner, you know that testing is essential to ensure that your website is optimized for conversion. Testing eCommerce ideas, on the other hand, comes with a high success rate and can keep you assured that your online store is functioning optimally and delivering a seamless user experience. Since websites are highly contextual, there’s no one-size-fits-all testing idea for eCommerce websites, and hence coming up with new test ideas can be challenging, especially if you’ve been running tests for a while. As a business owner, once you realize that you can analyze and test changes on your website before making up your mind about anything, it seems like a no-brainer in finding test ideas for your eStore. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the top 4 methods for finding test ideas to help you improve your eCommerce store’s Conversion Rate Optimization.
#1 Conduct User Research
Successful marketers and business owners agree this is one of the most effective ways to generate test ideas. This involves gathering feedback and insights directly from your customers and analyzing their behavior/engagement patterns on your website. By doing so, you can identify pain points and areas where customers are struggling, based on which you can then generate test ideas, that’ll help you correct target regions.
Here are some ways to conduct user research:
- Surveys: Send surveys to your customers to gather feedback about their experience on your website. Ask questions about what they like and dislike, what they find confusing, and any suggestions they may have for improvement. Sometimes, even a small feedback email can go a long way in gathering customer insights on what needs your attention.
- Heatmaps: Use heatmap tools to analyze where users click and scroll on your website. This can help identify areas that are receiving the most attention and those that are being overlooked.
- User Testing: Conduct user testing to observe how users navigate your website and identify areas where they are getting stuck or frustrated. This can be done in person or remotely using tools like UserTesting.com. You can get detailed test results across various aspects of UI, UX Research, Design, Customer Experience, and more to deliver rich digital experiences.
#2 Analyze Website Analytics
Another way to generate test ideas is by analyzing your website analytics. This involves looking at data such as bounce rates, conversion rates, and time on site to identify areas where users need to be more engaging.
Here are some of the main areas to keep an eye out for:
- Product Pages: Analyze the performance of your product pages, including individual bounce rates and conversion rates. Identify areas where users drop off and test different layouts, images, and descriptions to improve conversion rates.
- Checkout Process: Analyze the performance of your checkout process, including abandonment rates and the number of steps involved. Test different checkout flows and forms to simplify the process and reduce abandonment rates.
- Navigation: Analyze the performance of your website’s navigation, including click-through rates and time on site. Test different navigation structures and layouts to improve user engagement and reduce bounce rates.
#3 Analyze Competitor Websites
Looking at your competitors’ websites can also be an effective way to generate test ideas. By analyzing their websites, you can easily identify areas where they are thriving and specific areas where you can improve. For example, if you want to take your business online, you can always hire expert BigCommerce web designers at agencies like CodeClouds, who, with the help of powerful tools, can conduct a thorough analysis of your competitor’s websites and yield rich insights.
Here are some areas to look at:
- Design: Analyze your competitors’ website designs and identify elements that are visually appealing and engaging. Test different design elements on your website to improve user engagement.
- Features: Analyze your competitors’ website features and identify those that are useful and effective. Test similar features on your website to improve user experience.
- Content: Analyze your competitors’ website content and identify areas where they provide value to their customers. Test different types of content on your website, such as videos, infographics, and guides, to improve user engagement.
#4 Brainstorm with Your Team
Finally, brainstorming with your team can be a great way to generate test ideas. By bringing together different perspectives and expertise, you can develop unique and innovative test ideas you may not have thought of.
Here are some proven methods to brainstorm with your team:
- Idea Sessions: Schedule idea sessions with your team to discuss areas of your website that need improvement and generate test ideas.
- Hackathons: Host a hackathon where your team can work together to develop new and innovative test ideas.
- A/B Testing: Encourage your team to develop A/B split test ideas on different scenarios and implement them to see which ones are most effective. Using A/B testing tools like Optimizely or Google Optimize to test different variations of headlines, images, or calls-to-action, to see which version resonates best with your audience. Additionally, these tools often have built-in analytics that can help you interpret the results of your tests and identify areas of your website that need improvement.
Conclusion
Generating good test ideas come from thorough backing of research and data analysis. While the whole process can be time-consuming and challenging, by analyzing user behavior, conducting user surveys, looking at your competitors, and using A/B split testing tools, you can generate ideas that can take your online business to the next level. Remember, testing is a never-ending process, for which you must keep going for excellence, optimizing each element of your eStore and delivering lasting shopping experiences.
