Today I would like to share with you a theory that I developed a little over a year ago and which will allow you to constantly improve your e-commerce: "the rule of 30" .
In fact, I realized over the years, by analyzing Shopify by the shovelful, that it was possible to establish a rule that concerns several aspects of e-commerce around the number 3.
This rule is actually made up of 10 ecommerce rules which must all meet at least 3 criteria or land on the number 3.
Do you have an e-commerce?
So take notes.
3 seconds to understand your product
It's a rule almost as old as the internet. If in 3 seconds your site visitors don't understand your site properly and don't know how your product can be useful to them, you're losing a very big chance of optimizing your sales.
So on your home page we should find:
- A clear, short but precise tagline of what you can bring to the consumer
- Pay attention to the contrasts of your main banner: the typography must be easy to read
- Have a CTA that is easy to see and explicit too
- Ideally, make product cards extend above the waterline to implicitly show that you are on an e-commerce site (no - it's not obvious)
3 customer arguments
CUSTOMER Arguments. And not product features that are a bit nice.
The difference?
Features :
- Made in France
- 100% organic
- Recyclable packaging
Product argument:
- Effective from the first use
- Visible result in 7 days
- Leaves no trace
Product features are interesting but they will very rarely be the trigger for a purchase VS product arguments. Ask yourself the question: why would we buy your product?
3 reassurances
You managed to convince - well done.
But having a product that meets a lot of criteria will not be enough. It is now necessary to show that this purchase is risk-free and offers e-commerce purchasing standards:
- Reviews / Comments from other customers (the little stars - yes)
- Delivery in less than 3 days (or better)
- Free returns
- Free delivery from 50€
- Secure payment and Apple Pay
If you have at least 3, you should make your visitor understand that you are a serious brand with an optimum level of service quality.
3 clicks to buy
Can I buy in 3 clicks on the site?
Depending on some types of products this can be difficult, so you can adapt it to "3 clicks to get to the checkout". Here the idea is to not have a customer journey that is too long. This involves a lot of tricks:
- Collection management in the menu
- Access to best sellers from the home page
- Possibility to add to cart from product cards
- Display an Apple Pay system directly in the product sheet
- Suggest product variants on each product sheet
3 acquisition channels
This is not necessarily my area of expertise. On the other hand, I have noticed over the years that brands that last over time do not rely on a single acquisition channel (All-in in Facebook Ads is so 2020). So I suggest you focus on 3 channels, and here are my favorites:
- Newsletter
- SEO
- Google and its variations
However, depending on your positioning, your target, and your acquisition team, you may well have 3 other completely different channels.
3 purchasing motivations
The purchase motivation is the little cherry on the cake that will make you think as a consumer "rrrooohhhh at the same time it's worth it, I'll click".
So how do we give this feeling?
This generally involves different techniques:
- Have free shipping from a certain amount
- Having a gift offered from a certain amount ==> feeling of “full basket”
- Setting up FOMO ==> Only 2 hours left to benefit from the offer / Already 15 people are looking at this product
- Show accurate stock status or indicate low stock
- Creation of limited series on certain products
3 payment methods
Paul-Louis will be happy!
Indeed, whether in France or internationally, you must offer the most common types of payment: credit card of course, but also payment in installments, Apple Pay, PayPal, etc.
Limiting yourself to just CB can make you lose a lot.
And if it's with Payplug it's even better ;)
3 types of deliveries
Much like with payment, limiting yourself to just one type of delivery will definitely make you miss out on sales. Of course, offer:
- Home delivery in 5 days
- Express delivery in 2 or 3 days
- Same-day delivery by bike/courier (Paris region)
- Delivery to relay points
- (the possibility to choose your delivery time and date)
Apart from offering different services according to customer needs, you will benefit from the cognitive bias of comparison and indirectly push the customer to choose the best solution of the 3, and not just "I buy or I don't buy".
3 interactions maximum per page
Now this is technical, and it mainly concerns mobile. Here it is about avoiding as much as possible disrupting navigation with useless interactions, and limiting those that we consider useful (moreover there are always alternatives that exist).
“It would be nice to put sliders to present the products in large format.”
“Hey, it would be nice to create a little drawer to open to see the information.”
“Hey, that would be nice…”
It's no.
So yes it's nice but it breaks the fluidity of navigation and exploration of products. I therefore recommend:
- To limit sliders as much as possible and to favor columns of 2 products one below the other
- To take out essential information from drawers
- Do not “lock” keywords in the middle of long texts
- Autoplay videos when possible
- Favor modals over new pages (frames displaying new information but without opening an entire page)
Maximum ratio of 3 between addition to cart and number of purchases
It's simple. If your add to cart rate is 6% then your conversion rate should be 2% or more. In any case, keep this goal of 3 (maximum) in mind.
Of course it also depends on your market, current promotions, the price level of your products, etc., but overall you shouldn't land too far.
Above 4, it is likely that your reinsurance is too weak or that your price is not competitive enough.