eCommerce businesses are using social media for marketing and advertising. While the goal is to always drive more traffic to the website and increase sales, the phenomenon of a high social media traffic bounce rate is becoming more common than ever! 

So common that online businesses are ‘okay’ seeing a higher social media bounce rate on their website. 

As per our recently published research, that social media bounce that you just ignored can cost you almost $5.11 per user on average. 

Add that to the cost of getting those customers to click on your campaigns and drive them to your site, and you’ll know how much money you’re leaving on the table. 

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So when social media is the place where the consumers of today discover new brands and products, why is it that the conversion rate of these shoppers is so low? 

One of the leading reasons for lower social media traffic conversion rate for eCommerce businesses is user experience. 

In this post, we’re going to look into the impact of user experience on the conversion rate of social shoppers. But let’s start with the absolute basics! 

What is eCommerce user experience?

User experience, also referred to as eCommerce UX, is the overall experience a website offers to a person visiting and interacting with the elements or information present on its pages. It includes everything from the layout of the page, the design elements used, ease of navigation, call to action buttons and page loading speed. The idea of focusing on eCommerce user experience is to create a seamless path of online shopping for consumers, making it an enjoyable journey despite the lack of physical touch and feel of the products they’re interested in. 

What is eCommerce conversion rate? 

Now conversion rate refers to the percentage of website visitors who make use of the user experience created to take a desired action. In the case of eCommerce businesses, this could include subscribing to the newsletter, wishlisting an item, adding the product to cart, filling a form or completing a purchase. 

How is user experience and eCommerce conversion rate connected? 

A high conversion rate indicates that the visitors on the website were able to easily navigate and find the products of their liking. It also shows that the layout, elements and information added to the pages equip the visitors to take an informed next step in the buyer journey - and that’s user experience for you. 

You’ll typically notice eCommerce businesses paying very close attention to the look and feel of their websites. For that matter, the amount of time spent on designing an eCommerce website and conversion rate optimization across pages, can run from anywhere between 2 months to 6 months and upwards. 

Think about the experience that Sephora offers today vs what shopping on their website looked like a few years ago. The site’s more interactive than ever, helping their target audience make purchases as easily as in their in-store outlets. 

So why is it that the user experience created is not working for social shoppers? 

Why is your eCommerce user experience not converting social shoppers? 

We looked into how eCommerce businesses use social media for promotions, how and where they drive social traffic to and the next steps they expect the consumers to take. And here’s what we found when it comes to eCommerce user experiences not working for social shoppers: 

1. Change of platforms 

While driving traffic from social media to your website is an obvious strategy, it interrupts the natural flow of browsing for consumers. They discover new products and brands while browsing through social media and when you link them out of the platform, you cause an interruption that isn’t always welcome. Imagine losing the social post you really liked because you were redirected to a website link. 

2. Change of interface 

When you change the platform for the consumer, you’re also changing the interface. The user experience that social media platforms offer are very different from what websites do - even if they are optimized for mobile devices. Think about how you browse through a carousel of images on Instagram vs. how product images are displayed on a web page. Or how you browse through products showcased on a social media feed vs how you get to explore them on an online store site. 

3. Change of context 

Businesses are using social media to make their products aspirational. Instead of the usual product visuals, brands can be seen dabbling with images and videos that showcase their products in use or as a lifestyle. It’s the lifestyle content that attracts a consumer to the brand from social media; but the landing on the website is often disconnected as the social content is not visible on the page. Think about the number of times you clicked through a post to a website, to feel that the product looked very different from what was promoted. 

4. Change of intent and interest 

Another reason that eCommerce websites are not able to convert social shoppers is the inability of the pages to adapt to multiple intent and interests. Imagine seeing a workwear look on a brand page and clicking through to the website to land on a page that displays only the formal pants - if you were someone who was interested in the shirt, you immediately decide to leave because even the product recommendations on the page are recommending more pants. The user experience that eCommerce sites are optimized for is to usually serve the business’s intent to promote a specific product or collection, and not adapt to what the buyer could be interested in. 

Recommended read: Understanding the psychology of an online shopper

5. Change of browsing behavior 

Think about how you browse through content on social media - you like a brand’s post and start scrolling to see what else they offer. More often than not, the continuity of this scrolling is what leads you to finding something of your interest. But when an eCommerce user experience is not able to cater to multiple interests and intent, this browsing behavior changes - you’re forced to find products by going through different categories and collections; and no matter how optimized the navigation menu is, it creates a break in natural and continual browsing - and that results in ‘I’ll come back to this later’. 

But when social media platforms and online websites/ stores are two different things, what can businesses really do? 

Optimizing user experience for social shoppers with AI-generated social storefronts 

Your target audience is on social media. 

They are searching for and discovering new products on social media. 

So the very first thing you need to do is take your storefront to social media. 

This is where SimplicityDX AI-generated social storefronts come into play. Here’s how they improve the user experience for social shoppers: 

1. No platform switching 

The AI-generated social storefronts can load within the social media platform that is being used by the consumer. This removes the need for them to switch to a browser to explore your brand site, reducing the drop-offs that often occur at this point. 

Recommended read: How to leak-proof the social media marketing funnel for eCommerce

2. Embraces social content 

We as consumers are not attracted to product images shot in studios. We like to see them in use or in different settings to get a look and feel of the value they offer. AI-generated social storefronts can pull in the lifestyle content that is promoted on social media onto the web pages to create a context-carryover. 

No more feeling like you landed on a product you did not even like - comparing the promotion to the product images becomes much easier too and doesn’t require platform switching. 

3. Serves multiple intent and interest 

AI-generated social storefronts have the ability to map all the elements displayed or promoted in your social content. It uses image analytics and this mapping to generate web pages that are able to pull in product information of all the items visible in the content. This ensures that whether the consumer was looking for the formal shirt, pants or the shoes, their landing on your site is able to cater to their interest and intent. 

4. Offers browse continuity 

Similar to social media, AI-generated social storefronts are able to offer a continual browsing experience to online shoppers. No matter which product from the social content grabbed their attention, the page is designed to enable them to browse through more of what they are interested in, without having the need to go back to site navigation to jump categories or collections that the brand has to offer. 

Recommended read: How to create eCommerce customer journey maps for social media shoppers

TLDR; AI-generated social media storefronts are the answer to both the consumer preferences: 

• Wanting to shop from brand site for the security of transactions 
• Wanting to use social media to make purchases 

Is your social media bounce rate high? 

If you just went into your analytics to figure out how much traffic your marketing and advertising campaigns are driving in, you’ve taken the first step to identifying broken user experiences. 

We recommend mapping the traffic you generate from social media and the average bounce rate you experience immediately. 

With customer acquisition costs and competition increasing by the day, bounce rate is no longer a secondary eCommerce metric to look into. It’s the one that holds the power to getting to know your customers better, which has a direct impact on your conversion rates. 

If you have been seeing a high social media traffic bounce rate on your eCommerce website, it’s time to rework the user experience you offer to social shoppers. 

Want to learn more about AI-generated social storefronts? 

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Download the Social Commerce Returns Playbook for insights on the social commerce returns experience, including consumer behavior, return rates, and strategies for improvement.

Book a demo of SimplicityDX today.