Buttons and your Conversion Rate

When people put their OSCommerce stores up for review, the most common way I see them shoot their conversion rates in the foot is with a weak call to action. What is a call of action? Well, if you are selling something, the ‘add to cart’ button is your call of action. If you are trying to obtain email subscriptions, the ‘subscribe’ button would be considered your call to action. But for this article, we are just going to look at how to improve conversion rates through the design and placement of the ‘add to cart button’.

A lot of research has shown that you can increase your conversion rate through a stronger call of action. Think about it, how is someone going to buy something from you if they cannot find the ‘add to cart’ button? Case study after case study has shown that ‘add to cart’ buttons which are more attention grabbing improve a websites conversion rate.

Aside from the product image, the ‘add to cart’ button should be the first thing your visitor’s see. It should be as big as aesthetics permit, and should contrast enough with your site so that it literally seems to pop out at you. It should be above the fold, near the price and product image, and should appear again at the bottom of long product descriptions. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that your call of action can be easily seen to someone who is standing away from the computer on the other side of the room.

If you are currently using a 'buy it now' hyperlink, an annoying graphic, or a button that is subservient to your color scheme - you are losing easy sales. I've seen case studies citing a 300% increase in conversion rates - just by overhauling the 'add to cart' button.