5 ways you can use Hotjar to improve your eCommerce

Man using a wrench

Hotjar is an all-in-one analytics and feedback tool that helps eCommerce businesses understand how users interact with their website. It offers features such as heatmaps, recordings, surveys, conversion funnel tracking, and more, all in one platform. But what exactly can you do with it? Here’s 5 examples of how we used Hotjar to identify issues with eCommerces and implement changes.

Hotjar as an eCommerce tool

Hotjar is a great tool for eCommerce because it provides valuable insights into user behaviour, which can be used to optimise the website and improve the user experience. By understanding what users are doing on the site, where they are dropping off, and what their pain points are, businesses can make data-driven decisions to improve the site's conversion rate and increase revenue. Let’s look at specific examples of how to use Hotjar insights to drive sales:

1. Adjusting the pricing strategy

By looking at the users’ behaviour on your website you can tell a lot about their feelings. Especially if you have a dedicated pricing page that you can create a heatmap of. With one of our projects we noticed that users were instantly clicking on the annual payment option versus the monthly subscription (which was the default setting). This can be seen below on the engagement zones map. We also noticed this trend when watching user sessions.
A heatmap which shows that customers were clicking on the "yearly plans" button

When seeing this, our instant decision was to switch the default to the yearly plan. This cuts down the time users need to spend figuring out what kind of plan they want and suits their needs better. It’s a very simple fix but can significantly improve user experience, decrease bounce rates and encourage purchases.

2. Eliminating usability issues

When it comes to eCommerce user experience and usability are crucial to increase conversions and facilitate growth. But when working on an eCommerce store for so long, we tend to lose the outside perspective and it often becomes hard to really put yourself in the shoes of the end user. That’s when Hotjar can be incredibly helpful. Take a look at the example below:

5 ways heatmap

You can clearly see the users trying to click on the icons, which leads them nowhere. There’s two important insights here: first, they might experience frustration because their action doesn’t have any effect and second, they might be clicking the icons because they are looking for more information about the product and its properties.

This is a strong basis for doing an A/B test (which you can also do using Hotjar) and seeing how much more information the users need and to which product description they respond better.

3. Conducting A/B tests

Speaking of, A/B tests are one of the best research techniques that provide relatively fast, specific information about what to improve. When it comes to eCommerce, some of the best things to A/B test are the product page and landing pages. Use the recordings to identify potential issues and introduce small improvements via an A/B test. 

You can create a heatmap in Hotjar for each version of the site and analyse the users’ behaviour. Using this method you can gather valuable insights within a week or two.

4. Analysing the funnel

Hotjar introduced a feature that enables you to track your funnel in a very clear, nicely visualised way. By adding each step along your funnel you can see the potential drop off points and then leverage this data to look into the issue further by analysing recordings. This cuts down the time you need to identify the issue and, therefore, resolve it.

An graph illustrating statistics from an imagined sales funnel

5. Conducting user surveys

If you notice that users are abandoning their carts at the checkout page, you can use Hotjar surveys to ask them why they left without completing the purchase. Based on their feedback, you can make changes to the checkout process to address their concerns. For example, you might find that users are hesitant to provide their payment information because they don't trust the site's security. In this case, you can add trust badges or security seals to the checkout page to reassure users and increase their confidence in the site.

Hotjar is an invaluable tool for eCommerce businesses looking to improve their website's conversion rate and provide a better user experience. Its comprehensive features allow businesses to gather insights into user behaviour, identify pain points, and make data-driven decisions to optimise the site. By using Hotjar, businesses can gain a competitive edge and increase revenue by improving the user experience and optimising their website for maximum conversion rates. Of course, it’s always best to work with an experienced software partner that can use Hotjar and implement the changes for you to help optimise your site. And that’s exactly what Frontkom can do for you!

Contact our team to get started with optimising your eCommerce and improving conversion rates.

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