7 High-ROI Changes to Optimize Your Ecommerce Store

If your online store isn’t delivering the results you want, you don’t need to start over. Often, small, thoughtful adjustments can make a big impact, boosting conversions and delivering an impressive return on investment (ROI).

As a Squarespace website designer, I’ve spent years refining ecommerce sites on Squarespace, helping hundreds of businesses thrive online—and now I want to share why you don’t always need a full redesign to see a serious boost in sales.

Below are seven techniques I’ve seen work for ecommerce businesses that you can start implementing today, without a massive time or budget investment. Whether you’re running a side hustle or managing a growing product line, these changes are designed to help you convert more of your existing traffic into paying customers.

Why ROI matters for businesses 

Think of ROI as your business’ scoreboard. It tells you whether the time, money, and energy you’re putting in are actually paying off. High ROI means you’re getting more back than you’re putting in, whereas a low ROI is a sign that you’re pouring effort into something that’s not pulling its weight.

ROI is a great tool to gut check your website and business strategies. You can have the nicest looking website on the market, but if it’s not converting visitors into customers and repeat buyers, then it’s time to make an adjustment. 

By focusing your efforts through the lens of ROI, you’re making sure every tweak to your store, whether it’s faster load times, sharper product photography, or a smoother checkout, actually moves the needle.

7 ways to optimize your ecommerce store for conversion

Before you start making changes to your store, define how you’ll measure your ROI. Are you measuring success by an increase in sales, revenue, or return customers? What are you measuring against, cost of operations or time spent making these improvements?

Here are 7 ecommerce conversion optimizations you can make to your website to impact your ROI.

1. Add trust signals and social proof

People trust other people more than brands, especially online. Adding social proof, like reviews and testimonials, to your store is like having a friend stand at your door saying, “This product is awesome and I love it!” Other trust signals, like product videos or high-quality photos, reinforce your credibility and legitimacy to new customers.

Common trust signals you can add include:

• Produktbewertungen

• Star ratings

• User-generated content like customer-submitted photos

• Product demos and breakdowns

• High-quality product images  

If you don’t have reviews yet, start by showcasing testimonials from real buyers or highlighting your product features on social media. The more your visitors can see that other people have bought and loved your products, the more likely they are to hit that Add to Cart button.

2. Use clear and strong CTAs

Your call to action (CTA) buttons are like traffic signs for your shoppers, they should be impossible to miss and crystal clear. Instead of vague text like “Learn More” or “Click Here,” go for action-driven copy like “Add to Cart,” “Shop the Collection,” or “Get Yours Now.” A strong CTA doesn’t just guide visitors; it gives them a direct action to take.

Clear CTAs also play a big part in ensuring your website has intuitive navigation, which is a must-have to optimize for ecommerce conversion. It creates a positive user experience, which keeps people on your site for longer, and helps people find and buy your products more seamlessly. 

On Squarespace websites, you can customize button styles and colors in Site Styles. Use these to clearly guide your visitors with bold, high-contrast, and easy-to-find CTA buttons across your pages. 

3. Make it easy to check out

Every extra click between a shopper and your checkout page is an opportunity for them to drop off of your site. This is another opportunity to optimize by simplifying your navigation and purchase flow:

• Streamline your add-to-cart process

• Add a quick-view option for quick browsing

• Allow express checkout for shoppers who know exactly what they want

• Accept digital wallets and other methods that auto-populate payment details

Don’t leave behind customers who get distracted from the checkout process either. Turn on abandoned cart recovery so that when someone exits your store without checking out, they automatically get a follow-up email encouraging them to finish their purchase. The smoother the path to buying, the higher your conversion rate will be.

Read our guide to checkout page design

4. Show as much as possible above the fold

Above the fold refers to the part of your page visitors see without scrolling, and it’s the most valuable slice of website real estate you can optimize. Make sure your most important product details, CTAs, and images appear right there at the top, including on mobile devices. 

Visitors should instantly know what you sell and why they should care, without hunting for the info. For example, the hero section of your homepage could feature your best-selling product or products with a bold headline, a glowing review snippet, and a “Shop Now” button. 

When someone clicks into a product page, all the product information should be readily available without the need to scroll too. Product imagery, description, price and add to cart should all be available from the moment they land on the page. If it’s possible to include reviews above the fold, that’s even better. 

You can add as much information as you like further down the page, but ensure you are nailing these fundamentals to present your products as effectively  as possible.

5. Guide visitors with clear instructions

Guide your visitors by stating exactly what to do next in your CTAs or page copy. Whether it’s “Choose your size,” “Add to cart,” or “Complete checkout,” clear directions help keep momentum going and reduce hesitation at key moments. Allowing your customers to keep this momentum up during the checkout process is vital to improving conversion rates.

For each page on your website, think about where you want someone to go next and create copy that points them in that direction. For example, on your homepage, you might want to run an announcement banner for a sale that points people to your store. Above an outreach form you might add copy that says, “Let’s work together! Fill out the form below and we’ll reach out in 24 hours.” 

This guidance keeps people moving forward in the buying process instead of getting stuck wondering what’s next. 

6. Modernize your button design

It might sound small, but the shape of your buttons can affect clicks. Rounded buttons tend to be perceived as friendlier, more clickable, and generally more modern, especially on mobile devices. 

Combine rounded edges with high contrast colors and direct, clear CTA text. Then, measure whether clicks on those buttons increase. This tiny design tweak can lead to significant ROI.

On Squarespace, buttons come with rounded edges by default so your design is optimized for conversion from the start. You can adjust the shape further in the Site Styles menu. 

7. Recommend related products and add-ons

Once a visitor is interested in something, they don’t have to stop there. Show them other items they might love on the product page or during check out. This is a win-win: It adds a level of personalization that makes customers feel valued and increases your sales.

The key is to ensure the products you suggest are genuine recommendations. Base your related products on things that are commonly bought together, popular items, or things that are obviously complementary, like matching earrings for a necklace.

You can also create product bundles and recommend those. Bundle products that are often bought together, based on your sales data, and price bundles slightly lower than the total for buying each item individually. This kind of lightweight discount and promotion can incentivize bigger purchases.

Learn more about cross-selling and upselling products

How to test and measure success

Measuring ROI success isn’t just about patting yourself on the back when sales go up, it’s about knowing exactly which changes are working and the goals those changes support. That way, you can double down and continue testing with variations of successful tweaks. 

Keep a close eye on key business metrics like:

• Conversion-Rate

• Abandoned carts

• Durchschnittlicher Bestellwert

• Revenue per visitor

• Total sales

• Return buyers

• Profit margin 

When you implement any new ROI tactic, decide which metrics will most likely show whether it’s been successful. Track the numbers before and after. Make sure to test one change at a time and gather enough data to truly judge its impact. 

For example, if you swap in a bolder “Add to Cart” button, monitor your product page conversion rate over one to two weeks. If you introduce social proof, track whether your bounce rate drops or more products sell. 

You can also run a light A/B test by taking two pages or products that perform similarly and making a change on just one of them, like adding reviews. If one starts to outperform the other, it’s a sign that you should apply that change more widely.

On Squarespace, you can track important data with built-in analytics and order filtering to see when optimizations are making a difference.

Small changes can make a big difference. By treating optimization as an ongoing experiment, you’ll discover exactly which small adjustments deliver big returns, and you can keep stacking those wins for sustainable growth.